[EASTERN THEMED MUSIC]
JESSE HUGHES: Well we're at my house.
It's like my getaway from the desert.
It's the back house in Atwater.
And a preacher and his wife live in the front house.
I come from a really strong Christian background.
I believe in the Ten Commandments, but I break 'em.
I just don't need to believe in magic talking monkeys to
break the rules, you know what I mean?
But I love these guys, and I respect what he's doing.
It's really weird, but I expect preachers to be good so
I can be bad.
[MUSIC-EAGLES OF DEATH METAL, "WANNABE IN LA"]
JESSE HUGHES: See the evidence of throwing knives?
An all night throwing knife session.
Tuesday, my baby, is one of the deadliest knife throwers
in the world.
In here is a gratuitous mess.
A lot of classic gear hidden all around here.
And someone talked.
This is very critical.
I think this is the operating paradigm for
the road crew member.
A sailor sinking into the waters is
because someone talked.
We're all in a big ship called the rock and roll tour bus,
and when someone talks, everything goes down.
They find the hooker's body, you go to jail.
I think this man found a genie, and he got one wish,
and he wished for a little head.
[LAUGHS]
Oh, hello.
Just kidding.
Hi, I'm Boots Electric, sitting here, admiring a
painting of myself.
I was stricken with something.
The road is an amazing, dangerous, unbelievable place.
And when you come to the end, ultimately it's a big show
with a giant flashing smoking head.
And then there's the man behind the curtain.
And in many respects the man behind the curtain, the Secret
Service agent, the one who takes the rap
and never gets credit--
is the road crew member--
the roadie.
Starting with tonight at Queens of the Stone Age, and
using one of the finest road crew members of all time--
Hutch--
Patrick Hutchinson--
I think we're going to answer these questions.
What is the roadie?
What does it mean?
What does he do?
Let's find out who this shadow warrior is of rock and roll.
[MUSIC CONTINUES]
JESSE HUGHES: Soundchecks are a private world between the
crew and a band.
A time where trust is key.
[BAND SOUNDCHECKING-PLAYING CIRCUS THEME]
JESSE HUGHES: When you are working with someone like
Hutch-- and I should say now that Hutch--
he's a man of integrity, a man of respect.
But it's his job every night to get that show up and
running, to make these boys sound as
beautiful as they can.
He's the air brush in the giant bulge on that cover,
guaranteed.
He is the extra girth in the balls.
When you are working with a band like Queens, it goes with
it the reputation and foreboding of an almighty god.
Terrible, vicious, and jealous.
JOSH HOMME: Hey Hutch?
HUTCH: Yes, Josh.
JOSH HOMME: Did you know that Rush Hour 3
take place in Paris?
[SNARE HITS]
HUTCH: I didn't know that.
TROY VAN LEEUWEN: I've been working with him for about 15
years, and if he believes in something, he will walk over
glass and fire and hot lava to help see it through.
JESSE HUGHES: It's like there's a lot magicians
running around, and he's a wizard.
TROY VAN LEEUWEN: He is definitely the wizard.
[SOUNDCHECKING]
JESSE HUGHES: You know when every rock and roller finally
hits that road and takes up the dream, they dream of going
to certain places, and I guarantee you one of the
places they want to go to is the Wiltern Theater, one of
the most magical venues that Sunset and
Hollywood has ever known.
HUTCH: When they come out of the gate, you can't simulate
that in soundcheck, you know?
They're gonna come out of the gate like 10 times harder than
they soundchecked.
Always.
Boom!
Like trying to jump on a bomb to smother it.
JOSH HOMME: Well, well, well.
If it isn't our old friend Los Angeles.
How you doing tonight, everybody
[MUSIC-QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE, "IF ONLY"]
JOSH HOMME: Hutch became a soundman because DOA won a
battle of the bands competition and Joe Shithead
goes Hutch!
You're the soundman.
And they won a PA, which they then took and did all their
shows with.
And then that was how Hutch cut his teeth.
Starting from going, what are all these knobs, to figuring
out at least what a third of the knobs do.
HUTCH: A friend of mine entered a
contest in Creem magazine.
JESSE HUGHES: Is that how you got into it mixing sounds, as
a fluke of random chance?
