Speaker 1Welcome back to the James Kennedy podcast. Bro hugs, fist bumps and handshakes all around. How are you guys doing? I hope you enjoyed the conversation from last week's episode with the brilliant and inspirational Stella Assange, talking of course about Julian Assange from Wikileaks and the current attempts to extradite him to the US. I feel very privileged to be able to have those kind of conversations as a result of having this podcast. So thanks so much to everybody who supports me in keeping this thing afloat. And welcome to all of the new subscribers that have recently joined as well. Thanks for jumping on board. If you are new to the podcast, then welcome, welcome, welcome. Take a look around of all the previous episodes as you'll be able to see this is a mixed bag. If you came for the politics, there's tons of previous episodes with some seriously awesome and interesting dudes such as Greg Pallast, Lee Camp, Nathan Paul Southern, Greenpeace, Extinction Rebellion, Mark Curtis, several MPs and loads and loads of spokespeople for certain causes as well, which is super, super interesting. Like, you know, we did one on assisted dying. We've done stuff on drug reform. There's tons of stuff to go and scroll through. If you're not interested in any of that stuff, don't worry. I got you covered as well. We got tons of music orientated episodes with rock stars like Frank Turner and Jace Lewis, Sean Smith, my good friend, Alec Clifford, Brian Slagle from Metal Blade Records. And we've done tons of music industry episodes as well to deal with the underbelly of how the music biz works with guys like Tom Gray and Tim Brennan and the awesome Ian Wynwood, of course. So there's a decent body of knowledge and wisdom which is building up on this podcast now. So do scroll back and check out some of the previous conversations if you're new to the club or if you haven't checked them all out yet. We've also got some episodes coming up to do with mental health and myth busting around, you know, nutrition and exercise and food health and all that sort of stuff, as well as some science-y stuff and whatever else happens along the way, you know what I mean? Whatever is interesting and useful. So this is just a general mixed bag of interesting and useful shit. So whatever you come to the podcast for, I hope you find it here and, you know, check out some of the episodes from me. And if you're one of those listeners who hasn't yet subscribed yet, shame on you. It's a click of a button. Come on, help a brother out. What are you doing, man? Get with the times, dude. This is how it works now. Artists do shit for free in return for, you know, a direct-to-fan relationship where you help us out by sharing it, subscribing, leaving reviews and hitting the star button. Easy to do. Takes two seconds. Doesn't cost you a penny. And it helps us to keep doing what we're doing and giving you the good stuff. So get to it. This week, we're taking another little breather from politics just for a second and jump face-first into the comfortable bosom of rock and roll. And boy, have we got a good one. We are joined today by a man who should need no introduction, but let's see what he thinks of this. The Prince of the Port, singer in the band Skin Dread and Dub War, songwriter, DJ, TV dog rescuer, creator of the famous Newport Helicopter, one of the best front men of our times, and most certainly the coolest and stylish man in the land. If you haven't guessed it already, I'm sure you've heard of him. He's a good guy. He's a good guy. He's a good guy. I'm talking, of course, about the awesome Mr. Benji Webb. Thanks for joining us, man. How are you doing? I'm good, brother.
Speaker 2All is well. Alhamdulillah, as most people say. Yeah, I'm good, mate. I'm really well.
Speaker 1Wicked, man. Glad to hear it, dude, because you're a busy guy, man. I mean, you know, what's been happening lately?
Speaker 2I was in a record shop last week and I was talking to a friend of mine called Mikey Cole. Mikey Cole played bass in a band called the 60 Foot Dolls. I haven't seen Mikey for 20 odd years, 30 years, I reckon. And he said, Benji, you're a workaholic. And I looked at him and I thought, I guess I am. I do a lot of stuff, you know, I do a lot of stuff. But, you know, I do it for me, bro. And I enjoy serving myself because I know if I wasn't doing something, you know, I would just go crazy, bro. So I think working, so they call it, it gets me in a place where I feel like I'm alive, you know?
Speaker 1Definitely. Yeah. Well, the devil makes work for idle hands, don't he? You know what I mean? Amen, brother. Amen.
Speaker 2Amen. That's what they say.
Speaker 1Well, I mean, you've got the tour coming up with Dub War in March. Is that the main focus right now? What's happening with the balance between Skindred?
Speaker 2That is the main focus right now. I mean, funnily enough, Skindred went on tour. We did a massive European tour with a band from Copenhagen, Denmark called Volbeat. We did a massive tour from fucking September, right the way to the 20th of December and we went all over Europe. So that wrapped up. Skindred's got some festivals coming up and we've got a new single out called Give Me That Boom, which is going really well. It's doing really good in Germany and a lot of people are loving that track. But my main focus at the moment is trying to fill up the venues around the UK with Dub War for this, you know, Westgate Under Fire album.
Speaker 1Yes. Hell yes, man. Fucking what a record, dude. I mean, you know, Jeff Rose, my good friend, I do all my records I do with Jeff. So big shouts out to Mr. Jeff Rose as well. And I know I just caught the post earlier that you put on social media about Mike Doling and Jamie Miller, honestly. Yeah. And I think that's a really good thing. I think that's a really good thing. On the track, Crying Clowns of the record. Yeah. We, but the last band I did with my band, Koshira, was around Europe with Snot. So there's a funny connection there because you guys toured with them back in the 90s when Lynn was in the band. 95, mate.
Speaker 295. We did Snot with Lynn in the band. Incredible. Never, never heard of Snot until we got to America. We were supporting Fishbone. Fishbone was going on last. We were opening up and Snot was in the middle. And yeah, we were on tour with them for six weeks, mate. And yeah, we made friends for life on that tour. Definitely. It was definitely one of the most strangest tours. But when you, a tour is strange at the time, but the magic and the romance comes later when it's all over, mate. That's something I learned about. At the time, you're like, fuck, you know, this is shit. I can't wait till it's over. You know? And that's the truth. And that's most tours for me, like. But when it's finished, I go, man, what a good time I had, you know? I think I tend to do that a lot, even on stage. You know, big festivals like Download. I'm doing a newborn helicopter, like doing the front man thing and thinking, fuck, you know, I can't wait to get off, you know? Really? Yeah. But when it's over, I sit back and go, I had a good time. It's quite strange, you know what I mean? Because you've got to remember, as much as I'm working up there, bro, I'm looking for the next thing to fucking make the people rock or put their hands in the air or spin around or do something. So I'm thinking, as I'm performing, I'm working on working, if you know what I'm trying to say. So I don't really enjoy it. Yeah. It's only when I sit down and go, fuck me, that was cool. I watch YouTube or whatever. I think that's what I think of it. I think when you're actually doing it, the romance comes later. That's when you, because at the time it's just work, you know? Yeah. And that's something that I learned even from the last tour we did with Volbeat.
Speaker 1I'm guessing you're touring in a lot more comfort now than you were back in the days with Snot. I can imagine touring across America, I'm assuming in something similar to a transit van. It was a transit
Speaker 2van, mate, with a trailer on the back. It was hard, but that's all we knew. I mean, we pull up next to Fishbone and Snot was the same as that. They never had fuck all either. All they had was a trailer and a U-Haul, they call them U-Haul things, with all the gear in the back. Fishbone had a bus. And you know what's really funny? The bastards never even invited us on there. All them weeks and we never even got to go on there. What? You know, I mean, I always say to people, like, I love taking like opening acts. I always like, so for me personally, I get very, I feel gratitude when I go and I take like a band that's never been on a bus and say, come and check the bus, man. And they walk on a bus and, you know, they go, wow, my God. Like, and I remember the first time I seen that as well. You know, and I think, I think you got to pass it on. That's what they do. As a musician, you pass it on. I mean, too many people I know in the music business, an acting game, they get somewhere and instead of letting the fucking ladder down, they pull it up the bastards. And they don't, they don't, they just want them to be on top of the game. You know, I mean, not everybody can be a rock star, so just calm the shit down. And, you know, I just enjoy taking bands, local bands on the bus and vibing with them and showing them like, you know, we worked hard for this bus. You know, this wasn't given to us in any shape or form. We worked very hard. We had a lot of arguments, a lot of fucking, a lot of tears, you know, a lot of blood. But I want to share that with people. You know, when, when we go somewhere, I even drum, like if I see the milkman delivering milk and go, oh, that's nice, man. That's a lovely bus that is. Come on, have a look at it, bro. And they come on and they have a look and they go, my God, it's better than my living room. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I like that because I think we got to, as musicians, you've got to, you've got to share it, you know, you've got to share that, what you've got, like as much as, you know, and I do think that taking the band aside, we were opening up and bringing them into your dressing room or, or just, you know what I mean? Going into their dressing room before they go on and encouraging them. I think it's, you know, I mean, that's what I remember the people who did that to me and that's the guy I want to be.
