To be fair, the late Big Brother should probably have all ten. In simpler times, interviewing sponsored skaters meant you’d hear the real voices of some of the most incredible and downright raw people on the face of our planet. People wonder why interviews are so simple these days. The answer is simple: money. No one wants to shake the boar when they pencil in six figures every tax season. Either way, in an ode to true skate journalism balled up against the wall, here are ten of the rawest interviews skateboarders have given us in the last 30 years.
TONY ALVA SKATEBOARDS 1978
Tony had just won Skateboarder’s Skater Of The Year ’77 award when he was scored for an unprecedented second interview in the magazine. This time, Tony did his best. His musings on sleeping with groupies, smoking marijuana and his party lifestyle were so raw for the first time that they earned one of the first disclaimers from the magazine’s editors.
COREY DUFFEL BIG BROTHER 2001
Poor Corey was only sixteen when Chris Nieratko pulled the infamous atomic bomb out of him on a date. While the “garbage” Stevie Williams reference cost Corey many of his patrons initially, most attributed it to Corey being young and ignorant to the fact that Big Brother would in fact publish every recorded word. With the well under the bridge, Corey and Stevie are now partners in crime at Venture and CCS, where Stevie helped bring Corey into the team.
ADAM MCNATT 1997 TRANSWORLD SKATEBOARD
This single interview became the collection of poser kid pages on how to go all-in during their Pro Spotlight. McNatt, a great start and innovator that Powell Peralta, 101, and later Evol and Osiris, essentially said unbelievable things about every nook, cranny, and secret the skateboarding industry had dragged in during his career. Some might argue that this single interview changed the hello curse within the industry for the better.
FABIAN ALOMAR BIG BROTHER 1997
Sometimes an interview can be raw because of what is said within its questions and answers. Other times, skateboard journalism is just raw based on who you’re putting on the pages. The opening photo of Fabian Alomar doing an ollie surrounded by members of his gang-affiliated East Los Angeles family is scary enough to earn a spot on this list all by itself. His depictions of a life surrounded by the gang lifestyle and anecdotes involving guns, beatings, mushrooms, and time in prison make him an absolute hit.
ALEX OLSON 2007 TRANSWORLD SKATEBOARD
These days, as I tried to explain in the introduction, it’s getting harder and harder to get real words out of real skateboarders in a real magazine. Spanky didn’t have those problems with Olson. Sheltered by his close friendship with this topic, I’m still in awe that Spanky managed to get Alex to fearlessly cough up straight-from-the-heart gems like, “Who’s got a nasty picture? Terry {Kennedy} is kind of mean. I’m all over it.” that ice cream thing.” Dammit.
DUANE PETERS SKATEBOARDS 2003
I’m just going to make a quote. “I was shooting up, living in a ditch, and these three Mexicans rushed me. They stabbed me seven times in the knee and three times in the back. I was hitting these f-kers with my board and the funniest thing was I was so rushed by the coke that couldn’t get out of this four foot ditch. I finally got these guys off my back and was running down the street covered in blood when the police arrived.
ANDY ROY BIG BROTHER 1996 AND 1998
This award goes to his two Big Brother interviews. It’s scary enough reading Andy’s stories about being nicknamed “snuggle-butt” while serving time, however, when Roy told Dave Carnie that he wanted to get “AIDS” to spread it to as many people as possible, it’s possible than simply sitting on one of the starkest statements ever printed in any magazine.
CROSSWORLD GATOR 1988 SKATEBOARD
This issue is pretty much my first skate mag and it was pretty much the first interview I ever read, but when Gator chimed in on his introduction with “First of all, I’m gay, I cry in my arms.” I clearly remember the feelings of utter confusion I felt and immediately wondered if this was the normal kind of thing professional skaters talked about.
JOSH SCAM BIG BROTHER 1993
Before leaving for good after smashing a brick over a gay man’s head and killing him, Josh Swindle was arrested at the Mexican border with some guns in his car. Earl Parker met Josh for an interview while he was serving his sentence in a Tijuana penitentiary. Drugs, broomsticks, prostitutes, bribing guards, and beating up a guy for trying to steal his shoes all get detailed reports.
JAON JESSEE 1997 TRANSWORLD SKATEBOARD
You don’t always have to embrace racism, kill someone, or go to jail to rack up some interesting musings for an interview. Anyone who’s enjoyed his handjob story in the Gator documentary knows that when Jason says things like, “I’m no stranger to pain, especially the pain of waking up in the morning and the pain of noticing,” it’s not scripted. text that his agent thought might help his board sales.