With your time with The Cult as bass player, being a guitarist as well, and now you are the front man for Circus Diablo. If only we got you a drum set, you could just have your own band.
Actually, there are some recordings out there somewhere with me playing drums. You know what? I like to be diverse in everything I do. And that is why I am currently the guitar player and founder of Camp Freddy, I am the frontman and songwriter of Circus Diablo, I am making movies and I am running Web sites and host a radio show in Los Angeles with Dave Navarro. The idea in this day of entertainment is no one is going to carry you. If you want to be in the entertainment business, you better be prepared to fucking work and I have a good work ethic. That is what we are talking about here.

Is there a preference for you? You mentioned being diverse as being very important. But being a front man is very different that being a bass player. Do you love the attention more as a frontman?
Obviously I love attention. I mean I am covered in tattoos and I have been playing rock and roll music for a lot of years. You don't do that if you don't want attention. However the connection that I get being in a band, money and all that comes secondary these days and is very hard to come by in the rock business unless you are very lucky. But what I do it for is the connection I get with the audience. That is second to none. When I have a kid come up to me and say, "You are amazing. You changed my life." Or "I was a junkie and I cleaned up and you are a real inspiration for me," or whatever, that is what I do it for. Now you get more of that when you are a frontman. Your job as a front man is to connect with the audience, so yea I love that. But I will say that I love and always have loved playing the guitar.

You mentioned movies and having a radio show, so you have hands in a bit of everything. But if the entertainment Genie came down and said we will pay you millions to be the next Steven Spielberg or millions to be the next Howard Stern or you can have a career like The Rolling Stones, which would you choose?
That is a good question. That is a very good question, but I think I would do what I normally do which is find some clever, Cockney English way of getting the best of all the worlds. Because there has to be a way. So if you are going to pay me millions of dollars to make music, there someone has to film it. So let's make a movie about what it is like to make millions of dollars making music. And while we are at it, let's put it out on the airwaves and have a radio show about the process and of course, you would need a Web site about the whole project. And now we are doing it all. So there is always a way, mate. Always a way to do it all.

To touch a bit more on Circus Diablo, there is this little tour you are part of called Ozzfest. Not exactly where one would expect to see Circus Diablo.
Well listen, it is not where we thought we would see ourselves either. The Ozzfest is a very heavy festival and we are not that heavy. But listen, Ozzfest was designed initially to showcase rock music, not just bands that have logos that you cannot read. And some of those bands are amazing and I do like them, but it shouldn't be solely about those kinds of bands. The idea was very much like Lollapalooza where you get an eclectic mix of all sorts of rock and roll bands. If you listen to Ozzy Osbourne, he is about as far removed from some of the bands on Ozzfest bill than is possible to get. Now Ozzy is true, three-and-a-half minute rock songs with big choruses, guitar solos and melody. What does that remind you of? Circus Diablo. Now somewhere along the line Ozzfest became synonymous with the heavy, heavy shit and that is great and that is fine. It makes me happy that that stuff is out there and I like a lot of it. But I think it is our responsibility and Ozzfest's responsibility to have us be one of those bands on the tour that isn't like everyone else. How refreshing. And you know what, if there is some 15-year-old kid down front that doesn't want to see us but wants to see Hatebreed, that is fine. That is what Ozzfest is all about. If you just hang tight for another 20 minutes another band will be on stage.

That idea seems to be in line with the European-style festivals where diversity is supposed to be the norm. Where in the states, we are comfortable with all the bands sounding alike.
Yea, and I don't get that. I really don't get that because isn't the world about diversity and the appreciation of other genres and other styles of music. Personally I love going to see Ozzy and Black Label Society and when Marilyn Manson was on the tour. But there is definitely room for other types of music.

