GOLDFINGER

“I Always Say Yes To The Animals”

An Interview with John Feldmann For The Vegan Society's 'The Vegan' Winter 2007 Magazine

By Shari Black Velvet

In 2007 the Vegan Society moved to Birmingham. As someone who's been vegan for five years (and vegetarian for 13 years prior to that), this brought great joy. The Vegan Society promotes a vegan lifestyle, which excludes the exploitation of animals for food, clothing or any other purpose. In a bid to find out more about the Society, what went into working there, and to just do something to help, I took a week off Black Velvet work and volunteered my services at their Hockley headquarters. While there I conducted a telephone interview with Goldfinger frontman John Feldmann, which later appeared as an article in the Winter 2007 issue of the Society's 'The Vegan' magazine. Due to printing space constraints the article had to be edited down - however, you can now read the full interview in all its unedited glory, here...

Anything But Polite Applause

(An Interview with Charlie Paulson - Taken From Black Velvet 49 - Aug 2006)

By Shari Black Velvet

It's been four years since Charlie Paulson has been a member of the mighty GOLDFINGER. But now he's back. To celebrate his return to the band, Black Velvet caught up with the long-time, original guitarist and asked him what it's been like returning to the camp, what he'd been up to during his time away - and if he's ever gotten dizzy while spinning round and round.

Above: Charlie Paulson - Photo By Shari Black Velvet

Black Velvet: So what's it like being back in the band?
Charlie Paulson: "It's great. In some ways it's much better than it ever was, 'cause we've grown up a lot. It's been four years and we've gone through a lot of personal changes. Then in some ways it feels like I never left. For better or worse they are my brothers in a sense.

BV: Why did you leave - creative differences?
CP: Primarily creative differences. We were working on the 'Open Your Eyes' record and I was fucking miserable. John and I were fighting over what songs to put on the record. And we had just come off of 'Stomping Ground' which the band considered my record. In a way they feel that I made them make a heavy metal album. To them it's a heavy metal record. By the time we got to 'Open Your Eyes' I had no leverage, I had no bargaining power and I was just not happy with it. There are songs on there that I don't think are very Goldfinger at all. So I said 'look, if this is the record you all want to make, and you guys are happy with it, you should make it, I'm just gonna take off'. Plus there was a lot of tension at the time. John and I were fighting over the record. The day I actually called John and quit the band, Darrin had jumped over his drumkit in rehearsal and started choking Kelly. It was tense. So I was like 'this is fucking miserable, it's not what I want to be' - so I quit.

BV: And you think things are going to be ok now?
CP: Oh, they are. This is the second tour we've been on and like I said a lot has changed. About two years ago… I suffer from clinical depression… About two years ago I tried to kill myself. I wasn't in the band at the time but they all showed up. They came to visit me in the hospital. I got locked into a psych ward in downtown LA and they all came and visited me. Shit like that happens and everything gets set aside. And it was shortly after I got out of the hospital that John and I started talking about me rejoining the band. That really changed the perspective of a lot of things. Darrin lives in Toronto now with his wife. He's got a really quiet life and Kelly's quit drinking. So we've all gone through some pretty tremendous changes since I was last in the band.

BV: What's it going to be like musically now then?
CP: I think it's going to go back to more of our original sound. When I was getting ready for the tour in January I went out and bought 'Open Your Eyes' and 'Disconnection Notice' to listen to. It's funny, I like 'Disconnection Notice' better. I think overall it's a better album. It's more of a complete musical statement. But it's not a Goldfinger record at all. It's like a John Feldmann solo album - and it's great. But it's not appropriate for the band. We don't play any of those songs live. I think it's partially because they're not really Goldfinger songs and also it's partially due to respect for me, 'cause I was not in the band, I didn't play on those songs, I had nothing to do with that album. And frankly, kids don't seem to mind. We haven't played that record at all and nobody has ever complained. I think the next record, we're either going to sign to SideOneDummy, which is The Casualties and Flogging Molly's label, or Drive-Thru Records, both of which are punk rock indies. That's where we belong and we're going to make a record that reflects that.

