When you can party with lemmy,
then attend a local show to
support indie bands, it speaks
to how genuine don jamieson is.
The first time I met Don Jamieson in person was at a show at The Saint in Asbury Park, New Jersey for Corey
Glover from Living Colour. Then, I saw him at a show at Dingbatz in Clifton, New Jersey. Then, at the Brigh-
ton Bar in Long Branch, New Jersey. That, coupled with his famous support of the band Lower The Veil on
“That Metal Show”, it became clear that through our mutual support of independent artists, our paths would
cross and that we would have to opportunity to have this conversation. - Michael
How did you get into comedy?
It not like its something you
talk about with your high
school guidance counselor.
DON: I didn’t aspire to it but you know when
I was 11, the first two albums I ever got were
“Kiss: Destroyer” and “George Carlin: Oc-
cupation Foole”. So it started young for me, in
terms of loving hard rock and metal and also
being into comedy. When I finally did start do-
ing comedy, and making a little career out of
it, then I said we had to bring the other part in
it. We needed to add the heavy music to it and
that’s what I’ve really been trying to do over
the past ten years between ‘That Metal Show’
and going out and doing rock festivals, open-
ing up for bands as a comic. I want to bring
that back again. Many years ago that was
cool if a comic opened for a band. Then it was
not cool for a long time so my foot is in both
worlds at all times. So that’s how it started, man.
However, with the release of ”Worlds Collide”
we’ve noticed that a majority of our fans now
favor ”Worlds Collide” before our debut album.
There used to be a lot of
comics. Bobby Collins used
to open for big acts, Bobcat
Goldthwaite, and then all of
a sudden you’re not going to
find a comic that’s going to
open up for groups like Korn.
DON: Yeah, right. But, slowly but surely, there
are a handful of us now, metal comics, who are
out doing this stuff and it’s really cool. And right
now I am working with Live Nation and working
on a really cool tour for the summer with com-
ics and bands. Even though ‘That Metal Show’
is off the air, I am still firmly implanted in both
worlds and I always will be. I found the perfect
combination of things and I am here to stay.
Who were some of
the guys that you
gravitated towards that
you really found inspiring
as a comedian?
DON: Obviiously, in the early days, it was
Carlin, and Cheech & Chong. I was a teen-
ager barely so I didn’t really understand a
lot of it. I definitely knew it was submersive
but I just kept on listening to it. That’s what
I’ve always loved about comics. I really
like all comics but I really like comics with
an edge. And those guys inspired me to get
up and at least try it once, you know? Even
is you do a movie. Well look. I’d like to
have a movie under my belt, too, whether
you liked it or not. The funny thing is if you
do stuff from the heart man then it always
turns out good. Like what you are doing for
the station and the magazine, that’s coming
from your heart. And good things are go-
ing to happen. One day I threw some other
comics in with Dice and a few years later
I was his opener for about ten years. That
was a very quick education into being a
comedian.
Im curious. how did
the whole “That Metal
Show” happen anyway?
DON: Me and Jim, when we would go on
the road and do gigs together, we used to
always say, “We can’t wait to get into the
Trunk zone.” We couldn’t wait to get some-
where to tune him in and listen to him on
the radio. We thought this guy is just like
us. Then we finally met him and we start-
ed talking. We started developing a little
of that chemistry and breaking each oth-
ers’ horns a lot and we just brought that
concept in to VH1 Classic where he was a
host at that time. Basically, the whole meet-
ing was just us breaking Eddie’s stones the
whole time and they loved that. And that’s
really how the show got picked up. They said,
“Well, we really don’t know metal as well as you
guys do but we love this whole chemistry. You
guys are all different. Let’s give
this thing a try.” We did the pilot
episode. In show business, I had
probably done like ten other pi-
lots before I did the ‘That Metal
Show’ pilot and none of them
got picked up. It was like I was
making a liv