Speaker 1Good for you. Good for you, man. Yeah. I mean, when we talked with Snot, they had a double bus. It was huge. And you never went on there. We never went on there. I know, brodenfuckers. It was a bit fractious, that tour, through no fault of theirs. But yeah, we didn't really get on with each other on that tour because our manager stiffed us over for our contribution to the tour. And I didn't know about this until like the third week in. I was like, these guys are a bit fucking frosty. Like we pass him in the street, didn't even say hello, you know? And it's like. Yeah, and you've been on tour for three days, yeah.
Speaker 2Three weeks. Bro, there's things that, there's things, I know, three weeks, there's things goes on, there's things go on that the artists don't know and the management's dealing with it. And that's it, see? And I've heard that a few times. Not about you, but I've heard a few times about bands that's been on tour and they're supposed to pay half of the bus or pay to be on the tour and they haven't paid and the band don't know about it and they're walking around smiling. Yeah. Oh, no, exactly that.
Speaker 1Exactly that. I was like, what the fuck is wrong with these guys, man? It's a weird game, man. It's a weird game. It's such a fucking iconic band. Such a great fucking album. Get some. I still listen to it to this day and I was like, oh man, this is gonna be fucking awesome.
Speaker 2I was really surprised because I. i've never lost contact with mikey i mean obviously before facebook i did for years like 10 years i never spoke to him for but soon as facebook came along me and mikey was in contact and then he joined soulfly because i did some work with cavalera as well so we were always friends through that like you know what i mean but soon as i asked mikey during that pandemic so mike do you guys up for um doing some stuff for this you know for me and jeff and richard they said yeah like it wasn't even a case of like oh let me think about it right it was like yes send it send me the tracks we'll get in the studio and we'll lay it down and that's exactly what they did awesome crying clowns i think this is a great song it's not wow wow that mike is famous for yeah yeah i was very happy with that oh dude
Speaker 1the whole record rocks man and yeah like luckily i bumped into dolan in belgium a couple of years back and we managed to rectify everything you know once he knew what the situation was and everything and we tied it up and i made sure they got their money because i was just fucking like i say walking around with a dopey green on my face oblivious you know in italy yeah well that's it that's exactly how it is
Speaker 2man are you doing yeah that's a fucking
Speaker 1miserable pricks you know but i totally get it so
Speaker 2luckily we patched it
Speaker 1up because yeah i love that i love that band i love that record man so he plays in a band called channel zero in belgium as well they're big in belgium yeah he's got a
Speaker 2he's got a couple of projects actually but he's like you man he's busy as fuck like yeah well bro i just can't sit still like i said i just gotta keep doing it i mean i wrote that children's book not so long ago the wonderful adventures of colin the kitten that's right but what i do you know what i want to talk about people who yes you to death and then they fucking flake on you okay i think that is the most you know i prefer someone to say fuck off you bastard i'm not interested yeah i'm with you to go yeah man you know we can work it out we can work it out and then you end up being the bad fella for calling them constantly going what's happening like so who
Speaker 1are we talking about anybody anything you're
Speaker 2gonna get a chest i got fucking i where do you want me to start bro go for it tell them no i just feel like i just feel like when you're doing someone whether you're playing guitar whether you're writing something uh whether you're making designing t-shirts i mean people i just think i thought if actually i actually thought it was something in the fucking injections it was giving to people and making them flaky dopey yeah my own conspiracy theory you know i had like four or five things which was going great man i mean like really really well right like i was working with this artist on a cartoon stuff and i was working you know screen sprinting stuff and we were going really well i was they were sending me the designs i was blowing up on it and they were going yeah we're gonna try this we're gonna try that i don't know whether they all got together and said benji's a cunt don't do anything for him or what the whole thing went quiet three i had one guy in liverpool one guy in bali one guy in australia one in caddy wow and the fuck i thought what is it me ah is it fucking me and i'm really scratching my head i'm asking my wife what the fuck what am i some sort of asshole you know she said yeah but maybe not in this situation well do you know what
Speaker 1for me right this is this is music to my ears because i get that shit all the time i think they call it ghosting don't they you know where everything's going great now i
Speaker 2know what it is okay it's
Speaker 1called ghosting you can see what people have read the message and they just stop replying it's a pain in the fucking ass because i'm like you i'd rather them say dude we can't do it all the best and then you know you stop wasting your time you know so i prefer that but it happens to me all the time but i'm a i'm a different rung of the ladder to you so i always just assume that this shit only happens to me because i'm sort of down at this level once you get up to benji webb level it that shit don't happen so i'm glad that it does
Speaker 2no it does happen bro and i think you know i'm i'm thinking to myself it does make you check yourself and ask have i did something wrong or yeah yeah is my conduct been and i'm checking my conduct all the time and now i'm working with people and the first thing or the second thing i say to them is you don't have to do this please tell me to fuck off yeah now before i'm bugging you in a years from now yeah you know but anyway that's that's something i just i just encourage every person out there if you don't want to do something say you say say yes but tell them quickly that you're not interested a hundred percent and never never not answer people's fucking texts and messages that's the rudest thing you can do oh i think you know there's no need for it like i text you mate ghost i text you mate ghost nothing yeah i just think people need to go you know what no i'm not interested yeah not interested because then maybe i can find someone who actually fucking is interested you can keep it moving instead of you instead of you wasting my time you know and then the people are telling you i've said i mean these t-shirts this guy designed in bali they were outstanding bro it's not even worth me trying to recreate them right because basically i i called him a friend of mine was interested jason jason repose and i'm an amazing surf photographer he turned me out of this guy and for the first three months the guy was all over it i was telling him ideas i mean everything he did was based around but the the newport helicopter thing right you know i mean i was trying to make a design for a for a shirt and for a clothing brand but all about the newport helicopter and it was going really well but he did he was very creative anyway but what i was telling him he was just doing what i told him and he was sending it back and i was i mean i was blown away because he was doing some fucking raster shit some metal shit some scar shit and i was like wow and i'm wowing me to death and then one day he said okay i'm gonna send you some shit and should be with you by next wednesday next wednesday came what nothing so you got that dude i can you got that far i'm gonna send you you got you got you got as far as next wednesday bro i got to a room i got to a i got to the point where the guy showed me his studio with all the shirts he designed laying up in his in the living oh my god so you got to the fucking finish line and then nothing i've i've got to the finish this is what i'm saying i don't mind if it's like a chat one conversation and then you fuck me off of course but when you put your because one thing that's spinning me out now it's not the money it's the fact what did you do with all them fucking shirts bro i'm gonna send you one bro right i'm gonna send you these shit they are fucking dope i mean i mean it's not it doesn't say skin dread it's not like that you'd look at it and you go wow that is cool because then when i say that's benji webb's thing you go fuck me i can see it now right right you know it's that it was that kind of cool like you know how long it's been since you've been on the show for a long time
Speaker 1is this dude been how long has it been now since you got
Speaker 2a reply from this guy um fuck me he was really cool for the first i'd say six months so i reckon it's been about 18 months now we haven't bothered with me oh yeah 18 months that's the worst thing right i left him a message saying what the fuck bro what am i black or something sort me out back you know and and he totally ignored that and i went okay maybe i should have said that um i'll try another one and i asked him again and the worst thing is like he disappeared then for like four months and then he appeared with this woman in his life and i was like that's not i'm happy for him i'm happy for it i've seen her on instagram and then he disappeared again that's weird and like oh yeah i just wish i just what i'd like to say to any human out there if you're doing something with somebody and they're the creative and you're the actual person who's doing it and they're giving you the ideas and you're sick of it tell them you're sick of it before you wind them up too much 100 yeah and
Speaker 1if you fuckers are listening answer benji's fucking messages
Speaker 2yeah yeah man come on guys man i ain't that bad yeah brother i tell you it's cool though bro life is full of lessons and as long as we learn from them that's cool you
Speaker 1know amen 100 yeah but you know i just can't believe that shit happens to you at your level you know i would have thought any t-shirt designer worth this salt would want to work with benji webb and skin dredge you know no mate it happens it
Speaker 2happens listen i got a friend in metallica and it happens to him too believe you me that's i think it's just human fucking condition of bullshit it's called you know i mean people get excited right but i wish they get excited and go i'm not excited no more yeah you know and then it would make your life easier i'm sure your listeners are like fucking get over it no but it's
