Chuck Prophet has released his fair share of classic material over the years, going back to his days in the fabulous Green On Red and an extensive solo career that peaked last year with the stunning Wake The Dead. I had a lovely chat with Chuck last week about life, lymphoma and a lifelong love of great music…
GOD IS IN THE TV: I was looking through some old reviews of some of your earlier work with Green On Red, and I was struck by one review of Gas Food Lodging, in the Sunday Times, which called it “driven road music. The clanging sounds of Californian boredom” which, I should point out, was actually a positive review. Now, I’ve been to California, and I have to ask you this – how on earth do you get bored in California?
Chuck Prophet: I have no idea!
Ah. So you weren’t bored then?
Chuck: No. I don’t know, y’know? We were kind of reactionary in our own way, so this kind of ‘country rock’ was a little…well, I guess punk rock was not even cold in its grave, in 1985, and here we come, talking about Neil Young and Creedence. I mean, for a lot of British journalists, if they can’t somehow trace it back to Joy Division, they’re in trouble, you know? It’s difficult for them!
Do you ever wonder how Green On Red never made a bigger commercial impact? You had lots of critical plaudits, of course, and I think you were kind of a ‘criminally overlooked’ band…
Chuck: I don’t know about that, I think we did a lot, you know? I don’t think we ever felt entitled to the mainstream. You know, our peers were maybe people like R.E.M., or The Smiths or something, you know, these were bands that, when you listen to Michael Stipe sing, or you listen to Morrissey sing, it sounds like they understand your pain, and there’s something about that, so Green On Red...it just wasn’t for everybody, and, you know, we’re ok with that.
And John Peel was someone who I would have thought would love Green On Red, but he almost ignored you, weirdly…
Chuck: I’m not so sure. We did a lot of sessions, but I don’t think we ever did any Peel Sessions, but you know, John Peel did play quite a lot of unlistenable stuff, and I appreciate that! But he also championed people like Loudon Wainwright, so there you have it.
Moving forward to the present day, Wake The Dead was one of my favourite albums of 2024, you really knocked me for six last year with that. It’s actually my favourite of your entire career, and it came from such a dark place as well, didn’t it, with you being diagnosed with stage four lymphoma? That makes the record even more remarkable to me. I could actually feel your relief throughout. So to what degree do you feel like the diagnosis and subsequent recovery from it changed your life?
Chuck: Well, ultimately I’m probably a little bit nicer of a person! I had my moments! Honestly, before that, I never really thought that much about mortality. I just didn’t think about the dude! It was so far in the distance, and when something’s so far in the distance you can’t really make it out, it’s just like a bug. But then you can start to make out a shape: “Oh, he’s coming towards me”, a little bit closer every day – I can kind of make him out a little bit, and that was really new, you know? I just didn’t have any connection to my mortality. I just thought that was something for other people.
Obviously it must have been horrific upon first hearing the news, but do you think it was somehow a good thing in a weird way?
Chuck: Well, you know , people call the area near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania the “rust bucket”, and then you go down south towards Alabama and Georgia and so forth, and a lot of people refer to that as the “bible belt”, but I happen to live up here in San Francisco, just half an hour from Silicon Valley and Billionaire Row, so I live in what people call the “money belt”, so it turns out that worked in my favour when it came to getting good treatment, at Kaiser Permanente here. They knocked it back, but you know, we’re still keeping an eye on it.
I read an interview you did last year where you said you’re not really a political person, but on Wake The Dead, you have the track ‘In The Shadows (For Elon)’, which kind of contradicts that. So would you say it’s harder in today’s climate to avoid getting involved with politics?
Chuck: Well, the music that I like has the ability to take you somewhere, but also let’s you know that…you know what time it is. So, if you have the window open when you’re writing songs, these guys are gonna float in, you know? Elon Musk – all I can say about that guy is that if he gets it together enough and builds that rocket ship to Mars, all I can hope is that he brings all his friends with him.
Absolutely. It almost feels like an alternate reality to me, Trump and Musk together…
Chuck: Yeah. I mean, it started with Brexit really. We never saw this populist movement brewing, but you know, people like simple answers to complex issues, and as a result, the planet’s heating up, man! We gotta walk north, I don’t know what to tell ya! I don’t know what happened, but somewhere along the line, 48 per cent of this country somehow turned into complete freaking morons. I don’t know what to say.
Ok we’ll go back to the music.
Chuck: Please!
Ha ha. Ok, one of my favourite things about your work is its unpredictability. For example, going back to 2004’s Age Of Miracles, you’ve flirted with hip-hop on ‘You Did (Bomp Shooby Dooby Bomp)’, which works surprisingly well and I love it. How do you go about coming out with stuff that is just totally unexpected like that?
Chuck: Um…well, you know, a song like that – it started with me just strumming three chords and maybe I might have turned on a drum machine and started shouting at the walls! If I like what I hear bouncing off the walls, then I know I’m on to something. I do remember those words coming out of my mouth – “Who put the bomp…” – I was just sort of channeling that doo-wop thing, and I cracked myself up when I just kind of answered myself with “You did.” That was the spark, really, that enabled that song to stand up for itself. It’s still in the set. I mean, you only get so many closers, in your lifetime!
Is it difficult to come up with new themes every time you make an album?
Chuck: Well you need luck. Everybody needs luck, that goes without saying, and if I’m lucky enough to tap into something that’s taking me somewhere new, or it’s new enough and fresh enough to get me excited, well, then I start to feel good and I “reap the day”, you know? But you know, my last record, gee, it was four years ago, so I guess, until now, I didn’t have anything to say!
And what a comeback it’s been, readers! Wake The Dead is simply an irresistible record with perfect summer vibes and some fabulous, often tongue-in-cheek lyrics, all backed by the wonderful Cumbia band ¿Qiensave? – if you can fight the urge to dance to that album, then I can only assume you have no soul.
Chuck Prophet is currently on tour, and indeed, our Deputy Editor, Simon Godley, recently rated his recent show at the Brudenell Club in Leeds as potentially the “gig of the year.” Do yourself a favour and get tickets. You won’t regret it.