BV: You played 'Behind The Mask' in London…
CP: Yeah, well, John and I are both active in animal rights and that song was sort of a tribute to friends of ours that are extremist, that we have a lot of respect for. Plus we had no reggae in the set. But the kids didn't seem to react that much to it. There was polite applause and our shows are anything but polite applause... so it got scrapped.

BV: What did you do while you were away from Goldfinger? You've done producing, right?
CP: Yes. Like I said before, parts of those four years were really dark for me. But when I came out of that I started producing. I'm producing a band called Brigands now. And another band called Grey Gardens. And they're amazing. Both bands are about to sign record deals. It's something I've always done. I've always co-produced Goldfinger things silently and I have a natural ability to scream to people younger than me and tell them what to do! Hahaha. That and I started acting a little bit, did a couple of movies and some TV shows, that sort of thing. It's fun. The thing about it is you work for two days and it pays your bills for a couple of months. And it's easy. I show up and I'm the tattooed thug, so it's not very difficult, know what I mean? And I got a lot more into my animal rights work.

BV: Are you just vegetarian (as opposed to vegan)?
CP: Yes. It's really, really difficult to be a healthy vegan. It's very expensive. And I don't have the means. If I did I would. But I've been vegan at various points in my life and I wither away to nothing. It's hard.

BV: Have long have you been vegetarian?
CP: Six years.

BV: How important would you say Goldfinger is to you now? Is it the main priority?
CP: I would say it's split evenly. Goldfinger's 50% and then the bands that I'm producing and other things in my life are the other 50%.

BV: And what do you think of Goldfinger's importance in the world?
CP I don't know and I don't give a shit…

BV: But do you want to take it up a notch?
CP: Of course. It's hard to gauge how significant the band is, especially between various countries. I know the band is very important to the kids that support us. The kids that come to our shows have stood by us for 12 years. It's funny, we've been around so long that there's a whole army of young bands now that have been influenced by us and have taken things from us the way we took from The Buzzcocks or Social Distortion. Not to put ourselves in that league at all but it's amazing when you play these festivals and these young bands you've never heard of are buzzing around you asking questions about your first or second record, what kind of guitar you used on this song. It's a good feeling and it's somewhat vindicating to know that people are paying attention and they're going and putting out good bands. Like Aiden, I'm really proud of the fact that we've influenced them. Maroon 5 even. They were a totally different band. We took them on tour years ago and I recently read an interview with them… it's very unlikely as we're so different musically, but they cited us as an influence, which I thought was strange. And a couple of death metal bands too.

BV: You can't always tell what people like though, can you?
CP: I know, I know, it's difficult. It's hard to gauge. So yeah, I want to make a record that's sort of a thank you to those bands and the kids that stand in the rain and wait for us to play. I want to make a record that justifies their pride in loving this band.

BV: So that means going back to the old sound? You wouldn't try anything new?
CP: This band already tried new things. 'Stomping Ground' was a heavier record. There was some heavy shit on that record. And then in my absence there was very, very flowery pop songs done. And so, I think as far as experimentation is concerned we've done that. And a lot of the time that's just self-indulgent bullshit anyway. A lot of bands go and put strings on a record because they can. I don't know if there's the same sincerity in it. Or you can be a band like AFI who have completely abandoned their original sound but it's sincere. What they're doing now, I happen to know they love it. It's really where their heart is at as a band. I've talked to Davey about it a few times. So you can't begrudge them that sort of thing.

BV: Different people are just different, aren't they? Some people will just like one sound or one type of music for their whole life while others get introduced to new music and end up changing over the years. It doesn't mean one is more sincere than the other.
CP: You're right. Sometimes change is organic. But like I've said, we've had those moments - of John only listening to 'The White Album' and wanting to reflect that influence, or me only listening to, it sounds ridiculous, but only listening to Slayer or Motorhead and wanting to reflect that influence. But we do what we do very well. Nobody in the band disagrees on a song like 'Miles Away'. That's just a pure, true Goldfinger sound. There's no need to fuck with it.

