Few musicians embody the rebellious spirit of rock and roll like Jim Heath, frontman of The Reverend Horton Heat. With their 11th studio album making waves and an extensive tour underway, we caught up with Jim to talk about everything from macrobiotic diets to the New World Order—and, of course, the music that ties it all together.
Capital Chaos TV: So first, let me ask you—how are you feeling today?
Jim Heath (The Reverend Horton Heat): A little better today, but I was really sick yesterday. It’s really hard, but I feel better today. I’m sure we’ll be okay.
Capital Chaos TV: Good, good! Let me tell you, I know a lot of my friends and I personally are really, really excited to see the show. Am I right?
Jim Heath: Well, then that’s just going to be a fun show. I’m glad to be back here—it’s gonna be a fun night. I know we’re playing with Wimps, we’re playing with Nekromantix, and also some of my friends from The Swingin’ Utters. So yeah, it’s gonna be a fun show.
Capital Chaos TV: Awesome! So what I wanted to talk about today is the new album. This is your 11th, released on January 21st. You’re on Victory Records, and you reached 111th on Billboard. There was something you said at the beginning of the album that really stood out to me. You said, “What’s more important than discussing the recording is discussing the songs.” So if it’s all right with you, I’d love to talk about the songs specifically.
Jim Heath: That’d be great.
Capital Chaos TV: Okay, awesome. Let’s talk about “Teach Me How to Eat.” It’s clearly not about food. So what is The Reverend Horton Heat about here?
Jim Heath: What happened is—there was this guy who actually gave me the name “Reverend.” He was a club owner who would get on these weird tangents. At one point, he was on this macrobiotic food kick. I don’t even know if it was legit or something he made up. Anyway, he’d go around saying to everyone, “Hey, let me teach you how to eat.”
He said it to me one day, like, “Jim, let me teach you how to eat to be more healthy.” I thought it was funny because I figured—if I didn’t already know how to eat, I’d be dead!
Twenty-five years later, it’s a song about sex. I’d say so.
Capital Chaos TV: [Laughs] I really appreciate the women you had in the video for Smells Like Gasoline. They are extremely hot—I think I found my future girlfriend! Where did you find those girls?
Jim Heath: That was Victory Records. I think most of them were burlesque dancers based in the Chicago area.
Capital Chaos TV: Well, it worked! Now, about Smells Like Gasoline—the song struck a chord with me. As a kid, I also liked the smell of gasoline. It’s weird—now as an adult, not so much.
There’s a line in the song about a girl. Do you still have contact with her?
Jim Heath: No, I haven’t seen her since we were kids. I wonder now—maybe it wasn’t really about the smell? Maybe she was trying to tell me something else.
Capital Chaos TV: Like that she liked you?
Jim Heath: Yeah! She might have been telling me that, but I was too young and dumb to realize it. I probably would’ve just gone out with her if I’d known. But back then, you just don’t pick up on those things.
Capital Chaos TV: Right—like, when you’re a kid and you like someone, you mess with them. Now that we’re older, we realize that doesn’t quite work.
Jim Heath: Exactly.
Capital Chaos TV: Okay, let’s talk about Schizoid. I’ve been to rehab. I’m well-versed and educated when it comes to mental illness. I know the song has meaning. Have you ever met a psychiatrist or therapist whose opinion you respected—especially with the topic of overdiagnosis?
Jim Heath: Not really. That song is a little bit about how we’re overdiagnosing people. A little boy might just be energetic or aggressive, and they’ll say, “Oh, he’s psychotic,” or that he needs medication. And now we have a whole culture of kids on Ritalin, Adderall—that stuff is dangerous. I think it’s wrong.
To me, it could be a sign of the downfall of Western civilization. And I think healthcare profits from it.
Capital Chaos TV: I agree. Sometimes we’re quick to judge what we don’t understand. Instead of looking at the root of behavior—like exercise, lifestyle, diet—we just write a prescription.
Jim Heath: Exactly. What I’ve learned is that everyone is different. But we’re becoming less tolerant of that. And once kids get on these meds, they often can’t get off. It becomes a lifelong thing. The system profits from that, and it’s dangerous. The New World Order makes a lot of money off it.
Capital Chaos TV: That leads right into Never Gonna Stop It. That’s kind of a New World Order song, right?
Jim Heath: Yeah. I consider myself kind of a libertarian, and I’ve always questioned authority—regulations, authoritarianism. People don’t realize how backward things are getting.
Take the 99% vs. 1% thing. Most of that “1%” aren’t even part of the problem. The real power belongs to about 6,000 people worldwide—like the Rothschilds, Rockefellers, the Windsors. They’re beyond billionaire status. They’re trillionaires.
They want control. They want to confiscate the wealth of the rest of the world. That’s the real war. Not the 99% vs. 1%, but the ultra-rich versus everyone.
Capital Chaos TV: Do you see that affecting music and freedom of speech—like with how social media monitors us? Do you think there will be a time where music won’t be free like it is now?
Jim Heath: Absolutely. They’ve been trying to censor music for a long time. Remember when Al Gore’s wife tried to censor rock and roll? It backfired, thankfully.
But yeah, freedom is under threat. People blame corporations, but they don’t realize that corporations thrive because of their collusion with government. Government enables monopolies—take Monsanto, for example. If you’re a farmer who doesn’t want to use their seeds, they’ll find a way to take your land.
Capital Chaos TV: The GMO labeling initiative in California comes to mind. How did that fail in such a progressive state?
Jim Heath: Exactly. The vote was probably rigged. Companies like Monsanto and Archer Daniels Midland spent billions lobbying against it. Either the machines were rigged, or voters were misled.
Capital Chaos TV: Let’s talk about the track Your Head. Can you give me an example of a time your ass was handed to you—by a critic, your wife, or musically?
Jim Heath: Oh yeah—every album we’ve released has had struggles. We’d be touring for two years while the label gave up on the album after two weeks.
One funny example: We were playing a huge festival in Seattle—10,000 people there just for us. My wife called right before we went onstage and read me a review from the Dallas Observer saying my career had been over for four years and no one cared about The Reverend Horton Heat anymore.
I had to stop her mid-article because I was about to walk on stage in front of a sold-out crowd! That’s the media for you. They love to shape public opinion, even when it’s dead wrong.
Capital Chaos TV: Well, let me just say—while researching this album, I didn’t find one negative review. Everyone praised the surf elements, the rockabilly, the energy. Critics and fans are really into it.
Jim Heath: Whoa—that’s cool to hear!
Capital Chaos TV: So besides the album and the Sacramento tour stop, what do you have planned for 2014?
Jim Heath: We’ve got some big things coming that I can’t talk about just yet—I don’t want to jinx them. But we’re doing a lot of festivals this year: Coachella, which is two weekends, a great one in Montreal, and Punk Rock Bowling in Vegas. That one’s gotten really big.
I also have my own festival, in partnership with my friend Oliver Peck. It’s called the Elm Street Music & Tattoo Festival. It’s still small, mostly club-based, but we have big hopes for it someday becoming a major event.
Whether he’s taking on corporate greed, fighting for musical freedom, or just writing clever songs about teen crushes and failure, Jim Heath remains one of rock’s most honest voices.
And one thing’s clear: The Reverend Horton Heat is not going anywhere.
Watch the full video interview below
Categories: Interviews, Music, The Reverend Horton Heat
Capital Chaos TV 
Leave a comment