Jonny Corndawg Plays Dad Country

Jonny Corndawg was the subject of a 2011 documentary by filmmaker Sean Dunne.  Dunne calls him the underground country music legend.  He’s played in every state in the continental US and on five continents in the last five years.  He came in to the  SiriusXM studios to talk with Ron Bennington about his new album, “Down on Bikini Line.”  Excerpts of that interview appear below.  You can also check out this track he recorded live at the SiriusXM studios Chevy Beretta, and after the interview check out his new video for Chevy Beretta as well as Sean Dunne’s short film, “Stray Dawg”.

Jonny Corndawg performing Chevy Beretta live at SiriusXM:

Ron Bennington: Jonny Corndawg in with us. His new album is called “Down on the Bikini Line.” You’re out doing the road thing, how’s it all working out for you?

Jonny Corndawg: It’s kicking ass. It’s been steadily rolling pretty much since January of this year, and oh God, these are the last couple shows of the year. It’s been great.

Ron Bennington: I saw the documentary that Sean Dunn did with you. Are you still running?

Jonny Corndawg: You know what.. I haven’t run that much since then, because during that race I slipped a disc in my back and I was in rough shape. I’ve run like once every two or three weeks, but I don’t know if I really want to do a marathon again.

Ron Bennington: Yea, you mentioned…it’s really not all that physically good for a person.

Jonny Corndawg: Yea, it’s not a good idea, and I’ll tell you what, ever since I stopped running I feel great. I don’t gotten sick that often, I don’t know, I feel great. (laughing)

Ron Bennington: You’ve got Josh here and you guys are going to do some tunes for us. You’ll play with a band but you also do these unplugged things, right?

Jonny Corndawg: Yea, I’ve been doing this for about nine years now and I’ve just been playing solo touring on my motorcycle, but I’m kind of getting sick of it. I kinda want to have a big band now. And actually I went to look at a van this morning. I’m thinking 2012 is going to be the year of the Jonny Corndawg Big Band. I’m thinking six piece? And I’m aiming pretty big for 2012. And Josh– I try not to play without Josh.

Ron Bennington: I love the way you guys are playing and singing. It’s such a throwback that it actually sounds completely brand new. But it’s as traditional in American music as we can get.

Jonny Corndawg: Well, thanks. It’s kind of funny how that happens, you know? Well, hell, nobody knows what to call it. I just been calling it Dad Country. But yea, what is it? We’re obviously inspired by traditional music but then we’re playing modern times.

Ron Bennington: Sean’s here, who did the documentary on you, and I wanted to say that normally when the documentary is over, you’re supposed to be done with each other. But I’ve got the feeling, Sean, that there maybe more projects ahead?

Sean Dunne: We actually just put out a music video for his song Chevy Beretta and we have another one in the can that we shot. Jonny actually came and assisted. I did a shoot for History Channel and Jonny came and he was the worst production assistant in history.

Jonny Corndawg: I was.

Sean Dunne: So while we were in Vegas we shot another music video that you’ll see soon.

Jonny Corndawg: Fuck yea, man, we went out to an Indian Reservation. We met this young lady at a strip club one night, and I said, hey, how’d you like to be in a music video. (Laughs) She said, “how much money you got?” I said nothing. We got $500 bucks for the fireworks though, you can fire them at me while I’m dancing my ass off. I got boots with eyes on them, I got decked out and we went out in the desert and– shit should we give it away? No…..

Sean Dunne: It’s going to come out soon enough. We’ve been having fun.

Ron Bennington: I love just the thought of Jonny being at the History Channel. Cause you look like you should be doing some kind of civil war generals thing.  So you’ve lived the life Jonny, if we’re to believe your lyrics. Did you set out to do this?

Jonny Corndawg: Yea, I hit the ground running. I mean as soon as I was seventeen I was like mom, dad, see you later. They were like, I’m surprised you waited this long. You know the first five years out of my folks house I was hopping around doing medical studies, here and there, to get enough money to get an international plane ticket and get the hell out and go see everything. I’ve sort of honed it in, these days.

