that band that says ‘coulda, woulda, shoulda,
didn’t’ - I’ve never endorsed being that. We
made a lot of sacrifice, and we just did it.
And did that leap deliver in the land of soda
pop, biscuits and gravy?
Look, we came back with a wealth of knowledge
and experience, and a stronger determination
to be an even bigger band in the future, so yes
it delivered. We learnt first hand there about
the great American hustle - everyone there is
out to make a quick buck. We went everywhere
man, from Colorado to Minneapolis to Vegas to
LA - look, we saw all kinds of places over there.
Did you get treated well because you were
Australian? Maybe a little different?
Myself personally, I went over there with the
real Rocky Balboa mindset - we were the
underdogs, we had no expectations other than
to be a band where they go, ‘who the fuck are
these guys, they’re just another painted up
band’. I knew we were going to cop all that,
and believe me, there’s a plethora of them over
there. They all have coloured hair, they all wear
black corpse paint on their arms, the patches,
the vests and all that bullshit. So we would
just come out on stage and just hit them in the
face. We played every show over there at no
less than 110%, we knew we had to.
We went over there and hit them right between
the eyes, force 10, and within the first song you’d
see that reaction - the transformation within the
audience. You’d see the guys there, you know
arms folded and not interested, and within a
minute or so, they’d be moving, giving us the
devil horns up I swear. The girls are dancing,
the dudes are too, ‘cause they want to dance
with the girls, and I never ever encountered
anyone at any of our shows that went ‘meh,
nah, not for me’ or anything like that. For the
most part our audiences were awesome, and
they loved it when they found out we were from
Australia - we just were ourselves and did our
thing and people just wanted to have fun with
us - they warmed to us.