(The unedited interview with Garrett Dutton of G. Love & Special Sauce)
On the balcony in suite 11500 on a boat with 311 & friends headed to Harvest Caye, Belize and Roatan, Honduras from Miami, Florida on March 9, 2023 311 Day at Sea, Caribbean Cruise 7 Questions by Terri Sapp G. Love Photos by Terri Sapp 311 Cruise 2023 Photos by Will Byington
© Concert Sutra 2023
Terri (hereafter referred to as “T”): (with the sounds of the Ocean in the background) As an artist, how is the cruise for you all?
Garrett (hereafter referred to as “G”): It’s good! It’s good because you get to connect with other artists. I’m going to be on tour with Tropidelic all Summer, so it’s good to hear them for the first time. They sound dope.
T: They are so good.
G: But yeah. It’s also really good to reconnect with the 311 guys, too, because, you know, we toured with them a lot over the years.
T: I know you have. I’ve been there!
G: Oh yeah!? Where are you from?
T: Georgia. Atlanta mostly.
G: Oh, Yeah. We have been there a few times!
T: And my photographer and I were at Red Rocks in 2013. But the Will Call gave us issues, so we missed your set and were severely pissed. Leah Yetter, our photographer, loves you, too, so we were just devastated.
G: Oh, no!
T: Yeah, I was ready to hurt someone at the Box Office that day, but we got it worked out by the time Cypress Hill came on.
G: (laughs) Oh, no! That was a 311 show at Red Rocks?
T: Yeah. You, Cypress Hill and 311.
G: Wow. That was a few years back!
T: Ten years ago, now!
G: Awe, shit, yeah! That tour was cool. But, yeah, this cruise is great. That’s the main thing…we get to connect with other musicians and stuff and, like, collaborations…
T: Tropidelic. That will be sweet! I first found them at 311 Day 2020 after all my friends had told me to watch for them.
(We then went on to look at some photos from Concert Sutra in 2005 at the old Buckhead Roxy and a 2003 handbill from the 311, G. Love, and Something Corporate Atlanta show. Garrett was nice enough to sign some things for me, and I in turn signed one of my roller derby trading cards for him and gave him some copies of the photos for his collection. I love that he said he remembered the photos that we showed him in the Green Room so many years back.)
T: Tell us something about yourself that isn’t on your public/social media/Wikipedia/online representation.
G: That’s kind of a tough question. (laughs) I don’t know, for me, like family is everything right now in my life. Kelsey, my wife, and I have three little boys, Louis, Garrett Cass, and June. That is where all of the focus is at home. On the road, the focus is to keep grindin’ out here to provide for my family.
T: Is there some kind of weird animal on your property that they may be surprised to hear about?
G: Who?
T: Anyone! Your fans! Hopefully, someone reading this interview when it comes out… (both laugh)
G: Oh! We had some goats and chickens during the COVID years, and when I hit the road, we had to rehome all of our livestock, because it was all just too much for Kelsey to deal with alone. But yeah! It’s all about the family. We’re in a great place, so that has led to some great music. A lot more of my writing now is more about…if you go through my catalog there are a lot of ups and downs. You’re basically telling the story of your life with all your records, so there’s a lot of break up songs and relationship songs over the years. I am happy to have finally found the right person in my life. That changed everything, including my songwriting. One of the songs I really like is called “She’s The Rock,” which I wrote for Kelsey on -not the latest record- my previous record The Juice, which is the Grammy nominated record. That’s a song I really love to play. It’s funny because now I don’t feel the same about singing those break up songs. I’d rather sing about the love I have for her and our family and just straight up just like everything else in the world. No more breakup songs! That’s been a good change!
T: For sure, when your life starts to balance it really makes a difference!
G: Yeah, it’s great!
T: What is your recommendation for people going to Philly that they should check out that is one of those best kept secrets? (he laughs) Spill it!
G: Well, I don’t live in Philly right now, but it is a great city. It’s always an underdog city between places like New York, DC, and Boston as far as big (North) East Coast cities. It’s a great place and because it’s more affordable, there’s still a really vibrant creative scene there with artists, musicians, architects, and stuff like that. I don’t know, it’s cool to walk around South Street…it is a great walkable city, so it’s fun to walk all around the downtown area and then of course you have to get a cheesesteak or a hoagie. OR you could get some cannolis at Isgro Pastries in South Philly. Jim’s Steaks is where I grew up. That’s where I was raised…that was our neighborhood hoagie and cheesesteak place. It’s pretty famous, but it had a fire two years ago, so I am not sure if they are still open or not.