BV: The Goldfinger website now uses the old Goldfinger logo whereas on 'Disconnection Notice' there was a red circle with 'GF' inside. I guess that's another conscious decision to go back to how you were...
CP: That was my decision. I hate the new logo! Not so much the 'GF' one but the stencilled military looking thing. It reflects a period of the band that I wasn't in and it's not the true Goldfinger logo - and that's our trademark. You can see that fuckin' thing from a mile away and know it says Goldfinger. Same thing with the KISS logo, it never changes and there's a reason. And also letting kids know that daddy's home! Haha.

BV: Talking about trademarks, you spin around a lot when you play. I guess that's your trademark. How did you come up with that?
CP: I got it from Scott Ian. When we were first starting I was moshing around onstage the way he does. We played this one show where the stage was so fucking small… the other band wouldn't move their gear so we had no room… so instead of charging around in a circle I stayed put and started spinning.

BV: Have you ever gotten dizzy and fallen over or into something?
CP: The first show back when I rejoined the band in January… I hadn't done it in four years… It's not something you do in your every day life… I was like 'woahhh, fuck!' But it went away quickly. It's like your first cigarette after you haven't smoked for a while.

BV: What was Give It A Name like for you?
CP: Jesus Christ. It was my first time back in England in four years. That was the first show we played in England for me, and to have… I think there were 15,000 kids at one and 21,000 kids at the other… And they knew all the words to all the songs. It blew my fucking mind, really. I thought 'you boys have been busy in my absence!' It was great. It was un-fucking-believable. I don't care about the fact that we were playing with screamo bands or at a big venue, all the bands got along really well. There was definitely a spirit of goodwill in that room between all the musicians. And the kids as well. It seems like they were accepting of all styles. I went out to talk to people at the show with a couple of guys from Aiden - and we're nothing like Aiden - but the kids that we talked to were equally appreciative of both bands. And that's not something you get in the States. English kids definitely seem more open-minded than American kids, in that way.

BV: How was Manchester though - since the set got cut short?
CP: We heard all sorts of stories. We heard that some of the headliners were getting a little nervous. We heard that our crew had pissed off the Give It A Name production company, we heard that we had just run over time. So, whatever, it happens. As I said, we've gone through a lot of personal changes and there was a time when both Darrin and I would have flown over the monitor desk and beat the fuck out of the guy, because it's just who we were. But now I'm like 'I don't care why it happened'. It gives kids something more to talk about. They think we blew up the PA or whatever rumours come out of it, it's funny. Fuck it, shit happens.

BV: I heard you picked up a virus while on the tour.
CP: Yeah, it was going around the tour. Several people had it. I think the singer of Lostprophets had it, a couple of the tour managers had it, our sound guy Ronnie had it. It was just a 24 hour thing but it was fucking brutal. I got the bus driver to pull up on the side of the road and I vomited more than I thought my stomach could hold. It was amazing. I really wish I'd gotten it on video!

BV: So something like that really affects life on the road? What about your performance?
CP: Well, I was still sick at the London show. I was sleeping and they woke me up 20 minutes before we went on. I woke up, got dressed and literally walked onstage. And played that show. I felt like death, but there's something about getting onstage, looking at the other guys in your band, looking at all those people, you just go and do it.

And with that, Charlie went and did it, with John, Kelly and Darrin at Wolverhampton Wulfrun Hall. You can read a review of the show elsewhere in issue 49 of Black Velvet.

Visit www.myspace.com/goldfinger for more info.

To order issue 49 of Black Velvet with this interview in, go to www.blackvelvetmagazine.com/contents.htm

Don't Walk Away

(An Interview with John Feldmann - Taken From Black Velvet 40 - May 2004)

By Shari Black Velvet

GOLDFINGER are a band not only known for their catchy pop-punk music, but also for frontman John Feldmann's belief in animal rights. John is pretty much a living legend - devoting so much time to trying to stop animal cruelty, speaking up for those who can't speak for themselves. Since Black Velvet is very much into animal rights also, we just HAD to interview John when the band came over to the UK as support to Reel Big Fish. It was a pleasure to talk to someone who cares so much about animals, and whether you're vegan, vegetarian or still eat meat, hopefully this interview will give you a little more insight into the life of an inspiring animal rights activist who also happens to be an awesome musician (and record producer).

