There’s never been a point
fucking hate each other
and have broken up...
WE GO OUT
AN D W E PL AY
WHERE WE’VE TAKEN 10 YEARS OFF
BECAUSE WE ALL
40 KERRANG!
THE K! INTERVIEW
O
n an overcast day in
Mayfair, London, Chris
Shiflett is talking about
the old times. He’s stayed
in some dives in the past,
he says, and remembers one joint in
particular, in which “I went to brush my
teeth and there was the imprint of a
human face in the mirror.” On another
occasion, while on the road with his first
proper band, the punk rock group No
Use For A Name, their bass player was
allotted sleeping quarters “that had
caught on fire; I mean, the whole room
had burnt out.”
The exercise is one of compare and
contrast. On this Monday afternoon on the
first day of July, the guitarist with the Foo
Fighters is ensconced in the luxury of the
Connaught Hotel, a five-star establishment
that offers digs of such splendour that
they threaten to suffocate. Despite it
being many years since the 48-year-oldhigh school dropout stayed in places
where the swimming pool had a body
floating in it, his dress-down appearance of
vintage shirt and tattoos is a commendably
awkward fit amid the opulence that
envelops him today. You can take the punk
rock out of the boy... Well, actually, no,
you can’t.
Chris finds himself in town for little
more than 24 hours. Later this evening
he’s off out for dinner with his wife, before
catching a flight home to Los Angeles in
the morning. Before this, he makes time
for a career and life-spanning chat with
Kerrang!. There’s also the matter of his
newly released solo album, Hard Lessons- a convincing and authentic collection
of song-based Americana, of which he is
rightly proud.
It’s funny, though: Chris Shiflett is often
described as ‘the quiet one’ of the Foo
Fighters. But it turns out that he’s nothing
of the sort.
WORDS: Ian Winwood photo: MIKE DUNNCHRIS SHIFLETT
FOO FIGHTERS