Jim Heath is looking for revival. Nearly twenty years after a creative club owner surprised the singer/guitarist by introducing him to the audience as Reverend Horton Heat, and after eight albums and countless shows, the seemingly tireless performer is... well, pretty damned tired.

He lives on the road, away from his wife and child, and away from the Deep Ellum district of downtown Dallas, Texas, his home and the place where his career was launched long ago. The Horton Heat road show, and anyone who's been will tell you, is exhausting even to the spectators. The three rockers on the stage give everything they have night after night in one of the most frenetic shows on the road. But recent events in Heath's personal life, most notably and tragically the death of his mother, just made him long to step off the race track for a bit. The lure of the road lost to the comfort of home.

Heath, bassist Jimbo Wallace and drummer Scott Churilla, who are actually known collectively as Reverend Horton Heat (though Heath is also called by that name, making things extremely confusing for poor, unsuspecting interviewers), stayed home this year and made a very unusual RHH album called Revival. While it contains plenty of rockin' party songs, there's an emotional component to this one that places it on another level, making it the deepest Horton Heat release by far. Clearly, there's a lot going on in the life of the Rev. I talked to him via telephone as he was relaxing before a show in his beloved Deep Ellum.

Perhaps relaxing is stretching it a bit. During the conversation people constantly came to him with information about the venue and equipment for that night's show, or to get his instructions. I have to admit I was quite impressed when he found out about an amp the club had and sent the messenger back to get permission to use it, ordered lunch from someone else and answered one of my questions, basically in the same breath. I guess that's the kind of thing people who can play psychobilly guitar licks at hyperspeed do when they're not playing a guitar.

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Cosmik: Was there any particular moment, or particular event, that made you feel like going home to Deep Ellum to do Revival?

Heath: It just kind of happened naturally. They gave us a rehearsal space that was very close to where all that stuff was. There's a studio next door, so it just kind of made sense. We travel to play music, and I'm gone so much. To leave my home town to have to go sit somewhere to do a recording, that's just very hard for me to do. I'm away from my family enough as it is.

Cosmik: Does it just plain feel better, too, just because it's home?

Heath: It has a down-home vibe going on there, and the studio next door just has a great sound in there now. It's kind of one of these things where I wanted to do it as quickly as possible and as cheaply as possible, and if we lost a little audio quality, I wouldn't care, as long as we got our parts right. Funny thing is it turned out the sound quality's pretty good.

Cosmik: Some of the songs have a nice, big club sound. What are some of the differences there this time around?

Heath: Well, honestly... [laughs] not that much. Really, nothing except that we were going as fast as we could and going for simplicity. We had some good guys there: our sound man, and then the regular studio engineer was there. We were going to try to get as much just live tracking as we could, but you know, it is really difficult to get a vibe when you've got headphones on. It's just crazy. We just went in and started tracking stuff. A lot of the live tracks we'd leave [alone], but you know, if sometimes I'd go back and re-do them because my amps weren't working good. That was another problem, because my amps were never... [laughs].

Cosmik: Sounds like it wasn't any vacation.

Heath: Yeah, well getting everything to come together for a good live [in the studio] recording is a technically difficult thing to do. I think that we can pretty much do it, but with the headphone vibe, it's just not the same.

Cosmik: Dave Allen does your live sound on the road, and he gets a very specific sound for you. He worked in the studio with you, and I see you co-credited him with production. Did he do most of the engineering on the album?

Heath: He and Paul Williams were sort of tag-teaming it. Paul's the local guy there at Last Beat. He recently did a pretty good job on this Polyphonic Spree album. It's nothing like what we do, but they've had a lot of chart success and it was on a commercial. But for a while Last Beat had a console in there that I didn't care for too much. Then they got this SSL Sound Logic console, one of those English things, and man, it sounds great.

Cosmik: I was picturing a vintage 60s console considering the way this sounds. Tubes to power the tubes, you know?

