I’ve known Ken Mochikoshi-Horne for 30 years now. He was kind enough to come over and talk about his life, music, and experiences. We covered everything from his first band, M-80, to the Dragons (I released their first CD called “Pain Killer” on my poorly named record label “Scam-O-Rama Records”), and to being in the Bronx for the past 20 years and everything that comes along with that. This was a long interview, so I’m cutting it into 4 parts.
I’m doing this both with audio and transcript of the audio, so listen or read it any way you want to.
In part 1, we talk about getting turned onto music, playing guitar, joining his first band, and opening for Johnny Thunders, among other things.
Audio is here (transcript right below it):
Ted: So what guitarist made you want to pick up the guitar and then what guitarist made you realize “I can do this”?
Kenny: I was into metal so instead of guitar, I first wanted to… I saw Motley Crue’s “Looks That Kill” video, and wanted to play drums. But living in Japan, drums were kind of (hard), there’s no garage, so you got to go to a studio or… My school had a drum music class with drum set and I tried it and I was like “this ain’t it”. So then I was like alright, but I’m gonna play bass. Nikki Sixx. So then my uncle had a bass, so I try to play the bass. But it’s hard to figure out bass in a riff, you know, for heavy metal especially. So you can’t really hear the bass when you’re not that musically inclined. And then I got into Japanese heavy metal and Loudness and all the LA hair metal Ratt and all that. Jake E. Lee. Shredders. It was the “age of shredder”. So I was like alright I’m gonna play guitar because all my friends play guitar, so I got this cheap ass guitar that I couldn’t play. Then I saved up my money and I bought a Strat, a legit Strat, and I was playing Dokken and Ratt. But you know heavy metal stuff, you have to play note for note. Like you have to get it perfect. So I was like I can’t do that. Then I turned to my punk bands and I really was into Hanoi rocks. And Hanoi rocks were kind of loose. Their live recordings were kind of different from their studio recordings where there was it wasn’t the same guitar solo. It was like kind of you know, it was kind of the same, but I was like “oh you could just kind of change it around”. You could just do your own thing. So Andy McCoy was my God that I said oh I could kind of do this.
Ted: So yeah, I find it very interesting that you were self-taught on guitar. You never had a lesson?
Kenny: I signed up for a guitar lesson and I went. I was already in a band: M-80 with Mario (Escovedo), but I couldn’t. I was just so busy. I was going to school. I was working. And I had a job. A girlfriend. You know and you had to go once a week. He’d give you something to learn to study the whole week. Studying wasn’t in my guitar plans. So I went the first time. I was like I just can’t do it because it was like 40 bucks for half an hour, or maybe an hour. It was a lot of money and I just didn’t have the time at the point, you know.
Ted: so you did have a couple lessons.
Kenny: No, I just went to that one. He just kind of told me what’s gonna happen. He was like, oh, you know what do you want to learn? And then I brought a tape of M-80 and he was like “oh you already do this, but you just don’t know what you’re doing”. Then he was like “these are the notes” and he was kind of like “learn THAT”. Learn what the guitar fretboard is. I just knew it in my head, but I just didn’t know when someone said “play this” and I was like I don’t know. From there I just listened to records, CDs tapes whatever, but there’s this thing called tablature. It’s like it’s like musical notes, but it’s in numbers. Where you put your fingers. That’s what I learned from. That’s how I kind of started. So I did kind of mess up where I didn’t have my basics. I just kind of skipped over the basics learning the tablature. So I knew it, but I didn’t know what what it was.
Ted: So you’re the only person in the Bronx that doesn’t have this professional knowledge, right?
Kenny: Yeah, well, you know our singer doesn’t but…
Ted: yeah, but he doesn’t play guitar.
Kenny: Yeah, he does. He doesn’t I mean he plays. He knows a couple of chords. But yeah, everyone, you know like our other guitar player had piano. The bass player, he plays trumpet, so he took lessons, you know so, yeah.
Ted: Yeah, do they look at you differently because you’re uneducated when it comes to guitar?