HUTCH: Yeah.
We won a sound board and somebody had to
learn how to use it.
JESSE HUGHES: You, in my opinion Hutch, are the
benchmark and the standard for what is required and what is
the best of the best in rock and roll.
And you do much more than just mix sound for a band.
And Queens--
there's so many phot shoots where you're pictured as a
band member without even question.
HUTCH: In the early days, for sure.
JOSH HOMME: You know Theo van Rock, who used to do sound for
like Rollins and I think Black Flag, they used to take photos
with him and stuff.
When we met Hutch--
in the tradition of Theo van Rock and things like that--
we've taken many photo shoots with Hutch because Kyuss was
so in a bubble and naive about so much stuff that we didn't
realize there was such a division between band and crew
in most band situations.
HUTCH: So my friends were learning how to play their
instruments, and I was always into the theater side of
things-- the production, the presentation.
So it just naturally seemed like you do that part,
I'll do this part.
And so that's how I got started, but it wasn't til I
started for bands like DOA that I got to see the country,
and that what I like doing took me places.
JOSH HOMME: It's DOA, No Means No, Taj Mahal, The Cramps,
early Hole.
That sounds funny.
Early Hole.
Like in the morning when you wake up and
you have early hole.
[LAUGHS]
And you're like, oh my god, is this even mine?
It's real.
And Kyuss, and basically his pedigree kind of stops there
in a way for a long time because the way Hutch has
always approached it--
like a family--
was coincidentally the way we approached it.
So I haven't played a gig without Hutch since I was 18.
JESSE HUGHES: So I'm wondering what was the first band where
you saw people that you were like, I like this, this is the
way to do it.
HUTCH: I noticed a chance to open for some big acts, like
when Kyuss supported Faith No More.
Those folks were really friendly and really helpful,
and we got to see how a larger scale presentation was put on.
Up until then we were five guys nuts to butts in the van.
JESSE HUGHES: You know how I am.
I really take very seriously the reverence aspect of this
rock and roll thing.
And when someone like Hutch gave me his approval for the
first time, it was like getting a fucking graduation
diploma in a way, you know.
JOSH HOMME: When you work with Hutch, like in a way you're
performing as much for a Hutch as any audience.
There's a certain Hutch pressure.
Like Hutch is never going to say that boy, you guys were
super good.
Like that.
In all the years that Hutch has done sound with me, he's
said, I think, about three or four times,
that was fucking amazing.
You know?
And each time I was sort of like, you know, just
[UNINTELLIGIBLE EMOTIONAL NOISES]
[MUSIC CONTINUES]
JOSH HOMME: Thank you so much.
So this is it.
This is the last show of our first wreck of tours.
So I'm just going to shut up and keep playing.
[MUSIC-QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE]
JESSE HUGHES: I trusted you to tell me what's going on, and I
know if something sucks you'll tell me.
There's really no one like you.
Not everyone can tell a band look dude, that sucked.
And A, be able to get away with it in a way, but also B,
make it-- it's true when you say it, you know what I mean?
HUTCH: I care.
I'm passionate.
I want to see it better.
JESSE HUGHES: Absolutely
HUTCH: How can we make this better, yeah.
And I've always worked with music that I loved and that I
could be passionate about.
It really keeps coming back to that.
That the sacrifices you make touring-- leaving things and
people behind--
I'm out there with guys that I would take a punch for.
JESSE HUGHES: And you've lived that--
HUTCH: I love the music.
I love what happens when the audience and
the band gets together.
That's addiction.
I get addicted to that, for sure.
[CHEERING]
JESSE HUGHES: My grandpa used to say son, if it looks like
an Indian and smells like an Indian, it sure as shit ain't
John Wayne.
And tonight really proved that.
I saw in Hutch everything I hoped and I knew
that I would see.
A true wizard.
But I'll tell you what right now, people.
I am hungry for this.
I've got an itch.
We've seen the integrity side.
We've seen the noble element and the shiny
eagle of rock and roll.
Well let's get to the underbelly.
The snake's tongue.
[MUSIC-EAGLES OF DEATH METAL, "WANNABE IN LA"]
I want answers, god damn it, and I shall get them.
[MUSIC CONTINUES]