T: (Later GTS and found out that their plans are to reopen in 2023.)
G: But yeah. Philly’s just a great city. It’s really popping off right now!
T: I went to the Electric Factory one time for The Urge, Deftones, and 311.
G: Oh yeah! That’s a great place to see a show.
T: We have been seeing your shows since the 1990’s. How are things different now from your perspective regarding music production, distribution, touring, and all that fun stuff? I figure with all the new technology it has to be different now.
G: It’s been crazy. The music business…cause my career…in 2024 it’s the 30th anniversary of our debut record that dropped in, I think it was May 5th, 1994. So, we have seen a lot of change. When we got signed in ’93 – from about ’93 to about 2001- the record labels were really crushing it and it was a different game. Prior to the internet, if you wanted to get signed you had to really, you know, you had to have a demo and find some way to connect to get your music into the record label’s hands. It was very hard, because you couldn’t just send an unsolicited demo or album to the label. You had to have it sent by an official channel like a music attorney or something like that. If you’re coming up, how do you even know how to get a music lawyer or manager? It was really hard to navigate, but we figured it out. There are these music conferences you can play, and we played a bunch. Like the New Music Seminar in New York and the Philadelphia Music Conference in Philadelphia and I was able to get us a manager and producer and they were able to shop our demos to the record labels and we just came along at the right time doing the right thing. Doing something different as well. Yeah, then we got our record deal with Sony Records, and it was crazy because it was like we were going from street musicians to working for one of the hugest corporations in the world. They had so much money, so we got a lot of money to make our records. That was all cruising along in the ‘90’s -and because of the fact that there was no YouTube and home studios really…these days…since we have been talking about 1000 people have probably released a record. Everybody can make a record in their bedroom and put it out, which is great, but it also… there’s just a lot of noise. Back then there were not so many records coming out because you had to get signed to put a record out. There were some independent movements, but not like it is now. That all changed in 2001 with Napster and the digital age of music. First, it was called music piracy and then it was legitimized with Spotify and Pandora and Apple Music and stuff like that. That changed everything because it went from people buying records to people not buying records. And, because the record labels were left out of the streaming situations and the digital download situations for many years it caused a huge disruption in that industry. A lot of Companies went down, and a lot of people lost their jobs. They just weren’t ready for it. They got pants, you know. A lot of bands got dropped. We got dropped from Sony then, and then signed with Brushfire Records. That started the next chapter of the career, with Jack Johnson’s label Brushfire Records, which was great, but we did see the erosion of sales cause no one buys records. So, if you look back at my first record, it maybe sold like 900,000 copies and my Grammy nominated album sold less than 10,000 copies. You know what I’m sayin’? My latest record Philadelphia Mississippi has sold less than 10,000 copies. It’s just a different climate. You get steaming, but you don’t get paid very well at all on streaming. There’s just not as much money in it. It used to be when you would make a record, it would be like buying a lottery ticket cause you could have a big hit and you could make millions of dollars. I never got that, but like, 311 had big hits. A lot of bands. We did well, but that’s the way it’s changed mostly. No one buys records anymore. It’s not the fault of the consumer or fans it’s just the fact that that’s the cultural shift that has affected how rec…you used to make a record and have like a $350,000 budget to make a record. Now, we scramble the money together to make a record, but we don’t get a budget from somebody else to make it, we pay for it out of pocket. The records we make right now are a lot different than how we used to make records. We have a really clear focus of what we want to do, and we go in and execute that in about four or five days for the initial part. Then, you have some postproduction. I feel like we are making way better records now and we make the records for a lot cheaper. I wish we had made records like this then, so we could get the rest of that $350,000 (G. laughs out loud). But we didn’t know, because it was never-ending…that money was nothing to the label, so it was the never-ending support system for musicians if you happened to be lucky enough and good enough to get signed. Things are different now.
