Still Rockin' It - Cheryl Lee
Still Rockin' It - Cheryl Lee
What has The Screaming Jets' Jimi Hocking been up to lately? OR If Wikipedia says it, it must be true!?!
Join Cheryl Lee - That Radio Chick on STILL ROCKIN' IT for news, reviews, music and interviews with some of our favourite Australian musicians.
Join our conversation with the legendary Jimi The Human Hocking, the extraordinary guitarist renowned for his work with The Screaming Jets.
Jimi opens up about his personal life, revealing the joys and challenges of parenthood. He shares heartwarming stories of his children's budding musical talents and his approach to making music fun for them. Experience the excitement and nerve-wracking moments of his "Rock the Boat" cruise, a rare adventure for him and his partner, allowing them a cherished first getaway since becoming parents.
Take a trip down memory lane as we explore the vibrant Australian music scene through Jimi's eyes. Relive the moments with old friends, from reminiscing about performances with the Astro Boys to the emotional tribute to a lost bandmate. We shine a light on the support from fans that has been crucial in the band's journey.
Adding a touch of humour, Jimi shares his surprise at discovering his own Wikipedia page, encapsulating the whimsical side of modern fame.
Get an inside look at the dynamic world of The Screaming Jets and their organic evolution over the years. We discuss the complexities of band dynamics and shared histories that bind the members together, from navigating lineup changes to fostering new musical talent during tours.
Explore the rich tapestry of influences that shape their sound, from blues to country, as Jimi reflects on beloved collaborations and personal interests beyond music.
What has Jimi The Human been up to lately? Let's find out!!
Get out when you can, support local music and I'll see you down the front!!
Visit: ThatRadioChick.com.au
That radio chick, cheryl Lee, here. Welcome to the Still Rocking it podcast where we'll have music news, reviews and interviews with some of our favourite Australian musicians and artists. Today I was lucky enough to catch up with one of the nicest men in rock and roll, James Kevin Hocking. He's got a huge body of his own work that you should definitely check out when you get the opportunity. He even played for the Angels back in 1988 when lead guitarist of the time, Bob Spencer, broke his wrist after an onstage collision with frontman Doc Neeson. But you know him best as JimI the Human Hocking, fabulous guitarist for the Screaming Jets. To catch up on podcasts from other favourite artists, simply go to that radiochick. com. au. I was so glad when the PR girls said that I was going to catch up with you because, to tell you the truth, I was a bit sick of Dave.
Jimi Hocking:Well, me too, I know what you're saying. I room with Dave still, so I've heard it all you know.
Cheryl Lee:Yeah, because, well, he's been busy. You know, I caught up with him and Swanee when they did a gig here together in Adelaide and, of course, caught up with him with regards to his other boy band, you know the Fabulous Caprettos. So it's nice to catch up with you again. Thanks for joining me in the Zoom room, didn't?
Jimi Hocking:we talk. Last year we had a chat, didn't we? Yeah, my kids are young. My years are just like very elastic at this point.
Cheryl Lee:We chatted in the Zoom room once before. Good memory, because you must chat to thousands of us.
Jimi Hocking:Yeah, but I kind of feel like I know you a little bit better than some of the people I speak to for the first time or whatever. But my timeline is really out now. You could have just said to me that was five years ago and I would have said oh yeah, right, how old are the little ones? Well, my kids are. One's about to turn 10 and one is seven, so clearly I'm 10 years behind where I should be when it comes to kids. These are my only kids. What that means for me is that I think I'm relishing the experience far more than I may have if I was younger and more ambitious. So it's really the cream for me to have had a career in music and to still be working as I am with the Jets and other things and to have two boys. For me it's just the best of both worlds.
Cheryl Lee:And it's the best job in the world parenthood. I know they're only young, but are they showing any signs of following in dad's footsteps?
Jimi Hocking:well, I try not to force my will upon them, but I'm using reverse psychology when I do that, because I am forcing my will upon them, uh. So I'm trying to make it fun, but both the kids are surrounded by music, so so I feel like by osmosis they're gaining an appreciation and an interest. My oldest started piano lessons with me about two or three years ago and then we moved into a formal situation last year and he's going absolutely gangbusters on the piano. He has a real natural ability. His grandfather, my dad, was a brilliant piano player, so he somehow has that gene.