Ron Bennington: You’ve done how many continents now? You’ve done every state in the country, and done at least five continents. That we know of. I don’t know if you can get a gig in Antarctica?

Jonny Corndawg: I don’t know. Is that still happening Sean?

Sean Dunne: There was going to be a chance that I was shooting a commercial up there and I was going to bring Jonny but I don’t know if that’s going to happen anymore.

Ron Bennington: It would be really great if there was a dive bar in Antarctica. You’ve had some great gigs, but there’s been plenty of places you worked that people didn’t know who you were when you got there…

Jonny Corndawg: We played Marfa, Texas about five days ago, six days ago, to three people that were just facing the bar. I was like oh God damn man. I took a picture of the crowd in case anybody tries to tell me I’ve made it.

Ron Bennington: What made you think alright, I’m going to keep on going with this.

Jonny Corndawg: About two years ago I got on a tour with my friends, Deertick. After that tour I thought, well God damn this might work. What if I just put everything into this. I do a lot of stuff, I do leather work, I made these guitar straps and stuff. But I thought, I’ll just put everything on hold and I’ll just put all my money, everything that I’ve got, all my heart and soul into making music work out. And if it doesn’t work out in the next couple of years, then I’ll move on but at least I’ll be able to say that I tried. But I haven’t had a place to live in several months. So I’m really dedicated. If I get more than a couple of weeks off, I’m kind of screwed cause I don’t have anywhere to go.

Ron Bennington: But you also feel like you still want to keep moving right?

Jonny Corndawg: To be honest, if I’m home for more than a couple of weeks, I get weird. I don’t like it.

Ron Bennington: I always wondered– does the road kind of do that to you? Or were you born…

Jonny Corndawg: I do have a theory. People are just made a certain way. Like cops. Does anybody ever decide, you know what, I think I’m going to be a cop. I can definitely pinpoint in school– that sumbitch, he’s going to be a cop. Or like Heroin. When do you decide, “maybe I’ll try and put a needle in my arm.” So this is the only life that makes sense to me. I just have to keep moving.

Ron Bennington: Thanks so much for coming by guys.  It was a real pleasure to have you guys come by here.

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You can hear this interview in its entirety exclusively on SiriusXM satellite radio.  Don’t have a subscription yet?  Click here for a free seven day trial.

Get more info on Jonny Corndawg on twitter @jonnycorndawg.com or at his website.

Sean Dunne’s 2011 documentary on Jonny Corndawg:

Stray Dawg from Sean Dunne on Vimeo.

Jonny on Chevy Beretta: The Chevy Beretta is about the shittiest car Chevy ever made. Although I am a big fan of Chevrolet. Well this doesn’t have anything to do with it but, I was riding my bicycle on a long ride one time from South Bend down to Bloomington and I got heat stroke about 70 miles outside of South Bend and I had to stop and call my friends to come pick me up. And while I was waiting at this Exxon in Butthole Indiana, it’s called Culver, Indiana, there were all these 17 year old girls peeling out of the Exxon and running red lights. I wrote a song for them. So this is from the point of view of those girls from Culver.Chevy Beretta.

Jonny on Ain’t It Your Birthday: This is a song about where I come from, a little town called Esmont, Virginia. I left when I was about 17 years old and you know, you can never go home again. Kind of like showing up to your home town like you showed up to a birthday party uninvited and they’re like, “oh no no, there’s no party,” and you’re like, ‘What are all those people dancing in the background then, what the hell is going on here.” That’s what the song is about.

Jonny on Shaved Like a Razor: This is a song called “shave like a razor,” a song I wrote at a waffle house a few years ago in tennesee. I had got pretty wired on coffee and was looking out the window and there was a big billboard for laser hair removal and I was pretty inspired by it. And I thought god damn, I want to get my songs in the waffle house jukebox. So this song is what came out of it.