Snot came out of the gate with a fury in 1997 with their debut album Get Some, but that initial run soon came to a halt with the untimely death of lead singer Lynn Strait in December of 1998. The band disbanded shortly after his death as the members pursued other projects. Guitarist Mikey Doling went on to play in Soulfly, Invitro and Channel Zero, as well as becoming a record producer. The band recently announced that they were hitting the road for their Fuck the Record and Fuck the People Tour on which the band will play that epic debut album in its entirety. I interrupted Doling’s production duties recently and he sat down with me to fill me in on the tour.
Hey Mikey, you sound like you are a busy man.
Mikey Doling: Sorry about that, you know I’m working with your boys from Sunflower Dead. We’re hot and heavy in the middle of pre-production right now.
So, was there a catalyst behind putting this show together and heading back out on the road?
In January of this year, we decided to play a charity benefit that Sonny and Tommy Vext were putting together. For those two, we said sure and we jumped in and played the show. Since we were doing all this practicing for just this one show, we decided to book four shows. We did L.A. at the Whiskey, Santa Barbara, then another show in L.A. at the Troubadour and one in Palm Springs and they all fucking sold out. We had such a great time playing and we stewed on it all year long and we thought if we got another chance to do it, then we would. So, I contacted a few booking agents, a few of them didn’t believe in it and a couple of them did. I had this one guy who was really passionate about it and I told him to put his feelers out to see how people felt about Snot and we’d go from there. He did and then fuck, 22 shows were booked and then 30 more were booked in Europe. All of these promoters were hyped on it and we couldn’t believe that all of these people cared about Snot. Now, we’re looking at a world tour and we were just offered Thailand, Australia, Singapore and New Zealand on top of already having the US and Europe. Holy shit, it’s now taking on more than we had expected, but it just so happens that we all have some time to do it. We decided to go ahead and move forward with it and fuck, why not? Snot never did a world tour before because we were cut off early and there are a lot of fans around the world who would love to see the band play those songs, even though Lynn’s not here. This is all we’ve got, so we’re fucking going out and we’re going to do a world tour for the first time.
Wow man, that has to blow your mind. I mean, you’re hoping for a positive and favorable response from the fans when you put those dates out there, but this has to exceed even your wildest dreams.
Oh absolutely because it started with just one show and grew from there. Now, we have seventy some shows booked all around the world. We could actually do more because we’ve had some other offers that we’re working on as well. It’s ridiculous actually that it’s cool to book Snot again.
I do need to ask you about a quote from an old MTV interview that you did after Lynn passed away. You said that you couldn’t go on without him and that it was bullshit when bands did that. Was there something that changed your mind?
When I said that seventeen years ago, I was truly devastated by the loss of my best friend and it was an emotional response. It really wasn’t something that I said from a point of clarity because I was pissed when I said that. Dude, all these years later, there are still four of us left who love each other like brothers and there’s a ton of fans who still hold that record up in the air and champion it to this day. You know what? We can do back to it again and we waited a long time and yeah, we did do something five years ago. We took a break from that and now we’re revisiting it again because we absolutely love those songs. It’s Jaime Miller on drums, Sonny (Mayo) on guitar and Tumor on bass and it feels so comfortable and so awesome doing it; I think Lynn would be ok with it.
I thought it may have been one of those heat of the moment kind of things.
Yeah, it was and it’s funny that it you say because it gets me a little emotional and almost pissed off because I remember how I felt when I said that. It really takes me right back to that time again because I still miss Lynn to this day, but I want to play with Snot again.
Well, with that many shows already booked, it seems that there are people literally all around the world who want to see that as well.
Yeah, but you know, there are those people out there who just want us to put this to bed already, but they just don’t understand. This is my legacy; this is my family, my band, my art and my music with the other guys in the band. It’s real easy for someone to sit on their high horse and tell someone what to do with their music and stuff. You know, if you don’t want to see Snot again, then just don’t go to the show. I’ve heard some bad stuff on-line about us doing this without Lynn and it’s really ridiculous. I do appreciate the love being shown for Lynn, but don’t hate on us because we’re playing Snot songs.
Well, you know how sitting behind the protection of a keyboard can empower some people.
Oh yeah man, but don’t get me wrong. I appreciate the love and respect being shown for Lynn, but I don’t think they’re coming from that place; I just think they’re being dicks (laughs).
So, is this just going to be a reunion tour or is there a possibility of new music from Snot?
That’s something that I just can’t say yet, not at this point. You know, I’m always writing and I’ve written songs that I wish Lynn could sing on. I’ve written some stuff recently that I thought would be a great Snot song. We had Tommy Vext as a fill-in singer for us for a while, but right now we don’t even have a singer, so it’s impossible. We have Carl Bensley who is going to fill in on the tour for us, but I can’t say if we will record anything. You know, if it felt right, I would be open to it, but I really can’t say yes or no right now. If Lynn was back right now, I would definitely write a record with him today.
So, you’re going to go out and play Get Some in its entirety?
That’s the plan; we’re going to play it just like the album and then close out with”Absent.”
Will this be the first time some of those songs have been performed live?
No, when we did those first four dates, we played everything off that album and even some stuff off of Straight Up, which was really cool. We played “Starlit Eyes”, which was really cool, but I don’t know if we’ll pull that one back out or not.
Even though you guys only got to record one studio album before the tragedy, it’s an album that struck a nerve with a lot of people. I’ve done quite a few interviews and that album pops up from time to time as someone’s “go to” album or one that impacted them as an artist.
Get Some does?
Yes sir, it’s happened more than once.
Oh wow, that’s awesome.
Does it surprise you when someone, whether a fan or musician, comes up and tells you that?
I’m not going to name drop because that would sound cheesy, but I’ve had some pretty huge artists that I was on tour with like on Ozzfest with Soulfly and I did some stuff with Korn when I was with Invitro. I’ve had some artists come up to me and I wanted to get my photo taken with them and then they tell me that Get Some was a huge influence on them. Honestly, to this day, I am still shocked when it happens.
I think it’s great that you’re able to see that impact man. Well, as much as I would love to keep talking shop with you, I know that you have five hungry and focused musicians in that studio who are waiting on you. Do you have any closing words for our readers?
We’re just going out to play, have a good time and visit each other as friends. We’ve all been friends for 20 years and we’re still close. We have this thing called Snot and we just want to go out and rock. There’s no message other than we just want to play and the fact that there are people out there who are wanting to hear us play is something that we’re very thankful for.
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