We recently sat down with Lee Tobin – the bearded mentalist that fronts Feed The Rhino – to talk about being naked, Vikings and shitting yourself on stage. All the fun things in life!
What is your favourite smell?
“I’ve actually got two! The smell of tangerines or satsumas and my other favourite smell has got to be lavender. Strange, I know. The tangerine or satsuma one is from when I was a kid – around Christmas time it would always smell like them. Lavender I just love the smell of!”
Do you have any phobias?
“I don’t have any phobias but there is something that really makes my skin crawl and that’s needles. Not tattoo needles because obviously I am tattooed but actual full-on needles. Needles going into weird little places – like a needle going behind the fingernail or in between your toe. It’s not good for me, it’s not good.”
If you were king for a day, what rules would you impose?
“National nakedness on everyone – apart from children obviously. I think personally it would like help people because you have really insecure people, then you’d just say ‘listen, look, I know you’re insecure about yourself but we are all getting naked, just get naked.’ It would build your confidence up. There would be people after that who weren’t able to leave their bedroom who, afterwards, could go for job interviews. I reckon I could stabilise the nation on that.”
Have you ever had a supernatural encounter?
“In my dream. Have you ever had the dream where you are flying? Yeah, I have had that and I could fly good as well, man. I’ve had it where I’ve nearly fallen off my bed. But I dunno if falling counts as flying. I also had a dream where I could run really fast and that’s ridiculous because I can’t run fast. So that was definitely supernatural in my world.”
What’s your favourite television show?
“It’s gotta be Vikings. Its amazing. It’s on The History Channel, season two at the minute, and it is the best thing on the TV. I love it. I’m glued to it every single week. If you’ve never watched it, you need to watch it. If you like a good bit of history and Norway and Norwegians and stuff like that. And if you like Vikings! It does bring a lot of metal.”
If you could be someone else for a day, who would you be?
“I think I’d be Terry Crews – he just looks like he’s happy all the time. And he can do so much good shit, he’s like insanely big, looks like he could pick up a house yet he can dance like a fuckin’ demon and he’s cool as hell. I just think I’d be him, and he’s very different to me… for the obvious reasons.”
Do you have a favourite book?
“No I don’t, to be honest. I do like a bit of reading, though. I like Terry Pratchett novels but I don’t really have a favourite. Going Postal was good I suppose. I like the Harry Potter stuff, that’s cool.”
What’s your most embarrassing moment?
“I definitely think it’s when we played Costa De Fuego in Spain. Basically, we had a 24 hour drive and it was ridiculously hot. It was so so hot, it was horrible and we were just eating shitty food along the way and I wasn’t feeling good anyway. We were playing at 2pm the next afternoon and we drove down and I thought ‘ah it’ll be alright, I should clear out throughout the day.’ Literally, I should clear out throughout the day. I was drinking lots of water, trying to keep hydrated and the next morning I woke up and I felt fine. So I went to the breakfast tent and ate something quite minimal. Kept to the rulebook, didn’t splash out on bacon or sausages or anything like that! Got on stage and my belly started grumbling really bad two songs towards the end. And we had a pretty good crowd as well, a good few hundred people there – even Cancer Bats were watching at the side of the stage. So two songs ‘til the end I just had to break free… And I shit my pants.”
What band epitomises metal?
“In my eyes, it’s Orange Goblin because they are fucking awesome. They’re one of my favourite bands to watch. I think the like great horns in the sky, awesome vibe and dirty, stinky, sweaty, long-haired, bearded, leather, biggest front man in the world – that pretty much epitomises metal to me. Heavy music!”
Draw me an elephant.
(James from Feed The Rhino drew the elephant, not Lee)
Feed The Rhino release The Sorrow And The Sound on 16 June.
