Otep Shamaya interview, fire tricks, third anniversary

Thank you. Thank you. We got some fire. We got some, oh yeah. We got all sorts of things going on. We got me and we've also got my beautiful co-host, Nicole Six. Hello. Nicole is drinking tonight, instead of her usual wine or fireball whiskey, a concoction of fresca and tequila. And what do you call that? A foam-a-rita. A foam-a-rita. A foam-a-rita. And we're so happy. I'm such a fan. I'm wearing the shirt. You know, the whole thing. Yeah. Yeah. And I've been a big fan. I know Nicole has for a long time. I've got a whole story where we're going to start to show off and I've got a lot of questions. Okay. I thought Oteb the band was done, but apparently they're coming back. They've got a new album coming out in a couple of weeks. Generation Doom. Generation Doom. Here's Oteb Shamaya. Hi. Yeah. We're back. And we also have a special guest tonight. Beside yourself, we have straight from the United Arab Emirates. You got it. Arabian MK, the master of fire. And he's wearing a suit and tie. You're not going to get those on fire tonight. Oh, no. I'm always wearing these. Different colors, though. Oh, okay. Yeah. This is a very Miami Beach sort of thing tonight. It's his spring look. It is your spring look. I don't know. This is my spring look. It's all blue. Yeah, it's all blue. Anyway, yes. A faded Oteb shirt. That's what I wear in spring. But before we get going, I do have to say, real quick, we got a few sponsors. I know you're a vegan. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I am. I love it. They're our sponsor. Oh, I love Doomy's. Oh, I was going to bring some Doomy's desserts, too. But then Nicole's got a whole dinner plan, and it's a whole thing. But yeah, Doomy's Home Cooking is great. It's vegan food. Have you been to Doomy's yet, Arabian MK? No. No, you should. It's the best vegan food. I'm not vegan, and I know I should be. You should be. But I love it. Every time I'm in LA, I try to hook that up. They're getting a lot better at making things taste good. And before, I think it was just making things healthy, and now they're actually focusing on making it taste good. Well, you know what it is? It's Phil, the cook. He actually is not vegan, but he's dated a lot of vegan women. And he's like, well, wait a second. He goes to these green sprouts sort of vegan restaurants that weren't that great. And then he's like, well, I'm going to try my new thing. Now they have a, for a limited time only, you better get down there, 1253 Vine Street on the corner of Fountain and Vine. They have a limited edition McRib. Oh. Wild supply. Wild supply. A vegan McRib. That'd be so much better than the real McRib. Yeah. And I don't mean to shill Imitation McDonald's, but have you had the Big Mac on the secret menu? No. It's really good. It's terrific. And now they have shrimp po' boys. Wow. No, I've been there. I've had the chicken sandwich, which is chicken. It's terrific. In quotes. But yeah, it's so good. Oh, yeah. And the nachos were voted one of the 10 best nachos in LA. Those nachos are very good too. Of all the nachos, the only one without meat. That was one of the places. With one of my ex-girlfriends, she used to live nearby there, so we used to go hang out there all the time. Right. It was good. And then also, we are sponsored by Audible.com. Go to darkmarkshow.com. Click on the Audible button right next to my smiling face, and you get a free audio book and a free 30-day trial at audible.com. And I just found out, if you don't like the book, you can email them, and they'll give you another book free of charge. That's amazing. That's a deal. That's a deal. If you cancel the next day or 30 days, you still get a free 30-day trial. That's amazing. That's amazing. That's amazing. That's amazing. That's amazing. You still keep that free book. And also, we're sponsored by adamandeve.com and adammail.com, the number one sex toy and the number one gay sex toy store on the net. Tomorrow, I'll be posting deals on both places. The difference between the two, I really figured out recently, is Adam Mail has more fireman costumes, but that's about it. That's about it. And also, go to gothcomedian.com. I'll be doing a show here in LA tomorrow night at the Oyster House, Saturday night at CIA, if you've ever been to CIA in North Hollywood. Mm-mm. Oh, you would love that place. Shrunken heads, they've got a dead clown, severed arms. That's where I met Arabian MK. It's the craziest place on earth. It's like a carnival freak show. Oh, very cool. And I'll be performing on the freak show. Houdini's going to be doing some stunts. And we've got a lot of comics. And I hate to say it, but next Friday, April 8th, I'll be performing at the Venetian, which is the same night that you're performing. So I'm going to try to do my set and jump down to the Hard Rock and catch your set. Oh, right on. Yeah. Yeah. So, and- Fantastic. In Vegas. Yeah. And go to Nicole6.com and pick up her short story collection, Some Fucked Up Shit. Please. And Anita, the intergalactic demon slayer. So that's- Just some fucked up shit. You can buy whatever you want, but some fucked up shit. Some fucked up shit. I've read it and it lives up to the title. So I've got a story for you. I'm sure you've heard this from many a person. All right. I like some stories. This is probably 10 years ago. My friend, Damiana Thorne, she's like, hey, what are you doing tonight? I'm like, I've got no plans. She's like, you heard of the band O-Tep? And I had heard of them. I had heard of you, but I don't think, I may have heard one song, maybe not. I'm not sure. I was like, sure. Well, they're playing, I don't know if you're playing the Whiskey Rookie Club. It was one of those. And so she's like, I got an extra ticket. You want to go? I'm like, sure. And so I go there and, you know, it's an LA show. So I sat through five bands until the headliner. And you came out and just, it blew me away. Thank you. It was, it was just, it's, it's, it's, it's very, it's a very interesting thing. And very freeing and very different. To hear a woman go. And, and really get a mosh pit going. And then she, then for the next probably three, four years, every time you were in town, we would go. It would be a whole thing. We would go every time you're in town and, you know, you would do two shows, two shows a year, usually at the Whiskey Key Club a lot. And so it was, it was a whole thing. We were going to go see O-Tep. And then I, I, I actually, I, you retired O-Tep after the last album, Hydra. Yeah. In 2013. Why are you back? Well, I retired from music. I do other things, but I retired from music because I was, I was, I was over it. I was just done, man. I was tired of executives telling me what I should write and what I should speak about. And who my, who, if I was too polarizing or not and what festivals I could get on. And I'm too heavy for these people. I'm not heavy enough for these people. And, you know, and looking at the lineups and, oh yeah, how many actually female front of bands are on any of these festivals? Yeah. Very few, especially any like vegan, lesbian, politically active, you know, loud mouths. How many of those are on those festivals? None. Right. So I just got it. I had, I'd gotten to a point now where I, at that point I was just, I had finished what I felt like I had came to do for music. And so we took some time off and, you know, you know, speaking of being an LA band, we were a local band here. I started the band on a whim. I didn't even know anything about music. I just wanted to do it. I saw really. I saw a terrible band play. And I thought if they could be that terrible, I too could be that terrible. Right. And so I started the band six months. We started doing shows just as a local band in LA, loading our gear in, loading our gear out. Right. And then we got signed after four shows to Capitol Records, just off our live show. Not even, no demo, nothing. Now, is this before Sharon Osbourne saw you or right after? That was right after. It was right after that had happened. Jack used to come and you'd see him there. It's like, holy crap, there's Jack Osbourne. You know, playing, you know, like at our shows and he'd start our little pits. I mean, there'd be like 10, 15, 20 people in there. Jack Osbourne would start the pits? Yeah. Oh, okay. And they'd be like, yo, that's Ozzy's kid out there doing that. And then we played at the Roxy and we opened for a band called Cold. I remember them. Yeah. And. Oddly enough, I saw them open for Evanescence. So they opened up for a female-friendly band. Yeah. And so after the show was over, I'm backstage and then they come and they say, hey, Sharon wants to talk to you. And I'm like, I don't know. I don't know a Sharon, you know. I just got through with the stage. I need some space. And they're like, Sharon Osbourne. And it's still, I didn't make the connection. I'm like, I don't know a Sharon Osbourne. Like Ozzy's wife. And I was like, oh, one second. And they're like, give me a towel. So I go out there and then she's just so, she's just wonderful. She's glorious. She's everything you ever thought about Sharon. Right. I mean, she's just wonderful. She's like, oh, darling, you're going to do Ozfest this year, darling. And I was like, I am? And like, this is our fifth show. So. So, and then shortly after that, we started getting all these, and we'd seen the guys showing up with their blackberries in the corners. And like, we'd noticed those weren't the normal characters at a hard rock show, you know. And so, but they, and they'd kind of thrown some of their cards our way. And I was just like, whatever. I'm not in this for the, you know, I'm not doing it for that. I'm doing it for the art. And then, so, you know, that happened for us. We went from playing like 50 shows. I mean, in front of 50 people for five shows to playing Ozfest in front of 200, you know, 25,000 people. Our first show on Ozfest was main support for Mudvayne back when they were like. Right, right, right. Gigantic. Right after, you know, Dig was out. Right, right. Death Looms, all that. Right. And the first show coming from 50 people to thousands of people. Yeah. My guitar player at the time threw up right before we went on stage. Oh, really? Okay. Yeah, he got real sick. And I was like, yo, man, just close your eyes. You don't know how many people are in front of you. Close your eyes. Just play the songs. Right. And so, after that all happened for us, we went, you know, it was a pretty, you know, the bow had been strong. We, and. We let go and the arrow flew and we just went with it. And then I got to that point where I felt like I, you know, Hydra came and I was, I again had gotten to this, just, I don't know, I was done with the music industry itself. You know, I didn't, no one, the executives in the music industry didn't invent iTunes. Right. Right. They can't, there's no foresight. There's no profits in music. Right. So, the file sharing, that stuff was just ridiculous. It's like, I'm making my art. You guys are stealing my