5-14-97 Well, it took a lot of string pulling and phone calls to various station administrators, but we finally got the phone to where it goes over the air again. DJC made sure that everything ran smoothly and helped write out a few questions, but besides a few remarks in the background, he kept silent during the whole thing, leaving me and Dick to blab on forever. Dick Rush was kind enough to give us a call at about 9:00 our time, before he was to set off to see MIRV. Between sips of a Klienfeld, Mr. Rush spilled his guts on various subjects, read on...

Captain Shiner OK, on the phone with us now is Mr. Dick Rush, who is a friend of Primus, much like Bob C. Cock who called us before... and he’s a friend of Bob C. Cock as well.

Dick Rush I wouldn’t really say that I’m a friend of Primus, I’m more of an employee.

Shiner And you’re going to se MIRV this evening, is that correct?

Dick Uh, yes sir. Opening for Dread Zepplin.

Shiner Oh, they’re OPENING for Dread Zepplin? Huh. I was completely backwards on that whole thing. I thought Dread Zepplin was opening for them.

Dick No, Dread Zepplin is the headlining band.

Shiner Well, I wanted to ask you about them, we have a Dread Zepplin album here, unfortunately it’s too far away for me to grab it. But it’s got a picture of a guy with straw on his back on the cover. Could you recommend a song by them for us?

Dick Oh man...y’know, they just do wierd covers of Led Zepplin songs, so anything that sounds familiar to you is ok with me.

Shiner Wow, that amazing. I mean I just checked out the CD, I knew we had it here and I had never listened to it but I knew they had...

Dick They have, well they have an Elvis impersonator that’s their lead singer, and they do regae versions of Led Zepplin songs.

Shiner [laughs] Oh yeah, we’re definitely gonna have to throw some of that in.

Dick [laughs] Yeah, it’s some pretty wacky stuff. I know that their first album had a song called “heartbreaker hotel” That was kind of like a combination of “Heartbreak Hotel” and “Heartbreaker”. So it’s pretty wacky stuff, I’ve seen ‘em live before and it’s... entertainment. But, definitely stuff you can get drunk to!

Shiner So then I’m assuming that Bob’ll be there..

Dick uh actually y’know I think it’s a little far for Bob to travel. It’s about 30 miles from his house. He’s a recluse. He’s not a very social monster.

Shiner Well, last time we talked to him, he was on his way up to Rancho Relaxo to visit Les.

Dick Yeah. Well today he was over in Berkley, over at Ler’s house. Working on a Primus radio show that they’re going to put on the website.

Shiner Aaawww... They’re going to put us out of business, aren’t they?

Dick Well, I don’t know. It’s going to be pretty stupid, as anything relating to Primus usually is.

Shiner I remeber that Bob mentioned on primussucks that he was going to get a show on... uh, WINO, I think. At one time.

Dick Yeah, I think it was some pirate radio station in northern California.

Shiner They got shut down or something.

Dick Yes, shortly after he got the show [laughing] on there, they got shut down, so he had no show.

Shiner [laughing] Hmm? Coincidence? We had ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with that, I swear...

We all got a good chuckle in...

Dick Well, uh y’know. I used to do College radio myself.

Shiner Really?

Dick Yeah.

Shiner Well, it’s a lonely job. but we...

Dick Three and a half years of no one calling me and

Me and DJC started laughing.

Dick ...and noboby caring who I was.

Shiner That’s too perfect. that’s exactly how...

DJC I’m crying over here.

Shiner Yes, we are right now broadcasting during the time slot of the final “Sienfeld” episode, So...

Dick Well, there you go. It’s probably getting very lonely in there.

Siner I’m not expecting many calls this evening.

Dick We had like one billionth of a watt of power, so...

DJC and myself, once again relating entirely, bust up laughing.

DJC Dude, they’ve got twice as much as we have.

Dick [joining us in some laughs] I think if I had gone to the office of the station, I couldn’t have picked up the radion station.

