The Fuzztones | Rudi Protrudi | Interview

The garage rock legends The Fuzztones began decades ago and are still rocking their way to eternity.

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Originally founded by singer and guitarist Rudi Protrudi in New York City, the group’s name is derived from Fuzz Tone, the commercial name of a guitar effect pedal invented in 1962 and whose distinctive sound was popularized in the 1965 hit song ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’ by The Rolling Stones. You want punk? Garage? Psych? Hear The Fuzztones and their story on how it all began, the NYC’s Lower East Side days playing CBGB and the Mudd Club, making of ‘Lysergic Emanations’ and so much more.

“When I mix a song, I try very hard to duplicate the hallucinatory experience with sound effects and stereo separation in particular”

It’s really wonderful to have you. How have you been lately?

Rudi Protrudi: Thanks Klemen. It’s nice to be here! Things have been going great lately, ever since the lockdown came to an end. The band has started touring again. We’ve played Greece and Spain and just got back from a tour of Italy Last week. The tours went great. It’s hard to imagine that the band has been together for 43 years now and are still so popular! Lana Loveland just came back to the band – part-time, that is, as Nico Secondini has been with us ever since Lana got pregnant 8 years ago. We just added a second guitarist, Marcello Salis, and we’re sounding better than ever. I’m truly blessed.

You were born in Washington, D.C.. and raised in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania. What was life like there? Tell us about your upbringing and what did you do as a young kid?

We moved to Pennsylvania when I was four so I don’t remember much about Washington. Pennsylvania was very backward. I like to call it Pennsyltucky because of the rather large amount of rednecks, greasers and hillbillies that inhabit our area. We lived across the river from Harrisburg, the state capital and, as far as we were concerned, the “big city.” I never even saw a black person until I was a teenager and went to Harrisburg for the first time. It got much better as I reached my teens, though. After The Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan show (I was 12 at the time), bands started to form like crazy. Teen clubs started popping up everywhere. There were loads of places for teen bands to play – besides the teen clubs they would have dances in church basements, fire halls, tennis courts, and at swimming pools. I formed my first band (King Arthur’s Quart) when I was 14 and we started gigging that same year.

By the time I was 15 or 16 I had a new band, Rigor Mortis, and we actually joined the musician’s union and gigged every weekend! Both bands specialised in underground rock like The Velvet Underground and The Fugs, although Rigor Mortis began learning more commercial type stuff after our first year – like Hendrix, Beatles, Animals, even Davie Allan. We played ‘Blues Theme’ back then and we’re still playing it today as The Fuzztones!

When did you first get interested in music? Was there a certain moment when you knew you wanted to be a musician?

I was really into monster movies when I was a kid. One day my dad brought home a record called “Monster Mash” by John Zacherley. Zach was one of the first TV horror show hosts (along with Vampira) and he would do the show in character – sort of a cross between Boris Karloff and Dracula – but very funny. He had a sick sense of humour and on the album he sang popular rock ‘n’ roll hits of the day, such as ‘The Twist,’ ‘Bristol Stomp,’ ‘The Fly’ – but he’d change the lyrics. The Fly became ‘The Bat,’ the ‘Twist’ became the ‘Mummy Twist’ – the lyrics to that went something like this: “OK Igor, you take the mummy’s head, and twist round, I’ll take the mummy’s feet, and twist them, and we’ll produce some mummy juice.” I found this shit utterly hilarious and would play the album over and over again.

But somewhere in the process, the music started to get to me, and soon I found myself digging rock ’n’ roll. Then, when The Beatles got on Ed Sullivan, I flipped out – as did every kid in America. From that point on I bugged the crap out of my parents to buy me a guitar. I got my first acoustic when I was 12 and by the time I was 14 I had my first electric – A Kay semi hollow body. That’s when I formed my first band.

If we would go back in time and visit your teenage room, what kind of records, singles, posters, books would we find there?

I had a few shelves to display all my monster and super hero models. I had a LOT. I used to build them in my cousin’s carport in the summer while listening to Jan and Dean, Leslie Gore, and The Four Seasons on my transistor radio. This was before The Beatles’ TV debut. I had a portable record player, and a small collection of 45s that I’d gotten from my cousin: Big Joe Turner, Little Richard, Everly Brothers – stuff she listened to when she was a teen. When the hippie movement was in swing I had a poster of Moby Grape on the wall (the “censored” album photo with the drummer giving the finger). Later I had the famous Allen Ginsberg in Uncle Sam top hat poster on the wall, as well as the famous Dylan illustrated profile with rainbow locks sprouting from his head.

What was the local scene like for kids interested in music like back then? What clubs did you attend and what gigs did you see early on?

