TIGERTAILZ Frontman: 2007 Was 'Our Best Year Ever And Our Worst'

Reactivated UK rockers TIGERTAILZ have updated their official web site with a new interview with guitarist/lead vocalist Kim Hooker. An excerpt from the chat follows:

Q: 2007 – your thoughts?

Kim: Yes, I know, our best year ever and our worst. We had some great times and bad. Pepsi [Tate, late TIGERTAILZ bassist] started saying he had pains in his stomach, he would sit on his chair at rehearsals which as you know isn't him at all. He tried everything, doctors, dieticians etc. He'd been ill for about six months and I thought nothing of it. We all get ill, don't we? We did a show with VAIN in Nottingham and a friend of his had to drive him there. He started changing in the dressing room and it suddenly hit me. He was so thin. I knew then something was badly wrong. I said to Mark (Captain Insano),one of our crew, that it looked to me like he had cancer. But how could he? The doctors would have found it by now. Mark said, "I'm being serious guy, he's dying." About a month later the doctors said he had cancer of the pancreas. How can an idiot like me who screams and plays a guitar know what doctors don't? Maybe I knew him so well I could see the change in him more than they could. Bless him.

Q: So what was it like for you all?

Kim: Well, you'll have to ask the others that too. Pepsi said they were going to make a small incision to see how bad it was. I went to see him in hospital and he had a huge scar across his stomach, so that wasn't a good sign. After that it was just bad news and more bad news. Jay said his doctors wanted us to keep him busy so the "Thrill Pistol" album and the Y&T tour were all an attempt to do so. Sadly the Y&T tour turned into a celebration of his life. Y&T were great to us — many thanks and much love to them and Jill Meniketti. Phil Kennimore told us he'd written a song about Pepsi called "One of the Boys". Isn't that great? The Gods of Metal festival we did with MÖTLEY CRÜE and VELVET REVOLVER was a weird time for me. I walked along the dirt road and saw trailers, MÖTLEY CRÜE, VELVET REVOLVER, THIN LIZZY and TIGERTAILZ. Nikki Sixx was hanging out of his trailer at 4 in the afternoon all decked out and ready to rock, saying he was bored at the hotel and was asking for some vegetables. Jay was having his photo taken with Mick Mars, which was hysterical — separated at birth, those guys! Through all this Pepsi was nowhere to be seen. Anyone who knew Pepsi would tell you he'd give Nikki Sixx a run for his money in the old days and now there's Sixx eating vegetables and Pepsi back at the hotel sleeping. It should've been a great day for me. Every time I looked at him on stage, all I could think was I'm never going to do this with you again. I knew it was the end. We finished the last song and I just stayed on the stage staring at the crowd saying a final goodbye. I knew it was over. There are some photos around of us backstage after the show — have you ever wanted to read someone's mind? Well, in all those pics, all I was thinking was, "I'll never see you like this again, will I?" It's the story of my life, really. I'm never allowed to get to happy."

Q: And the "Thrill Pistol" album — was that hard too?

Kim: He was in and out of hospital at the time. We'd be in the studio and he'd just turn up in a taxi. He walked in one day from hospital and said, "Can you take me home? I want to get my keyboard and a sound module." I took him home then back to the studio for a few hours then back to the hospital. When I got back to the studio, I realized he had to play bass on the song "Natural Born Animal". I could hardly go and break him out again so I played it, but apart from that one song it's all him. He wasn't going to let a small thing like dying beat him.

Q: What about the Y&T tour with the new bass player?

Kim: We didn't know what to do. One day we'd say, "Let's do it," then the next, "No, let's pull it." In the end Jay went to see Pepsi's wife Shan and she said, "Of course, you must do it." We used an old friend Glen Quinn who we'd known for years. Pepsi always said if he couldn't do any shows to use Glen so it was with his blessing. We used Glen before for a tour of Spain and St. Davids Hall that Pepsi was too ill to do. So he knew the stuff better than we did. He's a great musician, and more importantly for us, a great guy who's been in our circle for years. As for a new bass player — how could you replace Pepsi Tate? It's not a job I'd want. We waited for Sixx to call but he didn't, so what do you do? I called Justin Hawkins and asked would he fill in for a while. He said he'd love to but he was really busy with his new album which will be out this year. So Jay said, "Let's do what BON JOVI do and just use a bass player when we play," so Glen was the only choice. Justin Hawkins has been great to us but really you need to speak to Jay about the bass player thing. He started TAILZ with Pepsi, so it's his call. I know Pepsi will never be replaced as such. Jay even had the idea of staying as a three-piece and me playing the bass, but I know I'd be killing Sixx, he's been through a lot so I'll let him off. I must say though I love playing bass. I was kidding. Sixx is the coolest rock 'n' roller ever.

Read the entire interview at www.tigertailz.co.uk.

Watch fan-filmed video footage of TIGERTAILZ performing the song "I Believe" at the Gods of Metal festival in Milan, Italy in June 2007 (Pepsi played with the band at the show):