LBDA Interview - continued

*Opie joins us*
Clarkie - Opie! Hi.
Opie - Hey.
RAS-1 - Want to finish the interview with Opie?
Opie - No you're gonna finish it. You're gonna sit here until we deem necessary.
Clarkie - Yep, you're gonna stay; we want you here.
*Opie and RAS start punching each other*

RAS-1, Opie, and Clarkie photo by J. ryde

Opie - Me and RAS are like brothers.
RAS-1 - We ARE!
Clarkie - You can tell.
Opie - It's a love/hate relationship. We hate to love each other and we love to hate each other. We use to live together. We've had the worst times together and the best of times together.
RAS-1 - And the best. And we're staying this close.
*RAS pulls Opie over to him with a big hug*
Clarkie - How long have you guys known each other?
Opie - I met RAS when I first started tattooing in 1994. We became close, he's a funny guy and we just started hanging out.
RAS-1 - I use to see his ass at party's in the late 80's and through the 90's. I'd say, oh fuck "I'm staying away from that guy" cause Opie just looked like trouble. He emphasizes by punching you in the face. The first time I was about to meet Opie, he jumped out of a house, runs outside throws a brick through the window and jumps in a car. He just looked at me after he threw the brick through the window, and drove away. I went "That guy's fucking crazy!"
Opie - That was actually at Miguel's house bash party. We were trying to bring his house down. It was fun.
RAS-1 - I showed up at the party late and I'd just seen Opie, and I went "Fuck, I'm not going to this party."
Opie - I threw a surfboard through the front window and glass landed in my friend Chris's eye. He was all bummed at me, but it fell out that next day.
Clarkie - His eye or the glass?
Opie - Oh, the glass.
Clarkie - How old are you guys?
RAS-1 - I'm 28 and he's 29.
Clarkie - So Opie, I'm writing this for an online skateboard magazine. I use to work with Mark Gonzales....
Opie - Uh huh, I know Mark. I also know Ron Chatman.
RAS-1 - CHATTY!
Opie - I know lots of skaters.
Clarkie - Yeah, RAS said you skate too. Any particular kind of decks you prefer to skate on?
Opie - Blind, World Industries, those are like the best. We know JT, from World. Actually we work with a different guy now, Wallace.
RAS-1 - JT use to skate for Alva, with Ratagui and all the other guys.
Clarkie - I was just down at the ASR Trade Show in San Diego.
Opie - We played there.
Clarkie - I know, I arrived the day after you played.
Opie - Ahh, that sucks.
Clarkie - Yep, I was bummed; who put on the party?.
Opie - Yeah we had a good show down there. It was for Black Flys. Brad's widow, Troy, threw it for Black Flys, she opened up her own shop through them.
Clarkie - That's great, what does she sell, anything other than Black Flys?
Opie - She sells Silver Star rings and jewelry, and girls clothes. It's really cool Mike went down there and in a room in the back made a Sublime memorial. They sell all kinds of Skunk records and stuff.
Clarkie - That was one of our questions. How is Troy doing, emotionally?
Opie - Well, you know she's gone through it all. I keep in good touch with her and stuff. She comes to our shows and stuff. I couldn't really answer that, but she seems to be doing well. Jakob's getting big now. He's three now. He's a crazy little kid. He sings and everything.
Clarkie - That's cool, maybe a new band member some day?
Opie - Actually all of our kids are. He's gonna get a band going and all our kids are going to be in it. Marshall has two daughters, I have a daughter, Riley, and I'm having another, a boy when I get back in a few weeks.
Clarkie - Alright, well congratulations!
Opie - Yeah, so I'm collecting all kinds of goodies, and stuff on tour for him.
Clarkie - You guys have a great sound. We've been listening to music for many years, (and you can see we've been around the block a few times) and nobody compares to the sound you have.
Opie - Thank you. We've been trying to perfect it. Keepin it real.
Clarkie - As you travel all around on your tours, are there any favorite places you like to play?
Opie - Me personally, I like doing snowboarding tours cause I like to get out there. We love playing Tahoe, Colorado. I just love getting out there, meeting the kids, snowboarding, skateboarding, surfing, and my new thing is wakeboarding. I've been wakeboarding for about three years.
Clarkie - You're quite an artist, Opie. As you probably know, Mark has leaned towards his artistic side doing art shows, poetry, etc. Do you plan anything such as that for yourself, like maybe a book?
Opie - I have a chance to work with House of Blues, doing backdrops and stuff like that. I've worked a lot before in the movie industry. I was location technician for some commercials like Toyota, doing artwork.
Clarkie - Do you guys have certain music sets planned out or do you just get up there and play.
RAS-1 - We get a set list, but we change it every night. It's such a big band you gotta have a set list so everybody knows what we're going to play. Otherwise we're all yelling to each other.
Opie - Sometimes it just happens; even though we have a set list, but Eric's the boss, Eric and Bud.
RAS-1 - Eric will go "Let's play something else" and just start jammin.
Opie - And it just turns into a freestyle.
Clarkie - Your show last summer was wild, we were talking about all the ladies on stage taking off their tops.
Opie - Where?
Clarkie - Here. We were here at your show last summer
Opie - Oh yeah, that was wild!
Clarkie - Is that a common occurrence?
Opie - Sometimes it happens. We use to do this thing called "Tits for T's" and we'd have like ten t-shirts onstage and whoever showed their tits, we'd throw a t-shirt at them. But it kinda got crazy cause guys would like end up fighting for the girls t-shirt. It got was kinda weird so we stopped.
Clarkie - Yeah, RAS and I were talking about what happened at Woodstock this year, with all the violence, it's terrible.
Opie - Yeah, that's whacked. We just played a show in Sacramento and I don't know who they are, like jocks or something, but I saw this guy sock a girl. I started yelling like crazy, I jumped down there, then security took him out. It was a weird show, people weren't even paying attention to us on the stage, they're over there fighting and slam dancing for some reason.

