The Eagles of Death Metal, a rock ‘n’ roll band, are creating lots of buzz around the country for its hip-shaking, capes and moustaches, and aren’t afraid to let it all hang out. That’s what Artsweek discovered when they called up lead singer and mustachioed man Jesse Hughes. After thoroughly apologizing for running out of batteries on his cell phone and giving Artsweek the run-around (offering bottles of preferred alcohol, copies of CDs, and promises of being carried to his show over a bed of rose petals, as a token of his affection), he got down to business, if you can call it that. Hughes views EODM as the epitome of a good time: good music, good dancing, good looking people. In fact, Hughes seeks to single-bandedly resurrect the overt sexuality and sweet talking charms of the 1970s, all for the sake of the ladies. Fortunately, this energetic and exotically cunning masterpiece of drums (Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme), guitar (Hughes) and bass (Nick Oliveri) will be coming to Velvet Jones (423 State St.) on Saturday, Oct. 22 for a sweaty dance-a-thon you won’t want to miss.

Artsweek: Where did the idea for the Eagles of Death Metal come from?
Jesse Hughes: Well the idea for the Eagles of Death Metal probably originated with Little Richard, who invented rock ‘n’ roll and brought the first death metal, which was wearing pink and scaring the shit out of America so they hid their women and children and even the men. You know what I mean? And so what happened was, the great gods of rock came to me one day and gave me this amazing moustache, and when that happened – well it’s not actually a moustache, it’s like a soft boomerang of love – to really just get it straight, but then I donned the cape and I became the avenger of rock ‘n’ roll. I’ve been sent the greatest musicians in the world to become Eagles of Death Metal together.

How is rock ‘n’ roll treating you so far?
Rock ‘n’ roll’s treating me like a little girl. I’m just kidding. It’s treating me hard right now. I love it. Every night there are beautiful little bunny rabbits hopping all over the stage. Every show has been sold out to capacity with lines around the corner, literally. Oh, my god, selling them out with people waiting. Every flick of my ass makes girls faint on stage. It’s been amazing. I walked into Golden Gate Park and fuckin’ sent sexy glances left and right and decimated the squirrel population by accident. Death by sexy, darling, that’s a horrible thing.

How will you bring “death by sexy” to Santa Barbara?
Well darling, first of all you need to be at that show. Because I can just tell right now that you have to be totally hot. Darling, thank you for being hot. But, we are going to be bringing “death by sexy” in many ways. The most amazing moustache, we’ve got Darling Dave and the pen-ultimate Joey Castillo on the thumps. So what’s going to happen, it’s going to be like a Polish sex manual…in, out, in, out drum rhythm with simplistic guitars. It’s kind of a hoodoo-voodoo.

Where are you from?
Well darling, I’m from Greenville, South Carolina, but the fates had me come to the small deserts of California where things began to take form.

Are the small deserts of California conducive to rock ‘n’ roll with moustaches?
Oh, absolutely, because it’s hot – you can’t grow a beard. It’s got copious amounts of methamphetamines, and you get to ride the lightening all the time and there are hot bunnies running around in barely anything. It’s so hot out there. I learned to handle heat. But now I just pack heat, if you know what I mean.

What was your inspiration for the moustache?
Well, first of all I noticed that rock ‘n’ roll seems to have forgotten about the ladies. And if you remember the late ’70s, early ’80s, we remembered the ladies. Tom Selleck, he brought the moustache honey.

I have a quiz for you, Rate the moustache of the following people:
Rollie Fingers:
Actually I think the best baseball moustache was Goose Gossage, but I give him a +9

The biker from the Village People:
The biker from the Village People, get ready for this, his real name is Glenn Hughes, and my name is Jesse Hughes. He’s my cousin.

No he’s not!
You’re right, he’s not, but we have the same last name. He’s actually not gay. There were two straight members; it was put together like Milli Vanilli. Giorgio Meroder just wanted to put the gay archetypes together and make them sing. It just goes to show that even if you are shaking ass like a honeybaby, it doesn’t mean you can’t love the honeybabies all night long.

Burt Reynolds:
I don’t drink Coors, but I still love Burt Reynolds because, let’s face it, “Gator” was one of the all-time greatest sex-machine movies. And Burt loves ladies. He likes the fuzzy little boomerangs for little babygirls.
I didn’t even know how it happened; the moustache just came to me in a very “Lord of the Rings,” ‘precious’ sort of sense. And I didn’t have to steal it from Gollum. It’s a big joke on the moustache these days and people ain’t even got it right, honey.

Tony Orlando:
I like Tony Orlando’s moustache because it’s very Latin. It’s sexy and all lady-like. It’s a moustache for the ladies, but honey, I am a moustache for the ladies.

What is your favorite moustache of all time?
Well, the greatest moustache of all time clearly is my own. But my favorite moustache is [singer, songwriter] Kim Fowley.

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