The other thing that is different now is culturally music is in a cooler place because all the lines are blurred. This boat is a perfect example of it. The conversion of rock’n’roll, hip hop, and reggae is the predominant thing on this boat. In the ‘90’s that was a little harder line to walk for a lot of bands that had MCs, like us, 311…there weren’t as many people rapping and playing in the live rock and roll bands. So, it was a little different culturally for people to accept it. Nowadays, it’s just such a part of the norm because hip hop’s just part of everything…
T: As well it should be…
G: Yeah! For sure! But it used to be like really cultural black music made, and now it’s been appropriated by the entire culture, including like country music and everything else! And it’s international. It’s the biggest music! It’s cool to see…anyone can rap if you’re good it doesn’t matter what color your skin is or where you’re from. It’s just a way of communicating for artists, poets, and MCs to express themselves. It’s really cool to see all the lines get blurred over the years. That’s changed. And then, like, I was watching Tropidelic for instance, and 311’s like a rock n roll crowd, so if you took these rock n roll people and put them back in the ‘90’s…if a group like Tropidelic came along and was rapping and stuff. They would say, “oh, I don’t like hip hop.” But now everybody likes hip hop, and everybody accepts it, so it’s different and really cool. The other thing is, I think culturally, I think everybody…the music industry is so accessible you can see -and because people know you can make a lot of money off of it and people know they can do it I think a lot of young people go into music for that aspect of wanting to make it and make money. That’s all cool, but I’m just saying that one thing I always tried to do is just write, you know, music should be an expression, right, you know. I think the goal of making music and making songs shouldn’t be driven by commercial gains. Everyone wants to make a hit and make something people react to and come together and make the music that becomes the fabric of the culture that we live in. That’s everyone’s dream. That’s just it. Me, personally, my music’s an extension of wanting to express myself and hasn’t really been driven by any need to fall into a category or make music for the wrong reasons. I want to make music that’s real. That’s why I try to do it, and I hope that’s the goal of all musicians. To make something that is not something for money but for culture.
T: You talked about how things have changed in the business over the years, but what about in the last few years, since the COVID pandemic, has your specific process changed?
G: Yeah, the main thing with us is that Kelsey, my wife, and I had to figure out how to pivot, and it was really cool because we just became more connected with our fans and our family that supports us. Immediately during COVID she started doing livestreams and I did a lot of that, and I think a lot of people -if you think back to the weirdness of the first few months of COVID when everyone was just sitting in their house alone and there was no socializing- we were doing these livestreams and then doing one called “Cracking Beers” on a Thursdays where people would get like, well, I would get wasted and my Mom would be like “what the fuck are you doing!?” (both laugh)
T: I was watching… (laughs)
G: It was just kind of a thing. I think people felt like, wow, you’re drinking with everybody, they’re drinking with me and drinking with everybody, so it was like a social event. It was a real connected thing. Then I started doing the backyard parties. We have done a lot. We must have done, in the last three years, maybe…I don’t know if we have done 100, but at least 50. Seems like a lot.
T: What does that look like?
G: I show up at people’s houses with my car and maybe my family and my dogs and have the PA in the back and maybe Chuck Treece, my drummer’s with me. I set up my PA and a little light rig set up in the corner of someone’s yard or their house and rock a fuckin’ party for them and all their friends. It’s awesome!
T: Oh my god, that sounds amazing!
G: Yeah! We’ve done them all across the country. Actually, those shows funded the making of Philadelphia Mississippi! Really, the fans kept us afloat, well, they always do, but more directly, because look, all the infrastructure from the music business went away and so we were left to figure it out. Luckily, with the support of our fan base, we were able to keep financially afloat and keep people happy and get to keep playing music, which is everything. That was the way things mainly changed during COVID. Now we’re back to normal, but, for instance, I was off last week, and I played two parties! During my week off, because Kelsey was like, well, we have two parties that came in, do you wanna do them on your week off? We live up in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and one was in Rhode Island, and one was in Vermont. We drove and did them. It’s been a cool opportunity to open a new door to a kind of personalized experience.
T: A revenue stream!
G: Yeah! Another thing I joined in during COVID was the Cameo shout out app.
T: You’re on that!?
G: Yeah, and it’s pretty sweet! It’s slow right now, but over that time, I have done close to 700 Cameos. Mostly birthday shoutouts, so I do awesome birthday (and other) Cameo shoutouts. During COVID, I would have 4-5 a day! That really floated the boat. Now, maybe two a month. You know, during COVID when you couldn’t see each other it was nice to send somebody something like that. Now everyone gets to hang out, so they don’t need that as much anymore, but every once in a while. (Laughs)
T: I had Master Shake from Aqua Teen Hunger Force do one for me to get people to vote…
G: (laughs) That’s cool! Schooly D, who is a part of that, is on my record! He does a collaboration on “Love from Philly” the single.
