By RUSS BENGTSON
Big Shout Magazine, June 1995

Popa (pronounced Poppa) Chubby looks a little like a Hare Krishna who decided to say the hell with it and traded in his flowers and stupid orange robes for a hog and a leather jacket to become a Hell’s Angel.

Whatever he may be, Popa Chubby is one big blues man. There’s no “Caught in the Crossfire” bullshit here (here being Booty and the Beast, his OKeh Records debut), and blues or not, Popa don’t seem to be cryin’ much. He dedicates the album to “those who play loud and refuse to turn down.” Good deal. Lyrics seem to wander toward, to be blunt, chicks and booze — one of the songs is called “Sweet Goddess of Love and Beer.” Does that about cover it?

Along with label mates G Love & Special Sauce, Popa is haulin’ the blues into the garage for an overhaul. It’s about time. We found Popa at the Epic offices, not far away from his Queens home. We had a little chat with his Chubbiness before he hit the Bottle & Cork in Dewey Beach for an appearance on June 30.

Big Shout: How did you end up in blues in the first place?

Popa Chubby: Well, you know, I’m not a blues artist, quote unquote. But you know, how I ended up gettin’ into the blues was like — I’m in my early 30s, so like a lot of people my age, I grew up with Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones and bands like that who were basically playin’ the blues when you get right down to it. So that turned me on to it, and then it was kinda like gettin’ deeper into the music and figuring that a lot of American music has to do with the blues. What really attracted me to it was the honesty of it — and the fact that you get to play a lot of guitar solos (laughter).

BS: How did you hook up with your producer Tom Dowd (who has produced Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles and Wilson Pickett, among others)?

PC: At the time I was kinda being courted by a bunch of different labels, and Michael Kaplan, the president of OKeh came up to me and said I’d like to sign you and I can get you Tom Dowd to produce your record, and I want you to do exactly what you do, so I said, “Great, let’s do it.” It was that easy.

BS: Have you gotten to play with anyone you’ve really wanted to play with on tour?

PC: I got to play golf with Alice Cooper, that was a lot of fun…

BS: Hey, where was that?

PC: Nah, I’m only kiddin’

BS: You should, though.

PC: I know, I want to, man, that’s what I really want to do… you know, musically I’m just really into playin’ with my band because we get into certain vibes and certain things… basically it just comes down to the band and gettin’ the music to happen and gettin’ some vibe goin’.

BS: What about the cover songs? How do you decide what to do?

PC: Well, the covers on that record, I did three covers — one is a John Mayall tune, which is a song I played in clubs for a long time that I thought would be nice to cover. The other two are Freddie King tunes, and they’re like, important to me spiritually. I get really in tune with life through that music and through those songs, so I figured it would be good to play ’em. And we did. And I’m happy about it. I thought we did ’em justice.

BS: How would you define the blues? Is there a good definition of it?

PC: Damn, you’re asking me some hard questions. The blues is a $60 parking ticket on a $50 gig. The blues is just about playing what you feel at the moment, and it doesn’t matter what the musical form is. It doesn’t have to be 12-bar blues as long as you play what you feel, which means you never play the same thing twice exactly the same way ’cause you never feel the same thing twice. That’s what it is to me.

BS: Are you ready to be famous?

PC: Oh yeah — I already am, man. What are you talkin’ about? You know who I am…

BS: I know, I know…

PC: Yeah, I’m gonna get me a golf course. I’m really into golf these days… I’m only kiddin’.

BS: You gonna start doin’ that though? You gotta pick that up…

PC: I’ll never play golf, man. Golf is for stupid white people from the suburbs. Don’t quote me on that. Actually, I love golf. I play golf all the time. Golf is my life. I live for golf… and badminton… and croquet.

BS: Oh, croquet, definitely.

PC: Croquet is happenin’, man. What I like to do is like roll up a big fatty and like, smoke it up, go out and drink 15 or 20 margaritas, and then go out on the croquet course… the croquet… whatever they call the croquet thing, and just like, knock around a couple balls with a couple babes. (Laughter).