Shiner [still laughing] That’s amazing, but before we ramble on for to long, let’s get started on the interview part.

Dick There you go. [laughs]

Shiner Ok, well I’m going to ask you this, but I know you’re not going to tell me... and no one out there listening is going to know what I’m talking about, but... who is Arnie?

Dick Who is Arnie, well...

Shiner Or can you tell me without booting me off of the Bull Board?

Dick Well, Arnie works for Prawn Song. But we uh... have legal documents and there’s court restaining orders and we can’t discuss his identity.

Shiner My god.

Dick So... It’s not me, and it’s not Bob Cock and...that’s about all I can tell you.

Shiner Well, last I heard, Bob said that Arnie was a member of Primus.

Dick Yes, Bob Cock said he was a member of the band, and yes I can confirm that, but I can’t discuss it any further than that.

Shiner [laughs] Ok, I’ll let that one go... for now. It’s too hard to...

Dick [laughs] Yeah, well since half of you’re listeners don’t know what the hell we’re talking about.

Shiner Half of our listeners is probably half of a person, so... Ok next question... I’m looking through our list of questions we wrote down. Uh, why aren’t you watching “Sienfeld”?

Dick Well, it’s only 7:00 on the West Coast, and at about 8:00 I’ll probably be on the road to catch MIRV. And when you put it on a scale: MIRV versus “Sienfeld” , Jerry’s great and everything, but he just loses in a landslide.

Shiner We hope to someday have the oportunity to check out MIRV.

Dick the entire world should have that privelige. Because it’s a wonderful thing.

Shiner the closest I’ve heard of them coming was like Portland, and that’s a few days drive for us.

Dick They were probably out near Indiana on the Holy Mackerel tour.

Shiner Oh, I didn’t know they toured with... I knew that MIRV played guitar for the Mackerel, but I didn’t know his band came around too. Either way, we didn’t get to see any of the shows because it didn’t come to Indiana.

Dick Ah. That was before I worked at Prawn Song, so I don’t know.

Shiner Alright, lets see... How did you get your job doing the Bullboard?

Dick laughs, and you can ice jingling in a glass, much like the intro to “Bob’ Party Time Lounge.”

DJC sounds like a little Vodka Martini action in the background there.

Dick It’s like this, I was somebody who knew how to do codes and I was willing to work for free. That was pretty much all that was involved.

Shiner Wow. so how did they search you out?

Dick After I graduated from college, I sent a resume to Prawn Song. And they never responded to me, so I went to work for someone else and was doing web development. Then at a party someone gave me Adam Gates’ email address. And Adam is one of the proprieters of Prawn Song designs. so I emailed him and told him I’d be willing to work for free and I was interested in doing some cool stuff, and he emailed me back and rest... as they say is history. He said, “We want to do a bulliten board” and there you go.

Shiner Yes, Mr. Bob Cock is quite the amazing guy. He called us up here at the show once, so this is actually our second on-air interview.

Dick I only wish I could be half the man that he is.

Shiner [laughs] Which brings me to my next question: Is Bob pissed off at Les for stealing his afro?

Dick Y’know, the night after the show in New York I talked to Bob Cock about Les’ afro, and I pointed out that it looked very much like Bob Cock’s afro at this stage in time. And his quote was, ”Yeah, it looks like mine, but mine’s cool.” And that’s true, y’know, Bob looks cool with it and Les looks like a queer. And that pretty much explains it.

Shiner Yeah, I was kind of surprised at seeing that on the netcast thing. (Primus’ 5-11-98 show was broadcast over the internet and recorded for HBO’s “Reverb”)

Dick Well, Les explained it on the Bullboard today.

Shiner Yeah, the hairloss thing...

