Nashville Pussy

An Interview with Ruyter Suys (guitar) from Nashville Pussy

WWAD: I know you guys have been sequestered out at Willie Nelson’s studio in Pedernales recording your highly anticipated album for the last two weeks. What is the name of Willie’s studio and how did you guys end up recording out there?
NP: Willie’s place is called The Pedernales Cut and Putt. The studio is on an old resort and golf course with a filled in Olympic size pool in the back that is ass-full of tadpoles. We got the hookup with the studio through manger James in Toronto who coincidentally, is also Gordie “Grady” Johnson’s manager. Grady, who recorded our album, engineers out there. We had Daniel Rey who is best known for his work with the Ramones produce for us again. The studio itself was seen in the Kris Kristofferson/Willie Nelson movie Songwriter. It had a great vibe to it - tons of great shit has been recorded out there and the place made it real easy to work. It was real tranquil and the only noise being made was us! It felt like we had a lot to live up to being amongst such great musicians who had been their before us. There was even an old tape reel labeled Willie and Frank…the “Frank” was Sinatra. We recorded live straight to tape and pretty much nailed everything with only a few takes. We did nearly all the guitar solos and vocals live, so it’s got a great energy.

WWAD: Did Willie drop in on you?
NP: We dropped in on him.

WWAD: On the day you guys wrapped you did a photo shoot in Willie’s Western Town. Can you elaborate?
NP: It’s a fine old ghost town with a city hall, a saloon, a church, a jail; the works. The deal is, if anybody films a movie out there, one of the requirements is that they have to add another building to the ghost town…which goes by the name of Luck. Willie was in his world headquarters while we were shooting photos and we could see him tending bar for some buddies that had dropped in. Naturally we all wanted to check it out, so when we went to thank him for letting us shoot in Luck he asked “Y’all smoke?” Needless to say we polished off the tequila and all left with perma-grins. It was pretty magical and a really nice ending to a great recording experience. Even though we had to leave the town of Luck, I think a little rubbed off.

WWAD: Are you guys still on Spitfire Records?
NP: No, we’re on SPV…Motorhead’s label. We have them for Europe and North / South America and different labels for Japan and Australia.

WWAD: What’s the new album going to be called? Or can you disclose it yet?
NP: Well, a lot of options have been thrown around: Bald Headed Stranger, A Little Rape Goes a Long Way, Let’s Just Not Drink and Talk About It - Let’s Smoke Crack and Do It! The list goes on…they’re all keepers.

WWAD: If Nashville Pussy had a mission statement, what would it be?
NP: In lust we trust!

WWAD: Who are your biggest influences?
NP: Willie was a big influence on this album. Blaine went crazy on the lyrics. He wrote / worked on the record everyday sitting under a wall full of Willie’s albums. He said it kept him honest. But as usual we drew from all sources, everything from Abba to ZZTop!

WWAD: How would you describe this record?
NP: Blaine described it as Alice Cooper meets Lynyrd Skynyrd…if Alice Cooper had recorded a southern rock record.

WWAD: What do we have to look forward to from Nashville Pussy in the future?
NP: The record’s going to be fucking phenomenal, touring our asses off, breaking into acting, lending our names to barbecue sauces… you know, regular rock stuff. We’ll be touring for the next 6 months at least and have a live DVD coming out soon with a whole show from LA and a bunch of footage from all over the world. There’s even an interview Lemmy did with us on there. Then the new record of course and a whole lot more touring.

   This grand finale comes courtesy of Ruyter’s blog (http://www.nanshvillepussy.com)
   
  Okay - topper of all toppers…
  AFTER having FINISHED recording what is perhaps the greatest rock record of all time...
or at least our time,
   The Nashville 
Pussies saunter over to Willie Nelson's old timey ghost town named LUCK, Texas. 
Willie has his World Headquarters there which is basically an old timey two level building with a nice long wooden bar, poker tables, wood stove shoe shine seat and big screen TV and a stereo. Oh, and tons of trinkets from his travels. He has a wall that at a distance is merely an orange wall. Then, the closer you get…the more you realize it's made up of a serious lifetime's collection of Orange ZigZag Boxes.
   Next, we get permission to shoot some cool pictures with our buddy Judson who, takes a helluva picture and drives a fucking cherry Roadrunner. We shoot a buncha’ beautiful pictures as the sun is setting, moseying’ down the gravel road with the church behind us, hanging’ out in the Saloon and looking’ 'no good' around the bank and eventually posing in the Hoosegow... or jail. As we’re leaving, we see Mr. Willie Nelson himself arrive at his HQ, heading up Luck’s main street. We hear him cranking up some tunes before slinging drinks from behind the bar to some buddies on the patron side. Obviously we all wanted to get in there and hang with Willie - so Judson knocks on the door and says, “Thank you for letting us shoot on the premises” and Willie responds, “No problem, y'all smoke?” 
   The rest, my dears, is history! I'll leave you with this…there was no more tequila to be had and our cheeks were sore from smiling. He is a class act all the way and it felt a little bit like leaving Heaven as we had to say good bye. Sitting in the Luck Bar with Willie Nelson, enjoying his generous 'company' (etc.) and listening to him playing a recording of 'Sitting on top of the World' was very apt and true and as we left town, even though we were literally 'out of Luck'.
Although it sure feels like a lot rubbed off. 

Ciao’ amigos! 
Ruyter