Speaker 1interesting man because we don't think that this shit happens to people higher up the food chain than ourselves you know yeah and i think it's healthy for people to hear this shit because you know you otherwise you could think it just happens to you and there's so much of that now in our culture and it was social media and everyone's life looks like it's so much fucking better than yours and everyone's looks like they're so much more successful and than yours you know and it trashes people's mental health it's not good it doesn't help the cause at all man you know what i mean yeah i love it when i get people like yourself who are so open and honest about the true reality of what life is like on their rung of the ladder you know it gives the rest of us a bit it gives the rest of us a bit of hope but we think okay it's not just me cool i'll crack on then you know and it kind of segues nicely into something that i wanted to ask you about which is a bit of a curveball question because i know in interviews people always want to hear about or ask about you know the successes and all that sort of stuff and the rock and roll glamour and stuff yeah but i actually think there's it's more interesting and there's more to learn from the failures i think it helps people out to know that other people have them as well and also other people can learn then from those who've been over the trenches before them you know yeah i'd be really keen to hear of some situations that have been you know like you've considered to be crushing disappointments or like near misses or missed opportunities or anything like that just just to give the rest of us a little bit of morality
Speaker 2boost you know all right listen when i was listen i probably even to this day i always think of us as the band that nearly was like i even to this day you know i mean like pulling as many people as fucking ramsfina download on a friday evening was pretty cool right yeah man and but i always look at it like we the band that nearly happened we nearly happened it's like one time yeah and that's how i feel even to this day bro i mean maybe it's a good thing because i'm always striving to be the guy right you know what i mean i'm not i don't rest on my laurels from that it makes me go you know i want to like the other night i was watching um something called 60 years of welsh pop music now i've always felt like the black sheep of wales no one ever fucking was not interested but then i realized how much i have got going compared to some of my mates you know because some of my mates been doing this music thing as long as i have and they've never had a break they've never played download yeah you know they're still playing the fucking ship and anchor on a wednesday night you know what i mean and and and you've got to take into account how blessed you are and it makes me feel like that like the other night i was watching 60 years of welsh pop and and i do watch because i do like i like super furry animals and some of the you know some of the bands i never even realized well well it's like andy fairweather low and stuff like that and i'm watching a single with fucking all this is cool as fuck and next thing you know they put us on there and my wife said to me see you're always moaning that they never put you they never talk about skin dread they never talk about skin dread and they did you know and i was like wow but one thing i'd say is back in the day when um one of the most most crushing disappointing things that happened to me and jeff in the um in the early days of dub war we released the our single called cry dignity and this was the record company's last shot they were like fuck them after this if they don't happen after this they will fuck off kind of thing so cry dignity came out on the friday and we had a good call from the label saying hey you know it's going really well it's doing really really well and we're like wow that's cool so sunday and then they said well but we're not going to find out till sunday till the chat is on the actual chat show on bbc radio one on the chat so so me and jeff and richie and jing all met in this cafe down down in newport so we're all sat there we got a little transistor radio uh put the radio on at number 40 right and we go okay top 40 we're listening top top top top they go down four five six they do like top they got the top 20 and we're looking at each other going oh my god i'm just looking at me i'm looking at jeff when they get to the top 10 bro we're still there right we're going no fucking way this is before the internet see this is before you're fucking so it's just word of mouth bro yeah it got the number four right and we're looking at oh my god oh my god no way got the number two we're like and we're like this can't be right and we're not we're still excited and then the guy said number one a band called upside down they were the first ever yeah they were the first ever band that had a tv documentary about them and that the tv documentary was on the friday night when i was because that just boosted their sales so we and then when we were on the monday when we called the label actually one of the people called jinge called the record label that evening one of the guys and they said change we got the 41 in the british charts 41 41 oh you I was fucking i dragged my feet i was like a wet fucking rat coming home from town that night i remember walking i looked at my snack because we were like we were fucking ordering beers and fucking buzzing about this thing and thinking we're number fucking one bro we're number one no i mean we yeah the record company did all they could do we did all we could do you know what i mean but we got the number four but the funny thing was like we listened from 40 to 40 to a number one bill and we were 41 we were just on the other side of it oh it's like therapy yeah so that was pretty fucking heartbreaking i bet man um when when we were um doing our dub war thing we were quite good and people were digging us like when we played red in the phoenix festival and all these cool old school 90s festivals we did we did the manic street preacher tour which was absolutely incredible another romantic thing that was shit during the tour but it's now it's beautiful if you know what i mean right you know but at the time it was hard work but um the word was another one that we were told we were going to be on and we were on on tour with a band called the blaggers blaggers ita and we were told that during the tour there's a possibility that we are going to be picked to go on the word and we're like wow and the guy from the word came to see us in um a place called harlow yeah i know it and um a week later we went home and we're all expecting i don't know i don't know i don't know sat in there i was watching the word the fucking blaggers was on yeah i just remember looking at looking at the telly well my god i'm sure maybe they got the wrong band yeah you know i mean it is it is a it is um someone said to me you you gotta be tough to be in rock and roll and it's not to be a hard man it's just to take the beat up oh yeah you know thick skin yeah and it's true i mean you look around you and you see bad guys and you see bad bands doing so well and you wish them well but you still think fuck i wish that was me you know
Speaker 1what i mean so what is your like you you mingle in those circles i mean you said you got a friend in metallica do they say the same thing is this like you said is this a human condition thing
Speaker 2i moan about they moan about right this one's a wanker that one's a wanker he wants everything for himself same thing bro same thing where i complain i'll be i'll be honest with you with dub war i have more arguments in dub war now than i ever fucking did but skin dreads started to you know i mean i think we're growing i mean 20 years with the same fucking lineup it's something to celebrate oh yeah man yeah you know i mean the drummer i mean jeff and jim jeff when we first started and recorded the first album jeff and ginger was in the band you know uh but they left quite quickly you know the first american song we did uh mikey and aria was playing and then we revamped the album so that mikey and aria had music on the album so they didn't feel like they wasn't you know what i mean yeah it was actually part of it not just playing other people's music and we did that but to us so being a band for 20 years i think that's pretty successful oh damn you
Speaker 1know and it's still going
Speaker 2strong as well dude you know what i mean it's like i think so bro i i you know i mean i'd love to like you know i mean when you see some people on on their instagram and all that you get like they put a picture of their dog and they get 90 million and now i put a picture of me singing this beautiful aria you know and get two likes yeah got you yeah you know what i mean you always think you always think and that's why people say to me you know you're doing so well and yeah i do realize and i do count my blessings and i know that i'm doing well you know what i mean but you just got i think sometimes you've got to be blinkered you know don't watch the other horses in the race yeah just run your own race right i think i've learned to do that and that's it without getting upset and all that without saying well i'm good i'm good what's wrong with me that little kid from this is therapy
Speaker 1for me dude i'm so glad that you're you're you're speaking so openly and honestly about this because i think everybody is the same all of us bands you know that look up to skin dread you know we all feel exactly the same you know in our in our level you know
Speaker 2what just like in the just like in the sketch with um john cleese and the two ronnie's i look up to him but he looks down to me you know i mean someone's we're always looking up there but there's always someone complaining it's like we played with volbeat and some of the venues was absolutely incredible you know and i could see that some of the nights they were they were gutted because it wasn't wasn't ram-packed okay but they're there i mean you walk down this hall to get to the stage and you're walking past like bring me the horizon dolly parton cliff richards michael jackson yeah you know i mean yeah humble dirk humble dink and all these people have been in this dress group in this place where you are yeah i think for me personally a lot of the time on that tour i took i consoled myself with the fact that i'm doing great things i'm doing great things you know and that's it you know what i like it's the
Speaker 1it's a cliche but it is the journey not the destination in it because like if you weren't dragging your ass around america playing with snot and a beaten up trans event i'm sure there were tons of adventures like you say when you look back now you've got fond memories because it is i mean you know if you just if you were fucking working in an office you know and you stayed there for the rest of your life you wouldn't have any of these riches no stories you know what i mean