Black Velvet: How does supporting another band rather than headlining affect animal rights promotion?
John: Well we have the same sized booth. It's a catch 22 because we sign after our show before Reel Big Fish play so all the kids are still here, but when we do our own shows there's a curfew so we've only got 10 or 15 minutes to get the autographs gone before they close the doors, so I think we actually get to just as many people, because in this sense I think a lot of people are going to be watching Reel Big Fish so we're hitting maybe 400 kids and then when we're doing our own shows they're kicking the kids out so we get to about 400 kids. So I don't think it really makes a difference.

BV: So every single show you sign autographs and talk to kids?
J: Every single show we come out and talk about veganism. I have a video for 'Meet Your Meat' on DVD, which is this 15 minute documentary that Alec Baldwin narrated. And I wrote a song called 'Free Me' which shows slaughterhouse footage, it's an acoustic song that I'd written and that's on there as well. It's really powerful, by far the most important thing I've ever done in my life for sure. We hand out about 400 a night so every kid that maybe makes the connection and says 'hey, this pig has been brutally murdered, screaming to save its life, why would I choose to pay someone to do that but yet I treat my dog like my brother. And maybe someone else can make that connection and then every person that goes vegan saves 250 animals a year. So that's our goal. Our goal is to get as many people vegetarian as possible.

BV: Have you ever been on tour with another band who doesn't understand that or accept it?
J: Well most bands eat meat and most bands know. I think everybody knows. I've never had someone come up to me and just blatantly say "I've seen footage of a cow or a pig being killed for food and they deserved it". I've never had someone say that. People that choose to eat meat, they know. You know as a child that it's wrong. When you make that connection that this piece of meat was a living being at one point, you know that it's wrong to be eating it. Sure… in Texas I saw a bumper sticker saying 'If we weren't allowed to eat animals why are they made of meat?' and I saw another bumper sticker that said something to the effect of 'Humans are made of meat so why don't we eat each other?'. It's the same thing. We're made of all the same thing, it's flesh and bone. Whether it's a cow, pig or a human, it's the same thing. We choose not to each humans. Why? Because we can speak the same language? So to answer your question, I think that people generally know that eating meat, the whole factory farming industry is a horrible industry and they're supporting it by eating at McDonalds and wherever else they choose to, but they just don't want to make… they think it will be too much effort to have to find an alternative food source. And it'll be too much of a headache and I think that's more of the issue. That it's laziness. People are just lazy. Most people I talk to are just 'well I would be vegan or I would be vegetarian if the options were there. If there was a fastfood chain like McDonalds that was just as popular I'd eat there instead, that was just as cheap.' They say money. They always have these excuses but it's never about the animal suffering or the animal cruelty. Those are never issues. But it's always about what I think are really trivial things. But people realise that it's wrong.

BV: I guess they like the taste of it too.
J: Even that. I'm as educated as you can get as far as animal rights go, but I talk to people, I explain 'look, any kind of food that you eat now there's a soya substitute that's gonna taste exactly the same, so it can't be about the taste. It has to be more about convenience. That's the number one thing; convenience.

BV: A lot of people just don't educate themselves.
J: No, because they're lazy. They don't want to have to go to the effort of spending a couple of pennies more on some soya chicken rather than going to McDonalds and getting a chicken burger. And that's really the main obstacle that I have.

BV: Have you had many kids coming up to you this tour telling you they've become vegetarian?
J: At least 20 a show.

BV: What's the coolest thing someone's said this tour? Has anything really stuck out in your mind?
J: Yeah, there was a guy who had a colon disease where he had to have a colostomy bag. He couldn't even leave his house for three or four months, he was so sick, and since he's been vegan he's 100% recovered, lost 75lbs. He says it saved his life going vegan. It saved his life.

