ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, JAN. 21, 1993
By Steve Newton
When Mojo Nixon calls from California, I’m glued to the boob tube, soaking up the first news of the U.S.-led military strikes in southern Iraq. Since they’ve got TVs in San Diego, too, Nixon knows about the bombings himself and has his own choice words on the subject.
“I think they should all just go out in the desert and have a big dick-measuring contest!” says Nixon, which is what you might expect from the man behind such tunes as “Don Henley Must Die” and “Debbie Gibson’s Pregnant with My Two-Headed Love Child”.
Will Mojo be playing a tune called “Dicks in the Desert” when he comes to the Lunatic Fringe this Saturday (January 23) for a solo concert? No. But inquiring Mojo maniacs do want to know what new tunes the 35-year-old gonzo tunesmith has come up with.
“Well, let’s see,” ponders Nixon. “I’ve got a new one I’ll be playin’ on this tour called ‘I’m Drunk’. It’s kind of a companion piece to ‘Gin Guzzlin’ Frenzy’ and ‘Are You Drinkin’ with Me Jesus?’—part of the whole concept album I got goin’ there.”
Although he’s made a decent living from lampooning society’s more stodgy institutions (“Destroy All Lawyers”, “Put a Sex Mo-Sheen in the White House”), it was Nixon’s cautionary tale about ex-Eagle Don Henley (“Don’t let him get back together with Glenn Frey”) that made headlines a couple of years back. But the oh-so-serious Henley didn’t take the joke too badly; in fact, he got up on-stage at a small club in Texas and sang the tune with Nixon.
“I was pretty damn flabbergasted,” says Mojo of the Henley appearance. “I’d like to think when I put somebody down, they stay down!”
And what about Debbie Gibson? Has she hopped on-stage to join Nixon in a rousing version of you-know-what?
“Nope,” says Nixon, “but I did talk to her on the phone the other day—the first time I actually ever talked to her. She was on a radio station here in San Diego, and a friend of mine’s a DJ, and he called up and said, ‘Debbie Gibson’s comin’ on. I want you to call at three o’clock.’ So I called up and gave her hell. And she was supposed to come to my show, but she didn’t, the little chicken. The little chicken-hearted Yankee witch from New York!”