Kenny: No. I just pretend like I know what they’re talking about.
(laughs)
Kenny: I think at this point I kind of know what to do and I know I knew the lingo. But you know Vince who plays bass in El Mariachi El Bronx? He plays guitar, drums, bass, better than anyone else and he’s never had lessons. But his dad is Dave Hidalgo from the Los Lobos, so it’s in his blood.
Ted: Going back to the beginning: you were you were born in Yokohama, Japan?
Kenny: Yep.
Ted: So your parents moved you over here?
Kenny: Yeah, yeah.
Ted: Just down the street from here. How old were you?
Kenny: ’87/’88 so I was like 17, when the metal explosion was happening. My dad was gonna retire so we moved over here and, you know, switched the life up.
Ted: Was that a big culture shock?
Kenny: Not a culture shock because I went to an international school, an American school over there. So I was like, “Dude!”. You know a lot of kids from the States were coming. So all the American culture I knew. The American movies. American shows. In Japan you could get anything. In Japan, there’s no age limit to go to clubs. At that age you’re starting to get into like local bands, independent bands, you know. So I left right as I was going at starting to go to clubs.
Ted: see any noteworthy bands back then?
Kenny: I did but nothing… well there there’s this band called Saber Tiger and the guitarist went on to be huge in this band called X Japan. He was like Japan’s Kurt Cobain type thing. But um, yeah, I went I went to a lot of shows, but they didn’t you know, I don’t think people know them over here that well. So I moved over here and my first friends were Mike Truffa and Lance Martineau from Chune.
Ted: Oh, really?
Kenny: Yeah, we went to Grossmont High School together. Same grade. They were on Cargo. No, what was the other label on Cargo?
Ted: Headhunter?
Kenny: Maybe Headhunter (edit: it was). We were like totally into metal. They were into Iron Maiden. But I was like, “oh, yeah, so what do you do to go see bands?” “You gotta be 21, so you got to go to the sports arena or you got to go to a party”, you know, like when someone’s parents are gone and they throw a party and your friends band play. So that’s what I did. I think my first concert here was Motley Crue “Girls Girls Girls” or Aerosmith “Permanent Vacation”. Dokken opening up (edit: I was there too!). So yeah, I went to a lot of Sports Arena shows. I saw Guns ‘n Roses before they broke at San Diego State at Montezuma Hall.
Ted: I was there! Yeah, I snuck into that show.
Kenny: Wow. It was packed. TSOL opening up. I love Izzy, so I was on Izzy side. But it was so packed and so, you know, even before the show started, I was like when I like realized I was on Slash’s side.
Ted: You were probably blocking my view. lol
Kenny: It was pretty cool though. You know, that was like one of the first times being at a show that was super packed.
Ted: I was supposed to interview Guns ‘n Roses for that show and and I wasn’t the biggest fan and these other two girls at the radio station were. So they’re asking me to get them on the list when I interview them. And I was like so why don’t you interview them? And then ask for them to put you on the list because I’m already on the list. Well, they did the interview and asked the questions I wanted wanted to ask and got IDs for me and stuff like that. They got on the list! Only they took my name off the list! So me and my friend, we snuck up from the bowling alley and were in the backstage area. Security stopped us and immediately me and my roommate pretended to be drunker than we were. “oh man, where’s the bathroom? We just walked out of this door (to the backstage area). We can’t find anything”. He goes “Just get in and don’t tell anyone I did this”. We got in it was a great show.
Kenny: Yeah, there’s a lot of reviews and stuff of it. Because you know, they were like canceling… and you know, Axl was already starting coming late to shows. Because he was kind of late to that show. It was a long wait after TSOL. It got me from Izzy’s side to Slash’s side. That’s how long of a wait it was. They would play shows that was kind of halfass where they you know played like, you know 45 minutes. But that one was a full on show.
Ted: And Axl had the oxygen tank on the side of the stage.
Kenny: Remember the Ritz show that was on MTV?
Ted: yes!
