A True Hero Johnny A Hickman A Guitarist With A Mission
Interview By Ginger Coyote
‘Hicker’ and I are pals on Facebook. I really enjoy everything he posts, but there was one post that caught my eye. I had to get to interview him to find out about his liberal attitude.
“I grew up with a gay brother and a transgender sister, both of whom I adored and received black eyes and bloody noses defending as a young man. I grew up with a gay brother and a transgender sister, both of whom I subsequently endured and maneuvered through a bullied and besmirched personal life….”
Punk Globe: Thanks so much for the interview, Johnny. Your band Cracker was formed after Camper Van Beethoven, founded by your long-time pal David dissolved right?
JH: You are so welcome Ginger, and yes that’s how it went down. As a fan and friend of CVB, I like to say that the one positive of their break up in 1990 was that David and I could try to form a band, something that we’d discussed for years at that point. It was destiny.
Punk Globe: How did you and David meet?
JH: We met as young guys in Southern California when punk rock and ‘new wave’ music as it was soon termed, were just beginning to have a small but powerful impact. We met at a mutual friend’s house. It was a loose audition for a ‘new wave / punk rock cover band’. The band never formed but he and I stayed in touch. This was in Redlands California in 1978.
Punk Globe: My band The White Trash Debutantes was playing in San Francisco and if my memory serves me, Camper Van Beethoven was playing the Bay Area clubs a lot. Were they located in the Bay Area at the time?
JH: CVB loosely formed in Redlands, South Eastern California where we grew up. Lowery had a band called Sitting Duck and I had The Dangers with Chris LeRoy at the time. Lowery and I started a side project called the Estonian Gauchos in which we all played different instruments than our usual ones. Lowery switched from bass to guitar and I played drums. Some of the Gauchos moved north, attending UC Santa Cruz. They called themselves Camper Van Beethoven and were pretty weird and courageous. They made their own records, silk screened their own T-shirts and opened for everyone from Black Flag to Tiny Tim. They were the original authentic post-punk indie band. I was invited to move north and join, but I had a lot going on in Southern Cal. My band The Dangers played all original material and were selling out the UC Riverside Barn every weekend. The Lowery + Hickman team wasn’t meant to happen…just yet anyway.
Punk Globe: Describe Cracker and the band’s music?
JH: From the very start, Lowery and I agreed that if we started a band together it would not be a narrow subgenre sort of endeavor. The bands we loved were all over the map stylistically. The Kinks, Kaleidoscope, The Clash, and even mid-period Stones. These bands seemed to do whatever the fuck they wanted at any given moment. It was around this time that we came to the conclusion that the only real rule was “Just don’t suck!” From the first record on, (the self-titled debut Cracker released in 1992) our love for Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard was on full display right alongside our love of The Sex Pistols, Buzzcocks, Can, early Pink Floyd, and Zeppelin. Our modus operandi was to just make good songs and to please ourselves first and foremost. We were very cocky and just assumed that at least some people would love it as much as we did. This was when grunge was all the rage and we didn’t sound like that at all. In all honesty, we were as surprised as anyone when it actually worked.
Punk Globe: You and David formed Cracker and had a hit with Teen Angst. You were signed to Virgin Records, you were living the dream. Tell us more about that time.
JH: Looking back I feel especially lucky that our first record was only moderately successful and the second one did even better. We had room to grow and stay weird, even as the fan base grew. Over our now 32-year history, we sort of blew up very slowly and it never got too huge or uncontrollable. Teen Angst ( What The World Needs Now) was a minor sort of outsider first hit, but never got played on mainstream radio. The video was the big thing then and ours (for Teen Angst) only got played on 120 Minutes, the MTV program late on Sunday nights where they put the weirdo bands like us, Meat Puppets, Butthole Surfers, Pixies, etc. Bands that were just a little too weird for the mainstream.
Punk Globe: Your music was used in films like Wolverine, Empire Records, Clueless, White Man’s Burden, and more. More recently Perks Of Being a Wallflower.
JH: Yes, lucky us. For the most part, it’s been only minor hit films or TV shows that have used several of our songs over the years with “Low” being the exception. We call that one ‘the song that keeps on giving’. It’s somehow become one of the signature songs from the early/mid-90s that way. Bits of our songs were used in ads by JBL Speakers and even Coca-Cola. We are of course fine with all that. It gave us a little royalty cash once in a while so we could continue to make records and play live all over the US and Europe.
Punk Globe: In your early years you played in the band The Unforgiven. I remember The White Trash Debutantes playing at Suburbia in Portland with The Unforgiven. Was that your band?
JH: Yes, The Unforgiven was a unique, sort of purposefully tongue-in-cheek thing. We were inspired by the low-budget Sergio Leone, and Clint Eastwood westerns that were made in Italy and Spain in the 60s with the magnificently weird Ennio Morricone scores. The Spaghetti Westerns as they were called. We put together a band that made that sort of music, but with four loud, reverb-drenched guitars and actual lyrics. We dressed the part in a very over-the-top, cinematic sort of fashion. It was a blast. Once again, a little too weird for mainstream America. My credo, haha!
Punk Globe: You have released some solo projects also. Tell the readers about that Johnny?
JH: In 2000 CVB made peace and decided to reform and make a record. This was of course in addition to Cracker still being a successful, touring and recording band. As CVB was doing that, I wrote and recorded my first solo record “Palmhenge” which somehow got the attention of revered music journalist Robert Christgau who is largely viewed as “The Dean of Rock Critics”. He gave it “Voices Choice” in The Village Voice and wrote some glowing reviews. Since then I’ve continued to make and release solo records every few years and happily, each one has been embraced by the “Crumbs” as the cult of Cracker call themselves, and by music reviewers alike. I’m subsequently still enjoying a small but very solid solo career.