Jimi Hocking:I started on the piano. That's why the piano was our go-to thing. It doesn't hurt your fingers. You can start to understand music as a thing before you maybe pick up a guitar or whatever. So he's been going great with that. He's composing and can read music better than me. Now after a couple of years like it's crazy. And my little guy he just said to me this morning he'd like to start piano lessons. I was kind of waiting for that to happen. He's still there, very young and distracted, but he also loves a harmonica. So I've been having sit-downs with him occasionally where we play harmonica together and he likes doing that and they both like getting out their favorite guitars and laying them on the ground in my office and plugging them into amplifiers and making a racket. So even though poor old mum is shaking her head, I assure her this is the road to it being of interest to you.
Cheryl Lee:Yeah.
Jimi Hocking:I feel like if they're too young and you're sitting down and saying, well, we're going to learn to see major scale, it's as boring as batshit. Yeah, you need to want to do it and want to enjoy it. So I'm more about them making sounds and having fun at this point.
Cheryl Lee:Absolutely. I look forward to following their journey.
Jimi Hocking:Let's hope, let's hope.
Cheryl Lee:Going to teenagers.
Jimi Hocking:When I pop off, you know what they inherit will be bitching, you know. Otherwise it'll be no fun at all.
Speaker 4:You are listening to Still Rockin' it. The podcast with Cheryl Lee.
Cheryl Lee:Let's have one of my favourites from their very first album Come On from the All For One record and we'll be back to speak some more to Jimi shortly, apart from the new Life Blood tour, which is three down. Five to go national tour you went on Rock the Boat. Five to go national tour you went on rock the boat, you lucky bugger.
Jimi Hocking:Yes, I'm still moving. I've never been on a cruise before in my life, so I was probably, out of all of us, the most apprehensive slash scared about going on a boat. It's not a rational fear, but I'm a bit of a car-sick kid so I thought that maybe it would be not a pleasant experience. I managed to talk the good lady into coming with me on the boat. The good grandparents came and stayed at our house and looked after our boys, and that was our first time away together since we've had kids so 10 years so it was really good that we were there together and most of the other partners managed to come. So, even though we were kind of worried about well, it's a lot of time to be on the boat for only one big performance I would have loved to have done more, to be honest, but we really had a good time together and maybe that was good timing in the course of what's happened this year that we just spent time not so much working but just hanging out. You know we were eating together every day, of course, and it was good to have the partners there who got to bond a little bit more because we all live interstate.
Jimi Hocking:It's not like when we were in a young band, and you hang out together all the time. We all live a long way away from each other, so the bands see each other on tour, of course, but not the wives. Yeah, they don't know each other as well as you might imagine, only because of the tyranny of distance. So that changed up a little bit on the boat and there was lots of great bands on the boat that we have known for years. Anyway. We watched a lot of stuff. We ate too much food, we all got a bit fatter, we spent money on cocktails, I'm afraid, and had a great time and you had the drinks package.
Jimi Hocking:So I think some of us are still limping a bit from overdoing it on the boat.
Cheryl Lee:I've done two Rock the Boats 2015 and last year and, try as I might, I could not convince hubby to get back on this year, oh really, Next year.
Jimi Hocking:I'm still working on it and making lots of lamb roasts. It's called bribery, but I'm down, don't worry, I get it. I think we'll do it again at some point.
Cheryl Lee:I think it was a tick for us, For both, I reckon, artists and punters, both. It's an absolute hoot and some artists I know in the past have flown in and flown out, especially headliners flown in, done their couple of gigs and flown out. But I was going to ask you, you didn't do that. Good on you. You got the whole seven-day experience.
Jimi Hocking:I can't pretend that before I knew anything about it I didn't kind of think about that idea because we were going to Numia originally but there's issues there, so they went to Cairns. But really the experience is about being on the boat, so it's not so much about the stop. So I did contemplate where they were programming us on the week and maybe I would fly to Cairns and join the boat there. But once I did some financial sums on the whole thing I was like, look, I'm just going to waste money on airfares and messing around. If Alana you know the good lady comes along well, then maybe it'll be different. So probably because she came, I thought, oh well, we'll do the whole week. So we were glad we did in the end.
