The Great, The Amazing...DAN STUART!!

Dan Stuart, with his bodyguard, in Mexico

SLIT: How did you learn to play guitar? Do you have a favorite guitar? Do you play any other instruments?

DS: I've never really learned... it's just notes and shit as Jim Dickinson used to say. My favorite guitar was one that Rainer found for me when he worked at Guitar Workshop on Speedway way back when. It was a Gretsch Duo Jet... gold sparkle. It got decapitated one night by the late Will Glenn's keyboard stack, a most proggy type of tragedy that I never really recovered from.

SLIT: How did you get started with Tucson's music scene?

DS: I was a lifeguard one summer at Menlo Park Pool and because I also taught Tae Kwon Do for Parks and Rec I got a gig doing the door at Pearls Hurricane Club. If a fight broke out I'm sure I would have quit on the spot. I imagine either The Pedestrians or The Suspects were playing...

SLIT: In your opinion, has the best music already been written? What developments in the world of music interest you these days?

DS: Who wrote what exactly? That's always confused me. I like all the animal bands, you know grizzly this and horses that and deer tick and hoof disease etc. etc. I can even tell 'em apart, especially if they're from Canada. I love Avi Buffalo... just so sweet and pure. The kids are fine but just who is filtering the noise? First rate mediocrity is everywhere.

SLIT: Do you have favorite albums? Books? Movies? Places?

DS: Yes.

SLIT:  What are some milestones in your musical/creative life?

DS: I guess when I learned to "trust the process"... also when I finally figured out what the other players were talking about when they referred to the "one, four and five". Both epiphanies came in Memphis of all places, I have no idea what I was so scared of. The blues?

SLIT: What inspires you?

DS: An open window...

SLIT:  How did Green On Red start? Can you describe its history in a nutshell? What were some highpoints for the band?

DS: "It started in a hot dusty two bit shack, 928 Tenth Street right by the railroad track..." 
Highs and lows? I don't know, it was never a "career"... more like a way of life. Entirely too much fun.

SLIT:  How would you describe GOR's sound? Did you feel that you were part of a certain scene/genre, or had you carved out a unique niche for yourself?

DS: I think we led a charmed existence but please don't blame "Americana" on us... what a ghetto.

SLIT: What are you doing with music these days? How is it different from GOR?

DS: I bought a capo today to put on a twenty dollar beater I found down here in Oaxaca. I wanted one of the capos that the "son" players use, they look like bridle bits. I guess in GOR I might have bought five different capos and then given them all away.

SLIT: What's "The Slummers"? How did it start? Who's in the band? Do you play gigs? Any other info you'd care to share would be great...

DS: The Slummers are a club of amateurs where no one is allowed to pick up a bass unless they have to. It's basically me and my old pal JD Foster along with a couple of divine Italians (Antonio Gramentieri and Diego Sapignoli) and the young and brilliant Adrian Olsen. Jack Waterson is in the middle of producing our second record called "Love Will Kill You". I always try to be the least talented person in any creative endeavor... like Blanche DuBois I depend on the kindness of strangers.