*A Pallookaville employee's two little boys zoomed by us on skateboards*
Clarkie - Who are these guys?
Opie - Hey you guys got ID?
Boys - Uh.
Opie - *acting like he's interviewing them* Hey this is a skateboard magazine thing here, why do you guys like to skateboard? Who's your favorite skater?
Boys - Jamie Thomas.
Clarkie - What do you think about Elissa Steamer?
Boys - *looked at me like I was crazy*
Opie - She's dope. The first time I saw her skate I couldn't believe it. She was just going so big.
Clarkie - Some people say she shouldn't be pro, or sponsored, or skating. Where do you think that comes from, sexism?
Opie - She's the only girl representin.
RAS-1 - As long as she can hang, get out there.
Opie - She rips on a lot of dudes.
Clarkie - Do you think it's a sexist thing?
RAS-1 - It's bullshit.
Opie - It must be.
RAS-1 - You also hear a lot of people getting pissed off about black people playing hockey and golf too. It's just some shit that's stuck in some people's heads and they don't even know they're wrong, but they're wrong.
Opie - I tattoo, and they say girls can handle more pain. Once you fall a couple of times skating you don't want to fall any more, know what I mean? You learn that trick.
Clarkie - She's pretty tiny too.
Opie - Yeah, I saw her doing these big old grinds off these stairs, and she fell like twice. She got really mad, then she did it again and she like pulled it off and did a little twist at the end. We were all going like damn, it's crazy! I use to skate back in the day with Russ Howell. He was the shit. But there were girls that were skating with us back then, but I think cause he was a cool guy.

