TEN DUCK-SIZED COWBOYS OR A COWBOY-SIZED DUCK?
…and other inexplicable questions you posed to Volbeat mainman, Michael Poulsen IT’S THE MIDDLE
of Volbeat’s UK tour for Rewind, Replay, Rebound when we chat with Michael Poulsen. Seated quietly in a dressing room, he nurses a sore throat but refuses to let down the excited fans that can be heard in the street below. The affable Dane doesn’t disappoint Hammer either, stepping up to answer your questions with a mixture of honesty, sincerity, laughter and complete bafflement. Given some of these, you can hardly blame him…
How do you pick the artists that you collaborate with?
@Chadr666 (Twitter)
“I almost never write songs with artists in mind. The only time that happened was with King Diamond. He was in my thoughts when I wrote Room 24 [from 2014’s Outlaw Gentlemen & Shady Ladies].
With the other collaborations, they kind of just happened. I just heard that other person’s voice in my mind when we rehearsed those songs. I’ve been very blessed; when we’ve contacted all of those people to see whether they’re interested, they’ve said yes.”
Was it difficult going out to face Slipknot/gojira/behemoth fans every night on the Knotfest Roadshow given that you wouldn’t traditionally be seen as a super-heavy band?
Aidan Delayney (Facebook)
“That tour was a great challenge but I love challenges. That’s why I agreed to do the tour – we wanted to win fans from those bands. In life I find that you can sometimes become just a little bit too comfortable. Comfortable is nice, of course, but challenges are always great. It’s good to break the cycle of things. We asked our management whether this tour was a good idea but everybody agreed to give it a try. Each night it’d take us three or four songs [to make an impression], but eventually we won them over – not everybody, but a bunch of them. And that was the whole idea.”
Would you rather fight 10 duck-sized cowboys or one cowboy-sized duck, and why?
@Robbieloucks (Twitter)
[After a long, long, long and very bemused pause]. “Hmmm… that’s a funny question. I’ll go with the cowboy-sized duck because that’s going to be intimidating.”
Do you feel more like Elvis or Johnny Cash onstage?
@melinbelfast333 (Twitter)
“Neither of those. I feel like me. I’m just Michael, the performer. I do understand why that question was asked; it’s obvious that Volbeat is very much inspired by those two guys, or at least