Stray Cat Lee Rocker
Cool Cat Lee Rocker: Strayin’ and Strummin’ to His Own Beatby d-grrrl
I was sitting at my desk, arranging papers and attempting to attach the tape recorder to the phone when suddenly it rang. It wasn’t yet 3 pm so I assumed it was a would-be advertiser or perhaps a PR person touting their latest up and comer. I answered with a polite and business-like, “CoolGrrrls” and heard on the other end a sultry male voice. “Is this Diane?” he said. “Yes it is!” I creatively answered, and the mystery voice, pausing slightly for effect (at least in my twisted mind), said, “Hey, this is Lee Rocker!” I almost fainted.
For years I’d dreamed of talking to one of the Stray Cats; for decades all three had occupied a special place in my, er, heart as well as in my record collection (yes, they were records!). I once stood outside the Eagles Hippodrome for five hours in the rain with hoards of screaming punks, my face pressed against the glass doors, until the promoter finally saw my scrunched, drowned rat face, took pity, and let me in. It was one of the hottest shows I’d ever seen: The Stray Cats on the “Built for Speed” tour. I swooned as Brian crooned, Slim Jim skinned, and Lee slapped and surfed, and I fantasized about the day I’d finally get to meet these guys, convinced it would never happen. If I ever even got their number I was sure it’d be me who’d be dialing, holding, and never getting through. And now Lee Rocker was calling me!
After the initial shock wore off, I managed to quell the giggling (well, almost), attach the tape recorder, and find my notes. All those years of being a fan I had a bunch of questions for Lee, and he graciously answered them all candidly, discussing everything from growing up with Brian Setzer and Slim Jim Phantom to why it’s “all about the groove.”
CG First of all, thanks so much for calling us—I know you just got back from your tour last night. How was it?
LR The tour was great—we did a bunch of dates in the Midwest and then I took some time off to write a few songs.
CG Good for you! I’ve got an old album cover in front of me here—”Rant n’ Rave with the Stray Cats”—and it’s got a picture of you playing a cello. Is that how you got your musical start? Do you play other instruments?
LR Well, I played cello as a kid and I played that for a bunch of years. I play guitar though too and a little bit of piano.
CG So how did you get into playing the stand-up bass?
LR I grew up playing cello from about 6 to 12 years old and about 12 years old it became really not the coolest thing to do, carrying a cello around New York in the snow, ya know? You definitely became a target! And the music I was starting to get into was blues and rockabilly stuff so I started playing electric bass and then really after a couple years of doing that—about 13, 14—I sort of realized the records that I loved had upright bass on them so I dropped the electric and started playing upright.
CG What’s a dog house bass?
LR Just another word for an upright bass.
CG And who were your big influences back then, how did you get into rockabilly?
LR Probably my biggest influence would be Carl Perkins. And then the obvious ones: early Elvis, Scotty Moore and Bill Black, Buddy Holly, of course. I sort of came into it—I mean the first time I heard this music was the late 70s—and I sort of came into it through the back door. I mean, these singles were old at the time. And I listened to some of the Beatles records and Stones records and they were 15 years old at the time, but they were hanging around the house. And a lot of the songs I dug were the early Stones, like, “Oh Carol”—that Chuck Berry song. And Beatles stuff—I think “Meet the Beatles”—where they did like five or six Carl Perkins songs, so through that.
CG How old were you when you actually joined a band?
LR About 12 or 13.
CG Wow—that’s young!
LR Yeah. I mean, with friends, nothing too organized. Groups of friends in New York who had instruments and played. I really know Brian and Jim since then and we would just sit in my dad’s garage and play.
CG I didn’t know you guys have played for so long and grew up together…
LR Oh yeah, we grew up within two or three blocks of each other.
CG And are you guys all still friends? I know you still play with Jim a lot—he’s got a cut on the latest record with you.
LR Yeah…
CG One thing I’ve always wanted to know, how did you learn to surf on your bass like that?
LR (laughs) Just, uh, probably Jack Daniels had something to do with that.
CG And so, of course, have you ever fallen off of it?