art. It's very difficult. So, it's like. It just didn't feel right. The music industry's dead. It's hard to make money. Well, it's just not even about money. It's just like, there's no respect. Yeah. There's no respect from the art, from the, there wasn't respect from a lot of the fans. Right. There wasn't a lot of respect from the industry. And I, but, you know, that was just the way I was feeling at the time. Well, when I'm saying money, I'm not saying like you're going to, you know, survive. Make your rent. Just even, yeah, make, I mean, there's a lot of bands that don't. They have two, three jobs, you know. Right. And that's the reason why we've gone through a lot of different musicians is because it's really hard to make a living on the road. Right, right. So, you know, I just, and I was just resentful and I was angry and I just felt like I didn't want to fake it, you know. So I was like, I just need some time off. I'm done. I'm going to do my other thing. I do voiceover work and stuff. Right, right. We can talk about that. Yeah. So I, yeah. So I. I did a lot of research on you. Nicole will tell you that when I have beautiful women on the show, I do a lot of research. Thank you. Well, so I took some, I took about two years off and we, we stayed busy. I mean, we toured. We toured just as an unsigned band. So it felt like it did in the beginning, you know, with the way we were. And we were just playing for the fun of it. And we were reconnecting with our fans and reconnecting with, I guess, the core of creativity, what caused it. And pretty soon, you know, songs started to come back. The spirit of music started to inhabit me again. I felt like I had reconnected that spiritual intercourse that I enjoy so much. And I sort of demand from a live show. I need it. That's the only reason why I can do it. Is that spiritual intercourse between me and the fans, between me and the band, between all of us in this room where there's this infinite moment that will only last a second. Right. Speaking of spiritual intercourse with your fans, we do have a fan on the line. Oh. So I didn't mean to interrupt. And that's why I knew you were going to be a great guest because you're not shy about talking. Caller, you're on the air. Can you hear me? Yes. Who is this? Um, so my question is, how is this album different from the rest, Oteb? Um, how is Generation Doom different than the rest of my albums? Yes. Well, I think that it's, it's, it's quite different from the last album because the last album was a concept album. It was based on a short story I'd written about a serial killer named Hydra. And so we built the record, uh, the, the, uh, uh, a record around that idea. Um, and so when I took, took time off and went, um, uh, on my way back to sort of this, this, this self-discovery, I went back to my journals, back to my diaries, back to my, my, my personal poetry. And, um, so I think this record is a much more personal album. It's my sort of insights. And, and I think for a while after, you know, House of Secrets was our first concept record. Seva Straw came directly from my diaries and personal journals. And my personal poetry. House of Secrets was a concept album that was also from that, but it also, I pulled from other sources. The Ascension went back to personal diaries and journals. And then I think a few records after that, I really felt a need to, uh, bring awareness to peoples, to make them politically active, to get them culturally active, to see what was happening to our country. And, uh, I think Generation Doom is much more of a personal record for me. It goes back to the, to my diaries, my journals. And my personal observations and experiences. Well, you definitely do an amazing job at getting people's minds politically open to what is going on in the world. Thank you. And I actually heard rumors that after Hydra, that was going to be your last album. Yeah, that's what we were just talking about. I needed to get away from the industry of music so that I could reconnect to the spirit of music. And we're going to do that. So, yeah. 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i've played ozfest so i know what it's like to play in front of a lot of people they've never played in front of that many people before so they were really disappointed so look guys let's just do our thing let's just go out there let's do it and um i told the guitar player i was like listen man make some noise in your guitar you know just get some so people know that there's something's about to happen on this stage right and so uh he did that and he started playing like the opening riffs uh just kind of riffing around on battle ready and then uh it's our time so then you know we play our big intro and it's o fortuna and we come out and you know yeah there's like 100 people there and then we start playing and i can see from from our vantage point on the local stage you can see second stage and what you see is suddenly this giant sort of dust cloud emerges as people are racing from second stage over to our stage and i don't know who was playing second stage i apologize immensely to whatever band it was we did not mean to steal your crowd but we did because after the first song was over we went from like 100 people to like 15 000 people were in front of us video got around and that's when people started calling us again uh those some of those videos went viral and that's when the label started coming and i still was like no thanks no thanks no thanks and then the label that we're on courted me for about seven months until i could really kind of feel comfortable that i had a good partnership with them and uh and so when you know we made a record and i love it generation doom and that's that well thank you for calling anonymous i i appreciate you uh appreciate your questions say your name yeah save your name who are we talking to well you're talking to sunny hill europe grand junction colorado oh right oh i'm from colorado i love colorado we're both we both used to live in westminster colorado that's right are you touring in colorado this uh this time around i i think so i i you know i think we're playing denver okay we're doing 52 years shows in two months wow so i don't have them all memorized right right and they don't ask me right they don't say hey where do you want to play they just give me a list oh that's what we're doing you know i know i i've played plenty of montana games how did that happen yeah so uh so we've done that um i was i was gonna ask guys a little creepy i i was i was gonna ask uh yeah you gotta see my montana crowds but i was gonna ask uh how when i when i uh um when i saw you and granted this is going back um i was gonna ask what happened to evil jay man you know you should ask him that he he fell in love he moved on he wanted a job i guess i don't know because every time i saw you he was there and like the band always rotated like there's always new members every time i would see you you know uh yeah i mean i think i've had a different band every for every record right you know it's it's difficult to to tour the way we tour 52 shows in two months i mean you know we we'll do that and then we'll come home for two weeks and then we'll go back out again and i'm i'm very listen this is um this is this is not a lifestyle this is my life so i'm very i'm very this i take this as important as the air i breathe so there's no partying on my buses there's no there's no um you know there's no group there's no like fucking groupies or anything like that i mean we don't do that we're there for art and we're there no i understand that no i understand that's it so but what i'm saying is is that there's a lot of musicians who aren't in it for that reason art for art's sake oh yeah they're in it for the reputation the drugs the girls sure and that's not me that's not why i started the band so there's plenty other bands out there to do it you know they do that and also like a lot of that's like stress relief so without those outlets it's you got to be there for the right reason my guitar player and i who's been with me now for i think five years are aristotle he's a big big buff guy oh yeah i mean he's been with me for a long time we've written basically two records together now and um he's he's one of my best friends i mean pretty much my brother and you know our stress relief is we stay in touch with shape we work out every day right we carry with us about 550 pounds of free weights and uh after sound check we pull them out we do a workout every single day we do our then we do our show at night then we do a workout before we go to bed and that's how we release stress but man i mean if you need stress relief after after performing with me then you know you should become like a a test pilot or something because you know there's there's we leave everything on stage well that was that leaves me another question i was going to ask you is uh uh well you know in reading a lot about you uh you get the new metal tag a lot and you with the umlauts you're okay with that yeah man i'm new metal for life we started that's listen the way i see it is labels are for soup cans and boner pills that's all they're for you can you can you can you can you said boner pills bahamut perked up i'm sorry well straight straight people problems but my my my uh i don't think i think muhammad has that problem or i'm sorry not lesbian problems so um but but you know the thing is like they called us rap core because i rapped a lot on a lot of my stuff right so i don't care look at let them call me what they call me new metal changed music as much as grunge changed music i mean if you look back and see like what nirvana did to the hair metal scene right they brought in this this different style of music and pretty much annihilated it corn did something very similar corn came in and annihilated the scene and brought with it this great fusion of music right that was that yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah you know, rap, funk, you know, hip hop. I'm sorry, not hip hop. I already said hip hop, but like metal, rock, grunge, everything. It was all included. And it was also emotionally driven. It was cathartic. I mean, they should be right up there as far as like where they planted their flag. So if people want to call us new metal, call us new metal. I don't care. We've outlasted plenty of fads. No, I understand. This is funny because I was thinking, and like you say, I had to dust off a couple of old temp records. I didn't remember you rapping so much, but I guess you did. But to me, I mean. Still every record. To my ears, it was more of a Maggie Estep, Saul Williams thing than maybe a Lil Wayne sort of rap. Well, I mean, yeah, but I mean, I don't really think, I don't really call what Lil Wayne does rapping. Okay. I agree. Yeah. I mean, right? I mean, to me, Lil Wayne, I mean, that's, there was this moment in hip hop, if you're a student of hip hop. And I'm not saying I can't, I can listen to a Lil Wayne song in a club and be like, oh, all right, that's