There’s a lot about the Mac Sabbath origin story that’s unbelievable, but Mike Odd, manager of the Black Sabbath “drive-through” parody band, allegedly met a deranged clown, Ronald Osbourne, at a California location of a “certain multinational fast food conglomerate” before descending into a bomb shelter where Osbourne, Slayer Mac Cheeze, Grimalice, and the Cat Burglar were slinging Sabbath-esque tunes set to lyrics about the deviant agenda of fast food chains (think: “More Ribs” instead of “War Pigs,” and “Sweet Beef” instead of “Sweet Leaf”).
Odd, who used to be in an L.A. hardcore band called Rosemary’s Billy Goat, has since begrudgingly guided Mac Sabbath to sold-out club dates, shows for schoolkids and even a performance in front of the Ozzman himself (Ozzy Osbourne seemed impressed in the lost footage from A&E’s Ozzy & Jack’s World Detour).
On Friday, Mac Sabbath brings its famous live set (think Gwar with less blood, laser lights and stupendous onstage clownery) to Ybor City, where "Nedal" band Okilly Dokilly (that’s metal built around Simpsons character Ned Flanders’ “Flanderisms”) opens the show. CL caught up with Odd to talk about Mac Sabbath’s rise and whether it can bring Mc... you know who, down.
Read our full Q&A below.
Mac Sabbath w/Okilly Dokilly/Playboy Manbaby. Fri. Aug 16, 8 p.m. $17. Crowbar, 1812 N. 17th St., Ybor City. brokenmoldentertainmenment.com.
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Did Michelle Obama ever call to ask the band for help promoting the message of healthy eating?
I hoped that it would come together, but it never did.
And I just wanted to get some facts straight about you, so correct me if I'm wrong, but it's been about five years since you took Ronald and the gang out of the bomb shelter in Chatsworth, I think that’s correct?
Yeah, 2013, something like that. Sounds about right.
And how much weight did you lose after agreeing to manage Mac Sabbath? Or were you already kind of a healthy guy? I imagine you got pretty healthy after joining this band.
Well, with the combination of my added health, and my added stress, I definitely shed those extra pounds.
So it is difficult wrangling, I don't know if I call him a deranged clown, but he believes that he time travels and stuff, so is it hard to keep that crew in line despite the clean show and all that stuff?
It's better that you call him that than me calling that, but I'm not disagreeing with you.
Do you sleep with the door locked or unlocked when you guys are on tour?
I'm lucky to have a door, let alone a lock.
I mean, maybe you should just stop making monster buckles and burger fix necklaces and make knives instead.
Yeah, I gotta keep a chainsaw nearby. When they hear that they start… it’s threatening.
You're the plug for Mac Sabbath and you've said there's a possibility of a studio record, but that it's something that's difficult to achieve. You said that there's a tiny something coming up that isn't anything anybody's expecting — that's as cryptic as you want it to be, but I mean it's 2019, I feel like a Mac Sabbath album could use the robot algorithmic uprising against itself and and send the message of Mac Sabbath everywhere.
Well 2020 seems like a good, round number. I know I keep saying that something's coming, but if something doesn't come out by 2020, then I might have failed as a manager.
Okay, so it is something that the band wants to do.
Yeah, you could say that.
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Some people are saying that fast food revenues are down. Does Ronald take credit for that at all?
I assume you're talking about Ronald Osbourne?
Exactly.
Sure, he'll take credit for anything you let him take credit for. There's a trend of veggie meats popping up also.
What about Monsanto? I feel like Monsanto won't go away. Do any of the new songs, if there are any, offer a solution for that?
I don't know that there's a solution. The solution is to get rid of them. There's no solution on how to do that. It's definitely pointing it out. One scary thing that I heard was that Monsanto is trying to change its name. So are they just going to change their name every time they perform a monstrosity? It didn't take, per se, but you gotta watch out for stuff like that.
So kids in Silverlake obviously dig Mac Sabbath. But does it work the same way in the South? You know, it's a clean show, and kid-friendly, but I think most of the clubs you play in are 18 and up, so do you ever get out to see the kids in the South?
No that’s the unfortunate thing about the music business, it doesn't really lend itself to as much all-ages shows on the way up, you know what I mean? That's great if you can play hockey arenas or whatever, but since so much of the business relies on booze… the band is getting the money at the door and then the venue, to function, needs to get money from the booze, so it's a little rough. I really would like to try to figure out a way to get more kids and to get to more all-ages venues. The only way to do that, I think, is to keep getting larger. Not a very hilarious answer.
