Fear were flaming assholes from LA who told LA crowds they were from Frisco, Frisco crowds they were from LA, and New York crowds that they were from New Jersey (the crowd in this case, not Fear). They were dicks to everybody, and after the whole SNL debacle Eddie Murphy stopped by their dressing room just to say "Fuck you," which would be a really awesome scene to get printed on a sweatshirt. Back in their heyday, a lot of people accused the band of homophobia, which I think was bogus, but the question remained, what did scare Fear? I recently called Lee Ving to find out. The interview was delayed a few hours because Lee got into an argument with somebody doing political canvassing outside a grocery store, but finally we got down to the heart of things.Vice: So, Mr. Fear, what are you afraid of?
Lee Ving: Nuthin’.Nothing scares you?
No.Really, not even heights?
No. Everything's OK with me.Not even… DEATH!?
That's an interesting question. Fear's a universal emotion. It's something that everyone knows about, like beer. It's an interesting and useful word, crosses all socio-economic boundaries.OK. But there’s got to be something that wigs you out—how about the future of America? Do you have any fears about that?
Yeah.Lay em on me.
I am angered by the lack of enforcement of our laws.Which ones?
I think I'd like to leave it at that.Um‚Ķ all right. What about the younger generation with all their iPods and apathy and lacking purpose or meaning or anything? That sort of unsettles me—you?
No. I think that at one point in time you could put your finger on a lot of skilled musical people who were doing well. But now, unless you're speaking about jazz, you’d have a harder time saying that. People are using rhythm machines, making stupid noises over and over again that are moronic and delirium-oriented rather than inspirational. You could say that the proliferation of that kind of thing is at a deficit but I don't think you could say that a whole generation is lacking. The whole generation doesn't listen to hip-hop. Think of the popular music of the 60s: Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Sam and Dave. You could go on and on for days and days. Ray Charles, Wilson Pickett, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Paul Simon, James Taylor. The emphasis today is not on musical skill, knowledge, creativity. The emphasis is on how much money you're making, which has probably always been the case, but still. There's a lot of shit selling and I can't understand why. I hear the same expletives, the same four-letter words used over and over again with no creativity. I don't know what that's about.Fair point. Back to the fear-question though, what about going to the doctor’s? That’s got to kind of give you the heeby jeebies, right?
No, I don't particularly fear doctors. I think it's everybody's responsibility to know when to use a tool: Knife, hammer, screwdriver, doctor. Let the buyer beware.So you’re totally not scared of anything, not even death or doctors?
I am a doctor.NICK GAZIN
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Lee Ving: Nuthin’.Nothing scares you?
No.Really, not even heights?
No. Everything's OK with me.Not even… DEATH!?
That's an interesting question. Fear's a universal emotion. It's something that everyone knows about, like beer. It's an interesting and useful word, crosses all socio-economic boundaries.OK. But there’s got to be something that wigs you out—how about the future of America? Do you have any fears about that?
Yeah.Lay em on me.
I am angered by the lack of enforcement of our laws.Which ones?
I think I'd like to leave it at that.Um‚Ķ all right. What about the younger generation with all their iPods and apathy and lacking purpose or meaning or anything? That sort of unsettles me—you?
No. I think that at one point in time you could put your finger on a lot of skilled musical people who were doing well. But now, unless you're speaking about jazz, you’d have a harder time saying that. People are using rhythm machines, making stupid noises over and over again that are moronic and delirium-oriented rather than inspirational. You could say that the proliferation of that kind of thing is at a deficit but I don't think you could say that a whole generation is lacking. The whole generation doesn't listen to hip-hop. Think of the popular music of the 60s: Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Sam and Dave. You could go on and on for days and days. Ray Charles, Wilson Pickett, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Paul Simon, James Taylor. The emphasis today is not on musical skill, knowledge, creativity. The emphasis is on how much money you're making, which has probably always been the case, but still. There's a lot of shit selling and I can't understand why. I hear the same expletives, the same four-letter words used over and over again with no creativity. I don't know what that's about.Fair point. Back to the fear-question though, what about going to the doctor’s? That’s got to kind of give you the heeby jeebies, right?
No, I don't particularly fear doctors. I think it's everybody's responsibility to know when to use a tool: Knife, hammer, screwdriver, doctor. Let the buyer beware.So you’re totally not scared of anything, not even death or doctors?
I am a doctor.NICK GAZIN