cool. Sure. But I'm not saying, I'm not going to validate him as like one of the best lyricists ever, because that to me is what drew me to hip hop. Right. Was the lyrics. Right. You listen to the beat of that song. Yeah. You don't listen to the lyrics. That's right. That's the style. See, and that's where it happened. If you go back and you look at the history of hip hop, you had like East Coast, West Coast. I'm from the West Coast. I'm a native. So I was always kind of a pariah because I liked East Coast hip hop better, you know, because it was lyrically driven. Yeah, I know. I know. It was trouble. Hey, that's, how do you think I learned how to fight? But, you know, it was lyrically driven and it was about poor people and I grew up very poor. So I found a common, you know, sort of thing with them. And, but then you listen to like Tupac and everybody loves Tupac. Yes, I love what Tupac stood for, but if you go back and listen, it's more stylistic than it is lyrically driven, truly. And so once I think all of that sort of died down, once that East West went away, more stylistically stuff became popular. Right. So it was more about beats and it was more about rhythms and what people are actually saying anymore. Right. There's few now, I mean, Kendrick Lamar is fantastic, is a great, great lyricist. I am a big fan of his, but, you know, I always kind of looked in that world and even like, if you want to veer out of hip hop, I mean, Tom Waits is somebody that I always looked up to as well. And the beat poets and those guys, spoken word poets, those guys, I mean, I did deaf poetry. I was a spoken word poet before I started a band. I was going to ask you about that. And when I went to one of your shows, I think the same show where I got the shirt, I bought, well, your spoken word, your CD. And, you know, being a comedian, I love going, just listening to people, just them in a microphone and what they get to do to the audience. And even with my show, not every show, because a lot of shows, I only have 15, 20 minutes and I'm trying to get all laughs. But if you see my whole one man show or you see me do a headliner thing, I try to get more emotions out of just making people laugh. Although that, making people laugh is number one. And I, there's so many emotions that you can get just you and a microphone. But I did see you on Deaf Poetry Jam and I actually posted on Facebook. I did it twice. You did it twice. They only aired once. Okay. But I did it twice. What happened with the one that didn't air? The first one I did was politically driven. Yeah. So I don't think they, and this was right during, right around the time we were having issues with, there was a lot of protests against the Iraq war against George W. Bush. And I, I did, I recited this poem called Hail Caesar. And it basically, I don't know. It was about the Iraq war, but it was also about Christianity and how Christianity is kind of, think that we're better than, or that they're better than every other religion, even though the thing, Christianity has committed some of the greatest crimes against humanity ever. Right. Missions, you know, I mean, what the Native American Holocaust in this country, we just outgrown it a little bit now. Even unless, I mean, unless you're an evangelical and you're sitting in front of some, you know, a minister right now who just, who I think a couple months ago was calling for the execution of gay people. And five presidential candidates spoke at his, at his, at his church. But I think that that was maybe the reason why they chose not to. How did that go with the crowd? They, they didn't know. They, they applauded it at the end. There was a moment, I think, of quiet sort of, of contemplation. Right. Because the one I saw, it was my own enemy or I'm, I'm getting. Dedicated to my enemy. Dedicated to my enemy. And at the end, they seemed a little shell-shocked at that one too. Oh, they were. I mean, when I, the thing that I was a little disappointed is, and the funny thing is, is I'm really good friends with Russell Simmons. Right. I mean, he's one of my best, dearest friends. Now, back then, he was just my idol because look, here's a guy that, that brought poetry to the world through HBO. I mean, it was a really marvelous thing that he, he had done and still does. I mean, he still is, is a wonderful human being. But I came, I remember being backstage and I thought, oh man, here's, you know, I've been kind of pushed aside by the rock scene because I was like the only woman to play, Oz Fest. They, people had this assumption that because I didn't party or that I didn't, that I was politically minded, that I was, I don't know, different than everybody. So they kind of kept me at a distance and I thought, oh, I'm going to be around poets. Oh man, this is my wheelhouse. Right. And I got there and they were like, they did a prayer circle and they didn't invite me in. They didn't even talk to me. And then one guy was like, so where have you performed? What circuit have you performed? I'm like, I've never done this before. It was my first time. Except for last year, I did this and then this year. And he goes, so you've never done it? You just do it. This is, you come from nowhere and you go to the Super Bowl of poetry. Just like Oz Fest. Yeah. What were you thinking? I know. And I'm like, well, they invited me. It's not like I walked in here or something. But so they were kind of disrespectful a little bit in that way. But I remember walking out and I'm standing next to Mos Def who was again, one of my favorite lyricists of all times. Yeah, he seemed pretty impressed and the rest of the crowd. But in the beginning, it wasn't. Like they, I was, you stand like right backstage and they're watching a little monitor and, and he's standing, he won't even acknowledge I'm standing there like, and I'm just like, oh my God, it's Mos Def. I just want to like shake your hand. So then I go out and, and when I come out, I take a stand and I just stand there for a second and then there's this quiet hush, right? And it's quiet as a church in there. And then there's a, a couple little giggles in the corner and there's like a couple dudes and whatever. And then I, I hit off with the first bit which is, you have seven more seconds to decipher your life before my tongue becomes a blade and your brain gets sliced. I warned you before I was destined for war. I was praying for Armageddon on the day I was born. Another little giggles, right? And then I go into the other part. And this is a true story. This is based on the man who got my mother pregnant didn't want me to, my mom to be pregnant. So he decided to try to help her not be pregnant anymore. So it goes into the part about it was a night of lies. It was the devil in his eyes. And then I go to the part where I hit myself in the stomach. Now the mic is here and you're broadcast over the whole speakers in the theater. So when I, when I go to the hit myself, it's like boom, boom, boom, boom. And you just hear it. Boom, boom, boom. There's this audible gasp in the room. They go, and that's when I knew I had him. Right. Just in that moment. And then after it was over, everybody was like, oh my God. And then Mustaf comes out literally tears in his eyes. I'd never seen that before. And he was just, and I was like gone. You could tell, you could tell he was shaking. Yeah. He was like, he grabbed my hand. He kept on talking to me. And I was like, I'm done. I was like, I gotta go. I gotta go. I gotta get off stage, you know, because I just had this moment. I didn't want to blow it. And plus I needed to recollect myself. And then he comes out and he goes, that was so real. Right. And I go backstage and when I come back, all the poets applaud. Right. So I'd earned their respect and I appreciated that very much. And that was, that was one of the, to this day, it's one of my most, I think, defining moments of my life. And that's, well, by the way, your stomach is a lot tighter than mine, but that's a very similar story to Housefest because you came out there and, you know, you were banned. I'm sure the other bands were like, you haven't paid your dues. And then, you won them over. I did. Well, it's because you always have something to say. And that's what makes really good art is when you have something to say. Thank you. By the way, I didn't mean to interrupt, but that's a moment of intelligence, a moment of intelligence by Nicole Six. We try to have one on every show. Go ahead. I'm sorry. No, it's true. I, it's, it's rare that I don't have something to say. We've noticed. Yeah. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. I agree. He's enjoying it though. Look at him. Oh, we're all enjoying it. I mean, no, this is great. Cause I was going to ask that since we're, as you can see, I don't, cause people ask me, they're like, is there a topic? Is this that the other thing? I just go with the conversation. So now, since we're in a sort of a hip hoppy vein, I'll tell you what, one of the most unusual old tech shows I went to was when Jada Pinkett Smith's band, Wicked Wisdom opened up for you. Yeah. And I didn't know she had a band. She did. Yeah. And actually they had contacted me. They contacted my manager. Will Smith's manager contacted my manager and said, he's a fan. And I was like, what? The fresh Prince of Bel-Air is a fan of mine? What? And he said, yeah, he's a fan and his wife, Jada. And I was like, you know, melting. Cause I just love Jada, right? Right. And he's like, she was starting a band and she wants to talk to you about a few things. A hard rock metal band. She wants to start, well, at first it was going to be a punk band. Right. More like, just, just more punk, more a little thrashier, but she still wanted, she kept losing her voice. So she was going to ask, she wanted to know if I could give her any tips on how to scream and any warmups and cooldowns and how to maintain your voice over a certain amount of time. And so I said, absolutely. And by the way, is there anything you could share with our audience on that? Yeah, you have to, I mean, this is a very delicate instrument. You're talking two tiny little membranes inside your, inside your throat. It's like, it's, you should take care of it like you would a 300, 300 year old violin. I mean, seriously. Lemons always worked for me. A lot of opera singers, say that pineapple juice, but for me, it's always lemons because lemons are there. They help kill bacteria. They, they also, they, they keep everything nice and tight. So do you, it's going to sound horrible, but do you suck on lemons before and after the show? No, I don't suck lemons. I know that. That's a joke, but no, I'm, I'm, I'm, I put them, I actually put them in water. This is the thing where I cut them and I squeeze the juice into water. And I take, and then a little bag of tea, throw coat tea, take that on stage. And I will sip that in between each, every song usually. Okay. Yeah. Because if people, if people have never seen the OPEP, I said OPEP, OPEP show. I, I, yeah. Oh, that's it. I've had