Kenny: It was the same show right around that time. Yeah, so that was cool. So yeah, that was what? ’88 right before…
Ted: Yeah, I think February 8th (edit: yep!). Did you ever see Jane’s Addiction at the Backdoor?
Kenny: No. There was a show that I was wanting to go to of them, but I ended up not going. There was a lot of stuff I couldn’t go to because I didn’t have the money. It was cheap, but I didn’t have 20 bucks to go.
Ted: So was M-80 your first real band?
Kenny: Yeah. I couldn’t even hold chords that well. Mario (Escovedo) was like “This is how you hold a D”. It’s so funny because there was some stuff that I could do really well, and Mario would be like, “Oh! That’s super cool. How do you do that?” But then there was the basic stuff like I said… So I didn’t know a lot of the basic stuff, you know?
Ted: So how’d you hook up with Mario? And Zalo?
Kenny: I was still in high school. It was like January of ’89. I had my best friend. He was the same heavy metal guy who moved here from Japan. I was like really into Hanoi Rocks and Johnny Thunders at that point. There’s no one in my age group that really liked that stuff, so I was like, I should look in the Reader and see if anything is in there. There’s the wanted ads in the back. My friend had an old Reader. It wasn’t the current one. It was like two or three weeks old. And I looked in there and it said “Lead guitarist wanted. Into Andy McCoy, Thunders and Dolls”. So I was like, “I’m gonna call this guy!” And I don’t even know where I had that courage. It’s like I don’t even really know how to play. I’ve just been here for like a year. I just turned 18. Senior in high school. So I called this guy. And it was Mario and he was super cool. And he was like, “Let’s get together”.
Ted: So he was what, 22?
Kenny: No, he was like 25 or 26. So, even that, when I was 25, I didn’t want to hang out with any 18 year olds. (laughs) But Mario was cool. It was already Mario, Gonzalo, and a drummer named Mark. But they had never really been in bands before. It was Mario’s first band. It was Mark’s first real band. So I show up with my little amp and my fucked up Strat. And the first song we did, I think we did like “Pipeline” and “Born To Lose”. And I couldn’t even really play that though. (laughs) So then, Mario liked me and then he was like, “oh, let’s get together again”. And then we just started happening. And then we played our first show like the next month or so. Next February, March of ’89? Playing with…
Ted: Gun club and…?
Kenny: No, that was like a year later. What was Pete Reichart’s band? 9,000 lbs or 10,000 lbs?
Ted: I think it was… Sub Society?
Kenny: No. It was 10,000 pounds? 9,000 pounds. But it was something “pounds”. But so yeah, we played with them. Texas Tea House in OB (Ocean Beach). And our second show was Texas Tea House with Holy Love Snakes.
Ted: Oh, really? Wow.
Kenny: Because Gonzalo was really good friends with Devon (Goldberg). And I thought they were fucking (good)… Because Devon’s only like a year older than me and he was a shredder.
Ted: Oh, geez. He’s amazing.
Kenny: Yeah. And I thought Dan was the coolest guy. He had the twisted hair, you know, the braided hair and leather jacket, black hair. And he didn’t talk back then either. (laughs)
Ted: Yeah, I actually, I ran into him like 10 years ago at Oggi’s in Mission Valley.
Kenny: Oh, I just saw him at one of the chili cook offs like a year or two ago. Yeah, he’s the same. That was cool. So we played Texas Tea House. We did the Rios. The Spirit.
Ted: And so you played with the Goo Goo Dolls?
Kenny: So then it went from there and that was like end of ’89, it was December or something of ’89. It was us, Worm Drive and Goo Goo Dolls. And…
Ted: Gun Club?
Kenny: Gun Club was a different night. Gun Club was earlier. Gun Club was like summer of ’89. Okay. You know what’s crazy about Gun Club is the bass player was a Japanese girl. And I’m still friends with her. We like re-hooked up. We met like eight years ago, five years ago, somewhere around there. And we hang out with her in Japan. She lives in London still. So when we go to London, she comes to our shows. So, yeah, we played all that Spirit, Rios, Texas Tea House, and then we did Spirit with Gun Club. And then that fall we opened up for Johnny Thunders.