Cheryl Lee:I'm glad you did and I'm glad you enjoyed it and hopefully we'll see you cruising another year down the track. I think Barnsley's on next year. So you know, being an Adelaide girl, chisel, that's my thing.
Jimi Hocking:Oh yeah, I get that, don't worry about that. I, I get that, don't worry about that. I love Jimmy Barnes. We actually a couple of years back before the lockdown and all that kind of stuff, they actually did approach me about playing in a form of house band that was going to involve. They had the format different and they were going to have, I think Jim Barnes and David and you know, John and all be the headliners and have a house band. And they asked me if I would do it and I was so apprehensive about the boat thing I said no. So I was like because I was worried that what if I got sick and then I'm just a disaster and I've got all this responsibility to play for all these people. But I think they trashed that format and that didn't go ahead in the end anyway.
Cheryl Lee:Let's have another favourite one from that 1991 debut album All For One. How about better? How good is it? Back to speak to JimI again shortly. One, two, three, four. Jimmy never could have. They don't care, Still not no. Speaking of Chisel, I saw Dave leaving the other night because they headlined at our Vailo race here. Caught up very briefly with Dave and his family, Did you get to see any of the 50th anniversary tour?
Jimi Hocking:I did not, I'm very sorry to say. I would have loved to. It can be tricky, of course, because my kids are young too. When I go away and do these touring weekends I'm pretty mindful of not going out too much on my nights at home, and so, look, you know, that phase will only be probably another couple of years actually by the looks of things, but the way the kids are growing. Yes, I didn't go. I watched some footage that people saw and I was kind of enthusiastic.
Jimi Hocking:I love Mossy's, just one of the greatest, you know, if not the greatest, guitar player the country has probably ever produced, and I would have loved to have seen them.
Jimi Hocking:I've seen them back in the day, and in fact, when Chisel did the Last Stand and I think the very next tour was Jimmy Barnes I think it wasn't Too Fires, it was Body Swerve, maybe it was his first solo tour, and I was the opening act in my band called the Astro Boys and I was the opening act in my band called the Astro Boys, which is very early 80s. I was the opening act of three for oh nice on that tour, and that's when I first met Jimmy Barnes. I've always loved Jimmy Barnes and although I've heard all sorts of stories, I've never had a negative experience on one of the Barnes tours. I've only ever had a good time and Jim has always come into the band room. You know, even for us shit kicker, first band saying welcome to the tour when you ought to have it. You know, enjoy yourselves like. He's always been that guy in my experience and I've always appreciated that.
Cheryl Lee:After that we popped into the crown and anchor for a roadie on our way home, and that's when I thought of that time it was just over 12 months ago that we were there with you guys, and I think if it wasn't your very first gig back after the devastating loss of Paulie, it was certainly one of, and it was a bit of a weird feeling, wasn't it? I mean, I'm sure you guys felt it even more than we did in the audience.
Jimi Hocking:That was one of those gigs. They weren't really long, they were like half an hour or 40 minutes or something. Yeah, that was the very first week, I think maybe we maybe that was the first one because we did, of course, when we every most capital cities, we did like a launch come preview of of what we were doing. In actual fact, that idea was always in the works to do it in that way and do like these short sets, and that was, strangely enough, the reason that we agreed we could do it, because had they have been sets which were like our regular show, which was compared to an hour and a quarter and an hour and a half long, I don't think everybody in the group would have had the emotional strength just to do that. But because they were half-hour sets as a promo thing, we felt like that was doable. So it was ironic that that's what was on the slab, because it was also on the slab that we were going to play at the afl grand final that week and but we just said we couldn't do it, you know. So that was in a real transitional moment there and we had really decided, not so much as a band but just as people, that it was possible for us to do that and it was still difficult.