it. I, I, I've never heard an OPEP song. Jesus Christ. To come on the show. Hold on, hold on. If you see an OPEP, I'm so, I'm so, I got lost. I like OPEP. It's cool. Okay. Okay. Then that's another question I had. Forget it. Damn. But no, I got lost in your eyes for a second and the whole lemon thing. but no, but so you're, you're sipping tea on stage. I do sip tea. Yeah. I was going to say, if people have seen an OPEP show and I've seen many of them, you, I mean, you definitely, that voice gets a workout. Yeah, man. Yeah. Yeah. Can we go back? Let's go back to Jada Pinkett Smith. Oh, yeah. So she asked me and I was like, sure. Yeah, I'll do that. And so then they said, well, they want to come see you play. Okay, great. Sure. No problem. So we play at the, at the glass house in Pomona. Right. And I'm watching from my bus and there's like five SUVs. Like, it looks like the president's coming in the town. Like five SUVs, all the security. And they march them upstairs and they put them in the VIP room. And I'm like, this is weird, right? Like, so we do our show and I try not to think about like, they're watching me from the balcony. And after the show's over, they invite me upstairs to meet them. I thought they would just leave, but they didn't. They waited. I walk up the stairs as I'm walking. I'm like, and nervous as I can be because, you know, it's Jada and Will, Jada and Will. It's a big deal to me. And they're both like applauding. I'm like, great job, good show. And I was just like, thanks for coming. I don't know what to say. And so I stand there and there's Jada here and Will's here. And there's just like, cake and ice cream, cake and ice cream. Cause Will is like the smoothest, most like, just coolest cat on the planet. Literally he's like, yo, I had my, I've been having writer's block and now I know exactly what I want to do in the studio. I'm going there tomorrow. And Jada's just like, you're amazing. There's so much fire on stage. Now I want to know what I want to do with the band. And so I was like, awesome. Yeah. So she ended up playing, I think, three, two or three shows with us. Right. Cause I saw you guys at the Key Club and we were like looking at the VIP. I was like, oh, Will Smith's coming. And Tom Cruise is up there. Was he up there? Yeah. I didn't see him on the VIP. Cause they're friends. No, he, he's staying and put his name on anything. So he, he got in there and it was neat cause you know, Tom Cruise is watching my show. Like, Mission Impossible. I like that. Check my Thetan level, brother. And it was interesting cause when she first came out, it was, the people were like, what? But the band, I mean, you could tell the band was, was a serious band. I found out subsequently that I guess the rhythm section used to play for the Fishbone. I mean, these were serious players. That's right. And, and, and it wasn't a joke. It wasn't, it wasn't, I mean, she was really committed to it. And I think it's brave of her too. I mean, cause she could have gone and done R&B or whatever people would have thought, like Jada would have done cause she'd done a lot of urban stuff, you know, as far as movies and things up to that point. Right. She, she did what she, what spoke to her. And I thought that was very, very brave of her. Yeah. And I'm, I'm still like, I, I still, that's, you know, to me, one of the most, a heroic moment for women in music was to see, you know, someone like that take that much of a challenge and that much of a risk to do music that she likes. Right. You know. And by the way, Arabian MK, as I said, moved here from United Arab Emirates. He plays with Fire and he'll be playing with Fire later. And he, we haven't seen you since August. Have you been getting a lot of shows? What's going on in Hollywood? I'm not doing a lot of official shows, but I'm doing a lot of photography meetups. A lot of photographers meet up in this one location they decide on, Instagram or Facebook. Right. We're talking about like, from 20 photographers up to 300 photographers. Are they photographing you playing with Fire or you're photographing? They're, they're, they're pretty much gathering up, you know, as a hobby kind of thing. And everyone invite their friends from Fire performance to models to actual entertainers. Interesting. We, we got some, you know, free runners. Right. We have people flipping and stuff. We have sexy models to not sexy models. All right, models. Yeah, like, you know, hopeful. And how's, how's the culture changed from the United Arab Emirates to LA? I mean, I remember, when I met you and when you were on the show, you'd been here like two weeks. Yeah, like, that's the thing. Everyone thinks that, oh my God, you definitely felt the change. And I'm like, guys, the only change I felt is the fuel prices and the traffic. That's it. Like, the United Arab Emirates is really, really multicultural. Like, people don't believe that I've been here for less than a year. Like, oh, how can you speak English so good? I'm like, I don't know if I speak English very good, but this is the English I speak back home. And I have a lot of foreigner friends out there. And, yeah, so, not much of a change. It's just cooler here, as in weather-wise. Nicole, are you ready for the worst segue in the world? Sure, bring it on. Now, you did an EP called Jihad. Now, did you get any? Jesus. I did. I told you it's the worst segue in the world. Did you get any flag for that? and when did that come out? I did, 2001. It wasn't after September 11th or just before? It was before. Okay. And, to me, I, I went back to, you know, the meaning of Jihad at the time, what my understanding was, it was, it's an inner struggle. It's, it's, it's to battle the demons within you, to destroy the darkness within you. I didn't get any flag from American distributors, but European I did. They wouldn't let us use the name. Really? And I was, I was really upset about it because I was like, it was America that got attacked. It wasn't, it wasn't Europe, so why should you care? You know, I'm an American band. Right. America got attacked, but they, so they made us change it to self-titled. So, because they asked me to choose a name and I wouldn't. Right. Like it's Jihad, whatever you want to do. right. Yeah, self-titled doesn't really, doesn't really do it, but it does have the same impact. No, and I, again, for me, that's what, that's what, it was about sort of fighting your own demons and your own struggles and trying to come up on top of that because that's really all we do every day is try to destroy that, which is destroying us. And usually that exists right in there, in the head. Right. And, and, and you've always been a political band and, and I was listening to the, I was listening to the tracks and I, I actually, I, I, I thought I had emailed some to Jeremy, but I didn't. But the one that, that's getting stuck in my head is the Lords of War. Lords of War. Lords of War. That just, I can't get that out of my head. Yeah. It's a great song. Thank you. Yeah. That song, I wrote, I started writing that song after all the videos started surfacing of all the, those cops killing unarmed black children in the streets. And, you know, and I caught a lot, a little bit of flack from it when I first started, reporting it on, just on Facebook and stuff because a lot of the fans, even, even if you go back to the George Zimmerman case where people were saying, oh, this kid was a thug and this and this and this. And I'm like, what are the fuck you talking about? Like, first of all, I have thug tattooed on my finger. That's a thug right there. Right here. So, I grew up in poor neighborhoods and, and, you know, we have the right to walk around on our streets and without having some jackass follow you. I know if I was walking around by myself, I had just come from a 7-Eleven and someone's following me in their car. Right. I would get nervous and if he got out of his car and came at me, yes, I would be aggressive towards him because I don't know who you are. Right. You've been following me in your car and now you're gonna come over to me, come up to me like that. So, and then even on Ausfest, I was attacked by two security guards and two sheriff's, sheriff's deputies and I didn't know who they were. They tackled me from behind. I had a universal pass. I had the whole thing. They tackled you? Oh, they tackled me. It was crazy. I was watching, I was standing in the security area watching Rob Zombie play and the security guard told me I couldn't stand there and I said, no, I can't. I just played and you saw me and what had happened is they were being really rough to everybody and so they would, when kids would crowd surf, they were grabbing them and just body slamming them on this white gravel, this big white pieces of gravel and so I stopped my show and I said, hey, security, just, you know, you're here because these people paid tickets. You're, you know, be nice. Right. Be nice. They're just having fun. Mm-hmm. So I think they took that as a little offensive so when I came down to watch Rob Zombie because I'm a big Rob Zombie fan, I was going to watch Rob Zombie play, security guard tapped me on the shoulder and he's like, you can't stand there and I was like, no, man, Big Val, who's the security for all of Ozzfest, said I could. Right. And so I showed him my pass, universal pass. They call it a God pass. I can go anywhere and anywhere and not a lot of bands even had it on second stage. Sharon took care of me. So I showed it to him and he said, I don't care who you are. I don't care what you are. You can't stand here. So he shoved me. Now when he shoved me, that made me a little mad, right? Right. So I turned to him and I was like, don't do that. Don't put your hands on me. So I had my tour manager with me and so he went to shove me again and I did like some sweet Steven Seagal, Akito move and I just missed him and he just went, he like fell that way. Oh, I didn't see that. So yeah, so I just moved and he went that way and that embarrassed him. So then I went to my tour manager and my tour manager's name was Chuck at the time and I was like, Chuck, could you just could you tell this, you know, this motherfucker and as soon as I said that and I turned my back this way, he tackled me like he was a football player and I went face first into the gravel and I heard my nose and this part of my face just go. And this all started because you were bitching the security out on stage, you think? I didn't bitch him out. I just said, hey, be nice to the crowd. Be nice to the crowd because they were body slamming kids. You were confronting them on, yeah. I mean, I'm watching, how can you sit there? I'm not saying that they're justified. I'm not saying that they're justified to do any of that. I'm not saying that that's bullshit. Yeah. But that's, I'm just trying to figure out that's what they're meant to do. No, no, no. I don't know if that's what it was. I think these guys were just jackasses. I think they were just bravado bullshit, you know, and him wanted to tell me where I could go and so