Speaker 2memories you know i mean even stuff that's happened to me like divorce and things like that at the time it was murder and i said this to a lot of my friends and friends were going through that kind of stuff at the time it's murder yeah but once you get through the battleground and then you find somebody else who you check for or you love that's the sweet spot love it and you think to yourself thank fuck i got away from her in the end or in you know thank thank fuck i got away from him because i'm in a better situation my heart wise and my and my and my mind wise i'm in a better situation and sometimes you gotta fucking go through the really shit times one time i had someone say when you're going through hell keep on going because you're only going through well love it you're gonna come out the other side and that's the same with music and it's the same with as life stories go as well i mean you just gotta keep going love it
Speaker 1you know this is this is like a fucking philosophy session i love it man this is great keep keep the wisdom coming dude because
Speaker 2you know bro they tell me they tell me they do enjoy it um i should do is the what i call it fucking the philosophy shit i do enjoy it i love it i love it
Speaker 1man because i i oftentimes like i have um you know successful musicians and stuff on the show and this is the sort of shit that i like because it's more interesting than just talking about like oh yeah i was hanging out with mick jagger once and stuff we've heard all that you know this is the interesting shit for me and this is the useful shit because it helps other people on their journey because they feel like oh well benji's going through that and he's done xyz so okay yeah i'm gonna keep pushing through hell and come out the other side like he did you know so i think it's it's good to have these kind of
Speaker 2conversations yeah i think i think yeah i think you want it well as a musician especially as you know i some of my favorite musicians my bro i'll be honest with you my favorite singer to this day is a guy called nigel smith who does my fucking garden okay right free finger nigel right i'm telling you no that guy's voice is so soulful and he only pisses around and i'm like he's doing a garden sometimes and he and i'll stop and i'll look at him and he's doing his thing and he starts singing oh listen to this bench i wrote this last night wow and i tell you what bro his voice is so soulful but you know he looks like father christmas right but he sounds like god he's got that oh man i don't know what it is he's got that he's got that he's got that zeppelin tone to his voice right you know i mean but there's a richness to it and i mean like i said yeah i've been on a telly nigel been knocking around the pubs and clubs and fucking and open mic nights for years right but i i recognize the talent in his voice you know another beautiful vocalist for me i put nigel my gardener on a pad with kelly jones from fucking studio fire i think he's a beautiful right him rod stewart and kelly jones oh he's got that rasp yeah he's got the gravel there's something about their voice which is special bro you know but i put nigel up there with them you know i mean he's got that tone to his voice man and he's not he's nobody famous you know what i mean like i said already he's just he's just a beautiful guy who i used to know from bands he still plays he can play guitar he can play bass he can play drums ask me what i can play
Speaker 1do you know what i mean it's a great point the great yeah because there's so much especially around here man is so much fucking talent there's so many good bands you know and they're working their ass off and they're all professional and they're doing it on a shoestring with no label and having to work around day jobs and stuff like that and it's fucking heartbreaking man because so many opportunities you know what i mean and there is an unfortunate element of luck because you've got to grab that opportunity you know what i mean if one doesn't come your way you can be the best fucking singer in the world but what where do you go from there you know so i mean it's difficult to know what to tell like emerging bands or bands that are like hammering the circuit because it's tough out there now man we know the state of venues and streaming and all that stuff you know
Speaker 2so you know one thing i always say i always say this to people right figure out fucking trying to be rich just enjoy yourself man take your eye off trying to be famous just enjoy yourself you know i mean and another thing i know i might sound old when i say this i said but if you were making a brick if you're making a a career out of music you don't put your first fucking wall if you if like like a bricklayer if he did a wall he's not going to show put everybody let everybody see the wall he's just built for the first fucking time he's going to keep on that wall and i'd say just do it for the love of yourself and look around you if you can look around you on stage and say that's the that's my favorite guitarist in the world yeah that's that's the blessing bro i mean chasing them chasing the dollar you know i mean chasing the dollars you know is one aspect of it but when you stand on stage you look behind you and see a drummer you love and you not just love you actually dig the way he plays and you wouldn't want to be without him yeah you know i think that's that's the magical thing in rock and roll if and i know i'm blessed from from a very early age from the first time i got in a band and i and i didn't even get a record deal until i was 26. you know what i mean i'm 55 now and i didn't get a record deal until i was 26. and i found old then you know what i mean because a lot of a lot of the stuff was happening bands were happening you know singers were happening but i i didn't do i didn't do it until eric records came into my life right you know but i was doing it not trying to get a record deal i just didn't want to fucking work with my brothers painting and decorating i was never going to do that as much as i'm the worst fucking renderer you'll ever see i am you know my brother when my brother used to give me work to paint and decorate and he'd have to go back and do it himself after you know what i mean when i he'd say you know i'm doing it because i love you not because you're fucking good that's great advice
Speaker 1man so those bands out there because i know because i've been there i did it for 10 years we never got above the transit van level washing in the car park with warm bottled water and shit like that uh it's fucking horrendous that's what i put in my book and i think the reason the book did well is because it had that appeal more people could relate to it than they could relate to stories about private planes cocaine and groupies you know um i think that was your peer because most bands that's that's the level they do stay at you know so
Speaker 2well i think you know what in all honesty i think what you're talking about there is is 95 percent of the musicians yeah not the not the elite to actually get the play on download and they got andy coppin's phone number you know what i mean there ain't many musicians who got that vibe going on yeah you know i mean so your book will appeal to those i mean i can't even i can't bro there's so many musicians i respect and i love that never like like you said never left the transit panel it's still on the transit van but the main thing they are on a transit van but they're still doing it they haven't given up i think once you go i'm not doing this no more that's when it's over right you know that's for me anyway and i and i got so many people go out do you want to buy my arm no i don't want to buy your fucking amp keep it oh no i've had enough bro i've had enough i can't bro you know what and that's when it's over for you because you've given up now yeah totally you know what i mean it's like people come up to me all the time people have people who come with me all the time every other day they go still singing are you bench you know i go yeah i'm still singing bro oh yeah yeah i've seen you on um on the telly before yeah still doing it bro you know they don't know what else you're gonna do that's you that's what you do that's bro i mean i'm pretty shit at painting the decoration that's my brother serious you know he won't even give me a gig i did say to him when the when the pandemic hit and we had no money and nothing was coming in and nothing was being sold no gigs you know i lived my life through rock and roll show if i'm on the phone to you are you making money bro during the time you see me making money is when i'm running up and down like an idiot right you know and i did say to my brother during the pandemic can you can you help me out not a fucking chance he said i might as well my brother said to me i might as well get my dog and get a fucking paintbrush and put on his tail that's
Speaker 1fucking interesting dude so you reached out to your brother in
Speaker 2the pandemic yeah and he said fuck you man fucking dude he said go and see richie see that he might give you a couple of quid man i'm surprised at that shit i surprised no he wouldn't well what he was what he's trying to say the standard of painting that he's got is a good business and he don't i'm surprised that you had to reach out that's what i'm surprised that a guy was feeling the game you know that's the way i mean at the time you know at the time i was i was all right believe you me i was all right but i was thinking if it got fucking worse okay that's what i was thinking but i wasn't like really like desperate but even though i did say to him listen if worse comes to worse and um he said don't fucking ask me for work okay no i don't care who you are he said i might you might he said i might as well stick a fucking paintbrush on a dog's tail if you're only gonna do the painting
Speaker 1bro if any anyone's out there listening to this and and bench ever falls on hard times and comes knocking your door with a fucking can of paint in his hand just shut the door in his face
Speaker 2yeah yeah please yeah please please shut i'll shut the fucking door in my face
Speaker 1well that's interesting dude because that that leads me into something i wanted to ask you about because you've you've been in the game a while now you know you've seen the industry change you came up in the old model you know in the 90s yeah yeah yeah and and then and now you're very much in the new model you've seen the whole shift and you've been in it and and stayed afloat in it so what are your thoughts man do you think it's better now um with social media and the ability to make your own records because for people like me um who doesn't have a record deal i've done seven albums it didn't cost me a penny them all in this fucking room you know i was able to keep it moving i self-distributed myself some of them did better than others you know and i was able to do my thing i couldn't have done that in the 90s because you know you couldn't make your own record back then you know it's too fucking expensive yeah so i'm kind of an evangelist for the new model but it's because it's all i know you know so what are your thoughts i think
