Speed Round Keith Buckley

Speed Round
Keith Buckley Every Time I Die

This is an excerpt of the original interview with Keith

Every Time I Die
Keith Buckley, vocalist
Metro
10/5/04
Interviewer: Karma E. Omowale
Photo: Erika Kristen Watt

Karma: How many candles were on your cake this year and which did/will you blow them out?

Keith: On mine, in a month, will be 25. Am I right? [Looks appalled and bewildered]

Karma: [Laughing hysterically]

Keith: Yeah! Jesus Christ, I actually forgot how old I was. 25!

Karma: Which day?

Keith: The 19th of November.

Karma: Well Happy Birthday! [Smiles]

Keith: [Smiles] Well thank you!

Karma: What's your favorite word in the English language? Is it not sesquipedalian? [Giggles]

Keith: Well, yeah! One of 'em! [Beams]

Karma: And your second one?

Keith: Oh boy! In the whole English language…[as his voice trails off] Dude!

Karma: Dude?!

Keith: Yeah! Dude!

Karma: And just to think it can be used in so many different ways! [Titters]

Keith: Oh, it's great! [We both laugh again]

Karma: Are you a gracious loser?

Keith: Yeah! I just accept the fact that I usually lose so I have to be. I wasn't at first when I first started loosing but it all just went down hill from there! [Laughs and stares off in to the distance]

Karma: [Laughing]

Keith: You have to be!!

Karma: Can't be that "down hill'' you're here, right?!?

Keith: Yeah, I know! I'm just kidding!! [Smiles] Being a gracious loser makes you very humble so when you do win it feels better.

Karma: If you could be a cartoon character who would you be?

Keith: Uwwww!!! [Starts to play with his lips to make a bubbling sound] Out of like any movie, cartoon or anything?

Karma: [Nods head] Out of any cartoon or anything…

Keith: Wow! Okay, I'll would be probably…okay…Aladdin!

Karma: Aladdin? Why? [Curious look now crosses my countenance]

Keith: I don't know! He's kinda like a wizard and like a knight. Is he a wizard, right?

Karma: He's a genie

Keith: He's a genie? Is he a genie? Yeah, I'd be him! But he fights too, right? He has a sword too, right?

Karma: Yeah, he has a sword!

Keith: Yeah, okay! I'll do that!! [Laughs]

Karma: What's the last book you read?

Keith: Last book I read completely was called The Life of Kai. It's a book about this guy who's stranded on a boat with a Bengal tiger and he gets to sort of make friends with it and accept his position in a broader sense until he got rescued and he needed to tame the tiger. It wasn't that good of a book and it won a bunch of prizes. When I see a book or a movie with award things on it [smiles] I'm a sucker, I'll buy it and I'll watch it and read it and then when it ends up sucking, I don't want to admit that it sucks!

Karma: [Snickers]

Keith: [Laughs] But I'm reading this one right now [bends over to unzip his bag and gets the book out] it's called The Lucifer Principle [A Scientific Expedition Into the Forces of History]. And it's just about…oh. [As he tugs on the book, flips it over and begins to read the description] "A revolutionary work that explores the intricate relationships upon genetic human behavior and culture to put forth the thesis that evil is a byproduct of nature strategies for creation and then it is woven to our most basic biological fabric…"

Karma: Wow! [Stunned]

Keith: Yeah! It's amazing! By Howard Bloom just in case, anybody wants to read it. Not MY copy, but they need to go out and buy their own. [Chortles as he puts the book away]

Karma: [Laughing] Well you are still reading your copy anyway!!

Keith: [Laughs] Yeah, yeah!

Karma: What's your guilty pleasure song?

Keith: Song?

Karma: Or CD?

Keith: Hummm, that's rough! I love Counting Crowes (I think I mentioned that to you earlier on) [as in the last interview] but I haven't been into that lately. I love, love Simon and Garfunkel. I went to see them; a lot of people think they're really pompous and overrated. [Whispers] I like them so much!! [Titters]

Karma: We found that out the last time [as in the last interview with Trevor] we talked I remember you saying you were into music like that to the tune of you taking your Mom to one of their concerts for Mother's Day.

Keith: [Smiles widely] Exactly!

Karma: What are your top 5 favorite movies?

Keith: Rushmore, City of Lost Children...

Karma: Great movie!

Keith: Oh, I LOVE that movie! Dancer in the Dark for certain reasons…like, it's not really that…I don't know. It's kinda hard to watch most of the times because when you've seen it so many times, the musical aspects sort of get in the way of the whole plotline I think for me personally! I hate to say that because usually I appreciate stuff like that but it's very moving. That movie moved me a lot out of all of the movies that I've seen. Let me see, I also hate to say Requiem For A Dream because it's just the most depressing movie ever made. But any movie that can get that kind of response out of people to watch it is good for me. And It's A Wonderful Life which is a holiday movie

Karma: Right

Keith: So I don't watch it too much.

Karma: What's your favorite comfort food?

Keith: Ohhh, hotdogs! Doesn't matter what kind!

Karma: Favorite drink?

Keith: Alcoholic or Non-alcoholic?

Karma: Both

Keith: Non-alcoholic is probably chocolate milk but alcoholic is definitely Jack Daniels & Coca-Cola.

Karma: If not music then what?

Keith: Ummm, probably suicide. [Said with a straight face and blank countenance then he laughs]

Karma: [Look of horror creeps across my face] Okay! [Titters] Some how I just don't believe that!

Keith: [Softly speaking now] NO! [Laughs heartily] I'm just kidding!

Karma: Oh, okay!! [Laughs]

Keith: It would probably be just a really shitty 9-5 job. I'd have to find something, somewhere! [Then all of a sudden indistinct humming draws closer to the door]

Andy: [Singing aloud without knowing what awaited him behind the partially closed door] Do do do do doo. [Door opens]

Karma: Hey Andy!

Andy: [Huge smile crosses his face] Not you again!! [Laughs]

Karma: But it's not you this time!

Keith: [Laughing]

Andy: Did she ask you about the dining set yet [In reference to the interview I had done with him during Ozzfest]?

Keith: No, not yet! I don't know if that's coming up yet or not.

Karma: I wasn't planning on asking him that! I recycle my questions. [Laughing]

Andy: Oh, well it will be something else! [Smiles]

Keith: Yeah!

Karma: But just for your benefit, would you like me to ask him that question?

Andy: I was just kidding! [Laughs] Their probably white or something…

Keith: They are actually a floral pattern; a flower pattern of orange and blues.

Andy: I'll let you guys get back…

Karma: Yeah! [Sticks tongue out then laughs]

Andy: [Laughs] I'm sorry! [Smiling]

Keith: No problem! [Laughing]

Andy: Sorry, sorry! [Closes door behind him, starts singing again]

Karma: [Laughs] If stranded on a desert island, which member of the band would you eat first?

Keith: Oh, that's tough to say; I'd like to say Andy because he'd be the biggest meal since he's the biggest guy but he's probably the dude that I would need to keep around to do things that I couldn't do. Like reach things that I couldn't like coconuts and stuff. It would probably be Zach, our sound guy. [We both chuckle]

Karma: What is your biggest pet peeve?

Keith: Oh man, shit! I know I have one and I freak out about it all the time and I can't think of it right now. Oh, when people say 'Fuckin' uh…' when they're talking and they can't think of what to say. And they go, 'Fucking uhhhhh'. [We both laugh] People say it so much, they use it as a crutch all the time, or when people will go, 'I'm just saying'! Because that's just a cop out! To say you're just saying, I HATE when people say that! [Laughs with the look of vehemence welling in his eyes]

Karma: What do you want to be when you grow up?

Keith: [Smiles] That's good because I'm glad that I'm not grown up; I'm glad that I have a grown up to get to! [Smiles as I laugh] But I always wanted to be a Fighter Pilot.

Karma: Really?

Keith: Yeah! I almost dropped out of high school to attend the Academy of the Air Force. My dad's friend was a renowned fighter pilot and he was always coming over and showing me metals that he had won and things like that. It's all I wanted to do when I was little and I'd still like to think that I can do it someday.

Karma: [Smiles] And I think you can!

Keith: [Smiles]

Karma: What's the ringtone(s) on your cell phone?

Keith: It's "Smoke on the Water"

Karma: For our female audience: boxers, briefs, or commando?

Keith: Briefs

Karma: Okay. What's the most…

Keith: Wait a minute [proceeds to pull pants away from body then looks down them] I'm commando right now, actually!

Karma: [Falls over with laughter] [Blushes]

Keith: [Beaming] I forgot, I haven't done laundry in a long time but that's not very typical of me! Okay!! [Smiles as he resumes his infamous poker face]

Karma: Okay! [Laughs]

Keith: Okay, go ahead you were saying…

Karma: What is the most ridiculous thing a lover has ever requested of you?

Keith: Umm, to stay off her lawn, stay out of her bushes!!

Karma: [Snorts]

Keith: Come down from that tree! [Snickers with satisfaction]

Karma: Okay!

Keith: [Laughing] Yeah!! Sign the papers!

Karma: Okay then!!

Keith: [Still laughing]

Karma: If you could go back in time, which era would you return to?

Keith: Definitely the 20's, the 1920's, prolific mob in downtown New York. Actually, that's what I would like to live through but if I could just see it, it would be the dinosaur era. I would not last very long I'm sure! It would probably be a weekend vacation until I got gobbled up or something!

Karma: [Laughs aloud]

Keith: [Smiles] I would love to be able to touch a dinosaur

Karma: Do you speak another language?

Keith: No! [Laughs] Wish I did though!

Karma: Which one would you take up?

Keith: [Response lost, tape got gobbled up…]

Karma: Whom would you ask these questions of?

Keith: [With a stone countenance] You! [Laughs hysterically]

Karma: Me? [Laughing hysterically myself at this point]

Keith: Yeah! You!!

Karma: Okay!! [Laughing continues from both of us] [Regaining composure] Final words?

Keith: Fucking, uhhhh…[Uncontrollable laughter ensues from the both of us] No, that's about it!