Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

We Opened the Bar

Mojo and Skid will hook up at this year’s Adams Avenue Street Fair.
Mojo and Skid will hook up at this year’s Adams Avenue Street Fair.

A pair of heavyweight bands from San Diego’s past is reuniting on the stages of this year’s Adams Avenue Street Fair: Mojo Nixon & Skid Roper and the Paladins. “We haven’t played San Diego in a while,” Paladins bassist Thomas Yearsley says. “Maybe eight years.” When they did play here last, the trio invited other artists to sit in. “It’s just us this time.” Originally from North County, the Paladins gained worldwide fame during the rockabilly revival era.

Sponsored
Sponsored

“In the ’80s, it was fiercely competitive. Our manager was Tim Mays (Casbah) and he’d have us opening for the Blasters, the Stray Cats, and every other ’80s band. We were relatively unknown. We needed something entirely our own. And there were two ways to do that.” One way to break through was via alcohol. The Paladins brewed their own beer and shared it backstage. “Dark beer,” Yearsley says, “and we’d bring it to the shows in old Coke bottles. And then we’d do a kick-ass show that involved me doing backflips.”

Paladins guitarist Dave Gonzalez checks in by phone from Austin. “It’ll be nice to get back together again and knock the dust off.” He says the Paladins tour Europe with semi-regularity, but that San Diego gigs are far and few between. “It’s cool to be playing in our hometown again,” he says. “The sound of the late ’90s.” For which Paladins set the bar, I say. He laughs. “We opened the bar.”

I catch Neill Kirby McMillan, Jr., better known as Mojo Nixon, at home in Coronado, where he is boning up for a radio show. That’s what the writer of such songs as “Stuffin Martha’s Muffin” and “Debbie Gibson Is Pregnant with My Two-Headed Love Child” does now — he’s a satellite-radio host. He plans to hook up with Skid Roper (Richard Banke), a National City guitarist with whom he had a psychobilly duo here during the ’80s. “Me and Skid? We haven’t played in 20 years.”

Roper recently released Rock and Roll, Part Three, but Nixon has backed away from music. “I’m pretty much retired. I only play five times a year. This may be something that will bring me out of retirement.” Meaning, the door is open to future Mojo-and-Skid collaborations? “You never know. Cash talks and bullshit walks,” he laughs. “We’ll play all the hits from those first five albums, and a few more.” Are he and Roper still friends?

“I see Skid every now and then. People say, ‘When’s the big reunion tour? When are you guys gonna play again?’” Then, Nixon, shock jock to the end, says this: “I’ll try not to get in trouble by saying motherf--ker too many times. I think they give you a three-motherf--ker limit.”

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Rapper Wax wishes his name looked like an email password

“You gotta be search-engine optimized these days”
Next Article

Rapper Wax wishes his name looked like an email password

“You gotta be search-engine optimized these days”
Mojo and Skid will hook up at this year’s Adams Avenue Street Fair.
Mojo and Skid will hook up at this year’s Adams Avenue Street Fair.

A pair of heavyweight bands from San Diego’s past is reuniting on the stages of this year’s Adams Avenue Street Fair: Mojo Nixon & Skid Roper and the Paladins. “We haven’t played San Diego in a while,” Paladins bassist Thomas Yearsley says. “Maybe eight years.” When they did play here last, the trio invited other artists to sit in. “It’s just us this time.” Originally from North County, the Paladins gained worldwide fame during the rockabilly revival era.

Sponsored
Sponsored

“In the ’80s, it was fiercely competitive. Our manager was Tim Mays (Casbah) and he’d have us opening for the Blasters, the Stray Cats, and every other ’80s band. We were relatively unknown. We needed something entirely our own. And there were two ways to do that.” One way to break through was via alcohol. The Paladins brewed their own beer and shared it backstage. “Dark beer,” Yearsley says, “and we’d bring it to the shows in old Coke bottles. And then we’d do a kick-ass show that involved me doing backflips.”

Paladins guitarist Dave Gonzalez checks in by phone from Austin. “It’ll be nice to get back together again and knock the dust off.” He says the Paladins tour Europe with semi-regularity, but that San Diego gigs are far and few between. “It’s cool to be playing in our hometown again,” he says. “The sound of the late ’90s.” For which Paladins set the bar, I say. He laughs. “We opened the bar.”

I catch Neill Kirby McMillan, Jr., better known as Mojo Nixon, at home in Coronado, where he is boning up for a radio show. That’s what the writer of such songs as “Stuffin Martha’s Muffin” and “Debbie Gibson Is Pregnant with My Two-Headed Love Child” does now — he’s a satellite-radio host. He plans to hook up with Skid Roper (Richard Banke), a National City guitarist with whom he had a psychobilly duo here during the ’80s. “Me and Skid? We haven’t played in 20 years.”

Roper recently released Rock and Roll, Part Three, but Nixon has backed away from music. “I’m pretty much retired. I only play five times a year. This may be something that will bring me out of retirement.” Meaning, the door is open to future Mojo-and-Skid collaborations? “You never know. Cash talks and bullshit walks,” he laughs. “We’ll play all the hits from those first five albums, and a few more.” Are he and Roper still friends?

“I see Skid every now and then. People say, ‘When’s the big reunion tour? When are you guys gonna play again?’” Then, Nixon, shock jock to the end, says this: “I’ll try not to get in trouble by saying motherf--ker too many times. I think they give you a three-motherf--ker limit.”

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

How to make a hit Christmas song

Feeling is key, but money helps too
Next Article

San Diego Fix it Clinic, Gaslamp Holiday Pet Parade

Events December 14-December 18, 2024
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader