Steel Panther guitarist Satchel recently spoke with Australia's Heavy about the band's new acoustic album and accompanying DVD, Live From Lexxi’s Mom’s Garage, and the widespread belief they're a parody band. Following is an excerpt from the interview.

Although loved the world over for their quirky sense of humor and entertaining music, Steel Panther have also had their fair share of criticism from some sections of the media who have labeled them a novelty or parody band, to which Satchel replies with equal disdain.

“I hate it when anybody tries to put a band in a category because categories are just fucken for people who work at record stores and fuckin’ write for Rolling Stone magazine. All that shit is bullshit. Like, what kind of heavy metal are you? What kind of music do you play? What kind of radio stations are you gonna get put on? Well, first of all, we don’t get played on ANY fuckin’ radio station and second of all I think it’s really funny when people try to put us in a parody band box because our lyrics may or may not be amusing. I mean, listen to, 'Ten Seconds To Love' by Mötley Crüe! I mean, those lyrics are fuckin’ ridiculous but it’s a Mötley Crüe record and they’re a serious band.

“I listen to that shit and go, that’s funny shit, those guys are fuckin’ comedians. Mick Mars, he’s a funny guy. You know what I mean? I’m supposed to think that’s not funny? Fuck, I mean, we might have some funny shit too but what it all comes down to at the end of the day is it doesn’t matter what you categorize something as; whether you say it’s heavy metal or comedy or fuckin’ jazz improv comedy. I don’t know what people wanna call it. All I know is I like to write bitchin’ songs.

“All of our shit has hooks. It’s fun to sing our songs. Unlike a lot of other bands, I don’t feel like there’s a limit to where I can go lyrically because I don’t care and I can write about anything that I want. Most bands have to write songs and go ‘ooh, I can’t say that because that won’t be able to get on radio’. Well twenty years ago I said fuck the radio and it was one of the most freeing experiences I have ever had as a songwriter. It was like, I don’t give a fuck about the radio any more. I can write about any fuckin’ subject I want and sure, some of it’s funny and that’s great but I don’t give a fuck if people call us a parody band. All you’ve gotta do is listen to our songs. The people that hate us the most usually haven’t even fuckin’ listened to our records.”

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On March 4th, Steel Panther performed at the Knitting Factory in Spokane, Washington. During their set the band was joined by Alter Bridge / Slash vocalist Myles Kennedy for a cover of the AC/DC classic "Highway To Hell". Check out the fan-filmed video below.