T: Killer. I love that! You know, I watched you and your family and live streams during that period of time. I was one of those people tuned in…
G: Thank you!
T: …and I do remember how that time felt. You know, we were all in Vegas when it all got shut down at the 311 Day shows…
G: ah shit! Oh, right! Because on the 13th everybody went home! No way!
T: Yeah. It was a 3-day event, and we almost didn’t get it all! I also had Lords of Acid tickets on the 14th that got canceled.
G: Right! We went home on the 13th, because our last show we played was on the 12th, and on the 13th, everything was shut down! So, their show was the 11th, 12th, and 13th!?
T: Yeah, and we were so nervous they weren’t going to let us have the 13th with everything shut down, but they gave it to us. I think they figured we were all there the first two nights, what’s one more?
G: That is crazy.
T: The Pandemic…Am I right!? …but I was watching y’all, and just to tell you since I have the chance that it lifted MY spirits during that time. You all helped me get through some rough times, even aside from the pandemic stuff. Those streams and family hours were certainly a bright spot in my life at that time. I am sure I share that sentiment with lots of others but, many thanks to you and your family, friends, and animals for everything…then and always!
G: Thank you! I’m glad that we were able to bring a little love to you when you were hunkered down (he laughs). Yeah! We did the Hunker Down Sessions!
T: (both laugh) I loved it. I turned on my G. Love notifications to let me know whenever y’all were live!
G: Cool! Yeah, it’s interesting, because that was what it was. Everyone hunkered down. That was an awesome time. I think Keb Mo said it best, when I talked to Keb in April, he goes, “G, what the fuck we been doing?” Meaning, like all us musicians just go around the world in circles in a kinda never ending cycle. Which is great. It’s a great living, and we get to do what we love, but it takes you away from your families and stuff. That’s the thing I am struggling with right now. My son, Aiden…luckily, I have been there for the birth of all 4 of my boys, but my son Aiden, who is now 21 (has since turned 22) …his mom and I weren’t together, but I only had him for a week or a month or whatever. I was away a lot of his life, you know. And I said, if I am not going to be with him, I want to be working hard. Now that I have a family with Kelsey and the boys…Garrett Cass our middle guy was born February 13th right before the pandemic, so I was there with him for his first two weeks then I was on the road…the two weeks I missed right before COVID, I was with him most every day for his first two years. And, June, our COVID baby was born June 13th in 2021. I’ve been with him most days of his life, but now I’m going back to work. I just switched management companies and these guys are crushing it, so now all of a sudden, I ‘m posed with the situation where, wow, my career has a good momentum to it, which means I’m gonna be on the road. We are trying to build a house, you know. We are just regular people, you know! We have things that we’re dreaming about and trying to achieve financially, and you know I have to work. It’s my job. That’s the struggle right now. Working and being away from the family. Last week we were on this very ship on the Train cruise, but I had the whole family with me. They didn’t come to this one, because it was just gonna be too much, plus Louis has school. They’re not here, so I miss them, but I’m getting a lot of sleep! (both laugh) The last night of that cruise was a shit show because you have to wake up at like 7 and disembark and June and Garrett Cass, the two little guys threw up all night, all over the fuckin’ bed, all over themselves, over and over again! (he laughs) It was like the worst night ever! (laughs) Kelsey’s like I don’t think I can do it again!
T: AWE! Well, I didn’t do well on my 2017 cruise before this in the Gulf of Mexico, but we won’t get into that… (he laughs at me) I was about to ask you about the most challenging and most rewarding things about being on the road, and you mostly covered that.
G: Well, the most rewarding is getting to connect with the people! Actually, there’s a good thing. There’s that 311 channel and I think Chad was saying on an interview that it’s all about the fans as we continue this thing. That’s what I boil down to is my job is to make people happy and what we are doing is connecting. That’s what we try to do every night, you know, connect with people, and bring people together with music and spread that love and that’s kinda everything! And everyone has to eat, and we are a small business, and we are running a mom-and-pop business. Aside from connecting, we have to sell tickets, music, and merchandise. And the people are happy to do that because of the way we hope to make them feel and the music that we hope to bring to them brings them joy and inspiration. So, we not only get to keep the food on our table, but also keep people working-the musicians and crew people and all the infrastructure that goes behind what we do. All those people work really hard. But it is challenging being away from home. It gets harder as we get older. You know, when you’re a kid it’s the best thing in the world, because you don’t have anything except for your parents and your dog or whatever, maybe a high school girlfriend or boyfriend. That’s part of life, though, to move on, from the parents’ house at least. That’s just the hardest thing as you get older…relationships…I shouldn’t say that…I guess I should say when you’re younger it is harder to maintain relationships, and as you get to the point of settling down, it is harder to be away from them. The hope is for all of us that as we get older and more financially stable, things that weren’t important to you when you were younger, like gardening or having your family or a pet. That becomes more important and harder to leave. That’s just part of gettin’ it, you know what I’m saying! HA!