Heath: You know something? The thing I think, honestly, is it's the input. You've got to get that Fender amp. Though any digital thing will simulate what a Fender amp sounds like, and then some of those old microphones help.

Cosmik: What mics did you use?

Heath: I did the whole thing on an old RCA 77, and we had a couple other vintage mics going. But you know those old vintage Neve EQ and high-pass filters? For some reason, those just make it sound great. I don't know what it is about those little things. But they're hard to find, and very expensive when you do, because everybody loves these things.

Cosmik: It's worth it in the end, though. Whatever you have to do to make your sound come across.

Heath: I don't think we had much more... like tube compressors or anything like that. It's the input that counts. It's kind of a vintage SSR mixer, but it's pretty much right there with the state of the art with what people like to use.

Cosmik: How much of the sound was added during mixdown?

Heath: You know, we recorded as fast as we could, and I didn't even want to be there for the mixdown. I'd really been overworked and there'd been a lot of issues this year, so I got Ed Stasium to mix it. He mixed 17 songs in 8 days, or something like that. I don't know what all Ed did with it, but I know he has some vintage tube compressors, and he was probably using a real tape delay. But I've talked to some other guys who know how to get a great vintage sound, and I'll ask them "did you use some kind of old blah blah blah?" And they'll say "Naw, we used digital." They'll use old mics, but that's it. So it's not the format so much as it is the input. This old argument of "Oh, I hate digital, I can hear the difference," well, I know some guys with some pretty excellent ears who've been producing music for a long time, and they can't tell the difference except that there's no more tape hiss.

Cosmik: You say you wanted to record as fast as you could. How long did you spend, all told?

Heath: Recording? We did it in ten days.

Cosmik: And then another eight for mixdown.

Heath: Yeah, eighteen days, but I was only there for the ten.

Cosmik: Ed did a hell of a job, and he's worked with you before, but isn't it hard to hand it off completely?

Heath: Ed's great. He's got great ears, and I know I can trust him. He's just really good, and he's got some tricks up his sleeve. It's like I said, we did it so quick. I just wanted to knock it out at the studio next to where we rehearse, get it off to Ed so he could mix it real fast... If I had to try to mix that album with all three of us there, it would have taken us two weeks.

Cosmik: I get the feeling there's something about the process that gets on your nerves.

Heath: My thing about music is that I think being a "musician" is a more valid art form than being a "recording artist." Recording still is an artistic endeavor, it's just you could never have a live show be like a recording. It's two different worlds, you know? Being a musician is much more of a valid art form than just some technological creation. I'm talking about technology going back to "Let's put the 78 on the Victrola and crank it." Ever since they started doing recordings, all this focus is placed on "recording artist."

Cosmik: You must be having some fun in the studio for these songs to have so much spirit.

Heath: It is fun to go do that, it's just a bit draining. It is an artistic endeavor, but the best thing is we get new songs to play.

Cosmik: So for you, it's really all about feeding the live show. A new bunch of songs for the fans to get to know and sing along with when you tour?

Heath: Yeah, because some of these songs on our new album are crappy and we may never play them live, but some songs on the new album are going to be life-long parts of our show. We'll be playing these for years and years.

Cosmik: Well, I have to say that hearing the things you've said about this album surprise me, because I think it's the deepest album you've done. It's a mix, but there are some real feelings put out there. In a way it might make more sense, knowing you were feeling burned out and wanting to be home. The title track seems to be about looking for some peace, looking for the turning point. Does this have that kind of deeper meaning for you, or is it just a song?

Heath: It's just about being sad, and about having stormy times. I've had some stormy times here over the last year. The death of my mother just came out of the blue and it was really hard to cope with. It's something we all go through eventually, but still, it's hard. Then also there were some things that happened... well, a lot of things that basically evolve into the [fact that] I am now the band's bookkeeper.

Cosmik: Is that something you wanted to be?

