The Godz’ best-known song, Gotta Keep A Runnin’, could be autobiographical. You’ve lived sex, drugs and rock‘n’roll to the max.
When my body began to disintegrate it made no sense to me because in my mind I’m still sixteen years old. I look in the mirror and I don’t know who I see.
You’ve had your teeth pulled out and there are plastic valves in your heart.
I’ve got dentures now but don’t wear them all the time. When doing a lot of drugs occasionally you wake up coughing after throwing up – one night I almost choked on them. I was back on stage eight weeks after the heart surgery.
As a keen biker, what was the worst smash-up you survived?
My only real accident was back in 1979. I had a brand new a Kawasaki 1000 Z1. I took a Quaalude, drank some Jack Daniel’s and got in a race with a guy. I was laid up for a while but got rid of that bike when I could walk again.
In your sixties, you cannot do the things you did as a younger man, surely?
I do as many of them as I can get away with [laughs]. If it doesn’t hurt, I’ll do it. I like the things that might seem crazy to other people, I’m not going to stop.
Are you afraid of death?
No. When you’re closer to the end than the beginning you think about your demise more clearly. There’s no reason to be scared. I know that whichever place I end up, there’ll be a great house band.
