After undergoing double bypass surgery two years ago, the band's frontman talks about his band's chaotic reputation, making it up to his fans, and his dream sandwich.
You and I have something very serious in common - we've both had open heart surgery in the last few years. I'm fine, but it changed me, so I was curious to know if it changed you too.
Oh, on more than one level. The issue isn't me dying; it's having to address mortality. It's constantly on my mind now. I'm 58, I'm thin as a twig, I grew up on the coast eating fish, I was a vegetarian for 12 years. I did, however, drink - mostly hard alcohol - and I have smoked [Anton periodically drags on a cigarette throughout our hour-long conversation]. I thought I was like a teenager. But my life expectancy, because I smoked, is probably less than five years now.
Do you pay more attention to your health? And how do you take care of your heart?
Well, yes and no. There's 20 pills a day, almost, that I have to take, between heart medication and the ones for being manic - when that happens it's a bit intense for other people. I've got a 13-year-old son; I have to be responsible. I could take better care of myself. I did quit smoking, and then I picked it up on a warm day. I need to stop again.
You’ve lived in Berlin for a long time now. Are you happy to be away from the chaos in the US?
It’s just so disappointing. And I’m kind of conservative by nature, but the concept of wanting everybody to have a fair deal—I mean, that’s almost like insane liberalism now! All the checks and balances have failed. They’ve filled up the supreme court, they’ve said this president can’t be prosecuted for anything forever, and he’s pulling his cabinet members off of Fox TV. It’s all so bananas.
This is going to sound kind of loaded to you, but when we do 10 Chaotic Questions we ask every musician this question: what’s the most chaotic thing that’s ever happened to you on stage?
One time Joel [Gion] threw a cymbal up in the air and it hit somebody in the head. I don’t let people do that kind of stuff. I tackled one of our guitar players because he was swinging a mic stand around and about to throw it into the audience, and I knocked him off his feet. I get blamed for a lot of this stuff.
I really don’t want to bring this up but the last time we were [in Australia] somebody threw a glass at me and missed me. My former guitar player got pissed and threw one back into the audience, and I told him he had to leave, and then he attacked me. I’m too old for this shit. It’s not what we’re about. I want to provide people with a good concert. I’ve got better, more professional people this time.
Do you have any hard or mixed feelings about coming back after that?
No, I just feel like I have to work very hard to redeem myself, not for my ego, but I just owe it to the people. We have a lot of fans in Australia. It’s not cheap to go to our concerts and I just feel like we’re better than that. Sometimes you have to fight to gain people’s respect back. I owe it to everybody and I owe it to myself to play a good concert.
Is there an element of your audience that is there for the chaos more than the music, and are willing to cause chaos themselves if they don’t get it?
Absolutely, and those people get labelled as our fans. Those people are not our fans. Every time, there’s somebody who will show up and go, “Watch me trigger this guy.” It could be words, yelling, non-stop spitting on my other guitar player – you know, just doing something really horrible. What I want is for people to have a good time because the tickets are expensive. Schooners are expensive!
Did the Dig! documentary do you a disservice in this way?
Absolutely. It was BS, you know. It was like, “Oh, look at Anton fighting!” when there’s no evidence of me fighting. Somebody else is causing something, and then they have a picture of me throwing the drums out the back of the van. It was just all edited out of whack.
That reminds me of Spinal Tap complaining about Marty Di Bergi editing out all the times they found their way to the stage correctly. What do you do when you can’t get to sleep?
This happens all the time. I used to just go with it - if you can't go to sleep, get up and be productive. I think that's good advice, always. When I was young, I read the Bible five times through, just to be able to argue with my family who are serious Christians. I wanted to be able to say, do you even know what you're talking about?
If you were to have a sandwich named after you, what would be in it?
It would be tuna fish with mayo, white onion, some of those Cornish pickles - you know those little tiny table pickles? With pepper, and some pine nuts, and then a little baby spinach, and some kind of cheese, either an aged cheddar or parmesan.
What's a song that you want played at your funeral?
Waltzing Matilda. Do you think anybody will get that? I'm taking the piss ... I could have picked a Tism song, but we'll leave it at that.