Ted: Oh yeah, that’s right!
Kenny: So January of ’89, I go jam with Mario. Playing “Pipeline” and “Born and Lose”, then nine months later, we’re opening up for Johnny Thunders!
Ted: And what was that like?
Kenny: It was cool. I think Mario sent a dozen roses to the girl that was booking Bacchanal. And he’s like, “Hey, can we open up for Johnny Thunders?”. And she gave it to us. It’s crazy because we were only a band for 8 months or so. So then we open up and then, but they’re like, “they have to use your equipment”. Except Johnny Thunders. So we’re like, cool. That’s fine. And our drummer had this little kit and our bass player had this little kit and Mario had this, he had a nice amp and I had like a cheap amp that I bought off of Mario. Johnny Thunders had his own. I wrote this in a Japanese fanzine recently. I wrote about the whole experience. But we got there early because they needed our shit. So we set it up and then I was at the bar and I was just standing there. And I look over and there’s this short guy standing there. I swear he had sweats on, but maybe it was black pants. He had leather jacket on. He had a guitar case and he was swinging his guitar case around. And I was like, fuck, that’s Johnny Thunders!
Ted: So did you actually talk to him?
Kenny: Well, so they did the sound check and I was just fartin’ around. I’m only 18 years old running around. Not even supposed to be there. So the Bacchanal had a stage and right behind the stage was two doors of backstage. I was standing right by the door and Johnny Thunders was like “hey, thank you”. And I was like, why’s he saying “Thank you”? And then I shook his hand. But I think he was saying thank you that we let him use our shit. But I figured Johnny Thunders isn’t a guy to even know that what gear he’s using. So I don’t know. So then he was out back smoking weed. And what was that band? The Lonely Hearts? That was from El Cajon? Lonely Boys? Maybe it was not the Lonely Boys. Lonely Hearts? The guitar player played with Christina from Chabalaba sometimes as Charo Trick.
Ted: Oh. Yeah, I got pictures of them!
Kenny: Yeah, it was three guys that really liked Johnny Thunders. They had a band. I think it was Lonely Hearts, something like that. But then they went to the back and got a picture with them. And then Johnny went to the front and they ran to the front and they asked for an autograph. Johnny was like, I already took a picture with you. And I was kind of cracking up, but you know, I didn’t know he was going to die a few years later. So I was just like, it was just like a regular show, you know. So then we play the show and then Mario was like “hey, go find a spot where they’re not going to find you”. Because I was 18. They didn’t check my ID because I was like running around. So I went to the bar. I just sat in the corner and just watched the whole thing. It was probably like 80 to 100 people because there were tables. It wasn’t like a crowd smashing the stage. It was the Bacchanal it was just tables. It was cool. It was the later period you know, with the whole saxophone and backup singer, but they were all cool. At the end of the set, he took off his shirt and just kind of threw it on the ground. And then when everyone left, I went up on the stage and I touched his guitar. (laughs) And then he just left straight. Some limo came and he got in the limo and I guess it was some chick and took him down to TJ. And me, Mario and Gonzalo went to the band’s hotel room and we just kind of hung out there. They’re like smoking weed and shit, you know.
Ted: Wasn’t there a story you were telling me about something about Johnny Thunders was supposed to show up somewhere for a meet and greet? And he was a no show, but the manager brought his guitar?
Kenny: No, that wasn’t me. That wasn’t me, but that’s pretty funny.
Ted: Maybe it was Hector (Penelosa from the Zeros) telling me that (edit: Hector and Kenny were telling me stories backstage at the Dragons show at the Supply & Demand a few months back).
Kenny: Yeah, that was a pretty cool night. It the day of the big earthquake in San Francisco. And I remember when we done soundchecking and they were starting to set up, the guy announced it. He was like, there was just a big earthquake in San Francisco. But I didn’t know what the fuck (was going on). At this point, I probably played 10 shows in my life.
