Latter-day Speedwagon

Scott: Though in Kansas City . . .

Ken: Oh yeah, we donated our song to the DEA. Allowed them to use it in an anti-crystal commercial: “Life or Meth?” I guess Kansas City is the crystal-meth capital of the world. Apparently Tujunga, which is right next door [to the Method’s La Crescenta studio], is also a hotbed of activity.

Apparently! What about your “Got Meth?” shirts?

Ken:Top seller! It’s a sales tool saying: Have you bought our album?

Scott: I think us throwing a different take on crystal — “Got meth?” or whatever — it’s like, in England, which was so amazing about our early success, nobody knew what methamphetamine was. They had no reference. We’ve also had people tell us to change our name.

Did anyone tell you to change the new album title?

Scott: No, everybody was just laughing.

Ken: But it remains to be seen. It could always hurt us.

Scott: One thing that was strange was doing music for that Fox game Nitrous Oxide. Their campaign was “Get high with the Crystal Method.” Their whole marketing was innuendo — farther than we’ve ever gone. Al Gore called somebody at Fox and was like, “This is sending the wrong message.”

Ken: We would’ve never allowed them to use our music if we’d known.

So you do draw the line?

Ken: We draw the line like crazy.

What are your thoughts on Special K and GHB?

Scott: We played New York and were like, “Get us on now, ’cause if you don’t, we’ll play to a bunch of kids in K holes” — they get this tunnel vision; it’s like playing for zombies.

Ken: Bad drugs will always be bad. One thing about raves is, there’s no performance. But at our show there’s a focus on the stage. So we hope they won’t get burnt out — unless that was their plan to begin with.

On tour, are you approached by kids or dealers who want to turn you on?

Scott: There were people that, from the moment you started talking to them, would be shifty, shady.

Narcs?

Scott: Those people weren’t real Crystal Method fans who tell us how they love the record. If the first thing out of someone’s mouth is how they can hook us up, that’s the average guy Poison runs into.

Ken: There was a cabdriver in the Midwest that told me he had several ounces cooking in his bathtub. I was like, “Let me out, man!”

Scott: He was a pretty talkative character. I’m sure we’ve talked to many narcs . . .

Ken: I don’t think we have. I don’t think anyone is out to bust us.

Are you in a position to get busted? Do you party on tour?

Ken: Think of excess times 10.

Scott: It would be really easy to open ourselves up to that element, but — this isn’t something that makes me proud — I’ve had more underage people ask about flaming Dr. Peppers than about drugs.

Flaming Dr. Peppers?

Scott: It’s Amaretto and Kahlua with 151 on top. Light it on fire, drop into a half glass of beer, then slam it. If mixed right, there’s the aftertaste of a Dr. Pepper. And there’s the fire-151-sugar-adrenaline rush.

What about the studio? Do you party there, too?

Scott: I’ve done ’shrooms but couldn’t even think about making music. I was so blown away by the 7-Eleven.

Ken: Drugs may help your appreciation of music, but I’ve never found that it helps me work on anything.

Have friends or family been harmed by drugs?

Ken: I’ve got immediate family with problems, which I’ve lived with my whole life, so I’m sensitive to it.

Scott: The saddest thing is, this country is so backward when dealing with drugs. They bleep out “hash pipe” like it doesn’t exist.

Ken: Nothing gets kids running faster toward the hash pipe!

Scott: Meanwhile, people serve 90 years for growing their own marijuana. When we got arrested . . .

What was the charge?

Scott: Somebody narc’d on a friend of ours who supposedly had this GHB laboratory in his place [where the band had coincidentally stopped in just as the raid went down]. Two years later, after one mistrial, the judge dropped the charges. Whatever. It happens all the time. We were fortunate enough to have the money, but our friend couldn’t post bail for six months. But even our one night in jail, it was the most terrifying thing I’ve ever seen. I’m laying in this bunk, and this guy took a dump, then pulled out a couple bags of somethin’ that he sniffed.

Ken: Right then, I got on the phone with our lawyer, saying, “Whatever it takes, get bail!”