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| LtR. Tre Cool, Kain Kong, Larry Livermore |
Jeff: There are lots of books about Green Day in which you are mentioned and in which are quotes or statements from you (like Alex Hanaford's 'Green Day or 'Nobody likes you' by Marc Spitz) if you read it do you really remember that and is all that true what we read there?
Larry: Yeah, actually, I hate to admit it, but I haven't read most of those Green Day books, or if I did, I just skimmed through them. It's nothing against the authors, who as far as I can tell worked very hard on writing them and interviewing people and everything; it's just that I don't enjoy reading interviews with myself that much. For the same reason I never watch the TV or film documentaries that I'm in. I don't think I've seen the Alex Hanaford book at all, but I do remember looking at the Marc Spitz book and thinking he did a pretty decent job. The trouble with any of the books, though, is that none of the authors was really there as part of the scene that Green Day came out of, and as a result, they'll always miss out on certain things and make certain obvious mistakes. Not that I have a perfect memory, either. Sometimes when I talk with Aaron Cometbus (from Cometbus magazine and the band Pinhead Gunpower) about the old days, I find out that we have totally different memories of things that we were both there for, and other times I've even argued with Billie Joe or Mike or Tre when they remembered things one way and I remembered them another way. So sometimes there's no way of knowing for sure what really went on, unless maybe somebody invented a time machine and went back and made a video of it all. Since that's probably not going to happen, we'll just have to rely on our different memories and realize that the truth probably lies somewhere in between them.
Jeff: Think back in your early Lookouts time, what were you thinking about your future?
Larry: Not much, I mean, punks aren't supposed to think about the future, are they? Seriously, I guess I wouldn't be human if I didn't think about the future sometimes, but especially back then, it was hard to see what was going to happen. I think almost anybody who's in a band secretly hopes that they'll get more popular and get a chance to play for more people or even make a little money, but of course for most bands that's not a realistic expectation, since only a small number of bands ever achieve any significant success. Unless of course you consider success just to be having the chance to play music at all, or make records, even if only a few people will hear them. And that's kind of where all the bands in our scene were at during that time: we were excited just to be able to play shows at all. Personally, I had a suspicion that some of the people or bands from our scene might go on to bigger things, but I wasn't really sure who it would be or how it would happen. Except with Green Day; from the very first time I saw them, when Billie and Mike were only 16, I felt pretty strongly that they could be a huge band. But I don't know how sure I was it would really happen. I also didn't know we would have to give them our drummer before it did!
Jeff: What was the main influence in your whole life?
Larry: Oh, I think it's changed a great deal over the different parts of my life. When I was young, I really had a chip on my shoulder and felt like I had something to prove, probably because I was picked on a lot as a little kid and not taken very seriously, so I felt like I needed to show people that I was good at something or anything. Then when I got a little older, like in my 20s and 30s, I was mostly concerned about being cool and showing off and stuff. Yeah, it's kind of embarrassing to admit, but I've got to be honest. It was probably just a continuation of my need to prove myself, left over from childhood. But as I've gotten older, more and more the big thing in my life is to learn as much as possible and to be as useful as possible. I finally got over the need to be cool, or at least realized it was probably never going to happen anyway. But if you're asking what bands, philosophies, artists, political leaders were my main "influence," well, none in particular. I was a big admirer - still am - of Martin Luther King and John F. Kennedy, and also of Franklin D. Roosevelt, but I wouldn't call them influences. More like the stars in the sky that you set your course by.
Jeff: What are you up to now and do you have any special plans for 2011?
Larry: I'm trying to do more writing for my blog, larrylivermore.com. I'm also working on a couple different memoirs, one about the years I lived in the mountains where I met Tre and formed the Lookouts, and the other about Lookout Records, and on a novel. The novel is the biggest thing, but I feel like I can't devote my full attention to it until I get the memoirs out of the way. And lately I've been playing the guitar and singing a lot more, and working on some new songs for the first time in a few years. Just recently my old band the Potatomen (the band I was in after the Lookouts) played for the first time in 10 years, and it went really well, so I'd like to do a few more shows with them. Also, I've been doing a lot of traveling, and I expect to be making a couple of especially awesome trips in 2011, one to the Middle East and the other to Iceland and Greenland.
Jeff: "You can't do the same things you did thirty years ago" isn't it true?