You mentioned Ozzfest wasn't where you thought Circus Diablo was going to end up, but how exciting was it to find out you were on the tour? Because when the opportunity came knocking, you obviously opened the door.
Where here's the thing. There were plenty of other opportunities for us to play and when Ozzfest is over, we will be getting back on the road again. So it is not like we are taking our whole touring schedule and wrapping it up in Ozzfest. And I can't say who with and what and when yet but there are a lot of rock bands out there touring that we can play with. But when Sharon (Osbourne) and Ozzy call you personally and invite you to be a part of a groundbreaking year of Ozzfest where they made it free, how do you turn that down? They are actually putting their money where their mouth is and saying no more to the ridiculous ticket prices that kids cannot afford. No more. We are going to try and do something to change it and Sharon isn't even saying it is going to be a success. What she is saying is someone has to try something because it is all turning to shit. And that is what we are about. We made this record without major label money. My friend Dave Navarro does all of the stuff that he does, the Internet, television shows and his new company Spread Entertainment is all about the artists reclaiming what is rightfully theirs for the kids. And yet you don't see any movement from the major labels in that direction. But when Sharon and Ozzy say, "Fuck this! Let's make it free. It will be tough and it will be weird, but let's try it." There is no way we are going to turn that down. And if that means we are going to be on a heavier bill than we are used to, so what. Kids know a good rock song when they hear one.

You talked about the three-and-a-half minute song and hooks and melodies and your record with that in mind reminded me a lot of the new Buckcherry record.
Fantastic.

It really does bring back the word used to describe The Cult, but the bombast of rock and roll. Quality music that is about having fun.
Why not? And it is about fucking time as well if you ask me because I am tired of listening to bands that are moaning about shite and staring at their shoes as they play. When I was growing up I wanted to see rock stars. I wanted to see music videos with motorcycles and chicks and tattoos and guns and pyrotechnics. That is what I wanted to see. I wanted to see Guns 'N' Roses. I wanted rock stars. And the Buckcherry album 15 is a great example of how a band can take their own career back.

You spoke of diversity in your life, but there is also a huge diversity within the band members as well. All musically talented, but there is Brett Scallions going to bass from fronting Fuel, you went to front from being guitarist in Camp Freddy. What was is like having everyone in the room with everyone sort of already having their claim on a career already?
It actually came together very easily. If it had been difficult at all, I wouldn't have done it. There are so many opportunities for an artist to be creative in all different arenas that there is no point in bashing your head against the wall trying to make something work. Circus Diablo came together in a way that I use in every interview I have done, and that is to say organically and homegrown. I don't know how else to put it. It was our own money and we didn't even know we were going to make a record until we started to make it and that is the God's honest truth. We didn't have a label, we didn't have management, and we didn't have any of that. Billy (Duffy), Ricky (Warwick) and I didn't sit around thinking lets make a record and form a rock and roll band. Fuck, I have done that. It just happened. And that is why it was so easy to just embrace it and embrace Brett. There is a whole new model of rock and roll bands that we are creating here. Billy Duffy is a great guitarist, but he won't be able to do all the shows. He won't be able to do half the shows. He has to deal with The Cult. The Cult is an ongoing force. So why does that have to mean Circus Diablo can't work? It doesn't and with Billy's blessing we are utilizing is a small way the model we created with Camp Freddy, which is revolving membership. So we are taking out Rob Patterson who was in Korn, and he will come out and do lead guitaring on the road. Billy Duffy will come to the shows he can do and we have a family thing starting to occur. So if Matt Sorem were to show up to a gig, he would play some songs. So the Circus Diablo family grows gradually. And I think it is an encouraging new model for how things should work. Why are we tied to one thing?

I agree because if you were to see the band five times, you may see a few different line-ups and get a totally different experience each time new members came to play.
I mean, sure. We are all Cult fans and we all want to hear She Sells Sanctuary. But you don't have to see The Cult to see that. Surely we all wanted to hear Ian Astbury sing Doors songs, which is why Ian went and did the tour. And surely you would want to hear Billy Duffy play a Jimmy Page solo, which is why Billy Duffy gets up and plays Whole Lotta Love with Camp Freddy. So there fore Circus Diablo made an amazing record as far as I am concerned and once that is out there, why wouldn't you want to hear another drummer's interpretation of those songs for one gig? Or why not hear how Rob Patterson does his solos versus how Billy did them on the record. There is no reason to box ourselves in because Billy is on tour. We are not going to play that game. We are going to continue to build the family. Matt Sorem is on the record, but of course he is not going to play live, and we are just applying that to the other members as well.

When you were writing this record, were you writing just for you or were you thinking of who else was in the band?
From a lyrical standpoint, they are so intensely personally it is incredible. I had something to say and I fell like I said it. From a musical standpoint, we didn't know we were making a record and that is honestly what it sounds like when those musicians get into a room and just play without thinking.