BV: A lot of fans are probably teenagers who still live at home with their parents and although you inspire them maybe they think 'my mom won't go out and buy special food for me' or maybe she won't cook them different food to the rest of the household. What do you have to say to them?
J: I say fuck your parents! They don't know what's right for you. I mean, I say that light-hearted because when I was a teenager that's all I ever said. 'Fuck Authority' period. And I don't really mean that. I'm sure there are some parents who are going to be more open-minded than others. But the bottom line is, at least when I was growing up, meat was one of the four basic food groups that they taught. I truly believe that humans are not supposed to eat meat. Humans were forced to eat meat around the ice age because there was nothing else to eat. That's the bottom line. Our intestinal tracks aren't built to digest meat like a cat or a lion; their intestinal track is maybe three or four feet long so they can get it through really quick whereas ours is almost a quarter mile long. Heart disease, colon cancer, all the meat orientated diseases are because the stuff can't be digested. So if the meat industry did not run the school system, the education system, didn't buy all the commercials on TV, didn't run all those things, parents would be like 'I wouldn't want to be feeding my kid this antibiotic cow based, pus-filled milk and meat. Why would you feed…? Obviously most parents would die for their kids. But why would you be feeding poison to them? And in the end that's what the whole meat and dairy industry is anyway. If parents are still like 'oh, well, you're not going to get enough protein' or all that bullshit, some parents are just ignorant like a lot of people I talk to that just don't want to do the research. They're like 'well, this is what I've known, my parents, grandparents have known this their whole life, so I'm just going to keep on doing it'. Then I say 'fuck your parents'. You get a choice. When I was a kid I didn't eat asparagus. I didn't eat Brussel sprouts. My parents still prepared it for me and I just ate whatever. I know it's harder when you're not living on your own. I know it's a tough thing. But the bottom line is, if you don't want to kill animals, and you don't want to be a part of killing yourself, there's got to be a point where you just say 'I can't do this. I'm sorry but I can't do this.' Worst case scenario, when you move out THEN you become a vegetarian.

BV: On your US tour last year you coincided KFC protests with each show. Before every show, you protested outside the town KFC store. Did you get a lot of kids joining you?
J: The biggest one we had maybe about 40 kids showed up. Tomorrow we're doing one in London so we'll see if there are any more.

BV: Did the protests accomplish much?
J: Well we haven't achieved our goal yet so we're going to protest until we do. And they will. They will absolutely give us what we want. Eventually.

BV: When was your first ever protest?
J: Nieman Marcus in Los Angeles, a fur protest. Protesting a fur salon, educating people where fur comes from.

BV: How did you feel doing it? What were your feelings before and after?
J: I was scared. I was scared about getting arrested. I was scared about getting hassled by the public and people making fun of me or heckling me. But then while I was doing it I felt like I was with my people. For the most part, the world is not set up for vegetarians. For the most part I feel like an alien. I'm against the grain most of the time, and when I'm at a protest I'm with people who are like-minded and heading towards the same goal. So it feels great. And then afterwards I feel 'this is what I want to do with my life'. This is the most important thing I can do; speak for the helpless animals that can't speak for themselves.

BV: How many would you say you've done altogether?
J: Protests? I don't know… 100.

BV: I was going to ask about being scared of being arrested. That's one of the things that probably stops a lot of people from doing protests. How do you know what you can and can't do to stop yourself being arrested and what would you say to people who are scared?
J: Well, I know the law pretty well, so I know I can't enter the property in America. That would be trespassing. I know I can't break any windows. I can't hit a cop! It's really pretty simple stuff. I can stand in the street and hold a sign and I can talk, I can talk with a loudspeaker. And if a police officer says you can't do this, you can't do it. Everyone at protests know 'this is what's going to happen, this is what we're going to do, this is the plan'. I've never ran into any animal activists that have ever said 'I'm going to risk everyone here's freedom just because I want to break a window'. That's never happened. It just doesn't happen. Protesting is a legal thing that you can do in a democratic society. That's what our right is - freedom of speech to say 'this is wrong'. Speak up against it. My first protest I didn't know, but I've never had any fear of being arrested ever - because I just know what I'm doing.

