Rainbow Lyrics and Mellow Mushrooms: Musical Monday: An interview with Jagger and Johnny

And now for an interview with Johnny and Jagger from Damaged Saints!

“Okay, so you two pretty much grew up together, am I understanding that correctly?”

Johnny: Three doors down from one another on Coggeshall Street.

Jagger: I don’t ever remember a time when we weren’t Jagger and Johnny.

“And yet, my understanding is that you’ve never played in a band together.”

Johnny: That’s not exactly true. We’ve never been part of the same professional band, but that’s only because you can only have one lead singer. Neither of us plays an instrument so the only choice we had was to look for separate bands to be the frontman for.

“But there have been duel singer bands.”

Jagger: Yeah and we tried the whole Love and Affection thing, but it didn’t work for the kind of music we make.

Johnny: I know we look enough alike to pass for siblings, but at the end of the day, we had to think about the sound we preferred and not just how well we sing in harmony. Don’t get me wrong, we love singing together and are not above pulling a surprise during one another’s sets like folks saw out at Rocktoberfest, but we want those to be special moments, when we’re coming together to have fun.

Jagger: Neither of us was willing to change the paths we were on at that time either. I was looking to stay close to home, Johnny was ready to see the world. Can’t say I blame him. It’s been amazing, seeing the places I’ve seen since we’ve been on tour.

“What’s been your favorite new experience?”

Jagger: The desert. Johnny and I were huge fans of The Doors growing up and when the movie came out we were about all things Morrison. We used to talk about heading out to the desert and following the path that he did. Looking for the snake and all that and seeing what we would see, separate from just following in the footsteps of his visions. Now that we’ve been there, all I can think about is heading back next year and spending more time exploring.

Johnny: I’m good with all of that as long as we don’t run into any sandworms or talking ghosts of dead armadillos.

Jagger: What the hell dude, we agreed never to speak on that again.

“Now that you’ve opened that can of worms, I think the folks out there deserve to hear more about where such an interesting visual comes from.”

Jaggar: You wouldn’t believe us if we told you.

“Try me.”

Johnny: Let me preface this by saying the entire conversation took place in an after hours joint, so there is still debate to this day as to whether it actually took place or was some kind shared delusion, ‘cause we never saw the dude that told us about that shit again, but man, it was a trippy story.

“Now you have no choice but to continue on with the rest of it.”

Johnny: True…as long as…

Jagger: Dude, they heard your disclaimer, damn. Look, Johnny and I were at this after hours place trying to pick up this cutie of a drink slinger who we’d been flirting with for weeks, when this smokin’ hot guitarist staggers up on the stage and gatecrashes the band’s set, puts their guitar player to shame and their singer too, slays to the point of whipping damn near everyone in the room into a frenzy, then just bows out and come weaving through the crowd to sprawl across our laps.

Johnny: Fucker is huge too. Thank the gods those damned seats were bolted to the floor, or we’d have cracked our skulls open tipping over and crashing into the bar behind us.

Jagger: Handsy fucker too.

“So then not a delusion.”

Johnny: Hmmmmm

Jagger: We’ve been known to get handsy with each other when we’re that riled up, especially when the music is as fuckin’ phenomenal as it was that night. Shit. Can I say fuck?

Johnny: Dude, if you can’t say fuck the first time do you think saying fuck the second time is gonna help?

“We’ll worry about that later, back to the real, not real, maybe make out session between the two of you, what more can you tell us about and these talking armadillos.

Johnny: Actually, it was the ghost of a talking armadillo which actually brings up a hell of a lot more questions, like if it could talk before it died, or if it can only talk after it was already dead.

Jagger: You’re forgetting whether it could always talk, and we just couldn’t understand it and if it only got a translator after it got its ticket punched.

Johnny: There is that too.

“Okay, so…maybe our listeners can chime in on that a little later.”

Johnny: Yeah, I’d be curious to know what they think.

Jagger: Me to. As for that other question though, about the real, not real, maybe make out sessions, that’s just a typical Saturday night between me and Johnny. We don’t worry about that shit and if it did or didn’t happen. The guy though, he just kinda started rambling, like, I thought those were lyrics at first and that he was so out of it he thought he was still up on the stage, but then he starts talking about being out in the desert, trying to draw this image of a guitar and cactus merging. He goes on and on about how rough and prickly the music would sound if it was filled with cactus wine and tequila and how he wanted to capture the essence of that in his drawings and just couldn’t find the perfect cactus to serve as the inspiration until this ghostly armadillo started talking to him right after he sidestepped its corpse. Guess it was run over by a jeep or something and still pissed off at the human in the pink Jeep that had hit it.

“O-kay.”

Johnny: So then he says that the armadillo let him to the perfect cactus all while sharing it’s tale of being stuck in the wheel well of this jeep for several miles before he bounced loose and all the things that whirled past and how sometimes it had seemed like it was all in slow motion or maybe it was just that life was on fast forward and the only way to slow down was to pause for death.

Jagger: It was seriously deep.

“Yes, it does sound like a rather profound interpretation.”

Johnny: Yeah, see and I got that ‘cause sometimes the days just melt into one big ball of sudden events that you never realized were so close until you’re watching the fireworks go off to usher in another year. It’s all such a blur sometimes.

Jagger: He said we should check it out and see for ourselves. That if you wandered long enough the sands would give up their secrets, even if all they hid was lizard droppings and old armadillo bones. Now that we’re on the road together, we figure we’ll see for ourselves what’s out there. Who knows, maybe we’ll find our own inspirations.

Johnny: That or we’ll learn just how many crevices sand can find a way to get into and how difficult it will be to get it out.

Jagger: And how much help we’ll need accomplishing that particular feat.

Johnny: Uh-huh, I know you. You’ll ask for help even if you don’t need it.

Jagger: Of course, that’s half the fun, and you’d do the same damn thing too.

Johnny: Hell yeah, I would.

“I can see why it’s so much fun for the two of you now that you’re on the road together. You’re bands have been on fire since Rocktoberfest and as I understand it, a little Johnny and Jagger project is underway.”

Jagger: Yes, though I wouldn’t say it’s just a Jagger and Johnny project, we’ve got the members of both bands involved with a few guest appearances here and there too. The main thing is that it will be an all-acoustic project and that we’ll be donating the proceeds of the project to help fund a new performing arts center in our city, one that includes music lessons for those wishing to take classes in drums, piano, bass or guitar.

Johnny: We want to make it so no kid who wants to learn is turned away. We’re planning on putting scholarship funding in place and seeing to it that the staff is paid so there is never a worry about finding volunteers and making sure they are volunteering for the right reasons.

Jagger: Growing up we had friends who shared piano lessons. Each pitched in five dollars a week, which was pretty much their lunch money at a dollar a day back then. Lessons were ten dollars a week, so one would go one week, then go over to the other one’s house and do the lesson with him and the next week they would switch. They each had one of those huge bulky keyboards you could find for fifteen bucks at the Salvation Amry and they helped each other learn until they could start self-studying. They made it work but not every kid is that lucky. For some growing up the music is the only friend they have.

“It sounds like a wonderful project, I hope to hear more about it in the future. Wouldn’t it be an amazing thing to some day sit here in this studio across from someone who is where the two of you are now in the industry who’d gotten their start there.”

Johnny: It would be a hell of thing to get to sit back and listen to.

Jagger: Amen.

“Thank you both for being here today. I look forward to hearing all about the desert adventures the two of you get up to.”

Jagger: If it turns out the way we hope it will, they’ll be no keeping it from anyone.”

For those who wanted to see more of Johnny and Draven, keep your eyes out for their upcoming story in 2024!