Dean Ween fields questions on
the band's new record, the internet
and drinking horse urine.
Ride Again

BY GREG E BOY
SFS: So when's the last time the Boognish appeared to you?
Deaner: The last time the Boognish appeared? We don't really talk about the Boognish. It's a matter of policy.

SFS: Okay, can you talk about Joppa Road?
Deaner: Joppa Road? Joppa Road I guess, ah, the first time we were going to uh, I forget where the hell we were going. I think we were going to a gig in Richmond or something and me and Aaron and our friend Chris Williams, the Mean Ween, we were in the car and we saw the sign for Joppa Road. And I don't know why we were so amused by that (laughter) so we started passing this little piece of notepaper around the car writing the song "Joppa Road". That's a great song actually. I like "Joppa Road". I forget that that's even on any of our records because we've never played it live and no one ever mentions it to us.

Ween

SFS: Did the bitch really fuck up?
Deaner: What? "You fucked up?"

SFS: Yeah, you know the song that goes "you bitch, you really fucked up."?
Deaner: Yeah, I know it very well.

SFS: Did she really fuck up?
Deaner: Yes. That song, that song I remember like you're just going to make me reminisce like an old man I can tell. That song, I remember we were in like 9th grade, tops. I remember passing Aaron in the hallway and I got the idea for it like between class. I was like, "Dude, I wanna do this song that goes [mimics a I'm-in-the-hallway-between-classes whisper] you fucked up", and then we went home and we did it. And then he wrote the words for it about his stepmother.

SFS: What do you wear when you clean the house?
Deaner: Me? That's easy (laughs) I don't clean.

SFS: You don't clean?
Deaner: I'm pretty much totally useless in a handy sort of way.

SFS: You still live in New Hope, Pennsylvania?
Deaner: Yep.

SFS: You gonna be a New Hope lifer?
Deaner: I'd like to think not. But I am so far. And I have certainly had the opportunity to leave. Nothing has prevented me from leaving. We have families there. My parents and my wife and I own our house.

SFS: So you live with your parents and your wife?
Deaner: No, no. I live with my wife. But my parents also live in New Hope. I grew up in New Hope and my whole family, my extended family lives there. I love it. The whole thing about Ween is that we get to travel every where every year and I haven't seen a place yet that could lure me away permanently. I'd like to live in Italy for the summer but I can't see ever moving out of America or New Hope.

SFS: Have you ever tipped cows?
Deaner: No, but I've done all that stupid urban shit. I was the king of that. Up until like four or five years ago actually, I'm 29. Running over mailboxes and shit.

SFS: Is there such a thing as dumb and dumber?
Deaner: What's that?

SFS: Is there such a thing as dumb and dumber?
Deaner: What do you mean?
SFS: You know, like the movie Dumb And Dumber.
Deaner: Yeah.

SFS: Can you get dumber than dumb? Deaner: Jeez I don't know man.

SFS: Have you ever seen The Tom Green Show?
Deaner: Yeah, a few times.

SFS: Now that's dumber than dumb.
Deaner: (does Beavis laugh, huh, he, he huh)

SFS: Explain the six degrees of separation connection between Ween and Spike Jonze.
Deaner: I don't know that there's six degrees, it's just one right?

SFS: Right. Being that my parents are from Philly, it still annoys to no end that when I order a Philly cheesesteak in North Carolina, it ain't a Philly cheesesteak.
Deaner: Yeah, they give you a Steak Em on a hot dog roll.

SFS: Doesn't that piss you off?
Deaner: It does, but I don't order it when I'm not in Philly. Even worse is pizza outside of the Northeast. As you get outside of Philly and Jersey and New York everybody's concept of pizza is so fucked, it's like not even pizza but just some spongy, rubbery shit.

SFS: Right. Have you ever been to Wildwood, New Jersey?
Deaner: Of course.

SFS: That's where I think the epicenter of pizza greatness is: Wildwood, New Jersey's boardwalk.
Deaner: Yeah. I'm into Trenton, New Jersey tomato pie actually. And New York, what can I say?

SFS: Yeah, it's a whole different ball game. Speaking of ball games, are you into sports?
Deaner: Yeah. I'm watching Sports Center right now with the sound off while we're talking.

SFS: Damn, your multitasking as we speak.
Deaner: Yeah, I'm a massive sports fan. Before we play, every single night of this tour, I'm on the bus watching the NBA and the Flyers.

SFS: Do you guys have Sega on the bus?
Deaner: No, no. I have a PlayStation at home but I haven't been playing as much. I went Through my Sega Genesis phase where that's all I did every night.

SFS: Yeah, I'm a FIFA soccer guy but I have since given it up. I went Sega Anonymous meetings for about six months.
Deaner: Sega Genesis golf is all we played on tour for years. Year after year. PGA Tour.

SFS: Have you ever drank horse urine?
Deaner: No, have you?

SFS: No. So who is the biggest dick in the music industry?
Deaner: That I've ever encounter personally or just in general who bothers me the most?

SFS: Either or.
Deaner: I'm a very anti-British person. I have no use for anything out of England at all whatsoever.

SFS: So you're not a Gay Dad fan?
Deaner: I don't know them. Hmm. The biggest dick? We've tried to make a new policy of not dissing everyone whenever we get the opportunity because we've done that and it has caused us a lot of problems.

SFS: Do people often call you guys dicks?
Deaner: Yeah, Ween has had everything had written about them more than any other band, so we are kinda of numb to it.

SFS: So you don't care if I call you a dick?
Deaner: No. I'm trying to think of who I've encountered that was a dick.

SFS: Elton John?
Deaner: No. No one on that level.

SFS: They don't let you hang out with them.
Deaner: Yeah.

SFS: Well, when you guys come to Raleigh I'll be the guy up front spitting on you.
Deaner: Oh, don't do that. I'll be the one jumping off stage bludgeoning you with my guitar.

SFS: It'll make for an interesting show at least.
Deaner: Yeah.