Speaker 2you know the both ways are great bro i mean knocking the door door-to-door bible salesman music is the way to go and also if you can get the big monster beyond you it's the way to go there's not there's no way you can get the big monster beyond you it's the way to go there's not there's a lot of ways to skin a cat bro you know there's a lot of ways to skin a cat and we haven't got to follow a model i mean i hear the other day not that i know anything about fucking even music but i had storms i haven't even got a manager really yes mate you know what i'm saying stormzy i've done all that shit himself fucking hell you know i mean he's never he's never time and all that crap but i'm just trying to say look you know the thing i always go you need a manager you need this you need that there's a lot of acts out there with the internet and the way it fucking works and the way it works and the way it works and the way it works and the way it works and the way it works and the way it works and the way it works and the way it works and the way it works and the way it works and the way it works and the way it works and the way it works and the way it works and the way it works and the way it works and the way it works and the way it works and the youtube i think what you need is a clever motherfucker in a room with a fucking computer that's what you need now right and you can be the biggest in the world on that circuit you know i mean i just think you did this there's more than one ways to skin a cat but if i had my chance to live again i would just get some fucking i get four clever bastards with a computer and i think they would help with your social media because i think your social media thing is really important yes especially if you want to touch on so if you if you get you get a team of people who are behind it it's like i do my own but social media myself and it's shit i know that and i'm too tired to spend it on somebody to do it for me but i just know that looking on it when you see some of these acts out there like people come at me and say you know this one and that one i never fucking hear them oh they sold out brixton academy five times
Speaker 1yes happens all the time yeah man
Speaker 2i mean come on now yeah you know and that's right that's what i love that it's not all fucking bmg or sony or someone it's mad in from fucking fraser's road and sorted and shit his shit out yeah yeah you know and i think that's beautiful i really do i mean i i'd love to be in a situation where i have i wasn't dependent on a record label or waiting for a time for the time slot you know because i know being being with eric records i gotta wait for that stuff and i gotta wait for this and i gotta wait for that right but i just think there's so many ways you can skin the cat nowadays it's not just one way to walk in there that's what i think yeah but i do think the social media that kid in his who got it down and knows how to do the memes and knows how to do this and knows how to do that and they keep their ear to the ground and they know what's happening if you can get a team of people like that i think that's what in this day and age i think that's you it's not plain sailing but you're in a better position
Speaker 1you're in a better position yeah 100 because in the lockdown i was making about 500 bucks a month just from spotify because not because i was getting loads and loads of streams but because i've got a seven album catalog and i own 100 all of it because i'm independent so i got the label side i got the publishing you know i set up my own publishing outfit and i got the writer's side producer's side everything the performance side so you know there's only a few hundred bucks
Speaker 2being a help like chuck d said bro if you don't own the masters the masters
Speaker 1own you 100 yeah man
Speaker 2and you and like you telling me that that's that's that's pretty brilliant mate that is absolutely you know i mean i brought during the lockdown i did a covers album which obviously doesn't belong to me uh but it was just fun to do that kind of thing it was called i think it was called 2020 isolation project right and it's still it's still out there basically i took classic rock songs and i did reggae and ska versions of them nice and i had a lot of fun doing that but that was more for my own mental well-being more than anything you know i want i would have wanted to do it with with um skin dread but then boys i find musicians the worst it's just so like i'm not sure about the word i'm not sure about that comes out of their mouth so much so in the end i did it with my mate with it on his um on his keyboard thing and we just did we did that isolation project which is really good like you know but for you to have all that going on bro that's that's brilliant
Speaker 1well i wonder sometimes because you know i do it all by myself and it's a 24 hour 24 7 job you know like i miss so much like socially and in terms of what other people are doing because doing that just stay in a flow independent you know when because i play all the instruments i do all the production i run the label you know i've got my i've got a commission for my second book now i'm doing the podcast i'm like you i'm busy as fuck but because i'm independent i don't have anybody to bounce anything off or anybody handling you know media or promotion or booking or anything like that it can feel a little bit overwhelming and like fuck you know am i doing this the right way have i made a rod for my own back yeah other guys are going to figure it
Speaker 2out you know i think you have made a rod for own back but at least you're giving yourself the idea do you know what i mean like it yeah i i think it's better you you make that run for your back but at least but you can actually put the pressure on or take it off bro you've got the foot on the gas and it's out it's how fast you want it to drive great you know and i think you telling me that now you know it you know you got it going on bro yeah i'm signed to a record label yeah i'm signed to a label yeah whatever you know what i mean it's not important like it was before right you know and that's that's how i view it i really do there's so many ways that people can get to where they need to go yeah it's lovely to go to rockfield you know oh man it's beautiful to go to bay seven in los angeles you know all these amazing it's got what's the show i wouldn't be able to go there if it was just me right i would need that for the in order to go to these amazing and i've been to some of the best studios in the world and i've been to some of the best studios in the world and i've been to some of the best studios in the world and i've been to some of the best studios in the world you know the last skin dread album we recorded called smile is coming out on the 4th of august um this year we've dropped one single called give it that bum but we went to a studio in in worcestershire called vader made oh such a beautiful recording issue oh yeah and it's in it's not like it's in it's actually in a georgian mansion yeah yeah and the good thing about it the guy who runs it um matt matt he was just like the biggest hat guy you know he'd want to you know he'd come in the studio in the morning it wasn't troubling you're getting in your way but i'd miss that you know what i mean and i know that doing doing the the the dub what album in my house and at richie's house and at jeff's house it was great fun but the actual going to the studio for that memory you know it's like i'm trying to get the record company because we've got a lot of more on this record of skin dreads we got a lot more sort of it's heavy as fuck but there's a lot more dance all reggae vibes in there as well right and i'm to pay for us to go over to jamaica to do all the videos yeah i know bro and i'm really working on it like and i really want to go to jamaica to do the videos because not because i want to go to jamaica because life is made of memories bro love it you know and that's not and not because you know i mean i'd fucking put my own money out of my own pocket to go there just to have the memories of doing the videos in jamaica going to dunge river falls going to fucking kingston jamaica doing these really cool fun videos making it look like fucking evil fugees you know what i mean you know what i mean and i got that in my head and i really and i hopefully before before i and i think making memories is a very important thing as a musician as well love it you know like you said yeah like being in your room on your own and doing it you on your own it's lonely yeah but being in a team it's like it's like it's like a double-edged sword you can't win yeah you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't you know that's how
Speaker 1i look at it man you you were dropping so much fucking wisdom on this i'm loving it man you you're gonna put a spring in my step for the rest of the week honestly we pat myself on the back after this
Speaker 2big yourself up mate fuck them all and big yourself up
Speaker 1where do you where do you get this energy from bench have you always been like this you know yeah just who you are yeah i've always
Speaker 2been like this i've always had the fight and the and the desire i try to keep the call i like you know i think that's one thing that's when you got when you got a piece of coal you take it out to the fire it's gonna go cold it's like i i'm the one like and sometimes i piss myself off because i'm trying to encourage the boys in the band you know it's not easy being in a band no matter who you are yeah so i'm the one who sends the stupid fucking we gotta love each other and live together and you know
Speaker 1cheerleader come on guys we
