E.C.: Your new record, "High As Hell" proves that a band CAN progress from album to album in hard rock.

Ruyter: I fucking hope so!

E.C.: Was that your intention when you were recording the new record?

Blaine: Yeah, just trying to show the progress of the band.

Ruyter: We play like 600 fucking shows, hopefully you'd improve a little bit!

E.C.: You've got your standard Nashville Pussy rockers, but you've also taken more chances with the new record, with different tempos and an almost ballad ("Go To Hell"). "Go To Hell" is one of my favorites because of the way the song kicks in at the end.

Ruyter: (Laughs) Yeah, tricked ya & its not about love, its about gohnoreah.

E.C.: You really shine on your leads, really reminiscent of pre-"Highway To Hell" AC/DC.

Ruyter: Interesting...Blaine thinks I sound like Rick Derringer and Mick Taylor. He always compares me to those guys. I listen to AC/DC constantly, hoping that stuff will slowly seep into my system.

E.C.: How does the band decide what tunes or styles to make the new album?

Ruyter: There's a couple of songs on there where we specifically went into the studio & like on "Strutting Cock", we tried to get the sound of 'Dance To the Music', Sly and the Family Stone. (sings the drum part) Like, "can you do that white boy!"

E.C.: There was one artist, I think it was John Mellencamp, who would play the group the old songs, so they would get the "feel" of how he wanted the songs to.

Ruyter: Well, Blaine does that, without saying it. He'll do that to me, like he'll play like Humble Pie for a f-cking week solid. All the sudden I'll start hearing all these riffs...

E.C.: How many songs did ya'll have to chose from for the record?

Ruyter: We only recorded one extra for this album, it was a cover. It's going to be on the Japanese pressing of the album. It's our version of "Hot Rod" by Black Oak Arkansas. The only other single that we have floating around right now & we have a version of "Highway to Hell", which has never been released. And we recorded for Detroit Rock City [the movie], but Marylyn Manson stole our fucking slot. We also recorded a version of Molly Hatchet's "Flirtin' With Disaster".

E.C.: How do you come up with your song titles and lyrics?

Blaine: I try to make everybody laugh...

E.C.: For example I love the line about Moses in "Shoot First, Run Like Hell"!

Blaine: You heard it? Where did you get the lyrics at?

E.C.: I just listened to the CD, but there is part of the sentence I can't understand...

Blaine: I know, it goes, "Moses came down from the mountain with two big blocks of stone, it got too heavy, and said 'fuck this things, I'll figure it out on my own"

E.C.: So you try for a little bit of humor..

Ruyter: Man, its all humor & it's just that maybe our version of humor is like other peoples version of anger. The first album, we managed to sneak some really nasty sh-t in there that NO-one has caught yet. And hopefully no-one ever, cause I don't know how we'd be able to explain ourselves.

E.C.: Have you though of putting the lyrics on the album?

Blaine: I kinda got talked out of putting lyrics, cause you know Aerosmith doesn't put lyrics on. You can pretty much hear most of them. I've always liked bands like the Stones & thought it was cool when you delved farther into the lyrics and thought, wow, these are actually pretty good. The problem with a lot of bands, they are better off just being grunts & when you actual see their lyrics you go, 'woah, I didn't know that they were that dumb'. Ours are always good, if anyone cares to delve into the lyrics & I put a lot of work on them.

E.C.: I know its early, but have you thought about a third album yet?

Blaine: Yeah!

Ruyter: It took a year for this album to come out, cause of all the label bullshit!

E.C.: "High As Hell" also seems like a tribute album to all the cool hard rock bands of the 70's: AC/DC, Kiss, Foghat, etc.

Blaine: I think that's more and more what we'd originally planned on.

Ruyter: I hope that stuff comes through man, we are more inspired by the year 1970 in itself than we are by the following two decades!

E.C.: I think a live album would be cool!

Ruyter: Yeah, its coming!

Blaine: I think we'll do one more studio album like Kiss did.

E.C.: You could have some enhanced videos on the CD like a lot of bands are doing?

Ruyter: We have one on a compilation, its "Blow Job [From A Rattlesnake]", it's just live footage.

E.C.: I got your new CD in the mail and the next day I went to Napster and they already had a lot of your new songs on Napster!

Blaine: Ours!?

E.C.: Yes...

Blaine: Cool! Good, good, good & I think in our case I was kind scared at first & but if everything is on Napster, then what the fuck, it's all equal then. The Nashville Pussy live experience is very visual. Has the band done any videos? Have you done any of the late-night talk shows like Leno or Letterman? Or are you considered "too risky" for prime time?questions

Ruyter: Fuck yeah, the funny thing too is that Conan wants us to play an acoustic set, blah blah...