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continue from last page-Gary Floyd
They didn’t and, long story short....I wanted to go back
bad enough that I did. I thought we had greatly improved and were doing tons more shows. When I got
back I had tryouts for a new Dicks. Now I think that
might have been stupid. I should have just started a new
band and did the same songs...but I didn’t do that. The
new band were as dedicated as I was to carrying on and
making it work. I have gotten a lot of shit for doing it
the way I did but me and the Texas boys are brothers,
and they are okay with me now so to hell with the rest.
WW: You guys have been hugely influential and inspirational to numerous bands, ranging from Butthole
Surfers to Mudhoney to Skatenigs to Jesus Lizard, etc…
Do you have any idea how many bands have covered
Dicks songs?
GARY FLOYD: Really..no. A lot of people send me
covers or snippets of covers...Hate Police mostly. I wish
they would do more of my solo song covers. It’s a great
compliment for me to hear covers done. I welcome it.
WW: Besides the openly pro-homosexual content
and scathing political commentary, what else contributed to The Dicks’ uniqueness as a punk rock band?
GARY FLOYD: We weren’t trying to be anything
we were not. We knew we were not going to be record
selling stars so we were free from any of that nonsense
thinking. We always felt we had nothing to lose in stepping out to do different music. The California Dicks did
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that in a big way but the Texas band was going in that
direction as well...like our own version of hillbilly or
country songs were about to happen. The song on the
compilation Cottage Cheese From The Lips Of Death
called Gilbeau was a change from punk and were embracing the change.
WW: Who / what first inspired you to want to play
music? Who were some of your earliest influences?
GARY FLOYD: My mother owned a burger joint in
a very small town in Arkansas....all the teens hung out
there. Although I was very young...from the first grade
and up till the 4th grade I was always happiest when the
juke box man came to change records. He gave me and
my mom lots of the records he didn’t need any more.
Everything from the Four Seasons to Peter, Paul, and
Mary...old rock and a lot of blues...even Lighting Hopkins and Sam Cooke...James Brown...I loved that stuff....
all of it. So I was influenced by all of it. Mostly rock and
blues though. When the Beatles and Stones came out I
was lost to that completely.
WW: Who are you listening to these days?
GARY FLOYD: Old country songs...Loretta Lynn,
George and Tammy ..George Happiston, Krishna Das,
I like hillbilly music a lot too. Buxf and Pat’s band Shootin’ Pains is one of my favorites.
WW: What initially prompted the Dicks reunion
in 2004 (and subsequent reunions)? Any plans for reunion shows in the near future?
GARY FLOYD: No
more plans to reunion
again. We loved each other and missed the company and the music. We
had talked a little about it
when they were coming
to SF to play (Shootin’
Pains). We knew it would
be the perfect time. We
went through the songs
once and just knew it was
going to be fun. And boy,
was it!
WW: What about
future recording plans?
Do you th