Fluxin’ A

The Prairie Dogg finds the dirt on heroin and the Atkins diet with guitarist Tommy Skeoch of Tesla.

PD: Sounds like you’re having a party.

TS: Yeah, it’s noisy as fuck, isn’t it?

Don’t tell me you’re on the tour bus.

Nah, we’re in Detroit at the Hard Rock [Café], grabbing something to eat before the show.

What are you eating?

I ordered a Caesar salad and a pork shank with no bread, no potatoes. We’re all fucking doing that Atkins shit, that no-carb stuff. Trying to keep from being fat and shit. So I don’t get any potatoes.

Being a rock star isn’t what it used to be, huh?

Yeah, in the late ’80s and early ’90s, I was eating lots of potatoes and doing lots of drugs.

Do you miss either of them?

I can’t say I do. Maybe the drugs. But we don’t do anything hard anymore, just smoke a little pot, although we are all alcoholics. But at least we’re not heroin addicts.

After ten years, was making a new studio album like riding a bike?

It wasn’t really any different from what we’ve done before. When I was a kid, I knew that I would be a little star. When we made albums before, I knew they’d turn out OK. When we finished this record, I knew this was a great fucking album. We all think this is the best record we’ve ever made.

Have you mellowed since you were originally fired from Tesla in 1995?

Yeah, I’m the troublemaker. I was kind of the scapegoat, the one with the drug problem. I was fucked up out of my mind. Really, everybody was, but I was just a little worse. But yeah, I have definitely mellowed. I’m not so out of my mind that I can’t play my guitar. Now I’m only half evil. I’m a 333 instead of a 666.

Lots of bands break up over drugs, but few successfully reunite. Why is Tesla different?

I always say I’m a drug addict, [but] I just don’t do drugs anymore. I am a dead man walking. I should have been killed several times. I should have killed other people. I should be in jail or dead. But I’m here, and it’s amazing. We are all off drugs now, and our communication is much, much better.

Do you think people who know “Signs” will be open to new material?

If what we’ve heard so far is any indication, yeah. But our fanbase never really left.

Are you tired of people talking about stuff you did 15 years ago?

People bring it up all the time, and it is what it is. But you know what? I think breaking up is the best thing that ever happened to us.