Photo by Emma Esser. Click to read the interview.
As you can see I’m able to blend into my environment in the wild to avoid predators, but the North Carolina music webzine and newsletter Blank Tapes found me for an interview that came out today. You can read it here and please do.
Here’s a highlight. Or a lowlight you be the judge:
Where did the name come from?
King: Johnny Cash‘s ghost came to me in a dream in 1987. Johnny Cash wasn’t even dead yet, that’s how forward-thinking he was. He said, “Son, you’ve got to be The King Teen.” He also said, “Don’t mess around with that crypto bullshit,” which I didn’t understand at the time, but I’m glad I listened to that too.
The interview was conducted by Stephen Mullaney of the band The Wigg Report. They’re really good and I would tell you to go see their show in Durham Friday night except I’m playing a show in Durham Friday night and I’m going to tell you to go see that.
That’s 7 pm sharp when I play
I’ll have both of my EPs, the new one True Stories of Time Travel and last year’s Us Ugly Guys Got Style, in the popular CD format, plus T-shirts, including the No Kings But The King Teen T-shirt that’ll look great on you at the No Kings rally you attend on March 28. You can get advanced tickets to the show here.
I also made an appearance today in Craig Calcaterra’s “baseball and other things” newsletter Cup of Coffee, which I highly recommend and not just because he said nice things about me today. It’s a subscription newsletter and he’s having a 25% off sale until baseball season starts next week. But if you’re reading this on Thursday, any Thursday, today’s edition of the newsletter is free. Here’s a highlight about me, your friend The King Teen:
"Time Traveler's Blues" gives off Warren Zevon vibes. The rest of the songs are good old fashioned rockabilly-infused rock and roll with a great sense of humor . There's an anti-gentrification song that complains about how bars get more expensive after the rich people move in that goes "it's hard to get loaded since all these fuckers moved to town." It's even better given that King – who relocated from the Bay Area to Durham, North Carolina a few years ago – acknowledges that he's part of the problem.
It's great stuff. Everything you want from the guy down the street who understands that music is better than most things in this godforsaken world and lives his life in a way that bears that out.
Full disclosure: Craig and I are friendly, both being longtime sports and other things writers. He was on my radio show — I used to have a radio show — and we’ve even met in person and had lunch together not long ago. I think if he thought my record sucked he’d still find a way to say something nice about it, but I don’t think that’s what happened.
Thanks for reading and listening and coming on out.
Your friend,
The King Teen
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