Ted: And you’re opening up for Johnny Thunders!
Kenny: Yeah, probably not even 10 shows. So this is probably like my eighth show or something, you know, but it was fun, and then we, we went to the hotel. Hung out with them. I didn’t even talk. I didn’t have anything to say.Then I went back to Mario’s house and spent the night. And that was that.
Ted: Was Mario in awe too?
Kenny: No, we were all kind of cool, you know? Just a couple beers. Probably drunk. But all the guys were mellow. They were all nice and the smoking cigarettes, some of them smoking weed, drinking beers, you know, it wasn’t like throwing TVs out the window. But I remember it being a super foggy night. And I drove the van. It was like so crazy thick fog. I couldn’t even see in front of me. But it was in Claremont and I made it all the way back to Chula Vista. So that was what ’89. And then, and then that December, we opened up for Michael Monroe. Oh, so that’s when I met Sammy Yaffa for the first time. Nasty Suicide was there. So it was M-80 and the middle band was Gilby Clark’s Kills For Thrills.
Ted: Oh, I saw them. I saw them at UCSD.
Kenny: And then, and then it was Michael Monroe. But Kills for Thrills had the brother of Faster Pussycat’s Brent Muscat. Todd Muscat played bass, I think. And then the other guitar player was the son of (one of the guys in) the Monkees.
Ted: Oh, wow. Yeah. And Gilby produced the first Bronx album.
Kenny: But I wasn’t on the first album. I met him a couple of times and I was like, you know, that happened. Yeah, I told him about that. It’s like, “oh, shit, I remember that”. Really? Because Kills for Thrills wasn’t around for too long. So yeah, that was pretty cool. Then to end up the year we opened for the Goo Goo Dolls. That was like the last, one of the last shows we played that year. I remember all this because I hadn’t played too many shows to that point. So like now I can’t remember what shows I played. But back then I was like, you know, 10 shows. I can remember that. You know, so yeah, those Goo Goo Dolls were pretty cool. They came, I remember we were sound checking or doing something like that and they rolled up and Robbie was like sleeping inside the van. They came rolling in barefoot. But The Spirit had like the nachos (for Happy Hour). They were like, “Oh! Free nachos!” I was like, oh, that’s gross. But yeah, it was cool. That was the first time. I’ve never heard of the Goo Goo Dolls.
Ted: And they were full on punk rock back then.
Kenny: Yeah, yeah. It was pretty cool. They were like, you know, fucking with the crowd. You know, it wasn’t super packed, but it was enough. You know, it was a lot of people.
Ted: Well, I only remember them playing the Spirit once and that was with the Gun Club. Stymie (from Inch; then Sub Society) was there too. Because I was a big huge Goo Goo Dolls fan and I was saying Stymie, you’ve got to go see them! And so Stymie got in. He was underage, but he was pretending to apply for the new sound guy position. He saw them and he’s like, wow, they’re really intense.
Kenny: By this time, I was pretty good at like kind of dodging the ID questions.
Ted: Plus you’re tall enough. So they thought you were of age.
Kenny: But you know, when you’re 18, you look pretty fucking young. But yeah, I remember standing kind of on the side and watching them. They were cool.
Ted: So how long was M-80 together for? Just a year?
Kenny: A year and a half. Summer of ’89 or summer of ’90. Well, we kind of broke up half assed and Gonzalo and Mark were gone. And then we got Baba and Kevin Chanel to help us out. Just to do a couple of shows. And we play with like Calamity Jane and we play with Skin Yard. That’s when like the old Casbah was our kind of, you know… early M-80 played there too. A couple of times and then we played with Holy Love Snakes. But yeah, we were together for a year and a half. And then that summer we had, we played a couple of shows opening up for like the London Quireboys. But then we kind of stopped doing M-80. And the fall of ’89 him and I just kind of sat, just us two, just writing songs.
Ted: And that turned into the Dragons.
Continues in part 2 of 4: The Dragons
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