T: It is. How about your tour? What are some of the highlights there? Last time I saw you was on your Sugar tour, which seems like a long time ago!
G: That’s been a minute! We are crankin’ right now! Last Summer was great. We got to tour solo acoustic opening up for OAR and Dispatch on their co-headliner. We jump off the boat and do G. Love & Special Sauce Tour on the West Coast for the next month (March/April) and then we will be out on the Dirty Heads Tour with Tropidelic and Lupe Fiasco Then, I think Matisyahu will be out co-headlining at the end of the Summer. Actually, the last two Summers have been my busiest Summers ever, I think, since the mid-90’s. That’s been great! Except for the fact that I live in Cape Cod, and the best time to be there is in the Summer. HA!
But, again, it’s kinda like I said earlier, the COVID period was a big reset for people and a lot for musicians, myself included. I was really thankful for that time at home and now we are ready to now that shit’s opening up and people are coming out. It’s a really beautiful thing to get to do all the stuff that we took for granted for so long and now it’s back, it’s great and everyone’s happy.
T: Are you still making your hot sauce?
G: We’re not doing that right now. That was another thing that fell off during COVID, and we stopped production on it. Hot sauce is kind of a shitty business, so…I think we will bring it back at some point, but we had to destroy a bunch…like, pay to destroy like 1500 bottles that had gone bad, so, yeah. We’ll see. That was good. It was fun.
T: Do you have any other nonmusical ventures right now? Cold Beverage hard liquor maybe?
G: Yeah, I’ve got my NFTs (non-fungible tokens) going right now. You can go on my Twitter and see how to get that. My latest record was an NFT with YellowHeart, with their platform. That’s been really cool for me to jump into this new space and…if you don’t know about it maybe…you’re looking at me like what the fuck are you talking about…am I wrong?
T: (laughs) …I don’t know about it…
G: (laughs)…yeah, it’s its own space and will eventually be what they are calling web 3, which will be like the new internet. So, that’s cool, to be like an early adopter on that. I’ll continue to grow that. I’ve got my Beer, my collaboration with GoodLife Brewing, The Juice IPA. We got a few things. Oh, yeah, and my artwork I’ve been working on. I just had my first art show in Boston last week! I do a lot of paintings. I’ve got my hand painted hats in the merch store, and my hand painted setlists that I’ve always been doing. I’ve kinda stepped that up and will continue to give a lot of focus to that. It’s something I love to do, and it goes hand in hand with the music.
T: If you weren’t an internationally known superstar musician…
G: (Laughs out loud) Am I?
T: …what profession would you choose?
G: I think right now I would choose painting, because I have always been into art since I was writing graffiti and now, I really love to do it. I love to do it on the road and every day, cause I am always painting my setlists. Honestly, if my paintings started selling for a lot of money…again, I started doing this shit as a kid writing graffiti, so it’s not like I started doing it to make money, but if they started selling for a lot of money that would be awesome, too! But I’ll never stop playing music.
T: GOOD! That’s good to know. Thanks for that. You heard it here, folks! We love to hear you play that Philadelphonic funk. What is your favorite genre or genres to listen to in your day-to-day life?
G: I like the Grateful Dead channel on Sirius a lot. The funny thing is that I don’t like… so, we are living in the parent’s house, because we are getting ready to build our house, and I don’t have my record player set up in there, so… if we have it set up, generally we’ll have one of the kids pick a record every night from my amazing collection that has everything from blues to roots reggae to rock n roll, funk, soul, and hip-hop. But we don’t have that going right now, so I listen to the Grateful Dead channel or Spectrum on Sirius. I also listen to the news, like CNN and that shit. I love, like, De La Soul, who finally just released their catalog online. I love the Wu Tang Clan and a lot of blues, obviously, reggae. I’ve been doing a lot of collaborations lately. I just finished two collaborations just days before I got on the cruise. One with a young woman named Claire Wright who is part of this new American reggae scene, and one with Sharde Thomas who is a blues artist on my latest record. I’m on Arrested Development’s latest record, who is on this ship. Speech is on my record. Bumping Uglies, who are on this ship, we did a collaboration, although that isn’t released. Like I said at the beginning of the interview, I love to collaborate with established and up and coming artists. Oh, and the Reis Brothers who are on this ship, I sit in with them tonight, and do the track that we cut. For me, I like to listen to the music that I am working on, too, and I love to hear the collaborations coming from some of the younger bands out there.
