BLACK JOE LEWIS AND THE HONEYBEARS: STAR TREK’S DEAD, MAN
August 31st, 2009

Black Joe Lewis is a Texas soul shouter who would have been at home
on Sue in 1966 but finds himself instead on Lost Horizon with his
band the Honeybears. He’s opened for Little Richard but his favorite
rock ‘n’ roll band is Rocket From The Tombs and he loved Star Trek
right up to the point J.J. Abrams got hold of it. He speaks now from
a parking lot in Tennessee. This interview by Chris Ziegler.

What was the number one pawned item you saw when you worked at the
pawn shop?
Black Joe Lewis (vocals): Probably guns or tools. It was an
interesting job. I kinda walked out on my boss at the one that I
worked at most of the time. He was—do you watch The Simpsons? The
guy who made up the Simpsons characters saw him and made up the comic
book store character.

You worked for the actual Comic Book Guy?
I swear to God, dude. Red pony tail, bald on top, beard—his butt
crack always stuck out. He was a total asshole but he wasn’t a comic
book nerd—he was a gun freak. He was like in his forties and he lived
with his parents still because he was in debt because he had so many
guns. I was like, ‘How many guns do you have?’ ‘Last time I checked,
over 80.’

Did he have a special gun that he was uncomfortably in love with?
Yeah—he had this old Smith and Wesson revolver. Like a fucking Old
Western six shooter. And he did this thing every weekend where he
dressed up—like a Renaissance fair—dressed up like Civil War and
cowboy characters and they’d go and show off their shooting skills.
He was a fucking dork—such an asshole. We hated each other. It was
just me and him and we worked there all day long together. It was at
the same time as the first Bush and Gore election was going on. I was
like 18 and it was the first time I was going to be able to vote. And
he was a hardcore Republican and I wasn’t and we’d sit there and argue
all fucking day. We just didn’t like each other—he was so conservative,
man. He would sit there and argue about every little thing—like race,
politics, everything. He was a dick.

To read the rest of the Q&A, click here