Me: What do you think of the new fans you’ve gained since receiving airplay on radio and television, and
We get airplay on television??
Me: Yea. MTV…
Oh, that one time!
Me: Yea, that one time.
(laughs) We were huge after that. (laughs) Yea, we were on once like, a year? Or two years ago? Yea, they did this like, “Return of the Rock” program…the world’s all-time heaviest videos, A to Z. And they played us, like right between Aerosmith and AC/DC. And I missed it! But my dad saw it, and my dad called me up and was like, “Dave, its 10:15, its Saturday night, and I’m watching you on MTV.” It was uh, Third Season.
Me: Actually, Third Season I saw on 120 Minutes back…
No kidding?
Me: Yea. Back a long time ago, actually.
Really? No one’s ever told me that before. None of us knew that.
Me: Like before I knew who AFI was I saw this video…and…
Wow, that’s amazing. Oh! So to answer your question…You know we’ve gotten minimal, minimal radio play, and even more minimal….Who’s that? Robbie, you hear that? People are singing Poison! Damn! I’m missing out!
Me: Oh, I’m sorry
No, that’s okay. Um, yea, I really don’t think its affected us very much. I mean, maybe we got like, 20 – 30 more kids in California, 10 kids in Salt Lake, or something like that. But I mean, that airplay we got was very, very minimal. Unfortunately.
Eric: Speaking of videos, are you gonna do any more before the DVD release? To put, like, an extra video on there?
I mean, we did Days of the Phoenix…maybe we’ll do one for Wester? If we have time, and if its necessary…if not, then no.
Me: What’s your favorite Horror movie?
What period?
Me: Umm…how about…the early stuff...like, “Creature…
Oh, the black and white, like the Universal classics? Bride of Frankenstein.
Me: What about the 80s?
(blank stare)
Eric: Late 70s, early 80s?
Late 70s? The exorcist...or Rosemary’s Baby…Texas Chainsaw Massacre… 80s, Pumpkinhead, Halloween, the first two Nightmares…yea, there you go.
Me: Alright, how about favorite Gangster movie?
Eric: Wait, the first two Nightmares??
Yea, the first two.
Eric: Number two??
Its good.
Eric: Its crap. What about three?
Three was good too. But I like the Wes Craven stuff better.
Eric: Wait, Wes Craven didn’t do part two, he did part three.
(shakes head) No…
Eric: You wanna go?
Let’s go! He did the first two.
Eric: He did one, three and seven.
No way, he did one and two!
Eric: I pinky swear
Alright, I believe you. (laughs) I believe you. Umm…what?
Me: Favorite Gangster movie.
Oh! Umm, God, there’s so many good ones! (pauses) Goodfellas. God, there’s so many good – Godfather Trilogy, Goodfellas, Casino…Resevoir Dogs is great, yea.
Me: What’s your favorite Director?
Tim Burton.
Me: Favorite Actor?
Johnny Depp.
Me: Jason Cruz has just left Strung Out to pursue his artwork and tattooing full-time.*
What? Jay quit??
Me: Yea.
Really? To be a tattooist?
Me: Yep. So now if you were to leave AFI to pursue, say, acting full-time exclusively with upcoming Director Eric Craven, what do you think the rest of the band would do?
What would they do? Before or after they killed me? (laughs) Lets say they didn’t kill me?
Me: Yea, what if they didn’t kill ya.
They would go on without me. They’d do something. They’d either do AFI, or they’d do something else, um, they would play music.
Eric: You do realize you’d be starring in the crappiest movies of all time.
(laughs) Hey, c’mon Eric…
Me: Do you find it hard to adjust to the afternoon sunshine during the Warped Tour after all of your extensive time in the darkness?
Very much so. Yea, its really not the most appropriate playing atmosphere for us, but, we’ve actually got used to it. You know, I’m totally not making this up, but when we were on those nine shows, half the shows, when we went on, the sun would disappear. Like, the clouds would cover it up, it would hide behind some sort of structure, it would start raining…something like that. It was true too.
Me: Actually, at Buffalo, the clouds came over right after your first song.
See? So it worked out really well. Yea, lots of sunscreen….bringing a parasol this time! (laughs)
Me: Alright, um, do any of you guys ever visit fan sites?
Sometimes yea, if I get on a computer, I’ll look at stuff.
Me: Okay, um, The Misfits are going to be on the Warped Tour this year.
They are?
Me: Yea, actually, some shows. Is there any chance you could be seen talking to or hanging out with any of them?
Probably (laughs) Everybody hangs out together on the Warped Tour. They are?
Me: Yea.
Weird. Didn’t know that.
Me: Alright, I guess this is going to be the final one, what is the most asked question during one of these interviews?
There’s so many (laughs) The most asked is gotta…here’s the most asked questions: Could you please do a brief history of the band? What does AFI stand for? Um, Was the change from the first record up into the sixth record…up into the sixth? Fifth?
Me: Fifth, yea.
Fifth record, was that a natural progression, or is that something that you were striving for? Um, those are, I think, the most asked.
Eric: I’ve heard a lot of Totalimmortal questions…
Oh God! Yea! And its always phrased, “So what’s up with the Offspring covering Totalimmortal?” That’s how its phrased, every time. Yes. Those are the ones, the main ones. With the occasional “Do you worship the devil?” Those first ones, those are it. Every interview. And you evaded all of those…
Me: Yea, I tried to.
…Making this a great interview. And I appreciate that.
Me: Well thank you.
Thank you so much for evading those questions (laughs) Cause I’ve answered them a million times.
*Not true anymore. Jason Cruz leaving Strung Out turned out to be an April Fool’s joke by Strung Out. Oops.
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