Heath: Well no. I'm not the accountant. Forget that. But I do the bookkeeping.

Cosmik: Yeah, there is a huge difference.

Heath: I'm not doing that. I had a person doing the bookkeeping, but... It's a long story, but all of a sudden I became the band bookkeeper, and to get someone in there was going to be so expensive, so I figured I'd gut it out. "Revival" is partly sort of... Well, maybe I should have called it "Vacation." I really need a vacation. But The Go-Gos already did that.

Cosmik: Yes they did. Well I hope this isn't one of those wonderful stories where the ex-bookkeeper is off in Mexico with all your money.

Heath: Oh yeah, I know. Well, we've never had a bookkeeper do that or anything. We've always had it really good. But we've had some people stealing a little money from us. You've got to be careful, and that's another really good reason I take all this over.

Cosmik: Then you know someone who cares is watching the cash.

Heath: Yes. Just do it yourself. So it's amazing that I was able to accomplish getting the [books] going AND record a new album, so yeah, I was looking for revival about the time we were doing that album.

Cosmik: There are a lot of things that someone can think they're picking up in some of these songs, including "Revival." Right or wrong.

Heath: Yeah, but you know, those songs are personal and it's kind of hard to describe. There's a lot of meaning in those songs, but I can't really describe it any more than just what the lyrics say. There are a lot of issues. Reverend Horton Heat has been going for a long time, and for as well as we do on our live shows, it just doesn't make sense how we just get so locked out of everything else. I think we scare people or something. I'm not exactly sure. But we have to keep reviving ourselves or else this thing ain't gonna happen. We love to play music, but it isn't just about your career or anything else. It's just about music.

Cosmik: Wouldn't you say the energy level you guys play at probably makes it inevitable that you're going to need to recharge every so often?

Heath: Yeah. Maybe I'll have to be like Madonna and reinvent.

Cosmik: Hmm. Might happen. What do you have in mind?

Heath: Oh God, you never know. I might just haul off and turn hip-hop on you.

Cosmik: [Laughs.] And I think I'll be skating in hell when that happens. I just don't see it.

Heath: But you know something I'm considering is funk beats. I love funk beats, but Reverend Horton Heat has always avoided them like they were the plague.

Cosmik: I can hear that. Why avoid it?

Heath: I love funk music, and in fact we're getting to where we might have to go there someday, but it's just kind of a little aspect where... everything is a funk beat these days. And people don't even realize it. Of course hip-hop, that's funk. That's all great and cool, but these people write these songs and play this music, they don't even know what the hell they're doing. You know, this girl singer gets a guitar and everybody thinks she's a folk singer, and she gets the guitar and starts goin' [The Reverend demonstrates a funky rhythm vocally], and sings a little singsongy thing, and it may not be a funk song, but it's a funk beat. Like "Smells Like Teen Spirit." People say "Oh, that's the post-modern-punk-grunge-Seattle..." Yeah, well, it's a funk beat, too, but people don't stop to think about that stuff, and that's one thing I've always done.

Cosmik: Well? Next album?

Heath: I'm still just... Yeah, I don't think I'm gonna do it. That's one of our keys. We go with rock and roll beats, fast cut time, bluegrass/punk rock beats, swing beats, shuffles...

Cosmik: Exactly. Look how wide open it is already. You go from rockabilly to surf to jazz and all over the place on a record. Why not funk it up a bit? When you said hip-hop, I thought you meant straight hip-hop...

Heath: [Laughs.] Yeah, but I was joking about that.

Cosmik: And I was joking about skating in hell for the same reason, however... Reverend Horton Heat with a few beats that lean toward Tower of Power or Pleasure?

Heath: Oh, I love Tower of Power. We listen a lot lately to Booker T. and the MGs. Not all of their songs are funk, but the ones that are are killer.

Cosmik: No doubt about that. How about The Meters?