I went down and then I did a push up and he was still trying to wrestle with me and so someone else came now and I couldn't see because I'm looking down and I'm bleeding and I had long hair then and it was, my hair's in my face and then somebody pulls my shirt up over my head. What the? Yeah, so I'm sad, then somebody slides in and they take this arm out and so as soon as they take that arm out, I go back down and now they've got their hand on the back of my head. What's your tour manager doing while this is happening? He's nothing. What an asshole. What is so funny is this guy told me that he was like this kickboxer and all this stuff and he was just stood there and he went against the wall actually because what had happened and what I didn't know and the relevance of this whole story is what I didn't know is there was four people on me now. Not one of them said they were a cop. Two of them were. One of them had me with my, were pressing my face into the ground and my arm was underneath me like this so I couldn't do anything so I reached this hand, my left hand, in between the guy's legs and he was wearing I guess cop shorts so I pinched his thigh, like his inner thigh as hard as I fucking could. Right. Now, I'm thinking to myself now and eventually they got, they dislocated this shoulder, they got me cuffed, they carried me by my hair and my cuffs and my hands. I remember telling the, my feet, I remember telling the guy because he was pulling my hair, I was like dude, I was like, I was like, my girlfriend pulls my hair harder than that, you know. Fuck off. You know, what are you doing? Like nothing. It took four of you guys to get me down, you know. And so finally, but I was thinking about it after the Trayvon Martin case is that, and all these children who were being. Where was this? This was in Somerset, Wisconsin. Okay. And so they took me, they arrested me, they put me in a cop car, they drove me out into a cornfield and I thought, great. Oh great, I'm gonna get, I'm gonna get whacked. So you know, and I have, my family in law enforcement so I was telling them that, and I'm like, I'm like this and I'm rattling off all these people because you know, I've got pretty, pretty, some people that did their time and they're, I don't want to talk too much about it but they're higher ups in there. So I was giving them that spiel. I'm like, you know. Yeah, you don't want to die. So finally, yeah, great. And finally, the promoters come, they pay like a $2,000 check to the police officers and they drive me back. Oh man. So fucked up. I gotta tell them a story about Tijuana but. So the thing, the point of all this, the reason why I wrote Lords of War is because I was thinking like when I grabbed that guy and he screamed, the bitch has got me, the bitch has got me and he started hitting me with their blackjacks. If I was anybody else, if I was, if I was a person of color, especially a young man of color, they could have said, he's reaching for my gun. They could have shot me. You're probably dead. And killed me. And so, you know, we still see these problems every day and these aren't isolated incidents. We can't allow race to divide us about this. Right. These, these are, these are, there are good cops. I know that. I have, like I said, family, they, they were great cops. They were great law enforcement but there are bad cops and the system rewards bad, the bad cops over the good cops. Right. That is real. You're right about that and they should be held accountable. Sure. So, you know, I wrote Lords of War because of that and also because we're, we've been in two wars for the past 15, 16 years now. Right. Looks like we're branching off into other wars now. The whole, the first line of the song, more wars on foreign shores, more names for us to mourn. So I was thinking about the military industrial complex and how they've got their, their teeth, you know, embedded in, in our country and, and it makes sense to go to war and it makes sense to go to war against people that you can easily make into enemies. Right. You know, it's really simple. Donald Trump's doing a great job with that right now. You know, he's, he says, he goes, he goes, Mexicans, they're all rapists and this and nonsense and then he'll say, oh, Muslims, you gotta ban Muslims. Right. Doesn't make any sense. He does, he does, his partners in the Emirates, he's got partners in Saudi Arabia. Right. He's a racist guy. I mean, well, he's just, he's just. Why do you think he's resonating? He's a con man. Well, why do I, because he's giving, he's giving a voice to racism. Right. To, you know, no one likes to think they're racist. I got a black friend, you know, or no one likes to think they're homophobic. Yeah, my, my, my coworker's gay. Right. No problem. Well, but no one wants to believe that, but there are a lot of people who are racist. There are a lot of people who are homophobic and you got a guy that goes up there and tyrants always do. They find a scapegoat. They blame it on those people. Listen, we've had eight years of great prosperity under Barack Obama and you can't find one person that can tell, not many people that could tell you what one good thing he's done because the Republican Party and the conservative party in this country have done such a great job of, of making him into, of being obstructionist and making it look like nothing's gotten done and they're still like saying, well, he's going to come in there and he's going to take your guns. He hasn't done it. Right. It's been, you know, seven years and he hasn't done it. He's not going to do it. He's actually been one of the most lenient presidents on gun, gun control and gun violence ever, literally. And it's, the only, the only reason I'm cutting this short is because we're, we're almost, we're, the show's almost winding down. We've almost been to an hour. I know, and trust me, I could expand this to three hours talking politics with you, but are you feeling the burn or are you feeling hell? I'm feeling anybody that puts climate change is at the top of their list. I mean, right now, you know, we have three states that are, that are signing anti-gay legislation into law and those, that affects me, that affects people in my family, it affects my fans, it affects, it affects people in this world who aren't rock stars, who don't have fans to support them. And in an election year, you have Georgia, Mississippi, and North Carolina trying to sign any, any gay bills where they could actually put a sign on the door that says, no gay people allowed, which means I can't play in your city. But, climate change is real. Climate change is real. Man has an impact on the environment. Anybody that doesn't believe it, come to Los Angeles, look at the sky. That, who made that giant smog, or that giant nicotine haze above our, that's, that's in between our blue sky. Well, I did see, I did see Nicole smoking outside the rainbow. It might have been her. But I don't know. Oh, it was you. No, but it's, it's, it's a real thing. And now that they're saying, I'm kidding. That we're having, no, it's, it's a real thing, man. I mean, to me, that's the first, that has to be the first, the first and only issue because if we don't have a planet to live on, then nothing else matters. Right. And, and the one thing I was going to ask you because I, did you, did you actually have like a coming out or were you always out? Because I, first off, according to my mother, I was always out. I never knew and I don't care. I just, it's like, it's like, you know, but it's like, I don't know. I think when you cut your hair, it seems like a lot of people on the internet started freaking out. I, I came out well before that. But, did you have like a Diana Ross I'm coming out moment or, I just, people saw me, it happened back in Osfest 2002. I think people saw me, people were like paparazzi pictures of me and my girlfriend at the time. Okay. That was a mistake. The girl, not the, that was bad news. But, and people just started asking. I was like, I didn't know it was a big deal. And then, but I thought you meant like to my mother. Yeah, I did come out to my mother and then she's like, because I was like, mom, I got something to tell you. It's really important. And she's like, okay, what? And I'm like, I'm gay. She goes, what? That's it? That's what you're going to tell me? I had cancer. That's ridiculous. Of course you are. We've been waiting for you to say it. Like, we know it. But no, I, the biggest thing about my hair, which drives me insane is when people tell me that to like, I really like, grow your hair back out. Fuck off, man. That's not our fucking business. Just look at, don't look at old pictures of me. There's plenty of them on the internet. Use the Google. No one should ever tell you what the fuck you're doing. I like your hair too. I told, no, not you. I'm just saying like, people will say that to me even now. Like somebody who's probably said it in, like on Facebook or something. I've seen, it has nothing to do with that. Right? I've seen some, I've seen some really vicious things that people have said about you. Not, I mean, not, it's, it's really weird. I don't, and I don't know why they're so threatened whether you're a woman, you're a lesbian, or you're good. I don't know. It's all those things. But it's like, you know. I'm the one they love to hate. Like, like, you know, like, I mean, I don't like Megadeth, but I don't sit there and wish they were boarded. I mean, I wouldn't say that. I just like, I don't like their music. That's my opinion. And if somebody doesn't like your music, that's, that's their opinion too. But I've heard, I've seen some really vicious things about you. They come out. But you know what? And that's the thing. I rather, I would rather it be a very passionate response to me, whether pro or con. Lukewarm is never good. Right. So I think if I'm doing, if I'm doing it right, then there's going to be people that hate it and people that love it. And you know, I've called out journalists in the past for, for, for, for like, there was this one group of journalists who wrote a really, really bad review of my record, but they wrote it really poorly. And I'm a writer. So I critiqued their critique. Oh man, you never saw so many people with, I said, I got, do I need to send you a box of tissues? I mean, how God, like you can't stand being criticized, but you're a critic. Right. But on the internet. Yeah. I mean, the internet gives a lot of people courage, but not many people will come say it to my face. I'm sure. You know, no. And on the flip side, the tribe more than makes up for it. You have some of the most passionate fans I've ever seen. That is, you know what? If I have anything that I can ever rely on, is it's the, that's the one thing everyone says to me, no matter who, if they love me or hate me, if they like my music or dislike my music, there's nothing they can, they always say the same thing that the tribe, my tribe, the OTEP fans are the most passionate people on the planet. And that is real. And you've inspired