No, they’re not a country band. Legends of Rodeo took their name from a statement made to them by a retired bullrider in Juarez, Mexico. That "To be a legend of the rodeo, you need a big heart, and even bigger balls!" LOR was formed in 1999 in southeast Fl. and although they hail from the same scene as bands like New Found Glory and Dashboard Confessional, their sound is far from the run of the mill emo/pop punk style of the later. I was looking forward to getting some inside dope on how they developed into something that is rooted in classic rock (i.e. Petty, the Boss, the Stones, etc.), yet looks to the future in a way that is uniquely American, and all rock & roll. It was a blistering hot day in which the intensity of their set, which comes across with slightly more of an edge live, was only matched by the Florida sun. However, LOR completely lack any of the pretentiousness normally associated with bands who have just signed a major label (MCA), multi-album contract. So, after a while of selling merchandise, signing autographs, talking to fans, and making new friends, John, Steve, Jeff, Nathan, and I retired to their van to soak up some A/C, discuss guitar & amp rigs, and do this interview.
SHZ- Are you guys all from Florida, or just get together here?
Steve- John, Jeff, and Nathan are all natives and actually went to college together and met in different cover bands.
SHZ- What kind of cover bands?
John- A lot of everything, classic rock, some Zeppelin, Hendrix, a little punk, and grunge.
SHZ- You have a reference to Pearl Jam’s "10" in "The Devil Started Rock and Roll".
John- We don’t try to sound like them but they were definitely a big influence on us.
SHZ- What else really turned you guys on?
Nathan-The Stones, U2, Petty
Jeff-80’s metal like Ratt and Motley Crue
John-I grew up in the 90’s so it was all the grunge bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam whatever.
Steve-A lot of punk, like 7 Seconds, Minor Threat, so I have a lot of punk rock roots personally.
SHZ- So you’re an Ian MacKaye fan.
Steve- I’m not really a Fugazi fan, but I was big on Minor Threat.
SHZ- Are you into the straight edge scene?
Steve- I was but then I grew up! (everyone laughs) It’s called self control.
John- Another one of our favorites is the Beatles, As a matter of fact we warmed up to "Rubber Soul" before we came out today.
SHZ- The Tom Petty influence comes through a lot in your sound. Does that ever bother you when you get those kind of comparisons?
John-It surprises us because we never set out to sound like him even though that’s some of what we listen to, but it’s cool, to get compared to someone that talented is great.
SHZ- That seems to come through in your lyrical content , "American kids", "American dreams", etc.
John-We really just wanted to write a record that tells stories, and Tom Petty tells stories. A lot the new bands out there right now don’t tell stories, so it’s definitely going to come across in our music. We write about what we know and what we’ve learned instead of talking about whatever rap/rock bullshit seems popular.
SHZ-There seems to be a very American vibe to many of your songs, "The Flags", and some of the other lyrics I mentioned. Though they were written almost two years ago, considering everything that’s happened in the last ten months, does it bother you that you see many people wearing their patriotism on their sleeves?
John- It’s cool that everybody’s feeling so patriotic but it’s sad that it has become a fashion statement or trendy. There are a lot of bands we’ll meet on the road who give us cd’s that will have titles like "911" or "September", and, it’s like, come on, give me a break. We don’t need anybody to re-tell that story. I hope when you listen to our cd that that’s not the way it comes across, like we just jumped on the bandwagon because that’s not the way it happened. We were actually in the studio in Boca Raton finishing the album when all that shit went down, and then there was the anthrax scare in the mail at a building about a mile from where we were, and everybody there was completely freaking out, so that was pretty crazy.
SHZ- Since you guys came out of the same scene as bands like New Found Glory And Dashboard, how hard was it coming up since your sound isn’t following the same format, and what kind of crowd reaction did you get, especially being on tour with them?
John- Playing in a scene like that it can sometimes have what seems to be kind a "privileged clique", a lot of kids used to snub their noses at you, like they don’t even want to listen if you’re different. You know, if your not playing pop/punk or emo, forget it. But it seems like a lot of them are starting to come around, eventually people start to look for something different, something that not everybody else is doing.
Steve-We did pretty well in that punk scene down there because of that. We’ve got a huge following around Miami.
SHZ- Do you find that you get better reactions to your music in different parts of the country?
John-We find the further west we go the more we find fans who are into what we’re doing, especially in rock & roll cities like Portland and Seattle, we had a really great response from the fans there and also in the Midwest. And of course in West Palm, that’s our hometown so we always get a lot of kids out when we’re there.
SHZ- Do you find audience reaction tends to be better from older or younger fans?
John-It’s really varied, for example we were on the Dashboard tour and there were so many really young kids there that came with their parents, who would come up to us after the show and and be like " you remind me of the Stones". But then, we also got a lot of the young kids coming up to us saying "you guys are great, you sound so different". It surprised me how young some of them were. Hopefully we can help some of them re-discover some of the great American music from the past and be a part of that for the future.
SHZ- Especially in Florida, it seems like most of the new rock stations are dedicated to crooked hat, pseudo-rap, nu-metal, do you think there is a place for good, old fashioned, American rock & roll on AOR.
John- We hope so. We’ve gotten some really positive responses from radio program directors and d.j.’s, and they’re sick of it too. I think they are expecting things to come around, and so are the fans. We’ve found that bands, even though they’re not like us, like The Strokes, The White Stripes, are kind of bringing it back into a more classic sound from the past 30-40 years.
SHZ- Is that what you’re striving for, a retro sound? Or is your sound what naturally comes out when you get together to write or play?
John- We’re really proud of the music that we enjoy, but we have our own thing going on between us. We have all these different influences, but we hope we’re bringing something fresh to the equation, and so far that’s the response we’ve gotten.
SHZ- You’ve been signed to Bieler Bros., which is an MCA affiliate. How is it for you to be on a major label? Is it everything you expected?
John- We’ve been doing this for around four years before we got signed, and it was always very DIY, we released 3 cd’s and 2 7"s before we got signed. So, from here on out everything is new for us, it’s like oh, now we need a lawyer, or a lot of the business end we’re not to savvy, but we’re fortunate to be dealing with a label who are mostly former musicians, and know how musicians get shit on. They treat us really well. You hear all the horror stories of bands going into the studio and the next thing you know, the label sends in some writers, change this, change that, (Steve) Yeah, and "here’s your single!" (John)That didn’t happen, the few suggestions that were made were positive, otherwise everything was left up to us. I think a lot of bands think that when you get signed that’s the end of it, you know, the end all, be all; the money starts rolling in, you’re going to go see No Doubt, and hang out backstage with Gwen and be like "hey, I’m on MCA too!" That’s just not the way it happens, that’s when the hard work really starts.
SHZ- What do you hope to do in the future?
John- We’ll be on tour 300 days this year, write, and record. We believe in what we do, and what we have to say, and hope to bring that to as many people as possible.
You can check out Legends of Rodeo on their MCA/Bieler Brothers release "A Thousand Friday Nights" or at LOR music dot com
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