Here's the complete interview Dan Brisebois posed to the head slug

20 questions I've always wanted to ask a slug
A whole lot of fun can be had when one of Canada's most electrifying entertainers
jumps into the lion's den unarmed by letting me drill him with 20 questions ...
Join me now as I engage Doug and The Slugs' Doug Bennett
with his most hard-hitting interview to date ...
... just don't tell him I would've settled for 10 ....

1. What's your favourite colour of toque?
Red and green, about two feet long.

2. What was your first gig as Doug and the Slugs?
A halloween bash at a communal house in the Kitsalano area of Vancouver.
I went as a wino's nose and almost won a prize for being a giant hemorroid.

3. What's your favourite hockey team?
I'm tempted to say the Leafs because I grew up in Toronto and remember the
glory days of the mid sixties.(editor's note: a time when they only had 6
teams and the Leafs STILL struggled to make the playoffs. Leafs and glory
days are a contradiction in terms ... ) However, the greatest hockey team
I've ever seen is a group of blind kids who did a 10 minute exhibition
game at UBC. The puck beeped one note while the goal posts beeped in two
alternating notes. Talk about exciting!

4. If it one day rained beer ... would you care what brand?
Kokaneeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!

5. Do you feel the upcoming surtax on rewriteable cd's is fair, considering
it's also the choice of format for most computer programmers?
I think all forms of duplication should be taxed and the monies used
to support the creators who use CDs as transport. Duplication in any form takes
money from the artists who are the ones who can least afford it. Just look
at the example of MP3 who's basic position is that music should be free to
the people while at the same time raising $11,000,000 US in investment to
grow their company. Do you think one dime of that $11 mil went to the
artist who created the music that MP3 gives away on their website? MTV
does the same thing, selling advertising at national rates for their
'video programs' and refusing to pay the artists for their performances.

6. What were your musical influences growing up?
Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Simon and Garfunkel, any Motown.

7. What similarities and differences are there between the obstacles faced by
today's new artists and when you broke onto the scene?
The similarities are the difficulties in getting heard on the radio. The
differences are that in my time, a band worked at getting their live chops
down and building an audience in hopes that you would end up with a
recording contract. The down side was that it took longer to break. The
upside was that once the band's radio days were over ( 95% of bands have a
radio life of less than 3 years - The Righteous Brothers had 18 months)
you still had legs.
It's sad to say but with the technology so accessible today, most bands focus
on recording to the detriment of playing live. This means that audience
loyalty is limited to what they hear on the radio and not what they have
experienced live. Radio affects the ears but live affects the heart. The
only audiences that are still artist loyal are Metal and Country

8. Kirk or Picard?
Jack Daniels or Johnny Walker Black?

9. What colour are your socks? That's right, the ones you're wearing right now.
Grey.

10. Tim wants to know ... Who really DOES know how to make love stay?... help
him before it gets away. actually he and my sister are doing great
... thanx for asking.
No one KNOWS how to make love stay. If they say they do...they're liars. But
tell them I say hi and wish them the best.

11. How's Tomcat Records doing? (now's a good time to get in some shameless
plugs for some of the great acts under your guidance and mind control)
Tomcat is actually at the vet right now. We signed a slew of artists over the
last few years who did not want to tour. A hard lesson learned. Too many
young acts think having a CD is the end of their contribution. In reality,
it's only the beginning.

12. What were the names of the Friendly Giant's two animal puppet friends?
You got me there. I hope this doesn't affect my Canadiana status.
(editor's note: Rusty the Rooster and Jerome the Giraffe)

13. Betty or Veronica?
Marry Veronica for the money but keep Betty as a mistress. Then plot
Veronica's murder, get caught, be convicted and end up as a movie of the week.

14. Would you like to fill in this space with a good story from the road?
No. The good road stories are only to be told on long bus rides down moonlit
shoulderless highways that are slowly turning into gravel roads with
roadsigns that have names that are not on your map.

15. Any chance of a live album ?
All our albums are live.

16. Do you think the Canadian media give established bands (Trooper, Loverboy,
you for example), the respect they deserve, when compared to the push
American artists such as Aerosmith or Kiss get during their 'comebacks'?
No. Canadian radio is well known for it's lack of faith. Why else would they
have to forced by law to stop playing all their Canadian content during
the 2:00AM TO 4:00 AM and spread it out during the daylight hours so that
the music could compete fairly with its American counterparts. The lack of
faith is not only centered on Classic Rock acts. Look at the abandonment
of Crash Test Dummies and Bare Naked Ladies by Canadian radio until
American radio success forced Canadian radio to tuck their tail between
their legs and start playing the songs that they should have been playing
in the first place.

17. What's your favourite movie?
The Godfather and Casablanca.

18. Where were you in '72 when Paul Henderson scored the winning goal?
In a bar screaming my head off.

19. What should be done to the person who invented the glowing hockey puck?
He should be hounded by ravenous dogs until he apologizes. Then hung.

20. If it was up to you, what changes would you make to ensure proper
government support for nurturing the homegrown arts community?
I think revenue should be raised via entertainment taxes (like Ontario's
existing 10% entertainment tax) BUT it should be put directly into an Arts
Pool as oppossed to going into general revenues where it's lost in the mud
and mire. Get the money back to the artists and their support systems.


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