T: What is the girl’s name who came to play with you in Atlanta at the Variety Playhouse…this bad ass chic came out to do a few songs with you…
G: Kristy Lee? (www.KristyLeeMusic.com)
T: Sorry, I just had to take the chance to ask. I will make a note of that because she was just incredible!
G: Yes, she is. She is awesome, and we continue our friendship, even though I haven’t seen her in a minute. She is just an unbelievable singer and writer.
T: We were blown away by her that night. Maybe I’ll reach out to her for an interview! Show her some much-deserved love!
G: I am sure she would love that.
T: Alright, Garrett Dutton! Thank you so much for spending your time with me here on this awesome balcony on the 2023 311 Cruise during this perfect day at sea. I have one more thing I’d like for you to engage with me on. It’s a game that I’m gonna call “Rapid fire with G. Love:”
G: Alright, let’s do it.
T: Joni Mitchell or Nina Simone?
G: Ah damn, Uh. Nina Simone. Oh wait, maybe Joni Mitchell.
T : Jimi Hendrix or Prince ?
G: Jimi Hendrix for me.
T: David Bowie or The Cure?
G: Oh, wow, that’s tough! That’s funny cause, for some reason when I was taking a nap earlier, I was singing “Boys Don’t Cry” in my head and thinking about The Cure. I was thinking about that song “Killing an Arab” that is based on this French book The Stranger. BUT, I’mma have to go with David Bowie, although I am a Cure fan.
T: Deftones or Incubus?
G: Incubus
T: The Temptations or The Drifters?
G: Temptations
T: Kate Bush or Tori Amos?
G: Tori Amos! My across the street neighbor is her bass player, (simultaneously) Jon Evans.
T: (at the same time) Jon Evans!
T: (quietly fangirls out to self) NOICE! Oh, my god, we love him!
G: (sounding like he actually believed this to be true LOL!) You know him!? He produced my two Christmas records, too.
T: (laughs) Oh, well, I mean, we have seen Tori Amos shows over the years like it was our full-time job, but we don’t know him personally.
G: (laughs) He lives right across the street from my parents! We’re like best friends. Very close.
T: (loving it) We will see “best friend Jon” very soon at the Cobb Energy Center in Atlanta and also at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville! (The shows were amazing, but the Ryman show was especially magical and one of my new favorite setlists.) Maybe I’ll reach out to him for an interview, too!
G: (both laugh) Right on!
T: PJ Harvey or Gwen Stefani?
G: Oh, Gwen Stefani. I’ve always loved her. You know, we share a birthday, October 3rd!
T: Shut up! One of my best friends, Meredith, too! The coolest people are born in October. (As I turn 50 on October 23rd!)
G: I was hoping we would get married, but never got the chance.
T: That would have been great!
T: Bjork or Halsey?
G: Oh shit. Bjork.
T: Brandi Carlile or Ani Difranco?
G: Ah, shit. I mean, look, I kinda came up seeing Ani Difranco, and she is such a legend, but I really have connected with Brandi Carlile. I love her song “The Joke” so much. So…I’m gonna say Brandi Carlile.
T : Missy Elliott or Queen Latifah ?
G: Ah shit. Damn. That’s tough! I’d have to say Missy Elliott, just because I know more of her songs.
T: Outkast or WuTang Clan?
G: Shit, uh. WuTang.
T: Dead Prez or Mos Def?
G: Mos Def.
T: Eminem or JayZ?
G: Oh shit, JayZ.
T: 50 Cent or Xhibit?
G: Oh, 50 Cent.
T: !!! (chk chk chk) or Of Montreal?
G: I don’t know either one.
T: Well, for sure everyone should check out !!! especially. (showing !!! tattoo) This is how you spell!!! (chk chk chk).
G: Oh! Yeah! I have seen that!
T: Radiohead or Beck?