Dick Uh, yes, he’s conserned about hairloss, so he had pubic hair transplanted to his head apparently. I personally was unaware of this. But now that he explains it, it makes perfect sense. I mean, I don’t know about you’re pubes, but that afro he was sporting on Monday night looked exactly like my pubes. It explains it perfectly gfor me so...

Shiner Well, that’s the only way to go. But my, uh, real video wasn’t all that...

Dick [laughs] wasn’t all that great?

Shiner No it was a bit on the choppy side. I tried to record it so I could have the set, but it wasn’t the best quality.

Dick No, no. I have lika a 14.4 modem, so I’d get like one frame and then five seconds later, I’d get another one.

Shiner My god, you’re on a 14.4? And you’re the genious behind the Bullboard! That’s amazing, i thought I was behind just having 28.8.

Dick When I’m at work I’m sitting on a T3, so...

Shiner Ah. Hmm.. Let my rack my brain a bit more here... can you tell us anything a bout the enhanced qualities of Rhinoplasty?

Dick the enhanced CD on Rhinoplasty, um at this poinot in time I haven’t done any work on it, but what I’ve heard is going to be on there is a digital video of “The Devil went Down to Georgia.”

Shiner That’s what I heard, and I was hoping so.

Dick Unfortunately it won’t be available as an audio track, it’ll only be in digital format.

Shiner Awww. And that’s performed by Festus Clamrod and the El Sobrante Twangers? (I pronounced Festus like festival)

Dick FESTUS Clamrod and the El Sobrante Twangers. (He pronounced it like a feast.)

Shiner Festus? (using his version) on, my bad.

Dick It’s Les, Brain, Ler, MIRV, and Brian Kehoe, along with some woman, some studio musician on violin. And they couldn’t remember what her name was, so she got credited as Violono Mysteriouso, or something like that. [all laughing] Because she was a studio musician and she completely forgot who she was. If you haven’t seen the animation, it’s amazing. It’s done by the guys who did “The Nightmare Before Christmas.”

Shiner One of my favorite movies.

Dick Les does the main narrator’s voice, MIRV does Johnny’s voice...

Shiner ...and Kehoe does the Devil’s voice?

Dick Yes. And whoever cast the voices was just amazingly brilliant. It’s bueatiful, so everybody will love it.

Shiner Is there animation to accompany any of the other songs on the album? I mean, I realize that they said it wouldn’t be as extravagant as the Punchbowl enhanced, but...

Dick No, it won’t. One part of the enhanced CD will actually be a sample of the enhanced CD-ROM Punchbowl. One of the plans is that they’re going to rerelease the Punchbowl, because...

Shiner It didn’t work with some drivers.

Dick Yes. Because it was originally released before Windows 95, and now it doesn’t work with Windows 95.

Shiner I had to save it to my hard drive so I could run it.

Dick thank you, Bill Gates. And if Bill Gates happens to listen to you’re show...

Shiner He does! he calls frequently.

Dick I’d just like to tell him to screw off and get out of my life. but uh, they’re rereleasing the Punchbowl, so they want to do a promotion for it, so they’re going to put a sample of it on the Rhinoplasty EP. And there will be some other animation accompanying it.

Shiner Well, that’s a good segue into a question that my sidekick DJC (at the mention of him being my sidekick, gives me a dirty look, and wishes me dead.)  had. He said, “What’s your opinion on Netscape versus Internet Explorer?”

Dick Y’know, I hate them both. I’m still looking for somebody who can do a browser right. I use Windows 95 at home. I don’t like to admit that, but... And at home I use Microsoft Internet Explorer, because their mail package is infintely better than Netscape’s. I have like five different mail accounts, and with Internet Explorer’s mail package, Outlook Express, I can check them all at once, no problem. On Netscape, I can only check one at a time.

Shiner Well, Bill’s going to send us some money for that endorsement that you just gave the Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0.

