BW&BK; scribe Carl Begai recently caught up with STUCK MOJO guitarist/founder Rich Ward to discuss the band's new album, Southern Born Killers. The following is an excerpt from the in-depth interview, with Ward discussing the perceived and ultimately misinterpreted anti-Middle East stance of the record:

"My goal isn’t to wave a flag in the air and go ‘I’m American! Fuck you sons of bitches!’" Ward states. "Dude, that’s stupid. It’s not that at all. To say the world’s problems are America’s fault is the same as falling into the cliché of saying the French are cowards. That’s just bad. It disregards all of the great contributions and things France has done over the years, and it’s disrespectful to all the great things that America does. Has France made mistakes? Yes. Has America made mistakes? Yes. We could probably bring up 20 different things right now that America is completely fucking up at this very moment, but that doesn’t define us.” “When we wrote ‘Crooked Figurehead’ we were thinking ‘Fucking Clinton, man, he’s got it all wrong.’ Then Bush came in and we had hope. ‘Nope. Bush has got it all wrong.’ Somebody else is going to come in and we have hope. Nope, they get it all wrong. Eventually you figure out that your leaders don’t define you. It’s the working class, the people that get up every day, pack their kids’ lunches and send them off to school and then go to work, that want to do right by their family and their neighbours. That’s the common thread that I say is great about all societies.”
“I have a good friend in Germany and he tells me that you can’t say you’re proud to be German because people will think you’re a Nazi. That’s a sad reflection because Germany is a great country and I love the culture. I’m fascinated by it because the German people are very mindful and reflective, they’re not knee-jerk on things. For people on the outside to bring up Hitler every time someone says they’re German is just as preposterous as saying the United States is trying to pillage the world for oil. It’s small-minded and it shows a complete lack of thought.”

In spite of the flak he's been getting, Ward is proud of the statement Southern Born Killers makes.

“I knew it was a risk because people will say ‘Oh, the band is just a bunch of flag wavers, how boring is that…’” The funny thing is that through the band I’ve been fortunate to make a lot of good friends all around the world, and every time one of those friends stays with me when they visit the States I’ll take them out, and they’re amazed by how friendly people are and how their perception of mainstream Americans being racist, stupid and not knowing anything about anything is so off the mark. Patriotism is part of our culture and a lot of other cultures don’t necessarily understand that. And it’s not blind patriotism, it’s more like Christmas. Not everyone in America is Christian but it’s part of our culture, it’s how we were raised. Our parents say ‘We’re going to put up a Chrstmas tree,’ but we don’t go to church. It doesn’t matter. It’s Christmas, dammit (laughs). There are certain traditions as Americans that we follow."

“We put flags outside out houses because we’re saying ‘This is our home, this is our country.’ It’s symbolism of pride and integrity, it doesn’t mean that we as American all join hands, sing ‘Kumbaya’ and say we love George Bush, Clinton or Nixon. One thing I love about Devin Townsend is that he’s got a tattoo on his leg that says ‘Canada’. He’s from Canada, it’s his home, for God’s sake he should love it. Does Canada have flaws? Yes. Does the United States have flaws? Yes. In fact, we may have as many flaws as Somalia. Patriotism has nothing to do with the politicians, but that’s what people get so caught up with. They think your leaders, for good or bad, define you as a nation, and they don’t."

According to Ward, the songs 'I'm American' and 'Open Season' in particular have raised the ire of people who don't look beyond the Stars and Stripes.

“We’re having a real tough time with people calling up our record company (Napalm Records) and saying ‘I can’t believe you signed those guys; they’re racists, they’re fascists,'" Ward reveals. "Get a dictionary and look up those words and tell me how I’m a fascist or a racist. They say ‘Open Season’ is about Islam. No, it isn’t. ‘Open Season’ is a song about a political radical movement that has separated itself and declared war on the world and the moderates of its religion. They're saying ‘You’re not Muslim enough, we’re going to kill you too.’ These people calling the label think the guys in Stuck Mojo all go to the same church, have cross burnings and burn effigies of Muslim clerics or something. None of us have any issues against any religion. We’re not practicing Catholics or practicing Protestants, we’re just regular people. Ask 99% of the people on this planet if they think it’s right to strap on a belt pack of explosives, walk into a marketplace and kill innocent people, they’d say they think it’s wrong. Then you agree with ‘Open Season’. The religion part of it is irrelevant.”
“At some point you have to follow the logical conclusions that as free societies, as people with free will, we have to be held accountable for our actions and not our thoughts. It’s important for people to understand that as the thought process behind this album so they don’t have a knee-jerk reaction looking at us thinking we’re stupid or short-sighted or racist or redneck or whatever conclusions they may draw. I could sit down with any of the people that say those things and we’d probably agree on 99% of the things you and I just talked about. That’s the sad thing when you’ve got three verses and a chorus but don’t take the time to think about it. It’s easy to take things out of that and see them through your own prism, making assumptions that are completely wide of the reality.”

Watch for the rest of the interview in BW&BK; #110.

Go to this location to check out audio samples from Southern Born Killers. Watch the videos for 'I'm American' and 'Open Season' below:

'I'm American'

'Open Season'