real creativity. I was talking to a couple of people. I know somebody started writing because they, because of, because of you, other people have inspired to be, to become, they've done fashion, music, everything. And that's honestly, that's been my, if, if there's one goal in, in doing any of this, it is to inspire people to be artists or, or to find their creative side. Truly. That's to have something to say and sure to be brave enough to say it. Yeah. And also, you know, if they have, I mean, a lot of people go through emotional times and for me, that's, you know, it's okay to be sad. It's okay to be angry about things, but do something positive with it. Put it, put it, put it into, put it into art. Your music is very cathartic in all sorts of ways. And on the new record now is listening to the new single in cold blood. It's a, it's a lot poppier than, than what I'm used to from Otep. It's what? It's a little poppier. Poppy. A little poppier. Okay. A little mainstream. A little mainstream. I know. Am I wrong? It's a good thing I didn't, a good thing you guys checked me for weapons before I came in here. It's a good song, but it's not. I don't, I mean, we weren't going for that. If that's, if that was, Hey, you know what? Maybe it's catchy. Maybe it's going to be like the next big thing. Okay. Let me rephrase that. It's very catchy. I'll give you the, Hey man, listen, I honestly, to me, the, the idea is to reach as many people as we possibly can. But that song was written. Honestly, I thought that was going to be, I wrote that song out of a personal experience I had. It was, I'd gone through a devastating breakup, which for me was really strange because I, I'm quite the Lothario. So I, I normally don't fall in love. Right. He's looking at me. Cause that's, that's, he knows me. I don't, I don't fall in love. I just don't. It takes a very long time. Yeah. And, and, and I just, I, I admire people. I respect them very much, but I just don't fall in love. And I did, I fell in love and I felt loved and I'd never had that either to have both of those things. And so, and one fail swoop, once the relationship over, I lost my best friend. I lost my confidant, my lover, my companion. You went from being a weed to a me to, yeah. And there was this like, I'd never dealt with anything like that before. So again, this was during the time when I was, when I was in my hiatus. Right. So I was really going back to my origins with writing poetry and writing these things out because I felt such resentment, such sadness and such confusion. It's like a, and when I say you go from being a weed to a me, it's a death. It's a part of you died. Absolutely. That is a separation that takes to move on. That's what it felt like. It really did. And it felt like it did. It felt like there was a whole piece of me that was missing and I was incomplete and I'd never felt like that before. So the first thing that I did was I wrote the line, something's wrong with me for thinking something's right with you. And then from that came a melody. And then I put that melody with, I sat down with Aristotle, my guitar player, and we started writing the, the, that song. And a lot of times people will go, well, you're O-Tep, so you got to scream or, oh, you're O-Tep, but you have to be angry. And it's like, but I wasn't, when I wrote this, I was really sad. No, no. And I get that from the song. It's a powerful song, but it took me a couple of listens to, to kind of, well, you can go listen to zero if you want to listen. I listen to that too. And Lords of War. I mean, there's some, there's some traditional O-Tep stuff, but also, you know, I didn't want to, that was another reason why it took me so long to come back to the music game was because this expectation game of who I'm supposed to be. And that's what it is. It's very honest. You want it to be honest. I did. I did. And I didn't, I wanted to be honest and I wanted to be my authentic self. And I didn't want anybody to tell me anything. In fact, today I actually got into kind of a little bit of a thing with the label because with all the stuff that's going on with the gays and lesbians in this country, in this country, uh, where you can still be fired for being openly gay in some States. Um, and, and Saudi Arabia put out this thing where they were going to, um, uh, murdered young teens who, who, uh, came out on the internet. Uh, so execute teenagers. Don't point at me when you say Saudi Arabia. I'm just speaking. I keep, I keep, I just think, I feel like I'm not paying attention to this side of the table. Right. You cannot pay attention to me during that part. Saudi Arabia is one country. Yeah. It's like smaller than Texas. I understand. I get it. That's disgraceful. A lot of things. So for me, I wrote this song called equal rights, equal lefts. And this, this, that's again, this is a, this album is very personal. It comes directly out of my experience. And, and goes the first song, right? What's that? Goes the first song on the record. Zero is the first. Oh, zero. Did I say go? I'm sorry. Zero is the first song on the record, right? Yeah. So the record begins with you shouting. I don't give a fuck. That's right. Okay. But no, I, I don't, I don't, I don't give a fuck. We've, we've, we've established that on this show. But, but no, and, and, and you also do a cover of, of Royals. I do. By Lord. Yeah, I sure did. Yeah. And I haven't heard that. That's awesome. It's really good. Yeah. Yeah. So the thing was, yes, well, they wanted me to do a cover for the record as most labels are want to do. And they gave me a list of like standards that would be a good OTEP cover. And I just, I was listening to some Hendrix one day and, and I was like, wow, oh, that's a Bob Dylan song he's covering. It was the live stuff he was doing. Right. And I was just thought about how a lot of times back then, a lot of bands did contemporary covers. They would cover another favorite artist. So I'm a, I'm a Lord fan. I think she's an excellent lyricist. Right. I also think that she's probably one of those people that, that doesn't get enough credit for what she did. I mean, writing Royals as a, as a 15 year old kid, when she could be writing about bling and this and who she's in love with and all that, she wrote about, you know, her reality. So I was that kid. I was that, I was that poor kid who didn't have anything. And I didn't see any like, you know, rock and roll dudes driving around when they're fancy cars and girls and bikinis. I wasn't in my neighborhoods, you know? So that's, it was an important thing for us to do. And we, we actually listened to a lot of bands that, that, that did covers that were sort of well out of their, their, their range or whatever, you know, their, their genre. And the one that made us, that, that clicked for us was we listened to Johnny Cash's cover of Nine Inch Nails. Yeah. And that's when we go, okay, we know how to do it now. Right. And it's, it's a really powerful song. I think it's a really, really powerful song. Well, what I'm getting at is the record has, has something for everybody. There's, there's, there's all sorts of, there's all sorts of different types of moods and different types of things. The song Equal Rights, Equal Lefts is, it's a rap song. Okay. Straight up. It's a, it's a trap beat. It's a rap song. And, with a sort of industrial metal chorus. That's great. And so, that song was from a guy. I was on vacation with one of my ex-girlfriends. We were in Hawaii. He, like pinpointed us out of all the couples that were there. He came to us. And we had just finished surfing. She's a great surfer. I'm not that great, but she was really good. And we were like, I was taking off my, my wetsuit. And she came over and she said, good job, babe. And she pecked me and walked away to take off her stuff. And the guy comes up and he taps me on the shoulder. Big tap. And he says, happy father's day. Wow. Right. So I turn around and there's this big dude. And, he's, he's, he's tall. He's got his like hair combed back and a bouffant, you know, and he's, he's shirtless. He's kind of got man boobs and he's kind of got that old man physique. You know what I mean? Like he used to, he used to work out, but he works out like every now and then he'll pick up a weight or something. But he's been, he like forgot leg day for 25 years. You know? So picking on women makes him feel better. Right. So he, so he comes over to me and he says, you know, and now he's like, Oh, Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you were a man. It's happy father's day. I thought you were a man. I was like, it's not a problem. And I'm, I'm quick with these kinds of asses. So I was like, I was like, Oh, it's not a problem, dude. You know, I, I was, I saw your boobs and I thought that you were a woman. I was going to tell you, this isn't a topless beach. You should put a top on. So I was like, Oh, you got some mouth on you. And I was like, yeah, I do. Ask her. Right. And so he picks up, he balls his fist up and he goes, Oh, so you must believe in equal rights. So I ball my left fist up and I go, yeah. And I believe in equal lefts. So he, at that point he starts to back off. And unfortunately, according to my lawyers, I can't really talk about the incident much further, but I will tell you this. The first line of the song, once it gets into the verses, he called me a dyke. I called him an ambulance. And that, that song, you know, I wrote that song and I, I fought with the label about it because I really, I was like, look, homophobia is large in hip hop. I'm going back to the, I'm going to that wheelhouse. Right. Live in that world. Little Wayne, we were talking about earlier. Little Wayne can, can say no homo. He could say some, somebody's on some faggot shit and get away with it. Just fine. Let me let Eminem, Drake, Kanye says something about a blonde dyke, but let me, I can't, and I would never, but it's, why is it okay for them to be able to use those kinds of homophobic slurs, but not okay for anybody to use racial slurs? Of course, no slur is okay. Right. So I wanted to go to that world and bring that song to the, to that world. Right. And to maybe somebody that wouldn't ever listen to an O-Tep song because, oh, because I'm the girl that goes grr, right? So, but they'll listen to this song because it's not, it's not threatening in that way, but it's still a very, very powerful song. It's, it's, if you, if you left an analyst, it's a little threatening. It's very, well, and I, I always do, I talked to this journalist and she's like, this is the most controversial song you've ever written. And I was like, really? She's like, because the third verse is, is a little sexual. And she said, if a man had written it, I wouldn't, I wouldn't think this at all. But because you're a woman that likes women, I'm, who likes women that I, I think, I think that, I think that this is controversial and it took my breath away. And I was like, well, I, I think that just says something about the journalist. Exactly. But also, I think, I think