Punk Globe: We are friends on Facebook and what really attracted me to you was your liberal politics, a real concern about what is happening in our country.
JH: Thank you. I pride myself on being a sociopolitical malcontent. I couldn’t sleep at night if I didn’t publicly voice my opinions, especially in the last 5 years or so with this recent wave of fascism that an ignorant, hateful minority is trying to shove down our collective throats. I’ve always advocated for the wonderfully weird, free thinkers and outsiders.
Punk Globe: You wrote about your love for your Gay brother and Transgender Sister whom you defended while they were growing up. So wonderful.
JH: Thank you, Ginger. I was the protective older brother and somewhat of a punk rock thug before punk rock was even a thing. This was the early and mid-70s and my beloved siblings were having to maneuver through a time when gay and trans people were marginalized and victimized even more than they are today. I was the boring straight sibling between these two haha! BUT, I also went to cosmetology school, becoming a stylist for both living AND dead people and so subsequently was always around queer culture and goth culture all the way through high school and on into adulthood.
Punk Globe: I also enjoyed your stance on the anti drag laws that the Republikkkans are trying to pass. You mentioned the late Portland Icon Darcelle who had a world-famous club “Darcelle’s” there. I’ve heard there was video footage of you and David with the girls at the club.
JH: Yes, from our video Eurotrash Girl. These current anti drag law attempts just infuriate me. When will these fascist politicians and their hypochristian minions realize that drag enthusiasts and queens are not going anywhere? They have been a celebrated part of global world history and cultures for centuries for fuck’s sake. Yes, for our song Eurotrash Girl, we auditioned a lot of these beautiful actor/model / whatever girls, but decided it would be much more subversive and in keeping with our already weirdo reputation to make the heroines of the video real working drag queens! It’s so bittersweet that the oldest living and legendary drag queen Darcelle who is featured in the video passed last week at 92 just as this right-wing drag law bullshit ramps up into a frenzy. I like to think of Darcelle out there in the great beyond rolling her eyes and prancing around in a feather boa mocking these right-wing haters.
Punk Globe: I also liked your take on the Statue Of David. So enlightening.
JH: Thank you. These are outrageous, very volatile times we are living in aren’t they? Where do these ignorant, puritanical right-wing tools get off? Suddenly one of the most celebrated works of art in history is banned? Oh no, a PENIS!! Not only is the statue of David a magnificent, long-celebrated work of art, but this is also the fucking genital that begins all human life! The ignorance is palpable, and the momentum of fascist and sociopolitical rhetoric is textbook Hitler’s, Third Reich!
Punk Globe: Have you ever thought about running for political office as a younger version of Bernie Sanders?
JH: Haha! It’s been suggested more than once, my friend. I often wonder if I’m reaching more people with my music and minor rock star troublemaker big mouth than I could in the political arena. Hey, maybe I could find just the right LGBTQ person of color with a genius IQ and fire in their bloodstream as my running mate to piss off the right! Ha ha!
Punk Globe: I remember meeting Beto when he played with At The Drive-In.
JH: Beto is a fine man. I think he would make a great president. I think about his devotion to installing safer gun laws every time there is yet another school shooting. This tragic insanity just does not happen in other countries. It goes without saying that we need more politicians like him.
Punk Globe: Cracker has a killer show coming up in Pioneer Town tell us about that. Are you doing a tour?
JH: For 15 years in a row we held our Campout festivals at Pappy and Harriet’s in Pioneertown California. We just held our 9th annual Camp-In at The 40 Watt in Athens and it was a great success. David and I take pride in the fact that we had a lot to do with putting Pappy and Harriet’s on the map when we recorded our album Kerosene Hat there in 1993 and later started having our festivals there with co-headliners like John Doe, Neko Case, The Baseball Project, Built To Spill and more. We came back last year to play two sold-out nights on the inside stage at Pappy’s. This year we are taking it back outside to the big stage as we did in the Campout days. It’s already sold out or close I’m told. We aren’t doing big tours any longer, preferring instead to do a handful of great shows every month across the country that usually sell out. That’s a lot more fun than slogging it out playing lousy Monday and Tuesday nights in the middle of nowhere just to stay on the road. We don’t really have to do this anymore so we make sure it’s still a real pleasure for us and The Crumbs worldwide.
Punk Globe: What does the future hold in store for you Johnny?
JH: I’ll be 67 this September. Every year I consider retiring, but I know I’d just end up bored. I want to do this like the old bluesmen I’ve always admired, hopefully, have a gig booked when I die in my sleep out there somewhere. I take pretty good care of my health these days, I still love playing with my band or solo, and I still love writing and making records with people that I love and admire. I’m not letting it go just yet!
Punk Globe: Do you have any Internet addresses that you would like to share with the readers?
JH: Yes, anyone legit who wants to book me for solo/house shows or to produce their record can contact my solo manager Krista Leonard at johnnyshows krista@gmail.com
Punk Globe: Describe yourself in three words Johnny.
JH: Entertainer, Malcontent, Lifer. How’s that?
Punk Globe: Any last words for Punk Globe readers?
JH: YES, keep your eyes and ears out for Swive, an unbelievably talented new band from San Diego that I’m producing! Record out soon!