G: Well, shit, Beck and I have always been, like, compared so relentlessly, like when we first came out in 1994 and both dropped our records. So, we would hear a lot of comparisons, so I hated him! (both laugh) Then, he got so big, and I hated him even more (both laugh). I’ve never met him. I think I have seen him at a party one time and said, like, “hey.” That was it.
And Radiohead. One time I was walking down South Street in Philadelphia where I lived, and… they were on Sony. I ran into the Sony rep and Thom Yorke… Thom Yorke, right? (T. confirms) … eating a slice of pizza at Lorenzo’s, the neighborhood pizza joint. So, I got to meet him and say hi to him, so I’ll say Radiohead.
T: Tropidelic or Bumpin’ Uglies?
G: Oh, shit. That’s kinda tough, because I just saw Tropidelic’s set and am now a fan and am going to collaborate and go on tour with them this Summer. But I also did a collaboration with Bumpin’ Uglies, so I will have to choose Bumpin’ Uglies.
T: Rihanna or Beyoncé?
G: That’s tough. Aside from the worst Super Bowl halftime show of all time, I like Rihanna’s songs a lot.
T: Janis Joplin or Amy Winehouse?
G: Oh, Janis Joplin.
T: The Avett Brothers or The Lumineers?
G: DEFINITELY The Avett Brothers!
T: (all smiles for more of my boyfriends) DEFINITELY The Avett Brothers!!! I love them both but was introduced to them in the last couple of years and now I love me some Avetts.
G: You know, the Lumineers opened up for us one time for New Year’s Eve at the Fox Theatre in Boulder when they were just coming out!
T: James Brown or George Clinton?
G: Shit. James Brown.
T: The Roots or Tribe Called Quest?
G: Tribe Called Quest.
T: Public Enemy or NWA?
G: Shit, that’s tough. Public Enemy.
T: Kendrick Lamar or Childish Gambino?
G: Oh shit, Kendrick Lamar.
T: Gladys or Aretha?
G: Oh shit, Aretha Franklin.
T : Etta James or Billie Holiday ?
G: Oh wow. Etta James, because Kelsey and my first dance was to “At Last.”
T: AWE!
T: Taj Mahal or Dr. John?
G: OOO, damn! That’s real tough! I have had the wonderful opportunity to be friends with them both.
T: Awe!
G: I haven’t gotten the chance to work with Taj Mahal, but Dr. John is on my third record “Yeah, It’s That Easy.” He plays a lot of keyboards on that album, so I will choose Dr. John.
T: Goodie Mob or the Geto Boys?
G: Which one is Scarface in?
T: Geto Boys.
G: Geto Boys.
T: Too$hort or 2 Live Crew?
G: I don’t know enough Too$hort, so 2 Live Crew.
T: Nas or Ludacris?
G: Definitely Nas.
T: Stephen, Ziggy, or Damien Jr. Gong Marley?
G: Wow. HHHMMMM. Stephen, Ziggy, or Damian Jr. Gong…Well, damn. I guess I’ll say Damian, just because he has really pushed…because he is, I feel, completely unique. Whereas Stephen and Ziggy really seem to continue the tradition where Damian kinda does his own thing. A more modernized sound.
T: Cardi B or Niki Minaj?
G: Ah, Cardi B.
T: Echo and the Bunnymen or The Church?
G: Echo and the Bunnymen.
T: Gang of Four or The Who?
G: The Who.
T: The Beatles or The Rolling Stones?
G: Oh shit, The Beatles.
T: Queen or Zeppelin?
G: Zeppelin.
T: The Allman Brothers or The Grateful Dead?
G: Ah shit! (Terri laughs) I guess The Allman Brothers. (Terri is surprised) Well, because I am a part of that Allman family revival, so I got the chance to really get into it.
T: Georgia, REPRESENT! (Garrett agrees)
T: Madonna or Lady Gaga
G: Madonna.
T: Primus or Ween?
G: Ween.
T: Rage or Tool?
G: Rage.
T: Biggie or Tupac?
G: Ah shit, Tupac.
T: Well, Garrett! That’s all I have for you today.
G: That’s cool! That was fun!
T: I appreciate you indulging me and helping us make this happen amidst all of the challenges along the way. Leah Yetter, Photographer, and I (Concert Sutra) very much appreciate you and all of the past and future fun we have had and will have whilst you are apickin’ and asingin’ with and/or without the Special Sauce that we love so much!