Obviously you fell under the left handed spell of Okilly Dokilly on your last tour, and going on tour with Mac Sabbath is kind of like a dream for a band like that. What are the dream bands for Mac Sabbath in terms of who you need and want to tour with to continue elevating?
That's a good question.
I mean, obviously Black Sabbath, but Ozzy is not doing well.
Thing is, with Ronald Osborne, he's always he's always super paranoid about other drive-through bands. Like he always says, "We coined drive-through metal, we should be the only drive through metal band," and "We're the only drive-through metal band." He's like "You're taking food out of my mouth." Burger King Diamond, Cinnabon Jovi and KFCC DeVille... but then I try to look these guys up, and I can't find any. So I figure it's Ronald's diluted brain, or he's messing with me or something.
Then Burger King Diamond will just show up on a random tour, so they'll get all mad at me, like, "Why do you allow this to happen?" I'm like, "I don't know what's going on. No one planned this. Nobody told me." Ronald's yelling at security guards like, "Why'd you let that guy in here?" I'll be like, "I had no idea," then Ronald will be like, "I think you're telling me a whopper," and I'll be like, "Wait a second..." He drives me crazy. There are grassroots drive-through metal band popping up. I think it would be amazing to have a whole drive-through metal tour.
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I'd be into it. Obviously, it all depends on what Ronald wants to do. What about the ball pit, Mike, did that dream ever come true?
No it did not. Where are you getting all this?
What are you talking about? You do press. You've said it before, I'm just riffing off of other stuff.
I know, but you're the most researched interview I've ever done.
I'm not gonna ask questions you've been asked before.
The first couple of questions, I was like, "OK, I've talked to this guy before."
No, I've never talked to you. I asked for an interview last time, not when you played St. Petersburg, but another time.
Well, I tried several different blueprints to try and make this ball pit thing happen in several different ways, and the mobile ball pit concept always seems to bring about some sort of impracticality or danger.
I can only imagine; a trailer full of air, you know?
Right. You know, I was trying to figure out how to keep it contained. They're like, these inflatable camping tents filled up with air, people coming in and out of a ball mosh pit, but there were some things that didn't seem safe or practical about it. I'm still working on that... maybe if we can get a permanent show in Vegas.
You can do it for the drive-through metal festival; your version of Warped Tour. I think you were on tour with Galactic Empire; there was an Ybor City show scheduled and it got canceled. What happened there?
There was some sort of Pennsylvania disaster, the governor declared some sort of disaster because it was supposed to be some dangerous blizzard or something. I don't even think they got an inch of snow. But he declared some disaster and closed down all of the interstate, all the freeways.
And to shift to a different kind of disaster, how often do you have to fend off cease and desists, or legal action, from a certain fast food chain that we won't talk about specifically?
Zero.
Zero? It's never happened in the history of the band, or has it been settled?
Nope.
Wow. OK. Any theories as to why they back away? Are they scared of your message getting out?
Apparently they can handle the truth.
Right.
I mean, you can theorize on it all day long, but it's a parody band, you know what I mean? What can you do? You can't fight a regular parody band. How are you going to fight a parody band pointing out the hypocrisy or your own doings? A band that's trying trying to help kids be healthier. That wouldn't get you very good press.
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A lot of people have theorized that you that you are Ronald, but we've seen you both on stage at the same time. You've mentioned that some people are like, "Oh, your voice in Rosemary's Billly Goat is the same as Ronald's," but you've also mentioned that like your voice sounds a little bit like Jello Biafra's, you know what I mean? Somebody on my Facebook page wanted me to ask you guys, what do you make of the claim that the Green Jelly frontman made three years ago saying that the idea for Mac Sabbath was stolen? The rant had him claiming he was gonna do it on Warped Tour or something?
This crosses bounds, and I don't want any of that. That'll get no press from me.
I just found out about it yesterday, when I looked it up. I was like, "Man, this guy is nuts." If you don't want to go into that, then you know we don't have to.
I'd prefer that those words don't go into an interview because they don't need any press.
Can I just say no comment from you on that?
That just gives them press. You can do what you want to do.
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I see what you're saying. So last question here since we're running out of time. Is there anything special planned for this American Cheese leg with Okilly Dokilly since you've been on the road together already? Anything special for this tour with Playboy Manbaby?
This band is really about surprising people and doing things that other bands don't do. The only thing to expect is going to be the unexpected.
Awesome. And it's still about an hour long set right?
Yeah, those guys can't do much more than that, but they do sure put a hell of a lot into that.
Yeah, for sure.
Know, what they do is extremely difficult.
For sure.
Quality not quantity.
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