Heath: Oh yeah, oh yeah! I've got this side project I'm going to do with this friend of mine who plays all that stuff on the Hammond B3 organ, and he covers the bass while he's doing all these songs, too, so he's pretty good. Songs like "Soul Finger," some Booker T. and Jimmy McGriff, a little jazz in there.

Cosmik: That sounds like a cool side band. Gives you something different than the usual to wrap your ears around for a while.

Heath: Whenever we release a new album I go into a phase where instead of trying to kick out a bunch of new songs, because we have a new album out we need to be promoting, I'll switch gears and start looking for different things to do to improve on guitar. Try to learn a new concept, or work on songs, or work on reading, or what have you.

Cosmik: Like playing in a funk band. When you get back with Jimbo and Scott, do you feel a difference in your playing? Like you can come at it from some new angles?

Heath: Exactly. I'm always looking for new concepts and licks to work within the framework of what Reverend Horton Heat is. On this album there are a couple things I picked up [between albums]. I was working on cross-picking a lot more, and I worked that in a bit.

Cosmik: In the same way you're kind of wary about working in funk beats, have you always been a little nervous about throwing in entirely new ideas?

Heath: You've always got to try something new, you know? But we've had our moments where we maybe got a little too different, and people don't dig it. But at the same time, I can't really say that, because... a lot of our fans didn't like our album, Space Heater, and then a lot of people got it and they say that's their favorite one. So I don't know.

Cosmik: Haven't you found that... well, I only know what people have told me in conversation, which is that they started off not caring as much for Space Heater, but as time went on it became one of their favorite Horton Heat albums. Some put it away and came back to it.

Heath: It's so difficult, because if you put out your first album, and it's really good, and people really accept you as an artist, it's difficult because the next album you put out you could be playing better, singing better, with better songs, and it's not the same so people say "Oh... it's not the same." It's the old rock and roll cliché. "Dude! ZZ Top's first album, man. That's the only one that's any good." Man, I don't really go there, and I just don't think about it too much. It's just like that comic book store owner on The Simpsons: "Worst Itchy and Scratchy ever! I only bought ten copies... for my mother and me." [Laughs.] And there's a lot of "worst Itchy and Scratchy" people in this world, so I don't even go there so they can't even get into my brain.

Cosmik: Tell me about "Indigo Friends ." That song rocks so hard that it would be easy to miss the point of the lyrics, but it's a very serious song. Is that real life for you?

Heath: Yeah, I've been around a lot of people in music that are party people, people getting into drugs and what have you, and just about ninety percent of everybody I ever knew who got into heroin is dead now. These guys that I'm thinking about were really, really good, talented players, and just to give that all up for a heroin addiction and to be dead at a young age, God, that's so sad.

Cosmik: Did you manage to steer clear of it all?

Heath: Oh no, I've had my trials with drugs. I tried to take as many pills as Elvis did, but it just didn't work out.

Cosmik: You just had to let it go, huh?

Heath: You know, my main problem is drinking, and that's a drug too, isn't it? And maybe so is caffeine and nicotine. There's something about heroin, though, that's just sickening. To think of these guys who were [lost]. And so many of the guys who didn't die ended up in prison. I was just thinking about all those guys when I wrote that song. Like I said, these songs are kind of personal, so it's hard to explain them more than just what the lyrics say.

Cosmik: I know, but I'm one of those annoying guys who pokes and prods anyway. What do you mean by the term "Indigo Friends?"

Heath: I saw the scene in the movie Pulp Fiction where he's doing the shot of heroin, and the blood coming in there, it looked like somebody dumping some indigo dye into some water. And it's kind of a dark thing to do. You go off and hide. And that's one thing, too. All these guys would hide it from me, 'cause I'm not into that. Not that they were scared of me or anything like that, because they didn't have any reason to be, but they'd hide it. They'd go out in the alley and shoot up. It's crazy.

