South Park Interview

As much as we’d like to, we can’t provide fans downloads or online guitar tabs of Don’s cult song “Heavy Metal Takin’a Ride.” What we can offer, however, is Don himself. We asked him about the current wave of “Heavy Metal” nostalgia sparked by the use of his song in a recent episode of the Emmy-award-winning animated comedy series South Park.

Don, your song “Heavy Metal (Takin’a Ride)” is enjoying a comeback ever since it appeared in a recent episode of South Park. Were you surprised that the makers of South Park expressed interest? How did it all come together?

“The music clearance department of South Park contacted my music publishing company and wanted a license to use Heavy Metal in an episode. I had no idea what they were going to do with it but I am a big fan of South Park and knew it would be funny. I gladly authorized the use and looked forward to seeing what they had done with it. I was delighted at how they used the song and found it very funny.”

Obviously the South Park episode was a spoof of the adult cartoon film’s portrayal of sex, drugs and violence. Many South Park fans never saw the original film or weren’t even born when it came out. Why do you think the South Park crew chose your song?

“I think that song has been associated with the movie Heavy Metal for many years. It also has the feeling of being high or in outer space. It fit perfectly with both the animation in the film and the animation in the South Park episode.”

Were you aware at the time you wrote the song which sequences in the original film would accompany it and did this have an effect on your composing it?

“I wrote this song based on the title opening footage. There is a Corvette flying through space and an explosion in the end of the scene. The lyrics follow the opening footage. I had no idea where they would use the song but thought that the opening set up the entire film very well.”

Do you remember which guitar model and effects you used laying down the original recording 28 years ago?

“I used a 59 Les Paul with a Fender tweed deluxe amp. I also had an old echoplex and a boss chorus unit in line.”

What was your mixing secret in order to get that “spacey” sound on the album track?

“We recorded and mixed the track at Westlake recording studios in Hollywood. Michael Jackson was recording with Quincy Jones in the studio next door. We used some of the echo units (EMT’s) that they had brought in for their session.”

How do you best achieve this unique sound playing the song live?

“I use very close to the same equipment that I used on the record. It’s pretty easy to recreate the sound and effect.”

Would you be open to making the sheet music or guitar tabs available to guitar players over the internet?

“I prefer not to release these over the internet as they are controlled by my publishing company which is distributed by Warner Brothers Music. They are copyrighted and can not be distributed over the internet that way.”

Have you considered offering the song for downloading?

“Universal owns the master of that song so they would have the right to offer it up for download, not me. That is not my decision. I’d love to but the powers that be at Universal control that master.”

Heavy Metal sounds like a fun song to play. Does this resurgence in its popularity mean we’ll be seeing you out playing it live more often?

“I have been playing that song in my solo show for over a year now. I used to hear the fans at Eagles concerts yell it out and thought people might like to hear it. It goes over very well.”

Thank you for your comments, Don.

“My pleasure.”