Jimi Hocking:But I've got to say I know we're moving us to do that and it was still difficult, but I've got to say I know we're moving on to happier pastures. But I was really amazed at the amount of people that reached out personally to me and to all of us in a very real way and not in a fanboy or girl way, just in a really real way about what we were experiencing and at really random times, you know, like people in the supermarket were coming up to me and just saying listen, I don't want to bother you, but you know, I just want to say this and I actually found that really helpful. I think we all did and it was hard to respond to the amount of people that did that, but it was actually really a positive for the band to in the decision making process about what to do. So we were in the middle of that and it was. It was difficult but it was kind of heartwarming as well.
Speaker 4:You are listening to Still Rockin' it the podcast with Cheryl Lee.
Cheryl Lee:Okay, so I've dug one out of the vault. Here is a very early the Astros with Second Skin, and then we're back to speak to Jimi, the Human Hocking, shortly. We're certainly glad that the decision was made to keep going, that's for sure. And of course you know Paul. He is irreplaceable. But Paul Elliott is now showing as a current member of the lineup on Wikipedia, so it must be true is it.
Jimi Hocking:Well, if it's on Wikipedia, I guess you know it's done by the hands of the gods, as far as I know, because no one knows who writes that stuff. Certainly it's not us Magic. I didn't know there's a Wikipedia page for me for years. And then somebody said to me a young girl who worked at one of the venues I played. She said I feel famous because I'm a friend of somebody who's on Wikipedia. I'm like what's Wikipedia? She said well, you're on it, you must know.
Jimi Hocking:But the Screaming Jets one of the strange ways that we work is in a really shambolic way of organization, and we had some great people come in the first month Dario came in to play some bass and a number of other people who were all really great. But we were really not in a mindset about what to do next. We just simply weren't. And I think it's fair to say that Dave and I workshopped a lot of ideas and I feel like it was me that said listen, the idea of replacing Paul is not an idea, because the guy is simply replaceable. But maybe what we do is we do like I don't know, like the Divinals did at one point where they had a couple of people who came into play on a tour by tour basis and I mean it's not ideal but maybe that's what we look at, because emotionally we couldn't come at this idea of replacing Paul. But organically during the year, paul Elliott, who was a great friend of our Paul's and I met Paul Elliott when he was the best man at Paul's first wedding, so that was 30 years ago he sort of said, listen, he's a guitar player, he said. But he said I know Paul and his material really well. If you get stuck and need somebody to come and do some stuff, we'll just hand it up for it. You know, a number of good people actually did that, which was really nice of them to, because I know it came from the right place. But you know, because we had shared history and obviously shared stories about Paul, our Paulie, it was a very easy way to emotionally connect.
Jimi Hocking:So Paul Elliott came on board and, although I think he'll even agree that he hadn't worked as a bass player, he played some bass but it wasn't his first instrument. We were all a bit unsure about how that was going to work. But he's really done a lot of work and he's a musically intuitive guy. He's a great thinker, he's a low-maintenance kind of individual and you know, I think it's fair to say that a lot of people who have even come in to work for the band over the years have been not fit as well as they thought, because we're very idiosyncratic. You know, we've all got different things going on and you really need to have an armchair degree in psychology to work in this environment. Every crew member, everyone will tell you that. Pe Paul Elliott. He just came in and cruised through all of our weirdness and so he's been a joy to have playing for the last, I guess, nine or so months. Now. There won't be a band meeting about it, it'll be just a thing.
Cheryl Lee:It'll be organic.
Jimi Hocking:It's organic. That's the way it's kind of like when I returned to the band after my absence for a few years, there was no band meeting about it. It was just like remember you said if we got into trouble you'd come back and do some play. Remember that I was like, oh yeah, all right, he goes. Well, can you do a gig? I'm like, well, when is it? He goes Friday.
Cheryl Lee:I was going to ask you about your little break, yeah, and I was going to say what did you do in that time? But I see what you've done.
Jimi Hocking:Good grief, you've got a whole piece of paper there.
Cheryl Lee:You've got 19 albums of your own, yeah probably 19.
Jimi Hocking:The Jets have only got 10. Yeah, I've made more records than the Screaming Jets.
Cheryl Lee:Exactly Nearly double, so you were busy.
