It must be nice being P-Nut (note: that's not his real name; it's really Aaron Wills). You play bass in a successful band, you're as happy now as you were when you were younger, and mornings include quality time with both the wife and the gaming console. Not only that, but your band, 311, has just released Uplifter, its ninth studio album, on Volcano/Jive. The album debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart. Not bad. When we called P-Nut at his LA-area home early one morning, he was wide-awake and spirited. He was also worried that the interview was a sort of psychological test. P-Nut of 311, we've got some questions for you.
1. How, and where, the hell are you?
I'm doing wonderful. I'm at home, just outside of LA. I just had some eggs and some biscuits, and I was on the bulletin boards at 311.com, and I played a little Warcraft.
2. Pick five words to describe Uplifter.
Crushing, beautiful, delightful, engaging, step-forward-making.
3. What's it like working with [legendary producer] Bob Rock?
It was great working with Bob Rock. With any new person that comes into the studio with us, there's a feeling out period, where you don't know how to take someone's sarcasm, or he doesn't know how to take our sarcasm, so that was kind of fun. There was this awkward period right around this time last year, before we went on a summer tour with Snoop Dogg, and when we got back from the summer tour, it was all engines go. We got right down to work and had fun, and he got us communicating really well. He laid out all of the necessary roads for us to make a good album.
4. Describe your typical onstage clothing.
I'm a comfort-first person. I wear lots of track gear and Lakers clothing. It's bright and it's made to be sweated in. So it's attention-grabbing and wicking, so I don't soak through my clothes like if I was in jeans and a t-shirt. I wear athletic clothes because we're an athletic band.
5. Who's the best-dressed member of 311? You are allowed to choose yourself.
I couldn't say that I'm the best dressed member of 311, though I do spend a lot of time looking at myself in the mirror. It'd probably be Nick [Hexum], because I think he knows that most of the attention is on him, and he works out the most, so his clothes look better on him, so I think Nick would get the prize.
6. What is the most bizarre item on your tour rider?
We don't have anything too bizarre. Back in the day we used to have a quarter ounce of weed on our tour rider and it never got fulfilled! But nothing too weird, just drinks and food. Unlike Aretha Franklin, who gets $35,000 in cash per her rider.
Have you ever ASKED for $35,000 on your rider?
No, but maybe we should learn from the master!
7. What's the worst rock n' roll injury you've had?
I'm more of a basketball injury kind of guy. I was going up for a layup, going through the lane, and I got hit as I was going up in the air, lost my footing. I got low-bridged, as they say. I broke my thumb three days before we did the "Amber" video shoot. So if you look at the "Amber" video, where normally I'd be smiling and having a good time, because I like being on film and video sets are fun, instead I'm straightforward and scowling.
8. What's your favorite city to play and why?
New Orleans. It's one of those few cities in America that has soul. San Francisco and New Orleans have the most tangible soul. Cities that actually have a personality that you could sit down and have lunch with. New Orleans is perhaps the wild side of it, whereas San Francisco might be the intellectual side of it.
9. Do you have a least favorite city to play?
Not really, because of the crowd we attract. We've always focused on being positive and enjoying ourselves, and the music reflects that. The only thing I don't like to see is when there are meatheads in the crowd, standing on the outside of a pit, just shoving people. That's no way to conduct yourself at a 311 show. Or shitty security, overstepping bounds and getting too amped up for no good reason. It's the way people act, more than any one city in particular.
10. What's the single greatest day you've had as a member of 311?
The day I met my wife at a show: September 4, 1993. The Varsity in New Orleans. A great place, one of the few places that really take care of bands when they're in that baby phase. You come in and you're treated like you belong, as opposed to, "Put your shit over there, and don't complain about the chicken and light beer."
11. What venues are special for you?
The Fox Theatre in Boulder. Also, the Fox Theatre in Atlanta, which is the only seated place I'd like to name. That was just an amazing show back in the day. We should really go back there and play. It was just fun and... regal. I remember my mom saying that she saw Gone With The Wind there!
The Sandstone Amphitheatre in Kansas City is amazing. That's where I saw the first Lollapalooza tour as an audience member, and then three or four years later, we were playing a headlining show there. Lakewood, also in Atlanta, is amazing. There's something special about the people in Atlanta—they know how to have a good time. The UNO Arena in New Orleans is fantastic for the same reason. And we've had some really good shows lately in Portland and Seattle, where we've played parks. There's something great about the Northwest.
12. What's your most extravagant hobby?
Um... I'm deferring to my wife. [Mumbling occurs in the background] Hmmm. I just bought an electric car, a Tesla Roadster. So I guess driving around is my most extravagant hobby! You come home, you plug it in, it's faster than a Porsche GT3, and it looks amazing.
13. Is Shaquille O'Neal the real musical deal?
He can be. I think he has strokes of that. He's definitely a man who's creative, and caught in the moment, and is just a big kid. These are all elements of a good musician. He's not someone to take himself too seriously. At the show we played with him in Irvine, he went out in the crowd and tried to crowd surf. A three hundred pound, seven feet man should not be trying to crowd surf in any crowd, unless the crowd are all professional wrestlers! He came out of the crowd with a bloody lip, and was loving every minute of it.
Musicians want to be athletes and athletes want to be musicians. It was a beautiful meeting of the minds.
14. American Idol: Do you care?
Hell motherfuckin' no! I couldn't care less, and I think it's one of the reasons that aliens are going to come down and wipe us off the planet.
15. Which P-Nut is having more fun: the mid-'90s version or the 2009 version?
Hard to say. The mid-'90s were really fun, and selling a ton of records is fun. But I'm smarter, and more comfortable in my skin now, and I'm really looking forward to the future. I guess it would be a tie! I appreciate the past, but I'm really looking forward to the future. I think our best songs are ahead of us, and I think our biggest international breakthroughs are also in front of us. There's something great about being able to tour consistently, as we've done since then, so I don't have any complaints. I just look forward to breaking new ground and continuing to have a good time rocking the world.
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