Chuck Prophet
The former Green On Red man worries about the world, and also about his mum reading his biography.
Get Off The Stage, the final song on American singer-songwriter Chuck Prophet’s fourteenth solo album, The Land That Time Forgot, is a wry yet scathing takedown of the White House’s current occupant. No names are mentioned, but it’s fairly clear who lines such as ‘You’re an obstruction in democracy’s bowel’ are aimed at. “I’ve been playing it on my solo tour, and I’ve had some people walk out,” says Prophet, who rose to prominence with 80s alt. country rockers Green On Red. “I’ve been pretty delighted by that.”
What does the title The Land That Time Forgot refer to? I guess it’s a portrait of our time. It really is the whole ‘best of times, worst of times’ kind of thing. Plus a lot of it is about how I feel about living in San Francisco, a city that’s under siege by billionaire manchildren. Hey, change is inevitable, but still it’s not easy.
As well as Trump, you’ve also written songs about Richard Nixon (Nixonland) and Abraham Lincoln (Paying My Respects To The Train). What’s the fascination with Republican Presidents? It’s hard to ignore that stuff today. There’s the rising tide of fascism, or whatever you want to call it. I grew up in a Republican family. My dad was a company man, he had a company car. But he’d be disgusted by what’s going on today.
Do you think Trump is sitting in the Oval Office going: “This Chuck Prophet guy might have a point…”? Listen, I wouldn’t have recorded it if the punch line didn’t land. And I never mention his name. When I play live, I say: “I’ve got some presidential songs – one about Lincoln, one about Nixon and one that’s more contemporary.” This woman in Houston went: “[Drawling] Aw hell, I don’t think I’m gonna like this guy…” But she stayed and she laughed.
Green On Red predated the surge of interest in what became known as Americana. Does it feel like they were ahead of their time? There were always people around who were doing stuff that we related to. And a lot of the reasons we played that kind of country rock thing was, quite frankly, cos it’s easy. We were just kids who had a few country chords on guitar. We just turned it up and stretched it out, and then people said it sounded like Neil Young.
“Change is inevitable, but still it’s not easy.”
Was there a point with Green On Red when you learned to stop chasing success and get on with what you’re doing? You’d be shocked at how little pressure there was put upon us to be successful. We weren’t that kind of band anyway.
There’s a Chuck Prophet biography coming out this year. Have you read an advance copy? Yeah.
What part made you wince the most? [Laughing] There’s a few things in there that I hope my mother doesn’t read, let’s leave it at that.
We’ve got Trump, coronavirus, financial instability. Are you optimistic that we’ll make it to the end of 2020 in one piece? Well, there’s always the path of art, though I’m hoping that things aren’t gonna get so bad that I end up on the internet, panhandling. DE
The Land That Time Forgot is out on August 21 via Yep Roc Records.