Lance Rockworthy of 2 Skinnee J's Exclusive interview by Brian Goldstein, contributing editor The other night, I had a chance to catch up with lead guitarist Lance Rockworthy of the 2 Skinnee J's before their show in Washington, D.C. The 2 Skinnee J's are currently out on their "F*** You! We Quit!" tour and will continue to play shows until their July 18th concert in New York City. UGO: As a musician, what do you think about the whole file-sharing phenomenon? What are your views on the popularity of Kazaa? Lance Rockworthy: We love it. Napster helped save our career, basically. When we had Volumizer completed, due to record label bullshit, it went and got delayed two years. In that time, we put it on Napster and told all the kids, you know, "Go download it." It maintained interest in our band. It still hurt us a lot, but we were able to keep interest in the band. So, I don't have a problem with it, but obviously they need to regulate it in some kind of way, I think. Ya' know, a lot of people are getting a lot of music for free, and artists aren't getting compensated, although artists don't get compensated too much, anyway. Hopefully, it will shake up the industry a little bit and point out some problems in the industry. Like CDs: Keeping the price of CDs down. They take $2 to make and they're selling them for 17 bucks; that's a hell of a markup. So hopefully, some good will come out of it. UGO: Speaking of CDs, do you think they will continue to be a popular format or do you think in 30 years there will be something else? Will they do away with it all together? LR: I would have to think there would be something else that would come along. It's a pretty good business, and they keep on coming up with new technology. Replace all your CDs now! [chuckle]. I think CDs will, uh, I can't see them dying like the cassette did. They're such a more versatile tool, with all the multimedia, computers and burning and shit. They're a lot more versatile than the tape was. I think they'll stick around. UGO: If you had the opportunity to jam with anybody, living or dead, who would it be? LR: Personally? I would… Jimmy Hendrix. I'd love to see him play. Or the Beatles. I think it would be really cool to play with Weezer or the Foo Fighters. UGO: If you could contribute one song to a movie soundtrack, which song would it be and for which movie? LR: This is one I wouldn't want to choose, but we did submit our version of the Scooby Doo theme for the new movie. We heard they were looking for a band to play the theme song. I'm going to have to say… I'm going to have to guess Star Wars, obviously. It would be cool if we could submit "Irresistible Force" for any one except for Episode One. UGO: So you like Star Wars? In the first series, if you recall, there are two bands featured prominently, the Cantina Band and the group at Jabba's palace? Who do you prefer? LR: Cantina band. Definitely. UGO: My personal favorite song of yours is "Pass the Buck" on Volumizer. What's your favorite song that you play? LR: Mine is "Sugar and Candy" off of Volumizer. UGO: One of the reasons I'm such a fan of 2 Skinnee J's is that the music is so diverse and eclectic. With your impending hiatus in July, what bands do you recommend for us to listen to in your absence? LR: Personally, I really like Queens of the Stone Age a lot. Beck puts out a lot of great records. In fact, Flaming Lips puts on a great show. Let's see, there's good stuff out there if you look for it. There's this new band out there called Simian I like a lot. I don't know if they're new, but I just heard of them. Foo Fighters, too. They always put out a good, solid rock album. UGO: What will be on your DVD when it is released? I heard it was supposed to come out today, but there are some sort of technical difficulties. (DVD can now be purchased on www.2sj.com) LR: You can buy the DVD case with no DVD in it. Then, just fill out a slip and we'll mail it to you. We got a lot of great stuff on it. We have the concert from the last time we played Northern Virginia, and three music videos for "One Summer", "I Can't Hear You," and "Get In the Van." It's also got a short from "Deal of the Century"; some extra footage we had. It's got a blooper reel on it. It's got some interviews, and, uh, audio commentary. A few more things, too. UGO: If you had one super power, what would it be? LR: I guess flying. Like Superman. UGO: My last question: Your last show is July 18th. I take it this wasn't a coincidence to have the last show on 7/18 ["718" is the name of one of 2SJ's most popular songs]? LR: Actually, it was totally a coincidence. We didn't notice, we, uh, figured it out half way through the farewell tour. J Guevara [one of 2SJ's lead singers] was talking to this girl and she mentioned it. And we were like, "No shit. We didn't know that." Honest to God it's just a coincidence. It's cool, I'm glad it worked out this way. UGO: Thanks for taking the time to do this interview. LR: No problem. Enjoy the show! <====