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Man of the cloth Wayne Coyne on "Do You Realize?," on that Teeshirtgate flap, and on learning (or not) how to play the actual song "Oklahoma."

BY ED MASLEY & FRED MILLS

 

The story thus far... The Flaming Lips topped an online poll last year sponsored by the Oklahoma History Center and the Oklahoma Film and Music Office to select the official Oklahoma State Rock Song, and the Oklahoma Senate subsequently voted 46-0 on a resolution thereby honoring the song. But then last Thursday the Oklahoma House voted 48-39, thereby making it fall short by a required three votes (51 in favor total needed) to enact the measure into law: a few conservative lawmakers were quoted as complaining about a hammer-and-sickle T-shirt the Lips' Michael Ivins had worn to the House during a meet-and-greet and photo-op, additionally expressing outrage over the so-called "foul-language" that the Lips' Wayne Coyne had used at one point. ("Their lips ought to be on fire," said one state representative.)

 

Luckily, Oklahoma governor Brad Henry, presumably sane and sober, stepped in and declared he would sign an executive order naming "Do You Realize?" as the Official State Rock Song (and nicely putting the Lips in the rarified company of Woody Guthrie and Bob Wills, whose "Oklahoma Hills" and "Faded Love" are, respectively, the official State Folk Song and State Country & Western Song). Gov. Henry signed the order on Tuesday, April 28, at the Oklahoma History Center near the capitol, in a ceremony attended by about 300 people. Ivins, incidentally, wore a "Ghostbusters" teeshirt.

 

In the middle of all this, a popular Oklahoma-based blog, The Lost Ogle, published an editorial titled "Yoshimi Battles the Big Hypocrites" accompanying a series of photos taken on March 2 depicting the Lips posing with various Oklahoma senators and representatives. Shown in the photos were some of the representatives who ultimately voted against the song measure, while the hammer-and-sickle tee is clearly visible on Ivins. At the time, no one commented on Ivins' attire. So since it took nearly two months for a Lips backlash set in at the House, speculation is that the state Republican leadership, pressured by religious leaders and hardcore conservatives, got the rank-and-file members all fired up and instructed them on how to cast their votes.

 

The net result, however, is: the Lips come out on top once again and attain genuine "cultural icon" status in their home state; Gov. Henry gets a lifetime "cool pass" for being a standup kinda guy (really: not since Jimmy Carter partied with the Allman Brothers in the ‘70s has a politician seemed so, well, so rock ‘n' roll); and certain members of the Oklahoma House of Representatives will forever be remembered as right-wing, "religious die-hard wackos" (as Coyne himself puts it) who did their level best to make their home state look extremely uncool.

 

Coyne spoke to BLURT's resident Lips fanatic Ed Masley about all this a couple of days ago. With the surreal controversy still fresh, Coyne expressed, in various measures, incredulity, humility, indignation - and maybe just a touch of proud vindication. He's definitely allowed the latter, in spades. Not bad for a former 16-year old pot dealer, eh?

 

***

 

BLURT: So what did you think when you heard that "Do You Realize?" had been voted the state rock song?

 

Somewhere along the way, they decided that there should be a state rock song. There's this new museum opening up and they sort of concocted this whole thing of "Let's have there be a country song, a rock song and [a folk] song." So we're up there - Woody Guthrie, Bob Wills and the Flaming Lips. But I can totally see why they'd want someone alive to get the honor, because if it's just a bunch of dead guys, there's no one to show up and take pictures. So it's cool. But it's absurd.

 

 

So what's with the people who voted against it in the State House? Was it really just a case of people taking offense at a hammer-and-sickle T-shirt Michael wore to the Capitol building?

 

Well, when we showed up, we had been rehearsing over at Steven [Drozd's] house just a couple of hours beforehand and we really had no idea that we were going to be standing in front of photographers for the next couple hours. But at the same time, I think if we had considered it at all, we would have thought "It's just a T-shirt. Why would anybody care?"

 

And honestly, most normal, smart, rational, thinking people would look at that the same way they would look at your shirt and say "That's a cool shirt. I don't give a shit what you wear. It's your shirt." I mean, it's a free country. Who gives a shit? We're a rock band. If Obama wore the communist symbol, he should get in trouble for it, but Michael Ivins of the Flaming Lips? Who gives a shit? It's a shirt! You can get it at Urban Outfitters, you know? And on the day we were there, that was just what we were wearing and no one even remarked about it.

 

But then, when this thing comes up for a vote in the House of Representatives or whatever, these... and I don't know them but I know their ilk. There are some religious die-hard wackos. They happen to be Republicans, but it isn't even the Republicans. It's just these few religious fanatics who have to report back to their constituents at some church in some small town in Oklahoma. And believe me, it's not even the small towns in Oklahoma. It's just these people. They feel like, "Oh well, look at us. We stood up for the right thing." Their complaint was that I cuss, which was like, well, yeah, I do. Everybody does. But I'm in a rock band. I'm not running for office. I'm not trying to be the pastor of your fucking church. [laughs] I'm just speaking my mind and if you don't like it, well, too bad. If it's illegal, call a cop. If it's not, leave me alone.

 

The same with Michael's shirt. That shirt is not illegal. He's free to wear it. And I think their argument is, "Well, and we're free not to like it." No you're not. Not if you're a Representative. You're supposed to adhere to the will of the people and push that forward. And the will of the people is that this should be the song. This thing was voted on. It wasn't like we just showed up and demanded that our song should be the state rock song. We had nothing to do with it. It was voted on. It took six months for the vote to come in and we won over 51 percent of the vote.