Cosmik: You weren't part of that reality, though. It's a different world

Heath: I know. A lot of times there's no intervention, not a thing anyone can do to get those people off that stuff. Sometimes, though, I do feel guilty, like I could have done something if I'd really known how bad it was.

Cosmik: But you have to know the odds are so minute that you could have done a thing for them.

Heath: Yeah, but somehow there's still the guilt.

Cosmik: I guess that song is what it sounds like, then. A lot of people are curious about the nuts and bolts. Like why did you choose such a blazing tempo and wild feel for a song that's really so sad?

Heath: The song's a pretty hard song, so it's a pretty hard topic. With a song that hard, it'd be pretty weird to be singing about the beautiful daisies and the bunnies in the grass and stuff. [Laughs.]

Cosmik: [Laughs.] Fine, fine. Bunnies in the grass. Got it.

Heath: I like to do single-note lines, like any guitar player, when I solo, but being in a three-piece band, I'm still going to have to cover some bases. So a lot of my solos will be two-note and chord solos. Of course, we break it down to where I can really play more legato, single-note lines, but that's in a softer part. So I decided to incorporate "the Hurricane" more and more.

Cosmik: Can you describe that move for us?

Heath: You hook your thumb over the top and you play just the octave and mute the other strings. So you can flail just on that octave, like if you're on the fifth fret, it'd be low A, 7th fret D string A, just the octave there, and then once you get that going, you can hold your thumb down to keep that drone note going and then really just keep flailing and get some lines in there that way, too. That concept worked out really well on a couple different solos on this album, and that's the Hurricane on "Indigo" friends.

Cosmik: I love what Jimbo and Scott do in that song, too. You guys just make a hell of a lot of sound for a three piece, and that song is a case in point.

Heath: Well thank you. I think Jimbo's part on that song is a kind of a dunka-dunka-dunka-dunka thing, and he does a slap, and he and Scott do this thing where they'll throw in triplets, either together or opposite of each other.

Cosmik: And that makes a great big rumble that I love. Sounds like a big old hotrod revving up.

[Pictured: Jimbo]

Heath: Yeah, also, if you're just listening to the bass in the studio, it's always like a horse galloping. I always feel like I'm galloping on my horse when I hear that bass, man. It's a great sound. We're a three piece band, so it really helps, because it covers some areas... He's getting a bass line and a percussion thing going with the slap at the same time.

Cosmik: Which is part of the reason you guys make such a huge sound for a three piece, for sure.

Heath: It's still hard, you know. Going back to the 60s and 70s, people were used to hearing Led Zeppelin. Those songs had five guitar parts, but they were basically a three piece band with a front man, and we're a three piece band. I've done it on other recordings, where I've overlaid a rhythm guitar track that would still be going during the solo, and most producers want you to do it that way, but I just don't like doing it. The last two albums haven't had any extra guitar or anything.

Cosmik: Do you feel, at this point in your career, you can pretty much call that shot?

Heath: Well... you know, I've been doing it this way for quite a while, and I'm pretty used to it, and... Yeah, I don't care. I don't give a crap anymore. [Laughs.] I mean I want it to sound good to me. If I get in there and I say "Okay, that sounds good," fine. I'm not going to sit there and fret about "Wow, isn't it a little thin with just one guitar?" Well, come to our show, because we're playing one-guitar thinness every night, all through the night to packed houses.

Cosmik: What about "Someone In Heaven ?" Was that a difficult song to write and record, on an emotional level?

Heath: It was actually one of the easiest songs I've ever written. My mother passed away on December 17th. I actually held together on Christmas Eve, and we did the Christmas thing, and then Christmas night it was just kind of getting to me, so I let my wife and kid go on off to her parents and I stayed home and wrote that song. It just popped out all at once.

Cosmik: It's beautiful but the emotion is very clear and heavy. We definitely feel it, and feel that you were going through a lot.