BV: Most marches are loud with activists chanting, horns being blown or loudspeakers being used. Don't you think that might put some of the public off? Some people will hear the loud noise and automatically switch off and won't pay attention to the message you're trying to get across. Old people especially might just think you're a rowdy bunch of yobs.
J: Yeah. I don't know how much footage you've seen of how they do experiments on monkeys and mice, guinea pigs and rabbits. I've seen a tremendous amount of it and the truth is it's horrible. And people get really angry that this is going on - and that's the reason that people get loud. It's because they're angry that this happens… this legally happens. How do you voice the suffering and the torture of these animals for no reason. For toothpaste… for sweeteners… for cosmetics? How do you say 'this is just wrong', it's for money, it's completely wrong? How do you say it by saying 'excuse me, oh you don't want to hear, ok'. Unless you say 'listen, this is what I have to say. Listen' and people will say 'ok, what are these people here for?' and sure they may be a little scary or they may be a little threatening, but at least they'll say 'what's the deal?' And yeah, you're probably right, a few older people may say 'oh, they're disrupting the peace and fuck those people' but people may understand that these people are passionate about this issue and then they may open their ears to listen to what's going on, why are they here. But yeah, I understand. There is no perfect way. We can't just take an ad out on television and pay a million quid to run an ad on a footie game or something and say 'ok, now everyone will see it in such a peaceful, nice, sit-down way with the family'. It just doesn't happen. There's not that kind of money and the government won't allow it. So you have to do these kind of things to get people's attention. If I'm sitting in this room with all my knowledge and I don't talk to anyone about it, that's not helping the animal at all. The animal is still suffering and still dying.

BV: Do you think it's ok for people who still eat meat to protest about other forms of animal cruelty?
J: Yes. I started with just pigs. I was doing activism while still eating chicken. And I think I helped people open their eyes to animal cruelty by still not being 100% vegan. And even though I am 100% vegan now I still think that you can help animals no matter where you are on the chain of on your way to veganism.

BV: What do you think about how so many people still believe that you still need animal testing to come up with cures for diseases etc?
J: That's just what they've been taught their whole life. Obviously all these companies are government run and that's what the government want people to believe. So that's how they educate people in schools. That's just it. It's all money.

BV: I guess you know about humane testing. Do you think doctors/scientists could find cures testing humanely?
J: It's just an added ingredient. You're trying to get this drug to the public. They add the animal thing just for a piece of paper. It's just an added element. They still have to do all the other tests anyway. They're just adding that. It's an unnecessary addition to getting from A to B. It's all it is, testing on animals. It does nothing. Because once it gets here, all the animal tests, it's completely negated when it comes to legalities. If a human sues because they get sick of this drug, they can't use the animal testing as anything. It doesn't matter. Mice have a different biological system as a human does. So do guinea pigs, so do dogs and cats. So in the end, they can't even use that to say. Any doctor will tell you 'just because this was tested on a cow, it means nothing'. All the humans that got sick off all those drugs the last few years, all those psychotropic drugs, the Xanax types that got sick because they got tested on animals but not tested on humans, the humans got sick and a bunch of people died because we have different biological systems. In the end… I don't know how much you know about the cancer research they did for cigarette smoking… in the 50s they did tons of research that killed about 300 million dogs. They locked dogs in these lung chambers and they filled them with cigarette smoke for their whole life. After 5 or 6 years, if they didn't get lung cancer, they'd kill the dog. They'd do it over and over until about 300 to 400 million dogs had been killed. The tobacco industry says 'look, no dogs got lung cancer. Cigarettes do not cause lung cancer'. So you're wrong. It turns out that dogs just don't have that gene in their body that gets lung cancer - but humans do. So, not only were 400 million dogs killed for these tests, but humans are still dying of lung cancer. Because it doesn't make sense. It's just like the whole AIDS things. So many AIDS patients are dying to have these drugs tested on them, 'we want our lives saved, we want to be tested, we want you to test these drugs on us'. They won't let them because they say it's inhumane to test on a human so they test on animals. So they'll cure monkeys of AIDS but it won't work on humans. It's completely ridiculous. So they're killing all these monkey, killing all these animals, trying to cure AIDS but they're not being cured but yet there's humans who want to be tested on. It just doesn't make sense, y'know.