*We paused to take some pictures. They talked about how they've got all the poses down, and photographers saying "Now don't do that face you do." RAS pointed out a pic their road manager had given me. I asked them to autograph it for Linds, Ryde's son who had other obligations and couldn't make this trip*
RAS-1 - This is our fishing picture. We were suppose to be fishing. By the time they took the damn picture we had all lost our fishing poles.
Clarkie - Are you going to be around Santa Cruz a while?
Opie - We were hoping to go up to Humboldt. We love going up there, cause they're just all "Hey, here's some Humboldt hospitality."
Clarkie - I know what you mean. Well, here's some Santa Cruz hospitality *I hand them a huge bottle of Jose Quervo.*
Opie - Wheeeeeeeeew, here RAS take a hit!
RAS-1 - Whose is this?
Clarkie - It's yours! *Opie trys to get RAS to chug*
Opie - I just recently quit drinking.
Clarkie - Really? Good for you Opie, that's great.
Opie - I've got a lot of important stuff to do.
Clarkie - Yeah, especially with the little one on the way.
Opie - That and all this stuff, it's important and if we're all drunk, there's just no way. So I just let RAS drink it ALL!.
Clarkie - Yep, its business. What are your future travel plans?
Opie - We went to Europe, and hope to go to Australia and New Zealand. I want to go to Japan, trip on Japan, cause I'm really into tattoos and stuff, go out there and trip on the culture.
Clarkie - *I roll up my pants and stick my leg on Opie's lap to get his avice on my fading tattoo* Can that be brightened up some? I swim a lot and I think it got a little too much chlorine.
Opie - Oh yeah, that will do it. Sure, it can be brightened up.
*RAS-1 stuck his hand in my face*
Clarkie - What's that?
RAS-1 - A rose.
Clarkie - Oh wow, it's just like mine!
RAS-1 - Yep.
Opie - Show them the other one. *RAS put all his knuckles together and leaned over*
Clarkie - Right on, oh look it spells ALLSTARS! *We proceeded to examine some of the rest of RAS's tattoo'd body*
Clarkie - RAS does your mother approve of your tattoo's? Does she have any? j/k
RAS-1 - Yeah, she likes them. She figures I'm in a job where I can have tattoos so it doesn't matter. No, she doesn't have any.
Opie - I go kinda crazy on RAS, show them the one on your neck.
RAS-1 - I figure of the music doesn't work out I'll just tattoo my face so I don't have to work any more. I'll just get social security.
Clarkie - No, don't tattoo your face, it's a nice face.
Clarkie - Is Trailer RAS the story of your life?
RAS-1 - Yep, the story of my life. Pertains to everyone's life too. People who aren't white boys, it pertains to them too. I pretty much grew up in the ghetto. Clarkie - Really? Which ghetto?
RAS-1 - North Long Beach, South Compton.
Clarkie - How long have you guys known Ron Chatman? I never got to meet him since we worked kinda long distance those years.
RAS-1 - We've known him for like ten years.
Opie - I just saw him recently. He's getting into salsa and all that. You want to see the Ron Chatman handshake?
Clarkie - Yeah. *Opie takes my hand and does this very limp, non grabbing shake and I cracked up his funny imitation of Ron, especially when he did it again!*
Clarkie - Are we keeping you? Do you need to go to dinner, or go get refreshed before the show?
Opie - Nah, I'm eating right over there *pointing to a concession*.
Clarkie - Hot dogs?
Opie - No they have Chinese food there, no Filipino!
RAS-1 *starting to act silly on words like hot dogs, points to the tequila bottle and says* This shit is killing me already!
Clarkie - I'm sorry. I just didn't want to bring you something wimpy.
Opie - Eric will love that.
RAS-1 - Well I'm not giving it to Eric! NO I AM NOT. Hey, they won't let me smoke in here.
Opie - Well what do you think they'll do, go up on stage and tackle you off?
Clarkie - Last year when you asked for a cigarette, a flurry of cigarettes flew up on-stage.
Clarkie - Do you guys have any friends or family here in Santa Cruz?
RAS-1 - I do, my cousin Burgundy.
Opie - Does she hang out with Chablis? *we all laugh*
Opie - My dad is here. My dad is an outlaw; not really. He's with the Ghost Mountain Riders.
Clarkie - The motorcycle club?
Opie - Yeah, he's vice president of the Ghost Riders. He's coming tonight. In fact, if you see all those guys here tonight don't get scared, it's just my dad.
Clarkie - Ok, I won't.
Clarkie - Well, we can wrap this up now, thank you so much you guys. It was so nice meeting you and we'll see you here later tonight!
RAS-1 - Right on.
Opie - Cool.

Contest is over and
Zee Lucky Veeners Were!

Robert Arquero
Reasons why I must win the contest: 1. Sublime was one of my favorite groups. The music is awesome and to me very original (has it's own style). Got all the CD's except the latest. 2. Reggae music is life and Long Beach Dub Allstars represents. 3. Having an autographed Long Beach Dub Allstars Poster would make me the coolest kid on the block (bragging rights). 4. I read all articles on the band and I'm a true follower of realskate.com. 5. Long Beach Dub Allstars are true to their music as well in life, just like me.

Drew Weste
Why should I be one to win? I don't think there CAN be any REAL reason why anyone SHOULD win something as materialistic as a poster. This is true in the case, that no one needs this poster, only wanting it. This is in no way wrong, for it is an absolute that we, all of us, experience, the need to want. I can however give you reasons, why I WANT the poster. This being a more true response in my opinion. I want the poster on the basis of I do love the music of the Dub All Stars, and I respect what they stand for. I have much belief in their integrity as a band, and as individuals. Also, I believe that the poster would look great in my room, (this is meant as humor, but I agree that it would look GREAT in my room). The lithograph also is something I would want, due to the fact that memorabilia collecting is something I have always enjoyed. In phases of my life, I have always found joy in it. So again, this would fulfill another one of my, shall we say, feelings.

Clarkie
My first reason is I LOVE the LBDA's. My second reason is when I saw the posters I went "ohmygosh, they're sooooo cute, I HAVE to have one!" My third reason is I own Real Skate and I get make all the rules and judge all the contests. Reason four: I only got two entries. Hey, I let the contest run a FULL 6 DAYS so stop whining—you gotta be quicker next time!

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you Long Beach Dub Allstars, I KISS YOU! (and you too Hector).

Contest is over, Thank you!