Heath: My father passed away about ten years ago, and this brought all that back. It was kind of like losing them both at once for some reason. I don't know why it's like that, but it is.

Cosmik: It's actually amazing, under the circumstances, that the majority of the album is good time Horton Heat music. There's power, attitude, a lot of it's funny as hell...

Heath: Oh yeah, we still do funny stuff! Like "Callin' In Twisted."

Cosmik: That song is going to be one of your classics. It's a perfect concept. Just playing around, or real life?

Heath: I was sittin' there writing a song about calling in twisted, about using a fake cough when I make that call. Well, I had a person who was going to work for us this one day, doing a bunch of moving around and stuff like that, he called me up and said [in a fake-sick voice, with coughs] "Jim... I don't feel very good. I don't think I can do this thing today." [Laughs.] I said to myself "Perfect, this is my sign from God that I'm going to finish this song now."

Cosmik: Maybe we can buy him a drink for being a lame-o and helping with the song. What are your favorites from this record? The ones you think you'll still be playing years from now.

Heath: I think they're going to be... "Revival," "The Happy Camper," "Indigo Friends," "If It Ain't Got Rhythm,"... Did I say "Calling In Twisted" yet? Because that one's a great rock and roll barn burner we've gotta play.

Cosmik: No argument here, but what about "Rumble Strip ?"

Heath: Oh yeah, we do that every now and then. But we're not doing "Someone In Heaven" and some of the slower stuff.

Cosmik: Well you definitely get lots of chances to play your music. You guys tour yourselves ragged. It almost seems crazy looking at the tour dates.

Heath: When I first started getting blues records and reading [about the artists], you know, they were payin' the dues to play the blues. They were touring the honky-tonks and all the roadhouses constantly. By the time I was getting into all that in the early 70s, guys like B.B. King, he'd already been doing it for 30 years or something. Those were the guys I really connected with, these people who somehow had these fabulous careers and made this killer music that never really got the airplay and the rock stardom and all that kind of thing.

Cosmik: I can't tell you how many amazing musicians I've talked to who plan to play until they drop, whether the money's still there or not. Playing seems to be the thing.

Heath: People like Ernest Tubb, he was a big star, but he just toured and toured and toured and toured until he was almost 80 years old. And you've got guys still going like that today, like Ray Price and Jerry Lee Lewis. I know a guy who knows Ray Price, and he says "You know, I think that playing music is what keeps Ray going." If he didn't have music, it might kill him. And Willie Nelson, he just keeps playing gig after gig, and he enjoys it. You know what? It's a dream job. It's so much fun, you live to do it. It's an adrenaline rush. I can have a 103-degree fever and just feel terrible, but once I'm up there on stage it all goes away. I may not be completely on top of my game, but once I'm on stage I feel great. It's funny, because after the show I'll say "You know something, I think I'm getting over this thing because I feel great." Then about half an hour later that adrenaline dies down and I'm back on my deathbed again.

Cosmik: Will you be going back to Deep Ellum to record from now on, or was it just a one-time event?

Heath: Oh man, the next album we do, I'll be surprised if we do it anyplace else. At least anyplace else but Dallas, and near my house, because I'm gone so much that being gone to record an album is now just too hard to imagine.

Cosmik: This turned out to be the right way for Reverend Horton Heat to make an album?

Heath: Yeah. All these people formulate a lot of opinions, like "You need to go to L.A.," or "You need to go to this producer," or "Rick Ruben," or whatever. Screw that! That's a bunch of people that think a bunch of stuff, but they don't know what they're talking about, because they've never been in a band like I have. They don't know what happens in a studio, they don't see first-hand what a producer DOESN'T do for you, what a producer does wrong. If I was focused on being a recording artist rather than being a musician, then maybe I'd go try some fancy dancy thing, but I just think that as long as the audio quality is up to par, if we get in the studio and do our parts right, it's going to be a good album, and that's that.

© 2004 - DJ Johnson