Jimi Hocking:I was busy. You know, I left the band at the end of the 90s and the way I came into the band was kind of by default in some respects, because Richard Lara, who was the original guitar player, who did the first two records. They're great records.
Jimi Hocking:Come the second record Tear of Thought, had been released in Australia and it had done almost nothing because the band were in America and they weren't touring to support it in Australia. Even when people kind of talk about the timeline I've been a fan of it it's like the first album was the only record that had done anything locally. Tear of Thought, which is a great record, had really not done anything. I think Shivers was the single and that was getting some airplay, but no one had bought the album. It wasn't even a gold record yet. When they were in America Richie got sick and needed some time off, but it was clear that he had fallen out of love with the band and he kind of didn't want to do it. I think is fair to say so. Chuggy said to me well, I do three weeks with this band. Richard just never came back. I was there from 93 till, I think, 98 or something like that. So I was like nearly the end of the 90s. It wasn't my plan to be in the Screaming Jets for the rest of my life at that point. I had other things I wanted to do. But I had some complications at home and there was some politics in the band which I didn't agree to. I didn't want to sign into the company. So I ended up leaving the band at the end of the 90s thinking I'll go back to what my original path was to do this, this, this and this. I had a number of things I wanted to do and it's probably worth mentioning that in those days. At that time I joined the band.
Jimi Hocking:The band came back from America, we decided to tour Tear of Thought, to success almost. So I was very much part of that tour. I replaced some of the guitar parts on the singles that were released. So I sort of played on some of the material. And then we made the Gorilla album. We made the Well Gone Crazy album. I recorded both those records, made the Gorilla album. We made the World Gone Crazy album. I recorded both those records. And I had a sideline interest in taekwondo. So don't laugh, but I had never done a black belt grading because I'd broken two bones in my foot when I'd previously tried to do it.
Jimi Hocking:On my to-do list was a number of things. I had an opportunity to go to New York and play in a thing. I was about to get my ass kicked by a short marriage. I was getting divorced so I lost all my money and I wanted to do my first degree grading in taekwondo. There was all these things. So I went away and ticked all the boxes off my list. I spent time making blues, a couple of blues records and a couple of other bits and pieces.
Jimi Hocking:I went to the States and I kind of based loosely out of New York for a little while. I think I'm gone for about eight or nine years in real terms, but in that time the band stopped playing altogether for about three to four years and Dave made a solo album at my place. Dave and I remained tight the whole time and he came and stayed with me down the coast and we worked on a bunch of demos and then we recorded the record. We were going to do it at Thorpey Studio but that deal kind of fell over. So at the last minute I had a basic home studio that we could track in and we tracked it all there. So Wanted man was the record we made.
Cheryl Lee:I love that album.
Jimi Hocking:Yeah, so that's me playing everything. I got a rhythm section together to do it in Victoria and I played the rest of the stuff and Dave and me kind of arranged the songs. He wrote all the songs, I engineered and recorded the record. So I enjoyed that project and I think that even when people saw that I was working together with David, then there was speculation about that. I wasn't really out of the loop in some respects and Izzy was playing in the band. Izzy's a great guitar player but he was the same. He got to a point where he was like he had other things he wanted to do, so it just sort of flip-flopped back around and I came back to the band as the short story.
Cheryl Lee:We'll play one of those songs now from the album Wanted man that Jimi made with Dave. There's so many beautiful songs on the album. I play it on the radio all the time and this one always makes me cry. Sitting in the studio all by myself, blubbering like a baby, those rusty train tracks. Back to speak some more to Jimi shortly back to speak some more to Jimmy shortly.
Cheryl Lee:We'd learnt that Dave is a little bit country from that Wanted man album. By the way, I keep hassling him, and now I know I can hassle you as well. We need another one.
Jimi Hocking:Well, I'm really happy that you like that record. It was a labour of love for both of us and you know, dave had always been a country music fan. I mean, I know about Johnny Cash, waylon Dings and all these guys through Dave. When I first met Dave before I was even in the band I had a band called Jimi the Human and Spectre 7 and the Screaming Jets opened for me in Victoria because my audience was much bigger than theirs at that time I had no audience anywhere else but in Victoria. I had a top 12 album, you know.
