How did CKY get started?
Jess Margera: Me and Deron had this band called Foreign Objects, it was kind of technical metal... progressive. Chad was in Rudy+Blitz, which was like a crazy Weened-out punk kinda thing. Me and Deron went into the studio to record, and we met Chad [who was working at the studio as a producer]. We wanted it to sound like nothing else, and Chad was into it.
ChadGinsburg: They played "Disengage the Simulator" on a demo tape for me, and I thought it was killer--more killer than i actually let them know. I was like, "It's cool, I can record you guys." [laughs]
Jess: So we just laid down all the basic tracks, and he tweaked them out with all his crazy shit, and it ... undeniable--chemistry.
You just got signed with a major label, and you're about to go on the road, whats going on?
Chad: We just hired a new manager---Primus' manager--he's cool. We didn't need a manager 'til now, because we don't have enough time to do it all. I was out in California, and we met a bunch of labels that were trying to sign tht band ith their obvious and typical techniques. Every deal had a little scam, a little dishonesty in it. Sometimes it felt like they were trying to sign the Jackass band or something. We turned down a lot of majors and picked the best we could find--Island.
Jess: They give us total freedom.
Bam Margera: It was gonna be interscope, but they were too busy with Limp Bizkit! They were all "We want you, man! We need you, man!" Then they were all, "Can we reschedule?"
Chad: Actually, we were gonna take a second meeting with interscope, but they rescheduled the meeting on the wrong day, so i took a new meeting and met a better dude.
Bam: You should've met some of their old mangers ...
"Yo, you guys owe me, like, twenty-grand!"
"what the fuck did you do?"
"I made some calls!"
Jess: Yeah, we had a manager who wanted twenty percent of everything we made, and he didn't do jack shit.
Were you guys making money at the time?
Jess: Yeah, we were making some pretty good money with Volcom. We were just stoked to be gettting paid for selling records.
So the Volcom thing's over now?
Jess: Yeah, it went pretty bitter. They rigged this MCA thing--'cause they were friends with all these dudes at MCA. We took a meeting with them, but they were so lame. So we took more meeting and and met better people, and Volcom went with that and were really bitter about it when we left.
Bam: They [CKY band members] went into the Volcom warehouse and the MCA dude was there, and he was tlaking to the other Volcom bands about which character they're gonna play. Like, "Are you gonna be the crazy guy?" Straight out of the Backstreet Boys.
Chad: MCA tried to sign us twice, then realized we weren't gonna sign, and called up Island to tell them, "Dude, you better stay away from those guys. They're bad news---terrible attitudes."
Bam: Terrible attitudes? It's a rock group! They're supposed to have terrible attitudes! Do you think they're gonna leave hotel rooms with beds folded up? Its gonna be upside down and theres gonna be a hole in the wall--it's a goddamned rock band.
Jess: Every meeting we took with every label they were name dropping so bad, every other sentence.
Chad: Yeah, I sat where Travis from Blink-182 sat!
Jess: "Travis from Blink-182 was sitting right in that seat yesterday and ..."
Chad: I haven't washed my ass since---you should smell it.
Jess: So when we met Paul from island, he did not care. We'd be like "Yo, didn't you sign Korn and Incubus?" He'd be like, "Yeah I did, so anyway ... " He wasn't into name dropping at all.
Chad: Yeah, we remastered Volume One, and its enhanced with the un-Jackass version of the "96 Quite Bitter Beings" video, and all sorts of live footage. Its got the video MTV wouldn't play because some of the stuff was way, way, way too crazy too show. I'm talkngi like glass breaking!
Jess: Yeah, its so crazy ... and then i get kicked off this bike and fall into this bush, and they couldn't handle it over there. Whoa, too much!
Bam: They said they couldn't play it 'cause kids might so it. I'm like "That was hard to do!" Kids are gonne jump off a roof into a bush before they do that---jumping up and kicking him in the head with both feet? It was hard work!
Jess: Thats the whole deal with Jackass--its like "diet CKY".
So whats up with the new album?
Chad: We've been working on it for awhile. We recorded most of it in Hawai'i, and we're finishing it up as quick as we can.
Jess: We want it out by Christmas, but theres no real rush 'cause people are still looking for the first album.
Bam: There is a real rush on it 'cause I'm working on CKY3 and need music or i'm gonna use other bands!
Where do you guys see yourselves in five years? Are you gonna be living in Beverly Hills next to Fred durst?
Jess: Dude--sorry, Chad, but i think Chad'll probably be dead then. I don't think he can take of himself.
Chad: That reminds me, i have to take my medicine.
Jess: Yeah, I've got to take my medicine, too---I've got Lyme Disease right now.
How'd you get Lyme Disease? From living in the wooods?
Jess: My brother put me in a shopping cart and i rolled down this gorge--- I found two deer ticks on me later.
Seroiusly though, do you guys have any plans?
Jess: We'll definitely just keep doing what we do---expermenting, breaking the rules.
Chad: We don't set out to breal the rules to be different. We just do things the way we want to, the way we always have.
Jess: And that usually breaks the rules.