NASHVILLE PUSSY rocked our socks off with their sold out shows on their 2022 Aussie tour, including being the last band EVER to play the iconic Frankie’s in Sydney – which had well over 5000 people lining the streets of Sydney’s CBD attempting to get into the club to witness the closing of the venue and Nashville Pussy!!! Was a raucous Rock n Roll night, one for the history books.
Raised on a diet of Marshall stacks, Gibson Guitars, Jack Daniels and weed, NASHVILLE PUSSY is the bastard offspring of foul-mouthed, demented, hillbilly, ice-cream man Blaine Cartwright and tractor driving, nude art school model and guitar prodigy Ruyter Suys.
Andrew Slaidins caught up with Ruyter to discuss all things Australia, Rock ‘n’ Roll and of course that infamous Frankie’s Pizza gig from their last tour. These guys play such an amazing brand of rock n roll as do their counterparts THE SUPERSUCKERS who they have been friends and touring buddies with for years. The Super Pussy Tour 2025 is one that you won’t want to miss.
Andrew: Hey Ruyter.
Ruyter: Andrew, how are you? I’m fabulous.
Andrew: Excellent.
Ruyter: Sorry, it took me a little second there. Let me see if I can. There we are. We’re literally on the same page.
Andrew: We are. So, How are you?
Ruyter: I’m just waking up kind of a little bit.
Andrew: Same.
Ruyter: It’s only, it’s 2 p.m.
Andrew: 6 a.m. here so, yeah (laughs)
Ruyter: What time is it for you? 6 a.m. Oh, Jesus H. Christ. Alright, well, thanks for being awake so early for this. Are you still awake, or?
Andrew: No, no, no, I’m literally just awake, but I’m caffeinated so I’m all good.
Ruyter: You’ve already been caffeinated. All right. You’re ahead of me.
Andrew: First and foremost, welcome to The Rockpit and welcome to Australia. It’s an absolute pleasure to be chatting with you. Now, you guys are heading our way in about a month’s time with The Supersuckers for the Super Pussy 2025 Tour. I can’t think of a better name for a tour.
Ruyter: It just created itself. It’s a magical thing.
Andrew: Now, speaking of The Supersuckers; these guys have been touring buddies of yours for many, many years. Tell me about the friendship created there and what makes it so special to be on the road with those guys?
Ruyter: Oh, I guess that will remain to be seen (laughs). I’m trying to think of the last time, if we’ve even done, gone out with this, have we played with this incarnation of The Supersuckers? We have a long incestuous history with them where we have played with each other in many forms dating back to our very first record, when we first met, we were already fans of the Supersuckers before Nashville Pussy was a band. We had seen them play in Nashville, Blaine and I’d seen them play and we’d invited them over to our house to smoke weed. I think we were already in Nashville. We weren’t, Blaine’s just walked in there. We invited them to come over to our house and it’s just recorded AC Timebomb, we had Nine Pound Hammer in 93 was still rolling and we’d invited them to come over and get high. And I remember we had like, we had such shitty weed. That they were like, man this is bullshit it’s just fucking seeds and stems. They got like mad and I think they were sleeping in their van at the time. I don’t know, they were kind of shitting on our house and we were so proud to invite them in. They’re like, man, how many people live here? It’s like just us and our kind of hammered bass player sleeps on the floor in the front room, but we were super excited about that. And that was our first brush with the Supersuckers, but within a year, I think we’d started Nashville Pussy and we were recording our first album up in Seattle with Kurt Block and we needed some weed. So, Eddie came by, and he brought the weed and he wound up singing background on, I can’t remember what song, but he wound up singing background on ‘Rock N Roll Outlaw’ on the second album “High As Hell”. So yeah, there’s another little Australian connection and we wound up just continually crossing paths with them.