Jimi Hocking:But Dave walked in the band room with a big white cowboy hat on and it wasn't a joke at the time. I think he was obsessed with Garth Brooks and Johnny Cash. When we were driving around together in those early days I was listening to Neil Young and BB King, he was listening to Garth Brooks and Johnny Cash, all he was listening to all this kind of English mod, the who. And you know like we were. We were a very eclectic group of guys and I think people don't expect that when they come into the fold.
Cheryl Lee:Yeah, you are. So he's a little bit country and, it's fair to say, you're probably a little bit bluesy. Yeah, a little bit of a blues slant there, yeah, yeah.
Jimi Hocking:And I even have an interest in jazz, which is a dirty word for a rock and roll musician, you know but that's like something else. I grew up with my dad playing piano and things and I kind of not all of it, but I loved all of that stuff.
Cheryl Lee:There's a song on the latest album which is a little bit country. Lying With Her, it's got a bit of a country slant to it.
Jimi Hocking:I would say it's a lot country. So it's Dave. It's not a new song. Dave had written that song. Dave's a great lyricist, you know.
Jimi Hocking:But in the years that Paulie was writing the body of the material, we all felt that Paulie's writing style was very much part of the Screaming Jets sound. There's been times where Dave and I have decided to start writing songs, but the underlying theme would be to motivate Paulie to write songs because he'd be like whoa, whoa, whoa, that's my job, what are you guys doing? So that's often been the way. So Dave had always written songs. He wrote that one with Steve Balby, of course, who you would know from my Sex and Noiseworks, and I knew Steve back when he was a bass player for the first time ever on a major touring circuit with Kevin Borich. So we all go way back, all of us guys. So Balby and Dave put that song together and it was always lying around.
Jimi Hocking:Just in the last days of recording the album tracks for Professional Misconduct we did a wrap-up. We didn't want to get anything out of the ideas that you just want to play. I had a couple and we recorded a couple of those, but they didn't make this album. Dave said well, I've got this song that I did with Balbie I don't know what do you think of this. So he played it to us and we were like hang on a minute, that's really got something.
Cheryl Lee:That's all right.
Jimi Hocking:Yeah. So Scotty Kingman picked up the acoustic guitar and he played that part. I'm also a keen mandolin player, played mandolin on a number of Screamy Jets tracks over the years, much to the horror of some hard rock people. But I was like you know, I recorded the mandolin at home. I was like send me the track and I actually want to come up with an idea. So I actually want to do is I play a lot of stuff and then let Steve James, our illustrious producer, just cherry pick what he likes. He just added a few little bits and even though it's a rock record, I still think that Lying With Her is one of the standout moments on the record.
Cheryl Lee:Speaking of writing, because I think Paulie had a hand in every single song. I reckon on the Professional Misconduct album.
Jimi Hocking:Pretty much. I think Lying With Her is the only one he didn't really have a writing thing going. Yeah, I think you're probably right. Most of the songs were born of tracks that Paulie and Scotty Kingman were working up together over the last couple of years. Even throughout lockdown we were kind of throwing ideas around and you know, we made this album as a result of post-lockdown ideas and it was not the way we've made albums in the past. In the past we would sit around and acoustically play through probably Paul's ideas Because we couldn't get together for the longest time.
Jimi Hocking:Paul and Scotty were amusing themselves by throwing up guitar riffs and bass lines back and forth over the internet or in the hotel rooms and they worked out a bunch of stuff, but they weren't songs yet, they were just a lot of musical ideas. So normally we have a much more complete picture of songs when we go in the studio to record. We didn't have that on Professional Misconduct. We had all these verse and chorus ideas and a lot of stuff was still in Jigsaw. So we pieced together most of the stuff from the ideas in the studio. So the songwriting process was very different, on Professional Misconduct, to any other record we've done. I think it was the best way to make a record.
Jimi Hocking:Probably not, uh, but you still made a great record and you know that that occurs because we have all these collective ideas and we all have a strong idea about arrangement and we all have enough experience to make that work. And Steve James, who has been our producer for most of our career. I wouldn't even want to do a record without him. He's such an ace in the sleeve of the Screaming Jets way to create music. He's like your sixth member.
