MELVINS' BUZZ OSBORNE: 'Guitar Players Are Some Of The Most Conservative People On The Face Of The Planet'

MELVINS frontman Buzz Osborne recently appeared on the podcast "Side Jams with Bryan Reesman" to talk about his love for golf, photography, and collecting comic books. He addressed how he prefers public courses and how his approach differs from other players. He also spoke about his approach to street photography.

Buzz on his unusual style of golfing: "I have a really odd way of playing golf. Normally you carry 14 clubs, I carry 9. I have a weird way of playing. I dumb it down in a lot of ways that they wouldn't really teach you to do, sort of akin to the way Jimi Hendrix is considered the best guitar player in a lot of areas. But there isn't one single thing that he does guitar playing wise that any teacher would ever teach you because it's so outside the box. He's the best, but no one would ever teach you to do it the way he does which to me is insane. It's like, if he's the best wouldn't you teach people to play the way he plays, but they're too conservative. Golfers are too conservative. Guitar players are some of the most conservative people on the face of the planet. If you try to get them to do something left of center, that's just not gonna happen. It's never made any sense to me. I never understood it. By and large, I never took guitar lessons. And I never really took golfing lessons either. And so far, so good."

On people viewing golf as elitist: "I'm usually going on tour doing 80 to 120 shows a year, so during that time I don't golf at all. And this time [during the pandemic], I didn't have that. So I'm playing the best golf I've ever played by far. As far as my game goes, now I'm at a level where I'm playing tournaments and all kinds of things like that with a bunch of squares. People who are not from the music world at all. I've made lots of friends in the golf world that have nothing to do with music at all, and what we have in common is an intense love of golf. And people have this idea that it's these country club assholes. Okay, do I look like a country club asshole? Or that I want to be a country club asshole? Or that I could mix easily with these people? I hate them every bit as much as anyone does. Outside of that, I want nothing to do with them. The only thing that's good about a country club is their golf courses. But the people who are there and the vibe, I want nothing to do with. I'm a public course, muni course guy, and I'll be fine with that the rest of my life. I have no interest in rubbing elbows with those fucking jerks, nor do I want to try to pursue that in any way."

On his approach to photography: "When digital came in is really when I put [together] all of my aspects of photography that I loved. I really put that to good use because now I can take as many pictures as I want and stand there and look at it right now. 'How's it look?' I used to have to take a picture of something in five different ways in five different settings to try to figure out if it was gonna work or not. Now I could sit there and nail that thing exactly how I want it and walk away. I'm definitely a street photographer. I don't think I would do really well in a studio. I did take the cover of Revolver about a year ago. I had a picture of Mike Patton. So I could kind of prove that I could do that which is nice. That was outside. But street photography is my thing. I have an Instagram account, @realkingbuzzo, that's solely just me showing my photography. That's it. No pictures of me, no selfies, no pictures of me with drunk celebrities or anything like that. It's just pictures that I take.

"Street photography to me is constantly looking for something that would be a good picture. It doesn't matter what it is. I'm constantly looking for it — an angle on it that's funny, or that I think is beautiful or weird. I'm constantly looking for that stuff. I just can't help it. Constantly. It doesn't matter if it's with my regular cameras or with my phone. And iPhones take unbelievable pictures, far beyond what people imagine."