As I said, we had loads of teen clubs with names like “The Lodge,” “Psychorama” (a firehall in Dillsburg, converted to teen club on Saturdays), “The Country House” and the “Railroad House.” We had some very good local bands – some actually went on to record, and a few are even on 60s comps. In fact some are now on YouTube. The three best bands in the area were The Legends, The East Coast Left and The Other Side.

The Legends were a power trio led by guitarist Danny Hartman, who later went on to become bassist for The Edgar Winter Band, and then had some success in the disco scene as a solo artist. The East Coast Left were not from our area, but maybe from a nearby town – perhaps 40 or 50 miles away. Same with The Other Side. Both released singles, as did The Legends. All three can be found on YouTube. The Other Side were the freakiest and their song, ‘Writing on the Wall’ gives a good idea of what they sound like. Of course I was playing all this time as well. My band, Rigor Mortis, were together from 1967 to 1970 and although we never recorded a single, there is a live version of ‘Bandit,’ a song I wrote, on YouTube. As with a few songs I wrote back then, I later updated them and The Fuzztones covered them. ‘It Came In The Mail,’ and ‘Brand New Man,’ for instance. ‘Bandit’ became Tina Peel’s ‘Fabian Lips,’ and later The Fuzztones ‘Highway 69’.

How did you originally meet members of Tina Peel?

It wasn’t easy! Being quite backward, Pennsyltucky wasn’t really conducive to musicians wanting to play original material. The concept I had in mind for Tina Peel was based on what was going on in NYC at the time, which was 1976. The whole CBGB, Max’s Kansas City thing – Patti Smith, New York Dolls, Wayne County, Dictators, et cetera. I had gone to NYC when I was 14, checked out the hipster scene in Greenwich Village, and fell in love with it. I had remained infatuated with NY ever since and would regularly make trips there to see bands. I saw Alice Cooper at the Fillmore, New York Dolls at Max’s, and when the CBGB thing started happening, I would hitchhike there every weekend from Pennsyltucky, just to see anyone who was playing there. My concept for Tina Peel was to combine punk and 60s bubblegum. Can you imagine how hard it would be to find musicians for that in an area where the local bands were all covering The Eagles and Journey? Nevertheless I wrote a bunch of songs that turned out to sound more like Blondie than the other artists at the time – although I’d never heard Blondie as they hadn’t been signed yet. I knew a few musicians who were outcasts like myself, and had a band that were covering New York Dolls and Roxy Music. I used them to do some demos.

The singer (Victor Poisontete, later to sing for NY’s art rockers Rat At Rat R) brought his girlfriend, Carol Krautheim to sing backings. We recorded my songs, to shop to record labels, and in the interim I stole his girlfriend. I discovered she played piano so I suggested she switch to organ, she bought a Vox combo organ, and we began, Tina Peel. She changed her name to Deb O’ Nair, and brought in a drummer she knew from high school. A bass player answered an ad for “retro rocker” I put up in a music store, and we auditioned them both the same day. It sounded great, so I asked them right then and there if they wanted to be in the band, and were they willing to move to NYC. They said yes, and Tina Peel was born. A year later we moved to the Lower East Side – Alphabet City to be exact – the most dangerous part of Greenwich Village, or NYC for that matter.

Tina Peel lasted three more years. We played all the NY clubs from Max’s to CBGB and got pretty big before finally breaking up and morphing into The Fuzztones in 1980. We recorded two singles and lots of stuff that was never released at the time. Misty Lane/Teen Sound compiled it all and released an album (‘Pajama Party’) in 2002. I just remastered the whole record and re-released it on Easy Action this year. The new version is drastically improved sound-wise.

In 2016 you wrote a fantastic autobiography full of details and stories, was it difficult to remember all the details from the past? Did it bring any (almost) forgotten memories?

I don’t really have a great memory, but I was lucky enough to have kept journals, as well as collecting almost every article, ad or review I’ve ever gotten. I also interviewed many people who were part of my history, getting their take on certain events. So the end result was pretty accurate. It took 13 years to write my autobiography, as I did it all myself, including the layout. As you can see, there are loads of photos, ads, reviews, et cetera. The hardest part was to put them in order.

What are some of the strongest memories from recording ‘Folk Singer’ back in 2014. It’s a fantastic album consisting of you and your guitar… It’s a completely different thing in your career. Did you enjoy working on it?

