Five Quickfire Questions With Slim Krusty

Who is Slim Krusty? Is he really Slim Dusty’s forgotten heir? Or is he the newly appointed Australian Minister of Crust Folk-Punk? That I can’t say. I can, however, elaborate on his tendency to be the most caring, sincere, and generous bush-punk poet I’ve had the pleasure of meeting.

Slim’s only method of greeting you is with a kangaroo-like hug, a raspy laugh, and a caring smile of complete sincerity through his wayward whiskers. There is no stage persona, he is pure Australiana in the most genuine way. My sons love him, we all adore him, for his contemporary Banjo Pattersonisms,  larrikin-like observational humour, and deep rooted respect for his friends (he doesn’t have fans, only friends). Slim’s never-ending tour of Australia ventures between backyards, tattoo parlours, motel lobbies, and music venues, with his circle of friends ever-expanding like a ripe red river gum nut.

Slim gave me a solid session to chew the fat together at the Crowbar Brisbane pre-show on the Brisbane leg of the So Far So Bad tour.

Slim: Give me a hug first! Are we recording? We’re on, we’re on! Alright! Alright!

1. You seem to just love the journey as much as the destination, racking up thousands of miles around the country on various means of transportation. If you had to choose a method of transport would it be Trains or trams with those stupid Myki cards? Or would you prefer the power of a 2003…. emerald green Honda Civic? 

(You will need to watch Slim’s hilarious travel diary to be in the know on this)

Slim (banging the table with his fists in approval): That’s a fucking good as fuck question cunt! So, if you are traveling long distance in the country, the V-Line in Victoria, ya have to actually touch on, because you don’t want to get kicked off in the middle of nowhere and get fucked over. So, you have to rule that one out right… Alright, trains. I’ve done the Greyhound bus from Brissie to Sydney. It was seventeen hours, not too bad.  The train from Sydney to Melbourne, it sucks fucking eggs, it’s so shit. So, my answer is a Honda Civic, but I gave it away last night.

OB: Oh, you did!

Slim: Yeah, I threw out the keys at the gig. I chucked them into the crowd, I felt like Oprah! And then some lady who didn’t have a car got it! I said ‘Have you seen it?!’ she said ‘Yeah, I’ve seen it.’ I asked her, ‘Do you have a criminal record?’. She was like ‘Nah!’. I said ‘You’ll be fine then.’

OB: She will have a record now ha-ha!

Slim: Because I will get caught in that thing and that would fuck up my visa! Did you see what we did to it?

OB: Yeah, a total Slim Krusty Pimp My Ride version!

Slim: I got up here in it, and the suspension wasn’t even bolted on! Our body weight in the front seat was holding the wheels on! And the guy that gave me the car told me ‘If the cops pull you up, you have to put this exhaust on.’ And it wasn’t even the right exhaust pipe! So, we just cable tied the fucking thing on! Ha-ha-ha! AND WE GOT TO FUCKING HERE BRO!

OB: Where did you get it from?

Slim: I traded two tattoos for it… because I hit a kangaroo in my ute out near Coober Pedy, and I hitch-hiked down to Port Augusta. And fucking… yeah, I ended up with a Honda Civic, and we just bombed the fuck out if it. So, I thought maybe we just giveaway the car, because I’ve put far too much up my nose, and thought ‘Well I can’t fucking drive it!’.

OB: I nicknamed it 100% Spin, named after your track with its green and off yellow décor.

Slim: Oh, is that what you called it huh? I spray painted “Jamieson” on it, but I spelt it wrong. So, I had to cross out the ‘I’ and put an ‘E’. Ah well… I was doing 140 km in the cunt to get to Gold Coast, because I heard Jessica Alba was in town, I was like ‘Fuck, she is my hero!’. And I missed it!

2. Slim, your fans adore your raw sensitivity, and creative vulnerability. Holding back emotions isn’t your style. Do you really have a Head Full of Flies or a heart full of enchanting, emotional lyrics? Is the comedic side of you a Pisstake to preserve that other side for you?

Slim: Ahhh… I find it hard to write funny songs now. It might sound dumb but the drug songs and that, I mean don’t take me wrong, I might get a bit cooked sometimes… like maybe now! But it’s fucked my life in a whole lot of ways you know. So, I’m not trying to promote it.  I like getting cooked and having a fun time, but I was never going to put the sad shit out. And I was doing it at kick-ons, and my mates were up my arse about it. And that album came out, and I was like ‘Fuck it, let’s just do it, who gives a fuck!’. And it’s landed me here.

OB: I think both sides of you are equally beautiful mate.

Slim: But, but.. the other side is a bit of a problem for me, same for the depression side of my music. Like ‘Yeah I’m going to fucking book a gig and be sad, come watch my gig and be sad with me!’ And I didn’t want no cunt to hear it, you know?  And then doing it… it’s like… the fact that I can be given a Honda Civic, from doing two fucking tattoos, and give that car away to someone who needed it more than me at another show… Well that just shows the community, the community of what that music can be! It proves it’s fucking point.

OB: Exactly mate.