that that's, but the point is, I think that that's why gays and lesbians, and, and, and the second verse of the song is about coming out and loving yourself. I think we have to make it a norm. We have to make it normal so that it won't take someone's breath away when someone says something that's a little risque. And, and, and it's getting there. There is progress, but yeah, there's so much more to go. But you know, listen, it's, it's not, it's still there. You know, when the last year, the KKK put out a death warrant for any gay people on site. And that's, and that's in this country. We have three states right now that are trying to sign anti-gay legislation. This is the federal governmental, you know, all you Alex Jones fucking weirdos. It is more than that. This is state government. It's anyone who looks a little different. Anybody who could be. Well, that's where it starts. And that's why I think, you know, people have to understand that. It's like, they go to the easiest people first. And then once those things are established and they go on to the other people that they know, you know what? And it comes down to people they think can't defend themselves. That's right. That's right. And that's why this song is so important because that's what it is. The chorus is equal rights, equal lefts, fight for your right to exist. Yeah. You know, and by the way, we've, we've, we've passed the hour mark a long time ago. When you start talking, it's a, it's one of those things, but I was going to ask Muhammad to get his stuff. Cause we want to get some fire. Cause it is the third anniversary and we want to celebrate. But while you're getting your stuff, we do have a caller. Oh, another caller. Lovely. A caller. You're on the air. Hi Mark. It's Rachel. Hi Rachel. This is my friend, Rachel. I met in New Orleans. Now she lives in Baltimore. Oh, hi Rachel. Hi. Hi. So, um, just a quick question. Um, I have not written in probably three years and it's something that really, really bothers me. And I'm just wondering how, what's the best thing for you for when you're having writer's block and you just can't. Um, well, I like to, whenever I find that those rivers have run dry, I, I tend to read a lot. Um, I go back to my favorite authors. They're my favorite books. And I, I tend to read a lot. And then if that still hasn't sort of fostered the, the idea of, uh, or fostered that, that momentum, I'll just, I'll just write. And I know it's going to be garbage, but just to get the, the, um, the pipes flowing. And, uh, that's fine too. I think, you know, just to, just to get everything going again. And then I'll just, if that won't work, I'll just pick a topic, just one topic and try to write about that. And then my final resort is, I choose random letters from the alphabet and I try to make a title from it. And then from that title, I try to write a story based on that. And it's just tricks to, to try to get your, your gears flowing again, you know? I like it. Okay. Sometimes it's just hard because, you know, I, I move around a lot, you know, as Marcus said, and then like, I work all the time. Sometimes it's just hard to like find the inspiration, you know? And, and then once the dry spot hits, it's just, that could have been taken so many ways. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Well, and it's true, right? I mean, it's, it is hard, but you know, I think that that's, I think write about how hard it is to write instead of just talking about it. I mean, that's one of the things that I find that I, I find myself doing is almost a condemnation on the muses. Where did you go? Why are you, why have you forsaken me? And sometimes I'll find some of the best stuff is in the things that I'm, I'm writing about not being able to write. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I get this when I was in, when I was in college, it was a lot easier because I was surrounded by academics, like a setting where I actually, you know, had to read on a daily basis and it wasn't just Facebook memes, you know? Right. And now that I'm actually working, I'm more of an, I'm more in a visual setting cause I work in an actual tattoo studio here. Um, and so it's like a whole different, it's a whole different setting. And so sometimes trying to like actually find the words for it kind of just lose, lose me, especially when, um, you know, I'm not able to read every day. I find that when I'm on, when I'm on tour as well, um, you know, because we're, we're playing, we're, I'm doing interviews, I'm, I'm doing all these things. So what I, I'll try to read like a paragraph before I go to bed. And then that sort of pollinates my mind. Um, as I enter into dreamland and sometimes I'll find myself, it'll maybe, it'll only be two sentences, but it's there. It's, it's, it's that it's, it's starting to blossom again. So, um, I think, listen, any writing is good writing, even if it's terrible writing, but as long as you're getting your soul together and, and, and putting it to paper, I think that's important. So write about not being able to write and, you know, read a paragraph of something. If I may, uh, Mark Twain always does it for me. Ray Bradbury always does it for me. Harlan Ellison. If you guys don't know who Harlan Ellison is for shame on you, but Harlan Ellison, is one of his, and I am lucky enough now to call him a friend. I was a fan well before that. Um, but he is one, he is, he's the Mark Twain of our generation. Um, and, and I would, you know, read anything and everything that he's ever written. Um, but if you want to start with something really cool, if you need like social observations, he wrote a book back in the sixties called the glass teat, where it's this combination on, on television. Yes. And, uh, I mean, everyone from Louis CK to Louis Black say that, that, that, that inspired them to get into comedy. And so, um, but also, um, I can't, uh, there's one, I'm, there's this great, I can't remember the name of the, of the, of the story right now, cause I'm on the spot, but it ends with, uh, the death of the character. And, um, the, the story ends night came to the lonely land night, but not darkness. And I just love that line. God, I love that line. And I, and I've got a suggestion for Rachel. Uh, I have for a story or even, uh, going off everybody that was there. The best time I ever had in New Orleans, Rachel threw a party and the party was the most diverse, uh, collection of people you've ever seen, including fire performers. They had contortionists. They had, uh, just every race, every gender, every sexuality. And it was, and this, this is after Rachel was telling me, I don't really have any friends. And these were all the coolest people I ever met in New Orleans. That's cool. That was a fun fucking night. That's a short, that's a short story right there. Right. That. Yeah. You remember how drunk I got? And started singing Whitney Houston. I remember that. Yeah. You got to write that story. Who's the one, who's the, the, the guys that were singing? Uh, uh, it was fantasy. Uh, Stanley Williamson. He is a friend of mine who plays ukulele. Yeah. This guy played ukulele and sang Whitney Houston. It was amazing. It was awesome. That was, that was a good night. Well, Rachel, I go ahead. Uh, one more thing. I was just going to say, you have to come to Baltimore and visit me. I work for Halo Jankowski now. Oh, the guy who's almost an ink master or something. I don't know. We're playing New Orleans. Well, she's, she's living in Baltimore now. Oh, I see. Yeah. I think we're playing Baltimore. I think we're playing Baltimore. Check the tour dates. Uh, there's 52, 52 shows in two months. You said 52 shows in two months. All right. So, uh, you're probably hitting the area somewhere around there. So, so Rachel, I hate to cut you off, but, uh, we're like already in overtime and, uh, we got some fire. And I, and I know, you know about fireplace. So we've got one of the best here in the Arabian. Okay. Talented. You can tell. Cause he's got some of the people from down in New Orleans. Absolutely. No, no. Trust me. Yeah. I'm going to, yeah. Add each other on Facebook. I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to message, message you, but call me. Anyway, Rachel, thanks for calling. And if there's one more thing you want to say to all the time, please, please do. You're the best. Thank you. Good luck with the writing. I want to read that story. Thank you so much. Okay. There you go. Okay. So it's, it's my third anniversary. And first of all, I want to thank everybody, including Jeremy here at We Play Studios, Gary Garver, who got me a podcast in the first place, which was three years ago. My old, my, my former co-host Hell's Bell, who took a chance and on being my co-host, it was great. Josie Kat, who was my co-host for over two years. And of course, Nicole. Thank you. Who has been my co-host for over a year. And it was actually probably the anniversary last time. I didn't thank you then. It's okay. Thank you so much. And, but, and this show has had a lot of fire play. It has. Cause I like fire. Yes. I think we've had more. Last time, last time we had a show, Nicole's legs were set on fire, but we've got Arabian MK. Now, Jeremy, should he do it here or do it? Oh, Jeremy's coming over. Jeremy's all, I got this. Right. So I think he's going to film you over there. All right. This is going to be, you're going to love this. I wanted to. Oh, okay. So you got the camera on him. You're going to love this. He might, if you, if you're into it, he might set your hand on fire if you'd like. Sure. Okay. All right. So, so show, explain what you're doing and then show her on your hand first. On my hand first. All right. So it's, it's pretty simple. It's a, it's a bit of science more than, uh, more than fire before it was fire. Uh, you didn't mention that. I'm a, I have a bachelor's in environmental science. I'm getting my master's in marine biology. Uh, I'm a science teacher before I was a fire performer. So it's a simple science trick, uh, where it's pretty much a water heat capacity where the bubbles have a lot of water in them. Uh, before it has the, like, uh, sorry. All right. Let's start from the top. All right. So we have, we have, uh, butane bubbles here that contain the butane gas, which is flammable. Uh, it, it has a very low flash point. It burns up quick, burns up high. The bubble, when it bursts, uh, you know, the bubbles made of water. So when it bursts, it releases the water on your hand, protecting your hand. And the gas just burns upwards, keeping your hand safe. As long, as long as it goes, it goes for like two to three seconds. It depends on how condensed the bubbles are on your hand. And, uh, it just goes on. So it doesn't burn. It feels warm. Uh, the worst it can get, you would get like a, uh, what do you call it? A water, a water, a water burn. No, like it's, it's like you dropped hot water on your hand. Oh, okay. Yeah. So it, it, this trick can never go worse than a second, like first degree burn. That's the maximum you can get, you