Rusty Willoughby

Joined the Fastbacks as a drummer in: 1991
End of Drum 'Internship': Sporadic and on-going
Other bands: Pure Joy, Flop, The Dwindles, Pure Joy
Current band(s): Solo Artist

Songs: 29 Time: 1:15:56 Rank: 4
SONGS (studio versions only)
  • All About Nothing
  • And You
  • Believe Me Never
  • Bill Challenger
  • Book of Revelation
  • Buried Treasure Was Crap (pt. 1), The
  • Eyes of a Child (pt. 2)
  • Fanfare
  • Go All The Way
  • Gone to the Moon
  • Hung On a Bad Peg
  • I Know
  • I Live In a Car
  • Kind of Game
  • Never Heard of Him
  • Old Address of the Unknown
  • On the Wall
  • Parts
  • Please Read Me
  • Rocket Man
  • Save Room For Me
 Rusty Willoughby
  • That Was
  • They Don't Care
  • Under the Old Lightbulb
  • Waste of Time
  • What's It Like
  • When I'm Old
Interview by Mike LaVella from Gearhead #3

GH: So, you had a pretty long stint in the Fastbacks.
R: Yeah, relatively, I guess a little over a year. I joined in 1991 I think.

GH: You drum on Zucker, which is 1993.
R: That was recorded earlier actually. Kurt sat on that for awhile.

GH: The first time I ever saw the Fastbacks you were drumming, can you play everything?
R: Well, I can't play a tuba.

GH: How exactly did you come to join the band?
R: Kurt and I were friends for a long time, then we were in a band called The Sick Men of Europe.

GH: The Sick Men of Europe?!
R: That was one of Cheap Tricks original names. Jon Poneman, Kurt, me and a friend named Scott Sutherland who sang, we just covered the first Cheap Trick LP from beginning to end. So Kurt was playing guitar and I was playing drums and around that time Nate, who was drumming in both Flop and the Fastbacks, just sorta took off on both bands, he split to go fishing in Alaska. So Flop took a hiatus and since I had time off and the Fastbacks needed a drummer, it just seemed kinda natural. Then when Nate came back he just sort of rejoined Flop, knowing that he couldn't do both. Then Flop got really busy and I had to leave the Fastbacks.

GH: Then they asked you to come back and drum on your share of "Answer the Phone."
R: The whole thing with that was that it seemed like very interview centered around the fact that they had a revolving drummer, and that was almost going to be tiresome, so I think just as the final joke Kurt decided rather than have one drummer, play it up and get as many drummers as they could. I mean, you can't take everything seriously, it's just rock music.

GH: I was at the release party for "Answer the Phone" at the Crocodile and you were on stage fuckin' everything up, it was hilarious!
R: Kurt and I have this sort of quiet understanding between us that whenever one of us is on stage, we have to make it as hard as possible for the other to play.

GH: How long has that been going on?
R: At least three years now, that all started when the Fastbacks and Flop used to do a lot of shows together. It just makes it even more fun.

(c) 1995 Gearhead.
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