BV: When do you think we'll get through to them?
J: The only way it ever gets through is when a lot of humans die. Like Mad Cow Disease or Foot & Mouth Disease. Something like that comes along and a lot of people wake up and say 'what am I eating?' and all of a sudden all that new evidence about Alzheimer's Disease... Alzheimer's Disease is Mad Cow Disease in its furthest element. That's what they've now discovered. People are so ignorant, it's the only thing that's gonna work.

BV: Getting back to your new music. Have you written many new songs related to animal rights for the next album?
J: There's three or four on the new record. There's a song called 'Iron Fist' kind of about the police state that I've seen a bit first hand in the US. And there's a song called 'F.B.I.' about the F.B.I. raid on my house that happened a few months ago. A song called 'Walk Away' about how I could never walk away from any animal suffering that I see.

BV: You've produced albums for bands such as Good Charlotte, The Used, Mest, Story Of The Year… Was it you who got them into animal rights or were any of them into that before you met them?
J: Yes. They had no idea before I met them. Quinn from The Used is vegetarian. And Bert's actually done a couple of protests with me, from The Used. Both Benji and Joel are now vegan and I'm sure they'll be doing stuff for PETA. Adam, the bass player of Story Of The Year, is vegan. He does a lot of protests. He did a lot of protests with me. Billy of Good Charlotte's actually vegetarian as well. He's done protests with me. Jeremiah from Mest is vegan and he's done tons of protests and signings with me as well.

BV: You collaborated with members of Good Charlotte and Mest for 'The Innocent', a song you wrote after September 11th. Have you thought about collaborating for an animal rights song and trying to get it released?
J: Yeah, that would be great. But with Good Charlotte for example you can only really go… they're really a wanted band, so it's hard to say 'look, I've got this, this, this and this'. They're doing the benefit show with me. And it's like, ok, that's awesome. So I'm going to maybe wait a couple of months and then maybe address something like that. For me, it's like my whole life but a lot of people think that being vegan is enough. Or being vegetarian is enough. And it is enough for some people and that's fine, and I'm not taking that away from them but for me, it's not.

BV: One final question. Goldfinger just released a live DVD as part of the 'The Show Must Go Off!' series. It was directed by Joe Escalante of The Vandals, who is well known for being into bullfighting. On their website they have a link to bullfighting on their main page. Did you know that?
J: I didn't know that he was into bullfighting. I've never been to their website and that sucks and that's completely ridiculous. I had no idea. But we got 'Free Me' on the video. It shows crazy slaughterhouse footage and links to PETA2 and PETA on the DVD. It's kinda like 'how do you draw the line?' How vegan do you get without having to leave your cubicle? You can't get in a car because they use glue in tyres. Right? So you can't get on a bus or even on a bicycle. Where do you draw the line? I know that I am vegan enough, for sure. And what I do is enough for the animals. For me to not release this DVD. Even if I took it a step further and said, well, the 2nd A.D. on one of the cameras eats chicken so I won't release this DVD. Do you know what I mean? How many people would I not be able to reach if I had that attitude. It doesn't make sense to have that attitude. Where do you draw the line? He believes in bullfighting so I'm going to boycott him completely so the 20,000 people that would own this would never see 'Free Me' ever? In the end he's still going to have the bullfighting thing on his website no matter what I do.

BV: You don't think you could change his mind like how you inspired Good Charlotte?
J: I don't know. I don't really know him well enough. I've never really worked with him… and I'm sure next time I see him I'll mention something to him.

Visit Goldfinger's official website at www.goldfingermusic.com and head to www.peta2.com and www.peta.com if you'd like to find out more about animal rights.

Some other cool animal rights related sites include: www.buav.org,www.drhadwentrust.org.uk, www.viva.org.uk, www.respectforanimals.org,www.uncaged.co.uk and www.animalaid.org.uk