Larry: Yeah, actually, I hate to admit it, but I haven't read most of those Green Day books, or if I did, I just skimmed through them. It's nothing against the authors, who as far as I can tell worked very hard on writing them and interviewing people and everything; it's just that I don't enjoy reading interviews with myself that much. For the same reason I never watch the TV or film documentaries that I'm in. I don't think I've seen the Alex Hanaford book at all, but I do remember looking at the Marc Spitz book and thinking he did a pretty decent job. The trouble with any of the books, though, is that none of the authors was really there as part of the scene that Green Day came out of, and as a result, they'll always miss out on certain things and make certain obvious mistakes. Not that I have a perfect memory, either. Sometimes when I talk with Aaron Cometbus (from Cometbus magazine and the band Pinhead Gunpower) about the old days, I find out that we have totally different memories of things that we were both there for, and other times I've even argued with Billie Joe or Mike or Tre when they remembered things one way and I remembered them another way. So sometimes there's no way of knowing for sure what really went on, unless maybe somebody invented a time machine and went back and made a video of it all. Since that's probably not going to happen, we'll just have to rely on our different memories and realize that the truth probably lies somewhere in between them.
Jeff: Think back in your early Lookouts time, what were you thinking about your future?
Larry: Not much, I mean, punks aren't supposed to think about the future, are they? Seriously, I guess I wouldn't be human if I didn't think about the future sometimes, but especially back then, it was hard to see what was going to happen. I think almost anybody who's in a band secretly hopes that they'll get more popular and get a chance to play for more people or even make a little money, but of course for most bands that's not a realistic expectation, since only a small number of bands ever achieve any significant success. Unless of course you consider success just to be having the chance to play music at all, or make records, even if only a few people will hear them. And that's kind of where all the bands in our scene were at during that time: we were excited just to be able to play shows at all. Personally, I had a suspicion that some of the people or bands from our scene might go on to bigger things, but I wasn't really sure who it would be or how it would happen. Except with Green Day; from the very first time I saw them, when Billie and Mike were only 16, I felt pretty strongly that they could be a huge band. But I don't know how sure I was it would really happen. I also didn't know we would have to give them our drummer before it did!
Jeff: What was the main influence in your whole life?
Larry: Oh, I think it's changed a great deal over the different parts of my life. When I was young, I really had a chip on my shoulder and felt like I had something to prove, probably because I was picked on a lot as a little kid and not taken very seriously, so I felt like I needed to show people that I was good at something or anything. Then when I got a little older, like in my 20s and 30s, I was mostly concerned about being cool and showing off and stuff. Yeah, it's kind of embarrassing to admit, but I've got to be honest. It was probably just a continuation of my need to prove myself, left over from childhood. But as I've gotten older, more and more the big thing in my life is to learn as much as possible and to be as useful as possible. I finally got over the need to be cool, or at least realized it was probably never going to happen anyway. But if you're asking what bands, philosophies, artists, political leaders were my main "influence," well, none in particular. I was a big admirer - still am - of Martin Luther King and John F. Kennedy, and also of Franklin D. Roosevelt, but I wouldn't call them influences. More like the stars in the sky that you set your course by.
Jeff: What are you up to now and do you have any special plans for 2011?
Larry: I'm trying to do more writing for my blog, larrylivermore.com. I'm also working on a couple different memoirs, one about the years I lived in the mountains where I met Tre and formed the Lookouts, and the other about Lookout Records, and on a novel. The novel is the biggest thing, but I feel like I can't devote my full attention to it until I get the memoirs out of the way. And lately I've been playing the guitar and singing a lot more, and working on some new songs for the first time in a few years. Just recently my old band the Potatomen (the band I was in after the Lookouts) played for the first time in 10 years, and it went really well, so I'd like to do a few more shows with them. Also, I've been doing a lot of traveling, and I expect to be making a couple of especially awesome trips in 2011, one to the Middle East and the other to Iceland and Greenland.
Jeff: "You can't do the same things you did thirty years ago" isn't it true?
Larry: Well, you can, and in fact I know a lot of people who do, but in most cases it wouldn't be very fun or interesting.
Jeff: How would you delineate The Lookouts' sound in 5 words?
Larry: Punk rock, fun, loud, awesome.
Jeff: If you could tell the people in the world one sentence what would you tell 'em?
Larry: My smart-ass answer: Beware of one-sentence answers to anything.
My heartfelt answer: Truth is a goddess upon whose altar we have laid down our lives, but truth without gentleness, without mercy, without love, is a pile of bones rotting in the midday sun.
Thank you very very much for your time Larry! 
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