LR You know, I don’t think I’ve ever really have—I know I’ve never fallen off and really hurt myself. I usually know when I’m gonna tumble and I hop off. But amazingly enough I’ve never really taken a bad tumble—at least not on my own bass. I remember it was a bunch a years ago there was a band called The Mighty Hornets around LA and I went down to a gig they were playin’ and said, “Ah, let me sit in” and grabbed this guy’s bass, and stood on it—after a few cocktails—and tumbled straight ahead and just flattened the thing! Huge fireworks (laughs)! But I’ve never done it to one of my own basses.
CG More practice or something…
LR I think I just care more about who’s buying ‘em!
CG That’s probably it! What do you think are the key ingredients for a great rockabilly song?
LR I think, really, to me, as a bass player, it’s all about the groove. That, to me, is what makes it rockabilly. I mean, I think rockabilly music doesn’t have to be treated like a museum piece, you can do a lot of different things to it and have all kinds of different influences. Like, I dig what Horton Heat does, it’s different than what I do but, you know, I like that they’re putting their own thing into it. But it’s all about the groove—if it’s got that kind of rockabilly feel on the low end, on the drums, that’s what makes it rockabilly.
CG Do you think rockabilly’s waning or gaining in popularity these days? Is it different in different parts of the country, that you see?
LR Yeah, I mean it’s stronger in some parts of the country than others but I really see it like a big underground cult—it’s definitely everywhere. And not even just the States—everywhere from Japan, Europe, Russia—I mean, there’s a rockabilly scene in pretty much every city in the world. Some places it’s bigger than others but it’s a lot like real punk rock—not the punk rock that, you know, Interscope puts out that you hear on, uh, KROQ. Real punk rock’s like real rockabilly—it’s alive and well and if you’re into it you know where to find it. But you gotta know where to look, you know what I mean? So I think it’s in a pretty good state, I mean we just did the Hootenanny festival again this year—the sixth or seventh year—and that definitely shows that, especially here in Southern California, it’s one of the bigger things going on. The West Coast is really strong, the Midwest is pretty good. I would think in the States, at least for me—and it’s always been that way since the Stray Cats—the slowest places are where you’d think it would be great, like the South. They’re like, “Rockabilly—what the hell is that?”
CG That surprises me.
LR Yeah, it surprised us for years—that, you know, where it was born they don’t want any part of it. They don’ know what it is. I mean there’s a little scene, but it’s not like it is in other places.
CG Do you have any secret technique as far as how you play?
LR Um, I don’t know. It’s really just sort of evolved to what it is. No secrets there. I did a videotape a couple years ago, like an instructional thing, so I gave away all the secrets a couple years ago (laughs)! I gotta say, I’m on the road, at the Hootenanny or on tour and I’ve always got rockabilly bass players comin’ up, goin’, “Hey I was watching that tape…” So I don’t know if that was such a good idea (laughs again). At the time it seemed like a good idea…
CG I see that you co-wrote “Miracle in Memphis” with Slim Jim (Phantom), where did you guys record that?
LR It (the entire live CD) was recorded over three days up in LA at a club called the Mint.
CG What are you working on now?
LR A little bit of touring, not a tremendous amount. I’m writing right now—I took a couple weeks off and was working on songs and I’m about half way through with the new record. I’ve tried to approach this record different from anything else I’ve ever done, which is each time I’d write a song or two I’d go into the studio and finish it and then about a month later or whatever I’d go in and do another song, thinking that this would be a quick, good way to it. I’m not really convinced of it at this point (laughs again). I’ve been working on this record for a long, long time and normally I go in for like four to six weeks and when I come out of the studio I have a finished record. Now it’s just the thing that never ends! But I’m gettin’ there. I think I need to now give up that approach and say, “This date to this date I’m in the studio six days a week” and just get down to it.
CG What do you consider the highlight of your career?
LR You know I feel like I’ve been really lucky, there’ve been a lot of things I can look at as highlights. I mean, I was thrilled to have Scotty Moore up with me a little while ago doing some songs—that’s definitely one of ‘em. But, I mean, I think overall just the fact that I’ve been playing music that I love now for 20 years and get to continue to do it—that’s the thing I’m the happiest with.
CG That is cool. Thanks, Lee, so much for chattin’ with the Cool Grrrls. Is there any last thing you wanna say to your fans?
LR Thanks a lot for being there! Tell your friends!
Leave a Reply