When we started touring with Motorhead, Motorhead allowed us to choose the opening band. We wanted the Supersuckers, so they wound up being on that tour with us and Motorhead. That was like the greatest thing to be invited upon at that point, you know, to tour with Motorhead. So, they came out with us for the two and a half, three weeks we did with Motorhead initially. On the very last show of that tour where that early Nashville Pussy, Nashville Pussy Mach 1 toured with Motorhead. Supersuckers were invited backstage to Motorhead’s room and that was like a big, big, big thing you know they finally got to sit down and talk about Thin Lizzy with, with Lemmy (laughs). The full-on life of Eddie’s goal probably was to do that. Since then, Eddie has been a co-writer on one of our albums. He helped us arrange a bunch of stuff and we have done. I remember singing back up and played acoustic guitar with him on a solo show one time here in Atlanta, which was a hoot. I was going to come out and do like four songs and then kept playing. I was like, well, I know this song too. I just stayed up there all night long and played it all. I played the whole show, both of us on acoustic guitars singing. That’s somewhere in some video archives somewhere. I don’t think I have never even seen it, but I know it exists. We’ve done so much together. Eddie was our bass player on a Canadian tour. So, we’ve had a little taste of Super Pussy before. We had one of our bass players had to go in and get neck surgery and Eddie came out and replaced her for the entire Canadian tour, which was fantastic. That was a lot of fun playing with him on stage. Oh my God, we’ve done so much stuff together him and I sing on Love Hurts for a Nazareth tribute album.
Andrew: Love Hurts?
Ruyter: Yeah, and that was one of those deals where I was like I want to be involved on this Nazareth album. I will play on any song, you know, like anything that you guys are doing from “Heirs Of The Dog” I want to be part of except Love Hurts. I fucking hate that song. I never need to hear that song again, and then I heard Eddie’s version, and I was like, Ooh, can I please be on this too? (laughs)
Andrew: It’s funny how things like that work out isn’t it? It just takes the right person, the right vibe to make something happen.
Ruyter: Yeah. I never say anything, you know, you never know when you’re gonna wind up.
Andrew: Speaking of that acoustic show you’ve got my mind reeling over that one. That would’ve been something incredible. I mean, those spontaneous moments where the meeting of two forces just jamming would have been so cool.
Ruyter: I didn’t say how great it was. I have no idea (laughs), but maybe it was amazing.
Andrew: I seriously doubt that it was anything but great. For you as a player, who had the most influence on your playing?
Ruyter: First and foremost, that would be my father. He’s the first guitar player I knew, I stole all of his riffs. I learned everything from him as my dad, just playing around the house my entire life. I was unaware of the fact that he didn’t write ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ and ‘Let It Be’ and ‘The Boxer’. I later heard Simon and Garfunkel and The Beatles and then realized that they wrote those songs, but I thought my dad had written them and the radio was playing my father’s songs. I was like, Dad, they’re playing your song. He’s like, well actually, it’s a band called The Beatles. Now we’re going to start listening to them, from there I basically learned how to play everything my dad played when I was, I don’t know, eight or nine. By then I’d already completely stolen my dad’s entire repertoire.
Andrew: You know, that’s not a bad thing. That’s solid learning ground, you know?
Ruyter: Even still now, like when him and I jam together, I’ve heard recordings of us playing together and you can’t really tell who’s who. It’s really interesting. Like I definitely stole his solo style, like soloing. We have the same rhythms, and we used to sing harmonies together when I was a kid and we had perfect harmony together, like Everly Brothers style stuff. So, my dad’s definitely my biggest musical influence, I would have to say. From then I went on to Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page and Neil Young, those guys formed me and then went into Angus Young, et cetera.
Andrew: Having that special bond with your dad musically it obviously opened up a lot musically for you when it comes to, you know, adding your own style to it. In your playing there’s obviously your guitar sound and guitar tone that has all of the hallmarks of Angus Young and the brashness of Hendrix as well in there. It must be nice to be able to put your own take on these classic players and form something that’s uniquely your own. Was the punk scene something that drew you in as well? Did you borrow influence from that era?
Ruyter: Not initially, not at all. But when Blaine and I first started jamming I was blown away by Blaine. When I first saw him play, I had never seen anyone do so much with so little. I was from the opposite spectrum. I was a super guitar geek and I thought I had to know everything before I was able to go on stage and Blaine hit one A chord and said that’s it I’m starting a band and he did. I think he was already 18, 19, 20. He was, he was old, you know, and I was accomplished and in my mind, I wasn’t ready yet to take any of this shit public. So, when I first saw Nine Pound Hammer play in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, I was like, Holy fucking shit. How can you make such great music with like three or four chords? I really thought I needed to know more before I could play live. He was the opposite, and I was just blown away by his ability to take, to have so much conviction in one chord. To have that conviction, it was like, I want a piece of this. So, he kind of turned me on to the punk scene. I’d never listened to the Ramones. I’d honestly never really listened to AC/DC until I got an SG and that changed everything. That was why Nashville Pussy turned into what it was because it was a lot of new stuff hitting me all at once. AC/DC and The Ramones were all new to me. It really made sense playing an SG, it made AC/DC make sense. It was like now I get it. It’s not simple at all. This is the opposite; it sounds simple until you play it. The Ramones sound simple until you play it and then it’s like, wow, these guys are amazing. Even ZZ Top they’re taking the same four chords and they’re turning the same three chords, and they twist and turn it every single time. Try playing five Ramones songs in a row. It’s really hard work (laughs).
Andrew: I have no doubt. All of those bands are about, right hand control and that’s where their sound comes from. It’s the power in the way the chords are played.
Ruyter: Yeah. Then Blaine and I started jamming before we started the band, we were jamming on ‘Sonic Reducer’ by Dead Boys and I was like fuck, okay, this is where we are heading and this is definitely the direction that we need to be going in. That was one of the songs that made it when we first played together and I was like, this is fucking fantastic. Now let’s go. Now I’m ready. Let’s go on the road.
Andrew: With a name like Nashville Pussy the band has probably had its fair share of commercial limitations for you guys. If I understand it correctly, the name actually derived from Ted Nugent’s introduction to ‘Wang Dang Sweet Poontang’ on ‘Double Live Gonzo’, is that correct?
Ruyter: Yeah. At the time when we did it I swear maybe two percent of the people got the reference and now it’s like point zero two percent get it. That reference just disappeared, but the Ted Nugent fans know what we’re talking about.
Andrew: We absolutely do, we get it. But I guess in picking a name based around that, how has that made your career and the trajectory of your career a little more challenging than most because radio would be, would be hesitant and TV would be hesitant.
Ruyter: Putting your name up on the marquee. That’s a challenge as well. We made it easy for people to promote us, which in hindsight, we should have chosen something a little less brash, but it wouldn’t be us. That’s who we are and if there’s one thing that Blaine and I stand for, it’s definitely freedom of speech. We’ve never really thought of it as we must live up to that name and it is a challenge to some people. So, you know, that’s on them. That’s not on us.
Andrew: Listening to the live record “Ten Years Of Pussy” there is a certain magic and a certain charm that you guys have in the way that you put yourselves out there to an audience there are so many clever plays on words and Blaine has this ability to interact with the crowd, when you take that language and that attitude, it really is a universal thing. I’ve got to tip the hat to you guys for sticking with it. The easy way would have been at times, people surely would have said to you, why don’t you change the name?
Ruyter: The funny thing is though we got nominated for a fucking Grammy, which is as square as possible. You can’t get a squarer award or honour or whatever. Right out of the gate, first album “Let Them Eat Pussy”, Nashville Pussy is nominated for a Grammy. Why would we change our name after that? That’s just insane and nobody ever said to us, why don’t you change the name? We never had pressure or anything like that. We just made it difficult for radio stations and things like that. It’s not like that though through the rest of the world, it’s only in America. This is one of the reasons why we’ve maintained a following in France, because we’ve been on national television numerous times and they just didn’t give a shit about the name, it’s like they were proud of it. They’re glad to say it. And like a lot of people have taken that. Like our diehard fans and all around the world, this is their opportunity to say pussy on the radio. Like they love the challenge basically. France has been fantastic for that, they loved it. They’re like, of course we’re going to say pussy on TV. The very first time we were on TV, we’re on this afternoon variety show called Canal Plus and it was a three or four hour show. They would have a number of celebrity guests, and they would have comedians and then they’d have musical guests. The first time we were on, the first musical guest was Bruce Springsteen, or maybe he was the second musical guest, but it was us and Bruce Springsteen. When you get exposure like that, I mean fuck, no one is gonna make you change your name. Fuck that, man. Like, are you kidding me? We just performed on national French television in the afternoon with Bruce Springsteen. You know, we meet kids who saw us on TV when they were, like, eight years old. They’re 28 now and they’re like my grandmother and I were watching. We saw you and we got to be on that same television show a number of times, we’re kind of accepted in people’s living rooms in France. Here’s Nashville Pussy performing their song, ‘Go Motherfucker Go’. We’re normal over there (laughs).
Andrew: ‘Pleased Eat You’ was the last studio album from you guys in 2018. Is there new music on the way?
Ruyter: There is. I won’t say it’s coming, but we’re going into the studio in February after we come back from Australia, in fact, Australia is going to be, I think some of our pre-production I think we’re going to steal Eddie but he doesn’t know it yet. I’m sure he won’t hear the interview. So, he has no idea that we’re going to rope them into some work while we’re out there.
Andrew: The last time you guys were here in 2022, you played a couple of iconic things. You played Cherry Fest in Melbourne and you were also the last band to play the iconic Frankie’s Pizza in Sydney.
Ruyter: We are proud to say that we shut down Frankie’s and we let Frankie’s go out with the ultimate blast. I’d really like to talk to some people who were there and see what the fuck they remember because my god that was definitely one for the books. I think we had people telling us that we played great before we even went on. Oh, you guys were fantastic. I was right in the front. It’s like, dude, we haven’t gone on yet. I was just telling a friend about it, about how it was, Frankie’s was an opportunity to live out like all of these rock and roll fantasies for everybody in the audience. Like it was insane. There was a moment where somebody was ripping down the drywall from the ceiling. It was coming down in giant sheets and one of the people who worked there was out there with a screw gun like screwing it back into the ceiling just so it would just stay in place until the place shut down. It was amazing.
Andrew: One of my friends Joel McDonald was one of the owners of Frankie’s and I haven’t had a chance to ask him about his recollection of that night either.
Ruyter: I do know Jordan (Joel’s brother and co-owner) was everywhere at once, man. That guy was, I don’t even know how he held it together, but he was all over the place. It was the first time Nashville Pussy played there and that was the first time they’d ever put a barrier in front of the band. I think it was three days of solid music and by the time or maybe an hour before we went on, they put a barrier up for the first time. They had to put up a barrier to prevent the audience from just falling into the band.
Andrew: What a crazy time. What are your favourite memories of the multiple tours you’ve done of Australia? Would Frankie’s be one of those? Is there anything that stands out from the earlier tours that was special?
Ruyter: Frankie’s was just absolute mayhem and in the best way. The backstage, which is as you know, the back bar was supposed to be our backstage. Where we changed our clothes, get in the mood and all that. It was like a VIP of who’s, who it was just everybody. Everybody was a VIP. That place was packed, the whole backstage area was just completely jam packed and we’re putting on our makeup and getting half naked. People were just waltzing through and a constant lineup for the bathroom. Nobody was going to the bathroom, but everyone was going to the bathroom and it was absolute mayhem, but it was fantastic. It was a complete blown off of steam or something like that. I was surprised that place still stood after that three day weekend.
They rattled that place to the absolute bones. It was incredible. And then the Cherry Bar, that street festival. Oh my God. That was fantastic too. There’s just so many good people, so many people who want to rock. The Australian audiences are really special. You guys have mastered pub rock. If anything, I’ve learned a lot from following in the footsteps of the masters, like Angus, I learned how to do the, how do they call it? The stop and move. I think he learned how to stand in one spot, let people take their aim with a beer bottle and then move, and it’s saved my ass throughout our history. Like, oh yeah, you got aimed out. Now I’m moving over here and all those beer bottles land right there.
One of the other fond memories I have is the time we played with Pete Wells, which was I think it was one of our very first times in Australia. That was a heavy moment having him in our backstage and having him on our stage with us was incredible and getting to jam with him just for one song was a perfect moment, I mean that guy carries some weight.
Andrew: Sadly, Pete is no longer with us, but his legacy just lives on. It’s just amazing. He may not be here in body form, but he’s still here inspiring players.
Ruyter: Just to be backstage would be like, I don’t have, I think the word heavy comes to mind. Could you imagine being in a group with Pete Wells; let me in it? He still inspires me today.
Andrew: With this tour and what I love about this tour is there is a meet and greet package and it includes the ticket to the show. It’s not an add on, it’s a full package and that’s super cool. How important is it for you guys to connect with your fans at those kinds of things?
