Late Sunday morning, I ran into Jay Reatard outside the Beauty Shop, and he assured me that he’s got everything under control for his European tour, which starts on October 28th.
As you might recall, bassist Stephen Pope and drummer Billy Hayes unexpectedly quit Reatard’s band last week. Since then, it appears that Jay has scrapped his West Coast dates, including an appearance at the Scion Garage Fest, slated for Portland, Oregon this weekend.
At the Beauty Shop, Reatard — who was rolling with Evil Army frontman Rob Evil and Oscars drummer Abe White — said that he couldn’t comment on record, although he made this recent statement to the folks at British music mag NME:
“All the bullshit aside, our band is a really easy one to be in. Ride in the van, listen to jams, load in gear, eat great food, drink free beer, get paid well, load out, go to the hotel, repeat. I honestly love [Pope and Hayes] no matter what my dumb Twitter post says. They kinda quit out of nowhere, me and the tour manager thought it was a joke!”
What’s not a joke:
Here’s Your Future: Jay Reatard, an unsolicited bit of advice from Washington Post writer David Malitz.
