The clarinet was … I dunno, I liked it, but it seemed a lot easier to play electric guitar. What really made me want to play guitar, though, was my friend and I were taking clarinet, and decided the electric guitar was cool because it looked like you didn't have to push down on the strings-like you barely had to touch them. When did you start playing guitar, Curt, and who were your early influences? Curt Kirkwood: I started taking lessons in fourth grade, so I was about 9. and Europe, Cris and Curt took time to chat with Premier Guitar about the group's humble beginnings, the new record, and the unsolved mystery of Abner's arm. Though busy preparing for an upcoming tour that'll take them around the U.S. Sharing the stage that evening with Stevie Nicks, Chris Goss, Lee Ving, Rick Nielsen, Rick Springfield, and other legends, The 'Pups took a much-deserved victory lap.
If there were any remaining questions about the band's legacy at that point, Dave Grohl selecting them to open the Sound City Players evening at this year's South By Southwest probably answered them all. Though Curt continued the band as the only original member during Cris' absence, 2006 saw a reunion of the brothers, followed by the release of Rise to Your Knees and a well-received performance of Meat Puppets II at All Tomorrow's Parties music festival.
Tough times for a band that had a gold record ( Too High to Die) under its belt, a successful tour supporting Stone Temple Pilots at the top of their game, and joined one of its biggest fans, Kurt Cobain, onstage during Nirvana's now legendary MTV Unplugged in New York performance, which included three songs from Meat Puppets II in the set. After years of hard living, the band found itself in disarray in the late '90s, with Cris eventually serving two years in prison in 2003 after an altercation with a security guard. But their survival, both as a band and as people, was far from guaranteed.
The Meat Puppets, however, are very much alive and well, and have just released their 14th album, Rat Farm.įormed by brothers Curt and Cris Kirkwood, and their high school friend, Derrick Bostrom, the band fused hardcore punk, classic rock, AM radio country, and more than a little of Doc Watson's influence into a unique sound that only could have happened in the Arizona Desert. There was no shortage of punk bands in America's suburbs as we entered the '80s, but very few of them continue to make music today.
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