Speaker 2got this yeah that's what i'm trying to do with skin dread sometimes i do that because we do fall into places where he's a cat no you're the cat you're the cat your song writing shit no yours is and you know i mean and it does it hurts your heart like it just it weighs heavy on you right so i just want to be in a in um one thing about a band with long jeopardy the the fire goes out as in like we gotta kick in um fucking brazil oh nice one not brazil again fucking hell oh brazil is it fucking miles away it's like i still got the fire and i say to the boys come on man don't be like that yeah let's just rally around and if there's two people like you're like oh you know i mean let's let's sort it out and stuff like that because i don't care who you are it's it's it's it's it's it's you know we're not all like mark my wife's living sleeping in the same bed having a good laugh and i think sometimes you've got to really you really gotta watch the people around you because mental health is something that you let it go you let it slip real quick oh yeah you know you won't even know your friend you know the people in my band is suffering this shit suffering from mental health including myself including them um so we gotta watch how people's lives are not just i'll meet you on stage next week you know we i want to call dan up and go hey how are you doing i want to call mikey up and say how are you doing yeah you know it's this especially living in newport i can pop over jeff's house i can pop over richie's and see him look him in the eyes yeah but when you don't see each other from four or five six months i want to make sure that the people in my band are still okay you know because you know not all not all of us got fucking beautiful wives and families and all that stuff around some of us are our own you know and yeah i think you need to be there for people and well i want to be there for people not everybody's there for everybody but i want to be there for my band mates i just don't i always say when i introduce mikey my my guitarist i go this is mikey my friend he also plays guitar with me love it you know it's not just oh yeah he's just my guitarist i don't want to be just my guitarist yeah i think that that you know i mean it's not it's not just the money-making machine it's about the memories that we make it's a family man i i always go i try to find in the last four years i put on a lot of weight about four years ago and i and i went from fucking 19 stone down to 14 and i kept it off and now i'm not 16 wow and now i'm 16 so i kept the i kept two off but um i tell you it's not easy to go to gym every day i fucking ate in most days bro but what i found the the love that me and mikey had on the last tour is he started coming to the top coming to the gym with me right so we get to get up in the morning i'm an early morning i'm i'm up at fucking seven most mornings like he's 11 o'clock man so i get up i'd find the gym text him and go look mike this is where the gym is come on down i've been there in a half hour and i'm like okay i'm gonna go to the and we get to the gym and i think that that was really good because when you're doing weights the last thing you want is your fucking guitar is pushing more than you so it was very motivating and i found that we we rekindled the love that we lost exercise
Speaker 1is so good for mental health as well man i because i i've had those battles myself and i i also lost a couple of stone a few years ago you know i got really really into it cardio every day lift you know weight lifting nutrition all that sort of stuff and it can get quite addictive and obsessive you know and i just feel fucking the lockdown you know it all went to shit you know so i'm trying to get back on it now so i can totally relate to that because that bond you're talking about through fitness as well even if it's unspoken or or or intangible it's there you know what i mean definitely
Speaker 2and like i said going to the gym but me and mikey like we was on the road for nine ten weeks and it wasn't a week uh we went to the gym i think we went to the gym like
Speaker 1five days a week wow true to all of that i still still playing in the night as well you must have been fucking burning some calories man
Speaker 2jesus well i thought that was the beauty of it because i did feel much better for it you know what i mean and i think you know listen i love fucking beer i love chips and i love beans and fucking eggs bro i love that stuff but i think this balance that we have to have especially on the road yeah you know i mean it's like i love a drink i love i love acting crazy but you gotta do it a few times not every fucking night i don't think my voice could hold out drinking booze and fucking screaming at the top of my voice in nightclubs every night going to after parties thing no more when i'm touring because i need i need after performing screaming up and running up and down listen from the microphone in the living room right in your studio to a stage you're using a different form of your voice totally you know you know the things you do in the studio with the mic you can't do that and expect people to hear you yeah so you really got to give it all you got well i gotta give it all i got when i'm on stage so hence when i come off stage it's no use we go into a fucking after party but i gotta scream and scream how are you doing that was a great show that was fucking music blasting what's that yeah and you're screaming and i found out um and it took me a while mind that i'd do a tour and the first four shows i'd be great and then for the rest of the tour i'd be struggling right you know what i mean and what i found out is just rest your voice go to bed yeah you know the good thing about supporting volbeat god bless them they're beautiful guys and all that but by the time they went on stage i was wrapped up in my fucking paper i mean i caught because i like i like me want to i like the shows on a saturday i'm a saturday night kind of guy so i like to watch you because i know no one's got work in the morning or very few of the audience go work in the morning so i'd like to go watch volbeat on a saturday right so you know what i mean and what i was so when i finished the show yeah i love the ego massage no one loves ego massage like me bro right but what i was finding it was more beneficial as a vocalist and a performer if i went to bed got an early night woke up went to gym i spent the afternoon doing whatever you know what i mean walking around the city i'm a shopaholic as well so i do buy a lot of shit what i'm gonna ask you about that yeah walking walking around city budget and then when you get back to lunch at half past four you have your lunch then it's showtime at about six seven o'clock you know and it was a routine that i got into and i know the reason why my voice held out all that saw was because i was into that routine
Speaker 1right makes a lot of sense yeah i'm more more great advice for bands man i mean well how do you um how do you manage then doing everything that you do whilst also having you know like a home life and a family and a you know wife and all that and personal stuff how do you how do you balance all that i'm always interested in how people manage to strike that balance
Speaker 2i i do you know i believe in this bro me first in the gimme gimme's bro i'm i'm i'm the first right and i've got four children i got 16 grandchildren and a beautiful wife right yeah um i would never want to meet my 16 grandchildren at the same time like that as much as i love it but i mean at the end of the day it's all about balance everything is about balance you know what i mean um i'm fortunate to live in a really shit neighborhood but everybody in the neighborhood knows me there's no you know i mean it's quite quite a heavy neighborhood but you know i mean just helping in the community and doing stuff around for some of your mates and stuff you know what i mean just being there for people you know like a woman the other day you know just doing things i could do like someone says someone's just got cancer what can you do you know i mean the best thing i can do is give you a framed photograph signed by the band and send it to you right you know i find my time is taken up a lot by just doing that yeah you know taking stuff around the people and stuff like that but i'm i want to say you know i'll be honest with you the one of the other than singing and having that blessing in my life one of the most one of the most rewarding things i ever got involved in was was um was was um voluntary work for church right helping uh helping people you know just helping the the homeless and stuff like that i thought that was really good so rewarding yeah oh yeah and i mean like they'd come in and i was when i was i worked in um the voluntary work in a place that was just before skin dread started right and it was so rewarding because i met a lot of a lot of people on drugs a lot of people just fucked up and their life turned a different corner they didn't expect to be homeless or anything like that but i was the one who just take them into the room and give them the showers and get pick their clothes from like you know and i loved it amazing you know taking taking the transformation you know i mean like fucking people covered in lice from head to foot scary shit bro you know what i mean their nails are like fucking nosferatu you know what i mean you gotta cut their nails and tone their feet sometimes fucking wipe their ass yeah you know but i just felt like it was something where it was no one they'd say thank you they'd say thank you but inside myself the reward the the the massage myself give myself was so beautiful and that's the only way i can describe it you know what i mean you've done good today that's amazing you know and i was that was between dub war and
Speaker 1and skin dread i was right in the middle of it how do you find the time to do all this and have you know four kids and a wife and you know and i mean the kids are not kids no more they can
Speaker 2fuck off they look after themselves you know what do you think i am the last time i last time i dealt with him was my daughter's listen i i look at it like this i want to be their dad but i want to be their friend as well bro right you know i want them to be able to console in me and i want people to be able to tell me stuff oh you know i mean if i can't say my missus is my best friend she's not my fucking she shouldn't be my missus yeah i should be able to tell her something and not get upset i'm back and forth you know and i want that to be in a in a relationship and i try you know what i mean no matter what their their mindset or or their beliefs are like you know i try to just just be true like like you know like willie wobbledagger said you know willie wobbledagger is don't you know yeah you do willie wobbledagger some people call him william shakespeare willie wobbledagger said and i think this is fucking too to thine own self be true above all things and i think that's that's fucking great i think that being true to yourself and sometimes people say to you going back to the original conversation when people say yeah i'll do that i'll do that and then they fuck you over it'd be nice if that to be very beginning they said wait a minute i don't want to do a bench instead of like you know you excited because i look how excited i am talking to you i'm an excitable fucking person i love it i love it and that bubble gets burst so fucking easy when people let me down in that aspect you know i i get i get personally if i get an idea for a song and i say it to my bass player on my guitars and they go what you don't understand one day you'll see my genius i i'm like that you know i want i want everyone to be as excited as i am about everything but it's contagious man it's i'm feeling it now you know it's contagious i play i play a song to my bass player it's funny because he'll play me a beat and i'm fucking banging my head my head's moving you can't see it but it's moving banging my head and then i'll play him one and he goes stiff as a fucking ball puts his hand on his puts his head and goes it's all right i'm like what the fuck i just played you when i was dancing so i guess it's just strokes for folks in it people do do people act in different ways in