Dick But the browser itself is a different story. I’d rather use Lynx than Internet Explorer. so, they have a pretty good mail package but they have a pretty weak browser. At work I’m sitting on a Sun workstation, and the Netscape version for Solairus... I don’t know, like every fifteen minutes, it crashes. So I’m still waiting for a good browser. And there’s a couple of companies that I’ve heard of making browsers to compete with Netscape and Microsoft, and knowing those companies pasts, I trust that they going to make a better browser.

DJC takes advantage of the break in conversation to do a station identification.

DJC WMHD 90.5 Rose Hulman, Terre Haute.

Shiner Ok, we’ll now do the three last questions since you’re calling from California and since you’re not on Bob Cock’s phone, you’re probably woried about prices and such. And I’m not going to start this into a conversation about long distance rates, but...

Dick I make pretty good money, so what’s a phone call?

Shiner [laughs] Wow! I’m going to have to get a job there at Prawn song evidently.

Dick that’s not Prawn song that pays me that much, Prawn Song pays as if I was working at McDonald’s [all laughing] I have another job to supliment my income.

Shiner That’s impressive, because I see a lot of stuff from you on the Bull Board, and it crashes a lot. And you’re always pretty quick with fixing it. That’s cool. How did you get the Rush part to your name, just wondering if there is a connection to the band Rush.

Dick Absolutely not. To be honest. I’m a fan of Rush, but I actually had the unfortunate... circumstance of being born with the last name of Rush. If I showed you my ID right now, Dick Rush is my actual legal name. My full name is Jason Richard Rush.

Shiner Damn! I was hoping to reveal you and get you to cry, like that chick that interviews the big stars on TV... what’s her name?

DJC Oprah?

Shiner No, not Oprah... forget it. (I was trying to think of Barbara Walters, it just wasn’t happening that night.)

Dick Well, it’s no big secret, I’m Jason Richard Rush. When I did college radio, I didn’t want people to know... I wanted to create a separate identity from who I was on the air and I was off the air, because Jason Rush was kind of this nerd, geek, 4.0 student. And that was kind of like not what I was when I was on the air, I was wild, I was drinking on the air and all sorts of stuff. so I went by my middle name and shortened it to Dick. And pretty soon people knew me by the name Dick Rush and it kind of stuck. Jason Rush kind of ceased to exist and I stopped going to classes, and there you go.

Shiner Which goes back to what Bob Cock recommended in his interview with us for everyone to quit school and purchase guns and alcohol.

Dick You’re in college radio and most of you’re listeners are probably college students, and the best thing I can recommend is: don’t worry about school so much. I know that when I first started in school, I worried about everything. I wanted to be an A student. I studied my ass of and I went to all of my classes. And about my Junior year, I figured out, Y’know, it really doesn’t matter. I stopped going to my classes, I went maybe 30 percent of the time, and I still graduated Magna Cum Laude.  And I got a pretty damn good job. so there is a perfect example for all of you college students out there. Don’t go to your classes, don’t care what you do, drink lots of booze, and you’re gonna do just fine.

Shiner Yeah, i’m sure the radio station’s happy with us for all of the messages that we bring, but...

Dick I’ve tried to refrain from using the seven words that the FCC says that we can’t say.

Shiner We try to refrain from that too, but every once in a while, we put a song in and forget about some of it’s lyrical content, or someone requests a song and we don’t check it out to make sure it’s clean first...

Dick In my first semester on the air I had the good fortune of exposing a brand new band on Epic Associated Records, who pretty much no one had heard of at the time that i started playing them. But, I happened to be on college radio in LA, so I happened to have the good fortune of playing a band called Rage Against the Machine. somebody walks into the studio and hands me an advanced copy of the CD, like two months before it hit the stores and says for me to play this song called “Killing in the Name”  and needless to say, I got in a lot of trouble because Mr. Zack De La Rocha said a certain F word...

Shiner Is that the second track?

Dick Uh, I think he says the F word seventeen or eighteen times at the end of the song.

Shiner Yeah. That one.