know, like a sunburn. So for you to have it, we need to get your hand wet. First of all, wait, so I'm going to refrain from the jokes now. There's fire involved. So, uh, see your hands wet. Now we get some bubbles here. We scoop them out and we put them on your phone. All right. Okay. So if, if it felt, if it, if it feels extra hot, all you do is just close your hands. So you can, you know, squish all the bubbles out and the fire is out or flick them down. Don't flick them. Not up, not at you. This is very flammable. This is, this is, this is very flammable. They're very flammable. All right. And three, two, one. There we go. Wow. I love it. Wow. That was very cool. We can try it again. Yeah. Since your hands like already. Yeah. Oh, I just wiped it off. Maybe. No, it's fine. It's fine. That's what I know. And, and Nicole's getting the shots here. So he's putting the soap suds with the butane on her hand, on Otep's hand. Yep. Now he's laying Otep's hand on fire. That is so metal right there. Look, look at that. And it's been part of the deal. So if we have time for another trick. Science is fun. Yeah. Let's do one more trick. Yeah, absolutely. It's another science trick, but I, I need your cup right now. If you're done with it. Are you done with it? Are you done with your, your fresca tequila combination? All right. So we're going to have some 70% alcohol here. Okay. As a pro bail. And we're going to use some money. We're going to use your money, not mine. Yeah, my money. No problem. I understand. $20 bill. $20 bill. Why not? Yeah. I'm not super rich, but I'm fine. I'm doing all right. All right. So we dip the water. We dip the money into alcohol. $20 bill is dipped in the alcohol. Yes. All right. So what we have here is a 70% alcohol, right? I use this in some of my shows where I, I freak some people out. You're going to, you're burning a $20 bill right now. I'm burning a $20 bill right now. I'm burning a $20 bill right now. I'm burning a $20 bill right now. I'm burning a $20 bill and now it's still safe, right? Very good. Wow. Yeah. You can smell actually some of my hand, hair burning. I smell money. Yeah. How does that work now? All right. So this is a 70% alcohol solution. The 30% is water. Oh. What happens, the bill here absorbs the 30% of water. Right. And the 70% burns faster than the water actually evaporates, which keeps the water. It keeps the bill safe. So as I told you, I just use this one of some of these tricks. He is burning money. I'm burning money right there. I use some of this trick. Whoops. I see it. I see the next O-Tip album cover right here. You with a $20 bill burning or a hundred dollar bill. Yeah. There we go. Burns again. By the way, there you go. Fantastic. And yeah, because. That's magic. It's science. It's science. Science magic. As a fire performer, I never owned a torch. So I had to be creative, use my own hands, use my own hands. And I was like, I'm going to burn this. Use my own hands, use bills, use people's bald heads. Yes. He sets bald heads on fire and hats on fire. I've seen that. So yeah, that's what I did as a fire performer. I never used an actual torch. We should shoot. You should light me on fire and have my friend Natalia shoot it. I'll be hot. Oh, we got this. Now we're talking. That would be cool, man. I should get your information. So we might be shooting a music video. Yeah. That would be cool. I'm going to get your information. I'm going to get your information. Yeah. Well, it's such a safe, fun way to do it. I just really like it. Yeah. As I mentioned, it's a science trick that I actually used in my science entertainment shows because that's what I did before fire entertainment. This is the Mr. Wizard of the 21st century right here. This is the new Bill Nye the Science Guy. Exactly. Arabian MK. I hope so. I'm hoping for it. He's one of my big idols. Is that right? Yeah. I got some good pictures. Him and Tyson and Neil deGrasse. Well, you're great on the air, so I don't see why not. Yeah. Well, I'm working on it. People don't take you seriously with a bachelor's, so you got to have a master's, PhDs and what's on. And I'm working my way through it. So I'm going to be a real guy. And here's a lot of alcohol if anyone wants to get drunk quick. Nicole. No, that's okay. Anyway, so yeah, you'll drink tequila with fresca, but not alcohol with water. So Arabian MK, thanks. And I know this was last minute. No, no problem. I know this was last minute. And this was sort of Nicole's hint and suggestion that I took. And I'm so glad you came. I'm so glad you came. You came back. And I mean, I know Oteb's a little verbose at times, and I know we didn't get to everything with you. I love the fire. I was super excited. And I know you're a big Oteb fan. Yeah. And so do you have any shows coming up? On the 9th of April, I should be performing in San Diego for a beer festival. Okay. Beer and fire. That's a good mix. Pretty much. You know, I got to be careful. Yeah. And how do people get a hold of you? Yeah. I was doing a little bit of a how do people? Are you on Facebook? You're MK the Best on Instagram. MK the Best on Instagram, Arabian MK on Facebook, and pretty much. Yeah. Just look, just as Google Arabian MK. Exactly. Arabian MK Fire. Arabian MK. Arabian MK. Because now I'm doing more of a science entertainment than just fire. I'm doing huge bubble shows. I'm doing science entertainment, just like I showed you about fire and other stuff. No, I can see where this is going. And as I said, when I first met you and you were here for two weeks, when I first met you on the show, you're going places. And I can see you. I hope so. I can see in five or 10 years, I can see you on TV as the dude. Five or 10 years, that's a lot of time. I need to work it faster than this. Well, you know, talk to all the time. She seems to slide into things real quick. And one more question I forgot to ask because we did have a Twitter question. Why did you name the album Generation Doom? Oh, that's a good question. I think we are on the cusp of, of a very important strategy here. We are either going to be the generation that is doomed or we're going to be the generation that dooms those who are trying to doom us. But, you know, we seem to have it in, at the moment we've, we've had people who've never known a life without war. They've, you know, they've risen, they've been, they've grown up in that. They've seen their best friends go away. Their fathers go away. I've seen fans come and go, who've come back injured, who have died. You know, who've come to many shows. In fact, one soldier who had joined the Marine Corps because he said we inspired him to, to serve his country. He, he went and, and, and he did, he was in Iraq and then went and signed up again back to go to Afghanistan. The next time I'd seen him, and this was a very, he was a very smart guy, very well put together, good looking guy, young dude. And now he's injured and, and crippled forever. And I don't know if crippled is a terrible word to use, but he is, he's been, he was injured in a 9D. And now he, he, when I saw him, he, and in the past, he'd given me his medals that he'd won. And every time I come, came to the show, he'd get in the, in the meet and greet line, he'd give me his medals. And so I, I wear them on my jackets, on my hat. And I remember seeing him and seeing him like that. And it just, the reality of that, this isn't some video game. This isn't, you know, for me, this is, I feel like we are, if, if change is gonna come, it has to come from the people. And it's not gonna come from politicians. It's not gonna come from, you know, some Jack, some orange bloated jackass from New York City, who's, you know, trying to incite division. We need to, to unify. And, and, and really decide, do we wanna move forward? Or are we gonna fall so far backwards, we won't get back up? Right. I agree with that. And I think the change starts tackling the situation 15th when Generation Doom comes out. And I didn't even realize that. The label picked this thing, but everybody's talking about that. It's tax day. Right. So take your tax refund, go to iTunes, and download Generation Doom. I've heard three songs, and they're all good, and they're all completely different. They are. And the whole record is like that. Again, it's something for everybody. And, you know, there's a lot of really heavy songs material-wise. And, I mean, besides Zero, Generation Doom, the title track, might be one of the heaviest songs you've ever written. And it's just savage. I mean, it's just savage. Well, like I say, in the middle of Lords of War, when you're screaming, and the music cuts out, and it goes back in. Yeah. It's been stuck in my head all week. Thank you. And In Cold Blood is a great song. Thank you. But it's a little poppy. No, but listen. Hey, man, you know what? Go back and listen to Perfectly Flawed. Right. Go back and listen to We Dream Like Lions, You're a Woman Now, Invisible. I've done these songs before. And now that you give me the back story, it takes me to a time when I love somebody and I was loved back. And I've written about that, too. That loss is terrible. But anybody that says, oh, she's doing this differently now, I've done it. I did it with Perfectly Flawed. I did it with Invisible. I did it with You're a Woman Now. We Dream Like Lions. And now with this song. And, in fact, we have another song called On the Shore on this record that is another one that was motivated by a really traumatic experience, but I wanted to do something beautiful with it. I could see In Cold Blood. I could see In Cold Blood becoming a big hit. And I hope it is. I honestly thought it was just going to be a throwaway track. Not a throwaway track, but I just thought it would be a good track people would listen to. I didn't know it was going to be like radio grabbed it, fans grabbed it, everybody's grabbing it. And I was like, oh, okay. And everybody, not only pick up the new record, join the tribe. Indeed. Follow you on OTEP Official on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. And this has been about an hour and a half. It's gone by like 10 minutes. Yeah. Anything else you want to say, OTEP? No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. Thank you for that trick. That was awesome. I've never had my hand set on fire before. There we go. We set OTEP's hand on fire. That was amazing. We do it like that at the Dark Mart show. I have an honor. And, of course, go to Nicole6.com and pick up some fucked up shit. And I still want to read the Neonatic Demon Slayer, but apparently Nicole doesn't want anybody else to read it. But, yes. Yeah, whatever. You can read it if you want. I'm not going to stop you. I just also don't advertise it. And go to gothcomedian.com. And I want to say thanks for the last three years. And we've had some amazing moments. and hopefully we'll be doing this for a long time to come. And have a wonderfully creepy week and month and year. We'll see you soon. Be truthful. Be truthful. Oh, that was super fun. Yeah, that was good. We'll see you soon.