Well, Moti Cohen brought me to Tel Aviv to do an acoustic show. I guess I had a bit of a following from the times The Fuzztones played there, back in 1992 and again around 2008, I believe. He always liked the acoustic single I did (‘Gimme Danger’/’Message to Pretty’) on Twang! Records! Released in 1994, and decided to set up the stage as it appeared on the 45 cover, which was a coffeehouse scene where I was depicted as a sort of hipster skeleton dressed in Fuzztones gear, surrounded by beatnik types while strumming an acoustic guitar. So he put the stage in the middle of the room, complete with a swivel chair and two mikes, so I could play to one side of the room, and then swivel around and play to the other. It was very intimate and a hell of a lot of fun. The audience really tuned in to what I was doing – basically mixing Fuzztones originals with some blues and country songs – mostly murder ballads from my ‘Lady Killer’ album, along with some unrecorded stuff along those lines. Since it went over so well, Moti decided to take me into a studio and record some stuff from the previous night’s set. I had forgotten my lyric sheets and had been partaking of the whiskey he provided there, so I found it rather difficult to remember half the songs! I did end up laying down enough tracks for an album, but when I eventually heard the rough mixes, I wasn’t all that impressed, and shelved the idea of releasing them. About seven years later I listened again and had changed my mind. I thought they were quite good actually. As I had been very impressed with the albums Johnny Cash had done with Rick Rubin, all that stripped down stuff, I decided maybe we could release this stuff after all, but maybe add some minimal accompaniment just to embellish what I had already recorded. I asked two guys from a country band I had briefly in Berlin to add stand-up bass and brushes to several tracks, and I also added some piano, violin, blues harp and slide to a few tracks. I was really pleased with the results. It’s a very intimate sounding album very reminiscent of the atmosphere created during my solo acoustic shows.

What currently occupies your life?

Lana and I became parents seven and a half years ago, and my daughter, Twila, is now the main focus of our lives. We brought her to Italy this last tour, so she could finally see what her folks do for a living. It was a real trip. We had a Fuzztones vest made for her, just like ours, and at one point I brought her out onstage to strum my guitar. She didn’t even have stage fright. Her favorite band is The Beatles and adores the movie Yellow Submarine, so we’re bringing her up right. When I’m not parenting, I am doing a lot of production work for Cleopatra Records. They’ve been taking vocal tracks from some rock and roll icons, and having me provide new backing tracks for them. I’ve done tracks for Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Junior Wells, Ann Margret, The Association, The Grass Roots, Mark Lindsay, Clarence “Frogman” Henry and will be doing backing tracks for Blue Cheer and Sonny Burgess soon!

Any future plans?

I was recently contacted by a major documentary filmmaker about making a Fuzztones documentary. We had started on one about 8 or 9 years ago, and had filmed live shows and loads of interviews (including some with well known rock celebrities), but I had a falling out with the filter, and he confiscated all the footage. So now we’re starting from scratch. It would be amazing to have a documentary available while I’m still alive to see it!

Okay, gotta ask. ‘Lysergic Emanations,’ what a record! If I could play it to you, what are some of the thoughts that run through your mind? What kind of recollection do you have from working on your first album?

Well, it wasn’t really our first album – that was ‘Leave Your Mind at Home,’ but it WAS our first studio album. We’d been together with that particular line-up (Elan Portnoy, Michael Jay, Deb O’Nair, Ira Elliot and myself) for about two years and were very tight musically. Almost (if not all) the tracks were recorded on the first take. Elan worked in the famous Brill Building as a sound engineer and knew a guy there who had his own home studio (I believe it was an 8-track analog studio) in Connecticut, so we recorded it there. I believe the whole recording process was done in two days. Maybe one day, at the most, for some overdubs (vocals and maybe some solos). I don’t remember too much about it except that Elan and I were to produce it but he slept through most of the production procedure. I also remember Ira played a garbage can on ‘Radar Eyes’ and we overdubbed a backwards chant – “In dog we thrust” – in that song.

What would be the craziest gig you ever play?

Difficult question. We’ve played a few! Probably the one in Belgium in 1987 when we played a festival in a huge tent for about 7000 people and 7 skinheads were in the front, harassing the shit out of us until I finally had had enough and jumped off the stage foot first into the tallest one’s face. In 1985, when we first played Italy, the crowd was so insane that the girls would have to stand in the back for fear they’d be hurt or raped. The guys would get so excited that some would actually jump onstage and lick the sweat off me! We also had several shows in ’87 when girls would jump onstage and strip! Once a guy in the audience offered his wife to me. Another offered to blow me!

Actually I have had chicks try to open my pants while onstage, with that objective in mind. I had a show once with The Others, an Italian garage band, backing me, and we played some mafia owned club where the owner gave me a line of coke before the show. I wasn’t really used to coke and it didn’t hit me until I got onstage. All of a sudden, during the first song, it came on to me and in a sudden surge of energy I lifted the mic stand up rather forcefully and knocked down the ceiling! I was terrified that this mob guy was gonna kill me but, as it turned out, he loved the show!

“I am a child of the sixties after all”

Have you ever experimented with psychedelics and what kind of impact do you feel they had on your music making?

