Hearing Joecephus and the George Jonestown Massacre rock a heavy groove, you might feel compelled to exclaim, “Righteous!” And for once this assessment would be spot-on. For these purveyors of Southern rock laced with metal and a dollop of punk have combined righteousness with their pounding riffs for some time now. In fact, it’s their specialty.
The core trio, led by founder Joey “Joecephus” Killingsworth with Brian Costner on bass and Daryl Stephens on drums, has excelled at the tribute album, wherein the works of a beloved artist or band are recut with a 21st century urgency and celebrity cameos, with the profits earmarked for charity. Previous star-studded outings have included Mutants of the Monster: A Tribute to Black Oak Arkansas and Five Minutes to Live: A Tribute to Johnny Cash. Now they’ve dropped what may be their best tribute yet, Heirs of the Dog: A Tribute to Nazareth (Saustex Records). This time, they focus their tribute spotlight on one album in particular, the iconic Hair of the Dog, recreated track by track and bursting with cameos that read like a Who’s Who of heavy alt-rock. Recently, Joecephus filled me in on the details.
Memphis Flyer: What does Nazareth mean to you?
Joey Killingsworth: When I was 13 or 14, my cousin played me Hair of the Dog and Alice Cooper’s greatest hits. And both of those really stuck. One night, I had had a couple of margaritas, then came home and had a beer. I heard a Nazareth song on the radio, and I immediately called [co-producer] Dik Ledoux and said, “Hey, man, I’ve got an idea. We’ll do Hair of the Dog all the way through!” So we went to his studio and knocked out all the basic tracks in one day back in 2019. Then we started getting the guests.
Once I get one guest locked in, we’ve got a record. Fast forward a couple of months, I was talking to Ruyter Suys of Nashville Pussy about it. She said, “I’m in, and Blaine [Cartwright, also of Nashville Pussy] calls ‘Hair of the Dog.’ He wants that song.” So I called up Dik and said, “We got two guests, we got an album!”
Did you ever dream you’d get Nazareth guitarist Manny Charlton on there?
No! That was a surprise. But on each charity album, we try to get one member of the original band we’re doing a tribute to. And getting Neil Fallon was a big shocker. I’ve been a Clutch fan forever, so when he got on board, that was a whole other ball game right there.
The roster is impressive. You also recruited J.D. Pinkus of Butthole Surfers and Luther Dickinson. And there’s a cameo by Eddie Spaghetti of the Supersuckers.
He had helped us before on the Black Oak Arkansas record. Then I sent our version of “Love Hurts,” which features Eddie’s vocals and Eric Lewis’ steel guitar, to Ruyter, and she was like, “I never cared for that song much, but I love that steel. And I love Eddie. Ask him about me singing a duet with him.” Eddie just said, “Fuck yeah!” It’s got a little Gram/Emmylou thing going on. Sounds like they’re a little hungover. And Eric Lewis knocked his part out of the park.
The album’s profits will go to the FSHD Society for research into facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy, which took the life of Jonelle Spicer in 2018. Tell me about her.
She was a big Memphis music supporter, and so motivational. She would always come out to the shows. We’d been buddies with her and her partner Rudy [Forster] for a while. He was in Blackbone back in the day. So I told Rudy, “Let’s do this record in her honor. And Rudy, we gotta get you playing on here, man.” It’s all about helping Jonelle and the spirit of her.