Speaker 1different situations i believe you know totally i'm loving this man yeah and then that energy is contagious as well i mean i was going to ask you you know how do you um i was going to ask you how you stay inspired but i don't think you need to i think it's just you uh you it's just in you you you know you're always uh you've got this energy and you've got this passion and this this create and enjoy the moment and i think that seems to be what fuels you
Speaker 2i think you know it's like you said earlier on when when people i do enjoy even the aspect of someone saying look my own life even on that volby tour the reason why i find it so difficult at first because people tell me i'm good all the time and it's like they wasn't saying that i was the support act and i've been reggie webb from skin dread for fucking years but we were doing we i in all my life i've been dying to do cia right sometimes you sometimes you can't choose to get no if it was up to me it'd have been fucking system of a down headlining because i love them there's nothing them guys can do that i think is wrong and i'd love to be the man but no i was given this band from scandinavia wasn't that friendly um they didn't come into your dressing room and make sure you was okay right they said hello sheepishly in the hallway as you walk past but that but they were the breaks that i had to deal with and i had to make and i and at first going on that's all i was like it was like i'm like i said i'm this guy so when i meet people who are like hey man it's like yeah it's a funny saying you know you learn to play the game with the cards you've been dealt and that's exactly what i did with the volby vibe now i know at the beginning with the tour manager was pretty standoffish the production manager was standoffish stage manager was standoffish brother nine weeks after that for eight weeks i'd say for like six weeks they were fucking standoffish and i'd be like wow what the fuck have i done wow man i haven't done anything you know you can't but you know what the last two weeks then people started opening up right telling you how good how happy they were to have you on the tour you guys are a breath of fresh air thank you so much and there's me thinking oh they fucking hate me yeah no bro it's all in the battleground was in my mind not theirs they were doing a job yeah
Speaker 1and everyone's seen them with battles they might have their own battles going on that you didn't know about exactly but
Speaker 2to say i went home twice on that tour in nine weeks then poor bastards from fucking atlanta canada yeah they never went home bro so why the fuck should they care about me running up and down acting all silly got you you know but by the time the end of the tour came the same people i thought didn't really like the band or didn't give a fuck about us really enjoyed us and they they made they made that known and that was the best part of the job and i had my drummer look at me the one day because you know what i'm
Speaker 1like you went see it's not all about you it's just great to hear this man thanks so much for sharing this with us benji i mean this is like i think a lot of people are gonna really relate to this and it's gonna make them feel a lot better about their own journey as well because like i said you know everyone will all kind of feel like this shit only happens to us you know good
Speaker 2good i mean at the end of the day bro you know i mean like i said i i couldn't live anywhere in the world i wanted to live in new box i wanted to be like full of a better word like a shining beacon in a place where you know just the other musicians around you don't look and go well you know what you haven't got to do anything more than just be yourself you know what i mean and i think that's important you know what i mean i mean somebody i who've checked for me over the years and you know and some of the singers and the musicians you know i'm like wow i can't believe they did me like but you know i mean people see talent in other things like and you haven't necessarily got to see yourself you know
Speaker 1i love it i love it i love your whole attitude man your attitude on life and one thing i also love is your uh which i which i think is a reflection of what's inside is your fucking style man where do you get your clothes and where can i get a pair of those sunglasses from
Speaker 2um my style you know what when i was a little little boy and they asked me to be the king in the play in the nativity play i went to rehearsal and then like three days before the show i put the king clothes on and you know what the feeling i got from putting them fucking king clothes on the crown and the weird little fucking arabic clothing thing they put me in was magical right and i never did anything like that until i was much older and then when i but when i started singing in bands it wasn't about the way you dressed and all i was just i know you couldn't hold that down you couldn't you couldn't like portray that but i got to a stage in skin dread it's because i ended up where i was always wearing army clothes and all that but when it comes to a stage in skin dread i was like when elvis walks into a room you know elvis is in the room when michael jackson walks in a room you know michael's in the room when the pope walks in a room you definitely knows he's in a room so i said and when freddie walks into a room you know freddie's right hell yeah and i thought i want i want a piece of that and that's when it started small like a little fucking shiny bracelet okay maybe you know it started small but then i got this older ego called nigarachi he's the black bastard son of liberace and when i'm putting all this shit on bro and i put in this all this i just love it i think there's nothing i mean it doesn't matter you know like for me putting on the putting on the clothes and doing that that all that stuff is the best and i love and i love i love the dress-up thing i love that i love putting it on and putting on the like the the spiky glasses and just coming the older ego you know like i said my other ego is nigarachi
Speaker 1is your alter ego that from the real bench though because i imagine i just i just think if you dressed like that in the house well no do you know
Speaker 2what's happened is the other ego what happened is bro it used to be something i could do now and again but now it's just taken over right there is there is no benji wear just the other guy you know i i and i love that you know i mean people say to me all the time i'll go how could you wear that i said i don't know i just put it on this morning they said well i'll tell you what bro i wouldn't get away with it and i said i agree you look good in you know and that's it it's working man it's confidence isn't it i think in whatever you do if you've got confidence and you just say right you know i don't walk into a pub full of fucking you know west ham supporters and go i feel sheepish you know you gotta walk and feel it and that's what i feel like you know and i still feel like putting on the clothes and wearing wearing the outlandish shit is what i want to do and what i want to portray as a friend man you know love it
Speaker 1love it do you customize your clothes yourselves or do you buy it because i've never i do i used
Speaker 2well this first pair of glasses i did try to make but despite me when that was fucking fun yeah that was real fun but i see things i see things and i go right wow that jacket looks good i wonder if i could do that like that and i got a few different people around the country like say i had the i had one of the download suits i call it kenevil because it's based on evil kenevil and uh and it's got a and it's strange because the only way i can describe it is i got the evil kenevil thing but i want a russian military vibe to it as well you know what i mean and that's the way i do it and i got different things like i like i got one called king kong which is this full-on fucking black fur you know what i mean so and that's the vibe i just look at i'm very i'm very movie orientated i'm crazy movie from from fucking saturday night fever all the way up to pop fiction i'm just crazy for movies right and sometimes i see things in movies and i go i wonder if i could just add that with that and see what it looked like unfortunately i got people around the world who i can't do other pictures but they know my voice and they know what i want to see right and i said because they ain't got the ideas it's the same with a guy with the fucking t-shirts he never had the idea for the shirts i gave him the ideas and then he made them up and i went that's it and i do that a lot with different things and different people you know around around the world and sometimes it looks fucking brilliant and sometimes it's like where are
Speaker 1you going well nick from the manics does that with his jackets didn't he because he's got he's got a girl down south that customizes it with a stencil shit and stapling things well that's it well i
Speaker 2mean you've got to remember the manics came when they went their idea the vibe i think anyway was definitely from
Speaker 1the clash oh 100 100
Speaker 2you know and when i when i seen when i seen um the clash as a kid growing up because the pistols had one vibe but the clash had another oh the class was cool i mean the pistols you'd have to go to westwoods and buy that shit right right you know but with the clash you know you could get your dad's jacket and spray some shit on there
Speaker 1and yeah the clash were cool man
Speaker 2and i'm still doing it i did myself you know and i actually did him at the show on the morning of the gig like i get to the right get to the gig go to primark go to um body art or whatever it's called works go to the works get a tin of spray and go back make a stencil and just do that shit you know and i enjoy that and i think that's pretty that's pretty because when i was a kid i couldn't afford bondage trousers i remember i was i was there when the sex pistols were still together i was i was a kid you know my dad looked at the paper showed me a picture of all these punks with pins in their nose and said that's what my dad said look at these lot like and they're from the jungle like you know but i remember that so but i remember going and finding old trousers and ripping them and fucking sewing zips on them you know what i mean and that's what we did as a kid growing up and i and i love that
Speaker 1fact and that's true punk rock man that's the punk rock aesthetic diy in all things you know
Speaker 2i always say blue banana got some cool shit but you can't beat you're making your own you know what i mean yeah i love it you know and i think that's what punk is about diy you know it definitely is and i still got that aspect because i when i went to graceland i've been i've been to graceland fuck me i can honestly say i've been to graceland six times wow yeah because you know when i got a day off and i'm in memphis that's where i'm heading off you know that's where i'm going and i've been there about six times and first times i went there when the third and fourth time i went there you see a lot of things different you know the clothes are different and you realize that elvis 60 comeback special is not that special you know when you go close to it and have to look at it you can see it's fucking it looks it's not it's in a glass case you know all these cool elvis catsuits but you can see how rough they look and there's nothing better than smoke and mirrors bro when you get on that stage and there's a little smoke and the lights it's something else some of the stuff i wore on stage you wouldn't fucking believe it when you see it up close you know what i mean but i think with the smoke and the mirrors add the spark and the sequence yeah the lighting
Speaker 1yeah man yeah man yeah yeah yeah love it well yeah i'm gonna be going down the works as soon as i put the fucking stop on this podcast now and get some spray paint
Speaker 2well actually i've got
Speaker 1a badass jacket man it's in the other room but i'd show it to you but i'll send i'll send you a picture of it um yeah like friends of mine over in essex have got a company that do like bespoke custom kind of denim wear stuff where they get like um like distressed denim and then they paint these amazing fucking works of art on it like proper like heavy metal gothic looking shit and then they sprinkle it with like crystals and stuff and it looks fucking amazing because they're totally one-offs you know and when my album came out big anchor great again they they sent me a jacket um totally just for free you know which is fucking awesome of them um with the album cover cover the complete back of the jacket and uh it dude it looks it looks the absolute shit honestly so big shout out to uh jean jacket designs man oh send me a
Speaker 2picture man i love that that's what i'm saying i like that shit bro yeah and that's that's that's my vibe really i mean i think dressing to go on stage is so important and i'm glad that my guitarist and um in skin dread is sort of stepped up mikey's basically he wants to like wear cool shit now as well so we get these got these like fucking black hats and glasses yes it looks cool when i'm walking the world when i'm walking the stage with mikey and the boys it's like yeah we
Speaker 1look badass the band the whole band looks fucking badass man it's a good well you
Speaker 2know what the guys from bad wolves they were saying to us like you know and i thought they were taking the piss at first but they were the opening act on the volby talk and the guys from bad wolves they'd say like you know you guys and i thought it was oh yeah whatever yeah but they genuinely meant that when they when we were going towards the stage we looked like we was going to do some fucking damage and it looked like a fucking
Speaker 1rock and roll band that's yeah
Speaker 2yeah amen brother and that's the way you want to be right damn
Speaker 1fucking straight 100 man well speaking of the band and everything you got going on before we wrap up fill us in one more time what's happening what's coming
Speaker 2up what's going on well well dub war released that album um on eric records uh called westgate under fire and beautiful thing about that and that's like 25 years 25 fucking years really that shit since we released the first album pain on eric records so that's really cool um skin red signed to eric as well um and i thought that was that was such a good thing because it's like time is a healer and it's a revealer you know oh dude just a line from my book i said my book i thought i gave up with that i did read your book before i come on but it is it is a time it does give you but it makes things what was hidden come out you know and what i thought was like i can't remember what we're talking about now yeah i'm being with eric records i mean last monday but there's a wednesday monday 29 years ago to the day a song of ours called Gorrit came out I spent Sunday evening in shock I just couldn't believe I kept Jenny said you're going to fucking say that again 20 I was just in shock that it's been that long I've had so many good times bro more than bad you know and I've lost some beautiful people along the way but their memory stays with me and still makes me smile you know yes they're not there to make me smile but I can go back to that memory bank and bring them back you know for that time when I need them you know what I mean and they still make me laugh but I'm looking back at that and just 25 29 years it's been a long journey but I think I feel like I'm on the winning side
Speaker 1100% dude 100% and long may it continue bro as well let's hope you got another fucking 29 in you man you know
Speaker 2I got a lot of fucking oh yeah so what I got happening is this the double tour coming up Westgate under fire that starts on the 1st of March and ends on the 9th we got an amazing television program in Germany to do on the 20th on the 18th which is really cool because Jeff was watching it the other night and you know you've had the Deftones on there you've had fucking Frank Black just amazing band can't remember the name I'll drop you a list of it but yeah we got that going on and I'm really excited because I'll be honest with you the next Skindred album is probably the best since Babylon and I can say that honestly it's just so I mean the pandemic as much as it was a curse it was a blessing for people who want to be creative and I know that I took the time to really write and really think about my subject matters on this I mean I'm always going to be singing as long as the world is unjust and fucking horrible I'm going to be there to sing about it
Speaker 1it's going to be good songs yeah man
Speaker 2yeah it inspires me to sing don't get me wrong because we've got a song on a new album that we performed at Download called Smile Please L-O-V-E and we had the opportunity to play something really heavy or play something really nice something reggae and different from what you would get at Download and when I because I wanted to play something heavy you know I really and I thought Ali was fucking with me at first he said well let's play that reggae kind of vibe at Download and I said alright you know sort of sold it to me and when we played it you know in a field full of fucking heavy metal hardcore people they all dug this song called Love and I thought that was the best thing you know I mean it really made me go you know what I don't care what colour you are what sexuality you are you want love and that is the most I can't express in my musical career enough that love is something that I love to watch I love to see people smile when I play and I love to feel that energy coming back and the best of all is when they're walking out the venue sometimes I go on the bus and I just sit in the bus and watch people coming out the venues and I just see them hugging smiling loving and that bro it is priceless
Speaker 1you're doing great work man it's the same ethos as when you were working in the homeless shelter all those years ago and helping out you know what I mean
Speaker 2I don't feel much different it's the same thing you're spreading love
Speaker 1and dude and you've got a lot of love out there for you as well you know we appreciate that we appreciate you man thanks for everything you're doing thanks for coming on the podcast and giving us all this fucking awesome wisdom from you know your incredible life journey we really appreciate it and um yeah we'll just fucking please keep doing your thing along when you continue to shine brother
Speaker 2yeah man I'll send you some shit on um whatsapp alright wicked thank you Benj speak to you soon thanks again for doing this man take care wicked thanks mate bye
Speaker 1and he's gone wow what do you think of that put it together Mr Benji Webb aka a word I can't say oh man I just love it when people know who they are you know Benji like what did he say uh Willy Wobbledagger said you know know thyself an ancient Greek thing coming from Socrates you know um yeah just know who you are like I I get the uh the feeling that the Benji Webb knows exactly who he is and he's very comfortable being Benji Webb and uh his value system man is right on point you know what a cool dude but I love it when people are open and honest like that you know and they share their vulnerabilities and their shortcomings and their failures as well as their strengths and their successes and they manage to make something good out of all of it such a good example and and like so many great one liners as well Jesus Christ what did he say um when you're going through hell keep going I love that man the dude had a lot to say about life and the lessons he's learned you know for the the hard upward journey on the uh the brutal rock and roll freeway and he made a lot of good points about the music business as well I think there's a lot of words of encouragement in there for bands who are kind of slogging it away on the circuit you know and he seemed to be in favor of the new model as well which is interesting because I get both sides on this podcast basically what a dude that was a fun chat that hour flew by we probably could have talked for another I don't know god knows how long but that was a fun chat and I'm a fan Benji Webb we salute you do go and check out everything he's got coming up with the bands Dub War and Skin Dread you can catch Dub War on tour with my good friend Mr. Jeff Rose as of March the 1st they're playing in some of my favorite venues in Sheffield London Southampton Nottingham Exeter Bristol Bradford Blackpool and Bedford they're playing all over the goddamn place so go and check them out whilst you can starting on March the 1st right through to March the 9th 2023 baby and I'm sure the Skin Dread will be back kicking ass hot off the heels of that tour finishing so if you're not already on the socials get on Facebook it's Skin Dread and Dub War check out their websites check out their insta handles do follow Benji on Instagram he's hilarious and if you enjoyed listening to our chat please share the shit out of it and spread the word final reminder to subscribe to the podcast whilst you're here just click the follow button or the subscribe or whatever the fuck it is just hit it and give it a share give us a like give us a thumbs up or a star or whatever the fuck you gotta do to help me out that would be really appreciated I will see you next week with another episode with another awesome guest and in the meantime as always have a great week take care of yourself and take care of each other
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