Of course. I am a child of the sixties after all. I’ve taken LSD many times, as well as psilocybin. All of the lysergic line-up tripped, as did all of The Braindrops and Salt For Zombies line-ups. I also have a particular fondness for ecstasy/MDMA. I’ve found that both drugs are quite beneficial while listening to music, as they intensify the experience drastically. I would go as far as to say that, after doing those drugs, I’ve never listened to music the same way again, and the experience expanded my capabilities as a producer. When I mix a song, I try very hard to duplicate the hallucinatory experience with sound effects and stereo separation in particular.

Do you have any active side-projects going on at this point?

Not really, but my acoustic solo shows and my instrumental band, Link Protrudi and the Jaymen are always on hold. If someone offers me a show for either, I usually accept. The Jaymen seem to get together and play out once every five years or so.

Is there any unreleased material from the early days?

As a matter of fact, yes. I’ve recently come across quite a lot of live recordings – some in very good quality. What I’d really like to do is find a label interested in doing a box set of live albums from every major line-up of the band. I have soundboard recordings from each.

I have also found many live tapes with songs the band has never recorded, and in fact in several cases, only ever played ONCE! Some of these are soundboard recordings, some are just handheld walkman recordings, but I’m thinking of remastering and releasing the best-sound ones as a compilation and call it “Just Once,” after the song from the ‘Lysergic Emanations’ LP. I also found a tape of the ‘Lysergic’ line-up that we did while tripping. It was recorded on a cassette player but still sounds pretty good. Maybe five psych jams and an original song we worked on but never finished. I may remaster that and sell it digitally on our Bandcamp page, which, by the way, is thefuzztones1.bandcamp.com. We have a lot of obscure stuff available there.

Looking back, what was the highlight of your time in the band? 

I couldn’t really select just one time or one era. I’ve enjoyed playing with each line-up, as they all had something to offer, both musically and adventure-wise. I’ve been fortunate enough to have toured extensively through half of Europe, as well as Israel, Czech Republic, Mexico, South America, Canada… I’ve met so many great people, seen so many incredible sights. And I’m still doing it and still loving every minute of it.

Where and when was your most memorable gig?

Probably the Pukkelpop festival in Belgium in 1987. We were one of the headliners, but had to come on before The Mission, who were a bit snobby to us. We played to an audience of 20,000 people – the second time we did that (the first being 1985 in Lyon, France, which was televised for French TV). Anyway we blew The Mission off the stage and when they went on after us the audience booed them off, demanding “Fuzztones! Fuzztones!.” Both shows are on YouTube by the way.

Which songs are you most proud of? 

I think the best crafted songs that I wrote, personally, are ‘Ward 81,’ ‘Invisible,’ ‘Old,’ and ‘Don’t Speak Ill of the Dead’. But it seems the most popular of my originals are ‘She’s Wicked’ and ‘Bad News Travels Fast,’ as well as ‘Ward 81’.

Would it be possible for you to choose a few collaborations that still warm your heart?

I have been fortunate to have been able to play with several musicians or bands that I really admired, such as Sylvain Sylvain (New York Dolls), Peter Stampfel (Holy Modal Rounders), Sean Bonniwell (Music Machine), Mark Lindsay (Paul Revere & The Raiders), James Lowe (The Electric Prunes), Sky Saxon (The Seeds), Arthur Lee (Love), The Chocolate Watchband, The Pretty Things,… But my favorite was Screamin’ Jay Hawkins. Not only a legend, but also a friend.

Let’s end this interview with some of your favourite albums. Have you found something new lately you would like to recommend to our readers?

I don’t really keep up with modern music and haven’t bought any albums in quite a few years. The last albums I bought were two Bo Diddley bootlegs (at least I THINK they are bootlegs – they are on his label, but it’s all unreleased stuff and the label disbanded years ago). One of them is called ‘Bo Diddley Is An Outlaw’ and the other is ‘Bo Diddley is Loose’. You have to realise that I already have a huge collection that I started when I was 12, so I’m too busy listening to what I already have and the only new stuff I listen to is what fans give me as gifts when I’m on tour.

Thank you. Last word is yours.

Thanks for this opportunity to reach your readers. I’d like to let folks know that my autobiography, “The Fuzztone (Raisin’ A Ruckus)” and the follow-up, “The Fuzztone – A Life at Psychedelic Velocity” are available for sale and can be ordered via info@fuzztones.net, as is “As Times Gone (The Lysergic Legacy of The Fuzztones),” the 365 page pictorial history of the band. Our last two albums, ‘NYC’ and ‘Encore’ are available on Amazon. And we’d like to come back to Tel Aviv! Thank you for having me.

Klemen Breznikar

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Headline photo: Rudi Protrudi during the filming of “Ward 81”

All photo materials are copyrighted by their respective copyright owners, and are subject to use for INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY!

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