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That's one of the songs you make with your boys. We were out walking in Park City, Utah, and couldn't find any herb. My buddy starts singing, "Who's got the weed?" like some drunk walking down the street, and we sang it all night long. We were like, 'That's a hit.' -G. Love on his song "Who's Got The Weed" |
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JamBase: You write a lot about things you like - cold beer, lemonade and there's "Who's Got the Weed?" on the new album.
 G. Love |
That's one of the songs you make with your boys. We were out walking in Park City, Utah, and couldn't find any herb. My buddy starts singing, "Who's got the weed?" like some drunk walking down the street, and we sang it all night long. We were like, "That's a hit." It's a swamp groove. I ran into Tre Hardson [The Pharcyde] a couple years ago at a Holiday Inn Express in Seattle, and we've been pretty tight since then, so I asked him to do that track with me.
Do you ever worry about touting marijuana use as a celebrity? That song starts with audio of a bong hit. Didn't you have a run-in with the cops on the Arizona/California border last year?
My lawyer got it dismissed, but it cost a lot of money and was a pain. We were coming through from a West Coast run and my buddies up in the Oregon area, they're growers, and they had laced us with all this kind herb and we were kind of fucked up. It's one of those things where they're doing immigration checks and they had a checkpoint and pulled over our big tour bus. It's no joke. To me, now, it's not worth it to road trip and fly with shit because it's not worth getting busted. And I'm not advocating drug use; I'm just talking about my life. I'm not very discrete with my songwriting, and I'm not afraid. The main thing as a songwriter and as a person is just not to take myself too seriously. I know a lot of people that take themselves very seriously that do the same thing I do, and it's kind of bullshit. I'm just trying to have a good time.
On the title track, "Superhero Brother," which comes after "Who's Got The Weed?," you get slightly political, talking about ending the war and not fighting over oil fields and making coffee tables out of bombs.
 G. Love |
Well, I've always been an activist. That song is a reaction to Bush getting reelected. I was disgusted because I felt like a lot of youth, even stoner kids, were voting Republican and celebrating him as a great leader. I think it's clear now that he'll go down as one of the worst presidents ever. That song was just to joke and say, "Yeah, I can save the world with my guitar." It's utterly serious and simultaneously self-demeaning, making fun of us as musicians who think we can save the world with our music.
So, to you, it's okay for musicians to take a political stand on stage?
Concerts aren't usually the best time to have a political discussion, and with the people that go to these types of shows it's kind of like preaching to the choir. But, people like Jack, he puts his money where his mouth is. And I respect what Michael Franti does.
Shifting gears, Gretsch just released a "G. Love Corvette" guitar. That's got to be cool.
It's better than getting a record deal. It's a '60s style small solid-body, like their answer to the Gibson SG. It's a slick, kelly green guitar with a white racing stripe on it. And it sold out and is already on backorder. I got to pick out all the hardware and pickups and tuners. It's pro. I play it onstage, swapping off with my Les Paul and my old Italian pawn shop guitar that's like my signature instrument.
You've been through a handful of record labels and more than a couple shake-ups with your bandmates, but things seem to be on the up. Do you see yourself sticking with the Special Sauce for another fifteen years?
We get it done. We've got Mark Boyce with us on piano now, too, so he's officially in the band. There are some personality problems, which you see if you watch our DVD, but we've been through thick and thin and we're like brothers. We fight and get pissed off and make music and feel good again. It's a lot of family love, and at this point everyone's a grown man and this is our career. There's something very special about the fact that fifteen years later you can come out to a G. Love show and see the exact band that made the first record, and the guys that wrote the parts are still playing them. There's a lot of power in that. So, hopefully we'll keep it going as long as we can.
JamBase | Philly Soul
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