Jimi Hocking:Truly, when it comes to writing and recording. Steve knows us all, he knows what we can do, he knows what our strengths are and you know you can't buy that kind of insider knowledge.
Cheryl Lee:That's right. And speaking of songs and albums, I've heard just recently that there's still quite a lot of material left over that Paul Lee has had a hand in. So he is. Am I right in saying that his writing is going to feature pretty heavily in the next songs for the next album?
Jimi Hocking:I would say that's accurate, because it was. The process was as I said. You know, we had all these musical ideas that we kind of we formed and that meant, you know, Paul ie brought all his lyric books out and David him worked on those with Steve and you know we were cutting. You know, let's try this double length, let's try this half length. We ended up with six songs, too many for a record.
Cheryl Lee:That's half an album.
Jimi Hocking:It's half an album. You know, when we came to picking tracks, I think a lot of the tracks that got picked were the ones that were closest to being over the line. You know, at a certain point it wasn't because the tracks that were kind of being developed weren't any good, it was simply a logistical decision for us. I would be sorry to not see those other tracks see it a lot of day. I think there was some really good ideas. I would say four out of six of those songs were pretty close to being finished and what that meant was Paulie had played on them. So when we come out with another recording which I'd say is on the cards, Paul Woseen's bass playing will still be part of that project. Yeah, awesome, that would be fantastic, you know.
Speaker 4:You are listening to Still Rockin' it. The podcast with Cheryl Lee.
Cheryl Lee:Another one of my favourites from the Professional Misconduct album from last year, written by Dave Gleeson and Paul Woseen. It's a beautiful song. Second Chance Back to chat to Jimi the human after this. If you had the chance right now, do you know what you would know what you would say? I haven't got a timer, but I'm sure my time's up so we better talk about the tour. So, as I said, three down five to go, get onto the Googleometer screamingjetscom for the rest of the dates. For the Adelaideans, you're going to be here at the Gov Friday December 13. I already bought my tickets for that VIP meet and greet, mind you. Yeah great.
Cheryl Lee:We're really looking forward to that. I've got two other quick questions. So how important. You've got Mammal and Lola coming to Adelaide with you and you've also got Large Mirage on the tour. How important is it and how difficult is it to select your support act on a tour?
Jimi Hocking:Well, it's extremely important to us and it's become more difficult because we have a lot of love for a lot of the new bands that we've stumbled across. If you will, mammal have been around for a while. They've got their own thing and their own following going. We want to have a great show. We don't want to have lacklustre support acts to make us look good. We want to have kickluster support acts to make us look good. We want to have kick-ass support acts and people are spending their hard-earned money to come out to see a show. We want them to see a show from start to finish that they want to watch.
Jimi Hocking:I didn't know anything about Large Mirage or Lola much until a few months ago when we started looking through ideas, and of course, we look online and watch video clips and come up with what we think are opinions. But some years ago the Screaming Jets collectively had a discussion about the right of passage that we went through, which was to support bigger bands as we were coming up through the seam, and there's a lot of reasons now that bigger promoters won't take risks with putting unknown acts on or lesser known acts on. They want all headline acts. We've decided to put our money where our mouth is and always trying to have an up and comer at least on a bill with us. So we all kind of have our ears and eyes open for things. Some of the decisions are political as well, but for the most part we all have to agree on our opening acts.
Jimi Hocking:I have been absolutely blown away with Large Mirage and Mammal. I haven't seen their whole shows yet. I knew that Mammal were a really heavy band, but they are really this band that get the crowd going and you know they're very showy and I really like that about them. And Large Mirage I haven't seen Lola yet live, but they're joining us in Adelaide. But Large Mirage are also. They look like they're straight out of a 70s kind of classic rock ensemble. There's a little bit of Stevie Nicks about Molly the singer, who's a very attractive and very talented singer, but the band are absolutely bitching. They're great guitar player like. They're kind of a band after my own heart. They remind me of my early days playing my earliest original material. I gotta say so I already, after like only a couple of gigs, have a lot of a lot of love for the bands that are opening. I'm really excited about it.