 

And I'm not bragging. I'm just saying it was voted on. It's not like we wanted it or anything. It's like, "This is what Oklahoma voted on." And the reason they don't want it to be the state rock song is because of this shirt?!? It's like, "Wow, that's the reason?" I mean, they could have gotten us for a million things. They could have said, "They've got a song called ‘Jesus Shootin' Heroin' and I would be like, "Yeah, you've got me." Or, "Steven was a heroin addict for eight years." "Yeah, I know."

 

 But they pick on that?!?  It's like, "Don't you do any research at all? I mean, you really could have got us here."

 

I've told people openly I sold pot when I was 16. It's like, "Yeah, you got me. I'm not gonna lie about it." And initially, when I was told that they wanted to take it away from us, I thought "Well, I can kind of see. We are weirdos and there are a lot of conservative people in the legislature." But when they said it was the T-shirt, I was like, "You've gotta be kidding." Then, I double-checked and I was like, "You've really gotta be kidding."

 

 

Then the governor of Oklahoma stepped in and signed an executive order proclaiming "Do You Realize?" the official song...

 

Yes. As of Tuesday. We did this big ceremony Tuesday afternoon over at the History Museum with the big dome of the capitol looming in the background. That's one a week now. A week earlier, I had the national dome in D.C. behind me. And 10 days later, I've got the Oklahoma capitol dome behind me in pictures.

 

 

It's like you're Bono.

 

I didn't ask for it! [laughs] But there you go. The governor signed this proclamation making it Flaming Lips Day as well, so at about 3:30 in the afternoon, suddenly, the rest of the day was Flaming Lips Day, which was sort of absurd. I've met the governor a couple other times so it wasn't that weird, but it was a big deal. People were quite overjoyed, really, and I think the opposition almost made the comeback that much grander.  Everybody really felt that they were fighting for a much bigger cause, not just their love of the Flaming Lips but this idea that hey, who are the State legislators to take this thing away from us.

 

 

And Michael didn't wear a Castro T-shirt or anything?

 

He wore a "Ghostbusters shirt," which was remarked upon by all the local newscasters and all the local conservative newspapers around here. So I think he made the right choice. We talked about it: "Let's not wear that damn Communist shirt again or it'll look like we're asking for trouble."

 

 

There were pictures on the Internet the other day of the representatives hugging you in March - Michael in his commie shirt - and then they voted against you. Have you seen those pictures?

 

Well, we saw the big batch of pictures. We actually signed pictures for everybody a couple of weeks ago while we were up in the studio. They sent us this batch of a couple hundred pictures. And I don't remember which ones they were but our manager, Scott [Booker], he sort of thought I know who those guys are and they took pictures with us when the vote by the Senate was unanimous.

 

But to me, I think you can change your mind. To me, that didn't seem, in and of itself, an overly absurd thing. I thought well, the Flaming Lips are here and everybody's getting their picture taken with us. In all fairness, they could say, "My daughter loves them but I think they suck. But I'm gonna get my picture taken with them so my daughter likes it." We're all grown up people. I could point out that that seems to be kind of hypocritical but on a couple different levels, it's just silliness. It's silly getting your picture taken with the Flaming Lips. And it's silly to bitch about the communist flag T-shirt. I'm not gonna stoop to their level and say, "Oh, look at this. This is proof of how hypocritical and wrong-headed they are." To me, it's like you take a picture with someone, it doesn't mean you approve of everything they do. I do that all the time.

 

 

Right. I have a picture of myself with Ted Nugent and I don't really approve of much of what he says.

 

[laughs] Well, that's a fine example. There's something about the moment that overrides the symbolism of what it could mean. There are a lot of situations in life that are like that. I mean, I probably would have gotten my picture taken with George W. Bush if it had come up, just as a significant strange moment. It wouldn't have meant that I was on his side. So I don't want to make it sort of seem like these guys are idiots.

 

 

Do you think a rock song could ever be the official state song? I mean, you're the official state rock song, not the state song.

 

I think it makes perfect sense that the Flaming Lips could have the official state rock song. There is a country song and I think Woody Guthrie has a song and Bob Wills has a song. But I think the official state song is still the Rodgers and Hammerstein one from the Broadway musical Oklahoma. And you know, that'd be hard to beat.

 

And I personally wasn't trying to beat that. I mean, our song doesn't say "Oklahoma" in it. When the governor read the bill to make this the state song, there are elements of the song that you could read into it that are very optimistic. It talks about you realize life goes fast; it's hard to make the good things last. And that is a very hokey thing to say. But it's a great thing for a song to proclaim because it is hopeful and optimistic and it does tend to be about a humanistic effort somewhere in there. And there are ties to the motto of Oklahoma. I'm not sure if I'm phrasing it exactly but it's something along the lines of "Work conquers all," something to the effect that through hard work, we can achieve whatever we want. [Editor's note: the official Oklahoma state motto, adopted in 1907, is "Labor Omnia Vincit" - "labor conquers all things."]

 

That probably is the motto of every state in America, but I know there is something about the Flaming Lips philosophy and the motto that is similar if not true. So I can see if you were looking for reasons to believe this song should be the rock [song], you'd find them. Same way if you were looking for reasons it shouldn't be. You could find plenty of those as well. You're gonna hear what you want to hear. If you like it, you'll hear that. If you don't like it, you'll hear that.

 

 

Have you guys ever covered Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Oklahoma"?

 

We probably tried to. I remember us muddling around with it. I think we were doing some British radio program or something and it comes up a lot: "Hey, you guys are from Oklahoma. What's that like?" It's a difficult song to play as a rock group. It's got a lot of strange harmonies and chord changes and it's an elaborate thing. But we never actually tried to do it. I think it was something that we did as kind of a semi-joke or something.

 

 

[To view images from Gov. Henry's signing ceremony, go to the official Flaming Lips MySpace page.]

 

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