sympathy for him whatsoever.
through that song, but it's
just like seeing through
his eyes.
Ron: I forget what I was going to
ask you.
Grant: What am I going to do when
I rule the world. First off,
there ain't going to be no
paper cups, and there ain't
going to be no plastic cups.
Everything, EVERYTHINGthat
you buy is going to come in
a six inch stainless cylinder
that screws together and
has a wax seal within the
screw part, right? Soup,
everything.
Ron: Insulated?
Grant: No.
Dianne: So you get cold soup.
Grant: You get soup that you can
cook, but the fact of the
matter is that you're
going to save all your cont-
ainers that all your food
came in and bring it back
down to the grocery store
and that will pay for the
packaging right there. How
many times have you bought
three screws at the hardware
store in a little package
and it's 98¢ and you know
damn well that it took a
lot longer to package those
screws than it did to make
them.
Ron: Like those plastic things with
the cardboard that you can
never open up. They really
piss me off.
Grant: You gotta punch them
through the back but yeah,
I'm really bothered with
packaging right now. Let's
see, another thing that
really ticks me off that I
would definately change, um-
you know, I think that a lot
of us have that desire to
be a fascist dictator,
mafioso type, but the thing
is that I would really
love the people that I
dominated. What's the point
of being a leader if you
don't think you could do
people good? Certainly I
wouldn't do it for my own good
because I'm living on top of
the world right now. I have
nothing to gain by being
emperor of the universe.
Ron: You probably won't make it
that far, maybe president
though. Reagan got it so
you never know. In twenty
years you could cut your hair
and people will remember you
from Husker Du. They'll say
"He was a B singer. I remember
him."
Grant: He was an A singer", they'll
say. No, I'm not doing this
to get by, I'm doing this
to get better, to get-- let's
put it this way. All of my life
I've taken care of my music.
If I were to tell you that I
am not concerned with monetary
goals, I would be lying to you.
If I was telling you it's
like, "Oh, I'm bringing my music
to the people" -- Of course I
get up on the stage for my ego
but, bread is your only
freind.
Ron: Is it possible to support
yourself playing?
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Grant: I haven't held a job in four
years. I live like a pauper,
but such living makes me do
things for entertainment
like jam, write songs,poetry.
It keeps me closer to my
craft by keeping me away from
a working environment. Every
job that I have had since I've
been in the band, they've
really gotten uptight because
I've had something else to
dedicate myself to. I really
wonder if you get that same
type of pressure on the job
if you have a wife? I'm sure
you do. I would hope if I
ever get married that I
would love that person more
than my music, but I've come
to the conclusion that it's
impossible. I've chosen music
over particular people numbers
of times.
Ron: Where do you plan on taking
Husker Du from here? You've
been around for what-- four
years.
Grant: Five years on Friday. We're
having a big gig in Minneapolis
getting our picture on the
front page of the paper. It's
happening. I mean, name one
punk rock band that's
lasted five years with the
original members. Can you
think of one?
Ron: No. I've never really gotten
into who's in what band. How
long do you think you can
do hardcore and make
money, being that you said
that you were concerned
with making money?
Grant: I stopped writing songs for
people with mohawks two and
a half years ago. I started
writing songs for myself.
Ron: But they're still your
audience.
Grant: Yeah, but it's getting to be
different than that, which
will be proven even more so
when Zen Arcade comes out,
sometime in June hopefully.
Ron: Have you ever thought about
doing other types of music?
Grant: Yeah. Definately. Last
night before Husker Du played
I got up and did a version
of Data Control with a
violinist and an acoustic
guitar player. I'm always
thinking about doing other
music and I try to get
myself into every musical
sense possible. As well as
playing drums--it's obviuos
that I write for the band
and its hard to write songs
on drums. I play a whole mess
of instruments: piano, drums,
organ, not at the same time
though. Just banjo and drums
at the same time.
Ron: Really?
Grant: No, not really.
Ron: I play bass and stand up
at the same time.
Grant: Stand up bass?
Ron: Yeah, you stole my joke.
What other types of music
do you listen to?
Grant: The person who used to shovel
the snow and take out the
garbage also tok the stereo
so I've been looking at a
lot of records, which is good.
In my home, I have no tele-
phone and to tell you the
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truth, I find a lot of music
to be distracting to my
evolution because naturally
the stuff I will hear
without seeking out will be
something that's already
popular and that's beating a
dead horse to start getting
into something that's popular
because by the time you're
proficient at it, it's unpopu-
lar or at least passé. I had
really bizarre musical
upbringing because I didn't hear
any rock music in between the
ages of 10 and 16. You want to
hear about a really scary
experience I had? Have you
ever done LSD? When I was
really into doing LSD in junior
high school, I'd be lying in bed
tripping, trying to fall asleep
and the most time consuming
thing that I could do was to
masturbate. Now, one time I
was really buzzed and I thought,
"I'm not going to masturbate
myself to sleep tonight, I'm
going to think the whole thing
through and without any
manual stimulation whatsoever,
I'm going to completely
fantasize sex and cum with-
out touching myself. Now this
was some really really
fucking good acid, right?
Dianne: It would have to be.
Grant: I attempted this and I did
it. you know how after you
cum a little while later you
feel chilly because of the
endorphine that's released in
your body? All of a sudden I'm
shivering, and I'm thinking,
"oh my God, if I can make
myself cum, I can make myself
freeze to death." So I bundled
up completely. I wasn't going to
mess around with that one.
Dianne: It probably didn't put you to
sleep.
Grant: NO! I just laid awake thinking,
"I'm not going to die."
Ron: Do you still do drugs?
Grant: No.
Greg: This is going to be a real
good interview isn't it?
Ron: Did he just make that story
up? Could you verify all this?
Greg: Let's see you do that again,
Grant.
Ron: Do you want me to print any of
this stuff that Grant is
saying? Is it OK?
Grant: I think it would make an
amusing anecdote. What time
is it anyway?
Ron: It's only 2:19.
Dianne: We have a class at 10:00
tomorrow!
Ron: We can't leave yet; we haven't
gotten anything useful out
of these guys yet, and we've
been sitting here for so
long.
Grant: You got a good story, what
do you mean? I sent that into
Readers' Digest as an amusing
anecdote. They sent me $200.
but they never printed it.
Life in these United States--
" Yeah, one time I was tripping
my brains out and..."
Ron: You don't really expect us
to believe that they sent
you $200. Where's Bob ( the
guitarist)?
Grant: Over at the bar.
Ron: Is it true that you're throw-
ing him out of the band?
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