Slim: And that’s why this tour; I am done for a bit after this. I am fucking broken. I was already broken but like, this has given me the happiest moments of my fucking life. Straight up, honestly. The people that I’ve met on this. Like I’ve done the hardcore scene, the heavy scene, and people are like ‘I LOVE YOU FRIEND!’ (said in character voice), and all this other shit, but fuck that! I didn’t want them to hear this other shit I do. But it’s nice to do this sad shit, and cry happy tears, and it not be a sad time. It’s nice to cry happy tears, even through a horrible time, you know? I hope that makes sense.

OB: Thank you Slim for sharing. Such a thoughtful answer, and yes it makes perfect sense to anyone that listens to your music.

3. The real Mystery Bag is your tour diary Slim. You pop up everywhere and punters are pleasantly surprised, like backyard gigs on wheelie bins. Is there one particular gig that stands out for you?

Slim: Ahhhh. Hmmm. One? No, there are a few! Slim Krusty or pre-Slim Krusty?

OB: Whatever you like mate.

Slim: I can list off a few that are important to me. So, when I was in a hardcore band, playing at Swinburne University, just stinking that shit up in the apartment blocks. Some cunt went through a wall jumping off a kitchen table! I mean we used to sneak in and do a lot of illegal gigs, such as the Brisbane Hotel in Tassie.

OB: Sweet! I grew up in Tassie, both my cousins used to play the Brisbane all the time.

Slim: So, you know it, yeah? We snuck in there and did an “abando” show in there… it was an important place. Yeah, we used to play there and we missed it so much. So, we snuck in, and gave all the money we raised to the squatters there… People don’t realise it’s dangerous, and it is. But we also didn’t want to give a heap of money to the squatters and say: ‘We’ll give you the money but, don’t spend it all on drugs’. So we bought them food, and clean clothes and blankets, and gave them a little bit of money to… buy a little bit of drugs instead. Because I know what I would of fucking done! Old mate Luca Brasi came down for it, and people got to reminisce over the place during the gig.

OB: That is so cool! That place was something.

Slim: There’s a few other show’s, like Vinnies. I’ve got to shout out to them for that, last night. And a show in Piha, New Zealand. I’d give you reasons about why that is important, but I can’t out of respect to the family as to why, but it was a very important show… There are certain things, that when you’ve been through fucking Hell, there are certain things you don’t want people to know. And I will never do a charity gig, where it’s like ‘Here’s me trying to do the right fucking thing’. Just do the right fucking thing you know?

OB: I think as we are pressed for time, we might skip a question?

Slim: Fuck the time! Let’s just keep chatting cunt! Ha!

4. Just so that this interview is Ending on a High, would you like to pay homage to an Old Friend and send some love their way?

Slim: An old friend? You know what? FUCK THAT’S THE NICEST QUESTION I’VE BEEN ASKED IN AN INTERVIEW! And this cunt I really hope he hears it, Tom McCullough, you motherfucker I miss you! That was my first friend ever.

OB: Oh, that’s lovely. And cheers to Tom McCullough.

Slim: I hope he hears this; I miss him.

OB: This next question is a bonus question from Drunk Mums…

Slim: Before you do, I just want to say to the Drunk Mums: Before I went on tour (to NZ with them) it was hard. I lost my Nan, and I spent a lot of money on Ubers and all this other shit with cops, my passport. And those guys… I mean this from the bottom of my heart; it was the first time I actually got to mourn my Nan by myself. And those guys gave me the space and time to cry and supported me, helped me through it, all that other stuff while I was grieving too and I am so grateful to them.

(Note: Slim shared some very personal details, pertaining to the nurturing love of his Nan, the pain of losing her and his relationship to other family members. Out of respect to Slim and his privacy, that conversation is excluded from this interview. However the identity of Slim Krusty was born from peace, pain, love, and loss. As Slim puts it: “It made some very wholesome things out of some very terrible fucking things.”)

Slim: Jake’s (Jake Doyle) the best Drunk Mum to share a bed with, because he doesn’t snore!

5. The Drunk Mums want me to ask you about the undies in Raglan?

Slim: The undies Ha-ha! Craig’s Jocks! I didn’t have a backpack there, and Craig had these big old jocks. He is like ‘I’ll rip these jocks off and you can have them!” I said ‘Come on, I play grindcore, so I get naked all the time!’. He gave me these massive undies, and I tried to sign Slim Krusty on them using a white marker pen, but it ended up looking like cum! And I was like ‘Ugh I’ll fix that up later!’. Basically, that’s where that came from. Love him, he is a mad cunt!

OB: Well that’s it Slim.

Slim: But this is the final hoorah for a long time. I miss my family, and I’m mentally broken. Not in a sappy way, I’ve lost feeling in my finger, I’ve got fucking hives from stress, and I’ve seen what my family has gone through, losing my Nan, going back for funerals… I miss home. I miss home a lot.

OB: You have given so much to your fans and supporters.

Slim: Fans! Fuck that shit, they are not fans, they are friends! It’s how I couch surf, it’s how I do any of it. It’s friends, we all get along, we all come together, and get to the shows. And anyone that’s been there knows it one hundred percent, and I wouldn’t be able to do it without them! (Singing) ‘Give me fuel, give me fire, give me that which I desire!’.

If you’re not a friend of Slim Krusty by now, what the hell is stopping you? We love ya Slim!

A massive thank you to Shane Oliver (@the shaneoliverexperience) for capturing the chaos of Slim and the crowd in action!