"I insult women, homosexuals, and drug addicts...especially tweakers. They are at the low end of the food chain," says Mike Hood, who admits he's a recovering addict.
After playing guitar for years with the Shot Out Hoods, the Suicide Kings, the Cutthroats, Redeye Gravy, and Unregistered Sex Defenders, the 50-something Hood says, "I don't know how much longer I can be a rock-and-roll star. I'm moving into comedy."
In his band the Dukes of Haggard, formed in 2005, Hood insults audience members between songs about large women and bike-riding meth addicts. He writes all the words and music for the Dukes of Haggard. Samplelyric:
"Down in San Diego none of my friends say they're gay,
but every year there's another million at that rainbow parade."
"We're just making good fun at how fucked up our society has become," says Hood. "I'm not leaving myself out [of the insults]."
He says the Supersuckers and Southern Culture on the Skids inspired him to move into comedy. "So many bands are so moody, so serious. They just stand there and stare at their feet. I talk to the audience."
Hood has used a cane since an accident in the summer of 2006.
"I was towing [cars]. I fell asleep at the wheel. I was in a rural part of Spring Valley. This pole went right though the engine compartment. It missed the engine and impaled my leg. I was bleeding to death."
Hood says he spent 20 minutes struggling to "peel my leg off the pole" to get to the phone that was on the floor of the cab.
"My leg was like an accordion. It was broken in six different places. I had a compound fracture. My bone was coming out of the skin. I waited about an hour and a half. They couldn't find the address....
"It was the first time in my life I was in an accident that I wasn't on drugs. The first person to greet me [in the wreckage] was a sheriff deputy. Here I am, laying there dying, and he says, 'Here you go, dude. Blow in this Breathalyzer.' When it came up negative, he says, 'Okay, it's negative.' And then all the sheriffs drive off." He was taken to Grossmont Hospital.
"My foot was pointed in the other direction. My girlfriend Hayley was told that I would probably not get out of surgery with my leg.... But a great surgeon happened to be working at four in the morning -- Rina Jain, MD, saved my leg."
"Blurt," 8-18-05, 12-13-07