Dick I kind of got in trouble for that. After that, I started paying attention to the content of the songs I was playing. If someone says certain words more than once...

Shiner some people purposely request songs with bad content, which is a real downer.

Dick Well, there you go.

Shiner Next question: What bands do you recommend we listen to? We’ve got the MIRV, the Primus, the Residents...

Dick Uh, lately I’ve been listening to a lot of late 70’s to early 80’s music. Like Peter Gabriel, his earier stuff.

Shiner I really wish we had some of his older stuff.

Dick Particularly his first four albums were just phenominal. Brian Eno is great, y’know... Radiohead... actually I just saw them like a month ago, and they are absolutely amazing. They are brilliant musicians. They have three albums out, and their latest two are their best. Like their first album is like pop music, so it’s ok, but...

Shiner I never really picked up too much on the radiohead stuff. Not really my cup of tea.

Dick Bjork is bueatiful music

Shiner You guys are going to see her next week, right?

Dick Yep.

Shiner Indiana really sucks. Definitely.

Dick [laughs.] Sorry man, you gotta move out to California.

Shiner I’m thinking about trying to get out there for the Freak Out this year. I’d like to check that out.

Dick Pink Floyd is flawless. They’ve never done anything bad in my opinion. Bob Marley. I’m sitting here looking at my CD collection right now. John Coltrane. Danny Elfman film music.

Shiner Yet another thing I wish we had in the studio...

Dick It’s amazing. uh, the Spent Poets.

Shiner Spent Poets? With Adam Gates?

Dick They have one album on Gellen Records. It’s really great.

Shiner I’ll probably have to order that one.

Dick Well, it’s available over at www.cdnow.com for like seven bucks. A great deal. Zappa is always good stuff.

DJC RAM IT! RAM IT! RAM IT UP YOUR POOP CHUTE! (from Zappa’s “Broken Hearts are for assholes”.)

Dick [laughs] the beatles. And Jim Morrison always blows my mind. But I’m more of a literary type than I am a musical type. I’m more interested in reading things like...

Shiner “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.”

Dick Jack Kerouac

Shiner The library is still attempting to locate “Fear and Loathing...” for me.

Dick “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” is like an instruction manual on how you should write. It’s amazing. A guy named Irvine Welsh, he wrote Trainspoting, he’s great. It’s kid stuff, but I’m also reading a lot of Shel Silverstien. I do a lot of reading.

Shiner Final Question: What is your favorite Primus song?

Dick My favorite Primus song?

Shiner I know this one’s a bit hard.

Dick Yeah, it’s a pretty retarded question.

DJC ouch.

Dick I hate to point that out for you, but uh Pudding Time.

Shiner I mean, it’s kind of hard to pin one down, but it’s more on how you’re feeling at the time.

Dick Well, they’re all pretty retarded. I think if I had to pick my top ten desert discs, i don’t think Primus would be on the list.

Shiner Really?

Dick That’s something I can recommend to you, if you really like a band, it’s highly recommended that you don’t go to work for them. I used to be a huge Primus fan, and then I went to work for them and now it’s like, “I don’t want to listen to Primus, I have to deal with that crap all day.”

Shiner The sad thing is, I keep all of the Primus albums with me all day in my case, but I barely ever listen to them, because I’ve got them all perminantely in my head. I can listen to any song all the way through, just by thinking about it, I’m a total loser. Ok, well now we’re going to put in Pudding time...

DJC Dread Zepplin.

Shiner Alright, Dread Zepplin, but after that, Pudding time. Is there any last message you’d like to pass on before you hang up?

Dick There is. I want everyone to go and find and read a book called “True Hallucinations”  written by Terence McKenna. it’s about him and his brother who went down to South America and did experiments with DMT (dimethyltriptamine) and psilocybin mushrooms.  Wacky stuff, those kooky
kids.  Thanks for letting me chat on the air...it was cool...hope I didn't sound like too much of a dork.