Ruyter: Well, we wind up doing it anyway. This is a kind of a smarter way to do it because we love hanging out with the audience and especially in Australia, one of the perks of speaking English is that we get to hang out and understand each other. It’s a little difficult, more difficult in other countries where English is not a common language. We’ve got at least a little bit of English going on in Australia, a little bit of the Queens. We love hanging out with the audience, so this is a better way to do it. It’s a little more organized, at least, let’s say that, because otherwise where’d Ryder go? Like, ah, fuck, I’m gonna get her back. If we are just hanging out I’ll usually end up just wandering off with someone.
Andrew: In which part of the world do you think your craziest and most passionate, diehard fans are?
Ruyter: Wow. Um, the most passionate, God. Well, Paris is pretty insane. It’s Paris and Marseille; they are maybe some of the craziest. There’s a festival that happens on a regular basis in Belgium called Shock Fest. It’s been going on for, I wanna say over 30 years now. It was already well established by the time we first played there. I think Blaine personally has played there more than any individual musician as either a part of Nine Pound Hammer or Nashville Pussy. It’s a three-day festival, the festival itself was three days and he’s done, we’ve gone there and both Nashville Pussy and Nine Pound Hammer have headlined. The festival is one of those, I don’t want to say hipster draws, it actually has more of a rockabilly kind of vibe to it. The people that run it have refused to let it grow. It’s been very popular and they don’t want it to get bigger than it should be, so they have capped it at 15, 000 people max I think and they’re not going to ever let it get bigger. They’ve been offered opportunities to let it grow. And they’re like, no, this is staying this size. And it’s a very intimate and absolutely fantastic. It’s almost a family event because there’s a lot of children who come out to these shows and like parents with their kids on their shoulders and stuff. It’s definitely one of the best festivals in the world. We’ve played it numerous times and we always look forward to playing it. It’s always going to be good. We know exactly what to expect. And it’s not too big that it’s overwhelming or you get lost. It still feels like it’s a family event, we know everybody who works there and everyone volunteers and that’s one of the things that people go absolutely bonkers for. It’s incredible, there’s crowd surfing and just the whole shebang, like. And then, of course, Nashville Pussy and Nine Pound Hammer usually provide kind of a little bit of a respite from a lot of the rockabilly that’s going on with the rock part of the show.
Like Cosmic Cycles played there a couple of years ago. Um, they get, um, you know, Turks, helicopters, Turbo Negro, like it’s, it’s like there’s, they always have rock bands there, but it’s, um, you know, it’s really well attended and sells out every single year. The audience just goes crazy. It’s fantastic. I’m trying to think of where else, I don’t know, Spain, they’re absolutely nuts. Like Spain, sometimes they’ll have a better party than the party that we throw, which blows our mind. Like right after we play, they don’t go home. They start, they bring out a DJ who picks the best music in the world, there are beautiful women dancing around. And like, you know, we’ve tried to leave our own shows after our show. And it’s like, why would we leave? Like we must stay here because it’s a better party here than anywhere else.
Andrew: Incredible stuff. With this Australian tour, Nashville Pussy and the Supersuckers are taking turns in who headlines. You are closing out Sydney and Adelaide how was that decided?
Ruyter: I think we flipped a coin on that one. Yeah. What a great way to sort it out. It’s a very special way to tour, you know? I’m sure we’ll wind up on each other’s stages at some point, there will have to be some kind of a mishmash by the end of the night. I can’t watch them play songs I know, and that needs harmonies so I’m there. I’m already anticipating jumping up on stage without any invitation during their set.
Andrew: Ruyter we are out of time unfortunately; I can’t believe how quickly this half hour has gone. I just wanted to thank you so much for your time and for the chat. I can’t wait for these shows. I missed you guys when you last did Cherry Fest here in Melbourne. I can’t for this tour. When I saw it announced, I was my God; what a perfect double bill.
Ruyter: So you’re in Melbourne then.
Andrew: Yeah, I’m in Melbourne.
Ruyter: Excellent. Cool. So, make sure to remind me who you are. You get the title of being my first, as far as all these interviews go, it’s been so wonderful. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you for being gentle and kind and only took a half an hour.
Andrew: it’s been fun. I just wanted to wish you all a safe and happy holidays as well. Here’s to a magnificent 2025, which obviously starts in the best way by having you guys here in Australia.
Ruyter: Yes, thank you for helping us bring in this new, glorious year, which will go down in history, I’m sure, in some form.
Andrew: Thank you so much. Good morning. Good afternoon. See you soon.
Ruyter: All right, bye bye.