Cheryl Lee:I really love that you're sort of giving back and giving those opportunities, perhaps a little bit against you know, the current trend and giving opportunities to the new up and comers, like the opportunities that were given to you. Yeah.
Jimi Hocking:Well, you know it's a thing and you know, look, we're not a bunch of hippies about it, but there's this idea of like, keeping a good balance of things. It is what happened to us some of those opportunities panned out some of them did, by the way, when we were younger. But you know, I just think it's if you're going to talk the talk, you've got to walk the walk. So if you're going to say, yeah, that that'd be great, stick your neck out a little bit and maybe make it work.
Jimi Hocking:My opinion is that, because the Screaming Jets have been around now some 35 odd years, our audience have grown with us and a lot of them are older crew that have followed the band all this time. We're very fortunate to have these people support the band, but because of their age and they've grown older and wiser with us, they want to see new. They're enthused to see a young band as well that are keeping the flame alive. We've had a number of great opening bands, know, and so I have conversations with people who say, man, it's so cool to see young kids who are old enough to be our children, basically, who still love classic rock and who still are writing songs. They're not cutting and pasting stuff together with a fruity loops drum beat. They're actually playing and singing harmonies and ripping our guitar solo, like we are so enthused by that, you know. So I think our audience for the most part feel the same way.
Cheryl Lee:I think it's terrific because you're not scared that they're going to upstage you. In fact, you know they're probably pushing you hard. I think, shit, we better pull out a good one.
Jimi Hocking:I think, some years ago. It's not that we've lost our fire, but we lost our irrational sense of competitiveness with other bands. Because when you're young you have this yeah, we're going to show them, we are the best rock, you know. And I think that's just part of your youthful mentality. And now we're lovers of music and so when we see great music it doesn't strike a fear of like oh, you know that. No, we want to see it. We say that'll be great to bring on the road because that will really enhance our show. To have good talent, you know.
Cheryl Lee:Yeah, and you can appreciate it. Yeah, still rockin' It the podcast with that radio chick, cheryl Lee, his dream machine, by Large Mirage on tour with the Screaming Jets, and then back to say goodbye to Screaming Jets guitar man Jimi the Human Hocking. There's a lot of 50th anniversary tours on at the moment. We mentioned Chisel Angels have got theirs, you know, 99 not out or no 59.
Jimi Hocking:99.
Cheryl Lee:So have you guys got another 15 years in. You, you know 99 not out or no 99. So have you guys got another 15 years in you.
Jimi Hocking:You know I hope so. You know I limp a little bit now and, of course, you know my ears are bad. I've got RSI. I'm not the man I used to be. I think we do Like who can say I think that you want to be able to do it at a certain level, and the other fallback idea is that we just don't have another plan. You know, when this, what are we going to do? You know we and we face this question at the loss of Paulie, like this is. You know we've spent all this, all these years, working on this vehicle called the screaming jets. At what point do you just drop it and go? I know it just doesn't work anymore. I don't think you do.
Cheryl Lee:You're kind of married to the idea.
Jimi Hocking:I played a bunch of different things here and there and you know I still get to do that. I do some teaching. I have some other interests outside we mostly all do. This has been our main thing. This has been what we've put all our time and love into for decades now. So unless somebody comes along with a big hook and hook us off the stage and pulls us into the wings, I think we just keep doing it until we just can't do it.
Cheryl Lee:Yeah, I think We'll still keep coming. We'll be in our frames, our walking frames, yeah.
Jimi Hocking:We've sure to put that in Wikipedia. So Jimi Hocking said is the screaming just going to end? It's like no, because we just don't know what else to do.
Cheryl Lee:No, what's that R word, retire? All right, I'm going to get on with your day. I really appreciate you being so, so generous with your time. We're really looking forward to catching up with you guys at the Gov On the 13th. I shall see you down the front.
Jimi Hocking:So awesome. Thanks so much, Cheryl.
Cheryl Lee:See you, jimi, have a great day Thanks again. You're with Cheryl Lee that radio chick. Thank you so much for joining me on the Still Rockin' it podcast. Hope to catch you again next time. Get out when you can support Aussie music and I'll