November, 1998

Striking the perfect balance between their biting, funkerific, rocker, self-titled debut, and the softer song craft of their sophomore release, "Magnolia," "The Screaming Cheetah Wheelies" hit with their third Capricorn release, "Big Wheel."

Opening the record with the infectious "Boogie King," the Wheelies exhibit an instant classic sound. "Groove Me" follows up, with the trademark guitar trade offs of Rick White and Bob Watkins maintaining the funk/rock and soul wave that flows through out the record.

"Halcyon Days" departs a bit from the funk-soulish demeanor of the record, and takes on a rock anthem feel, showcasing a slightly different side to "The Wheelies," adding to the feeling that surely you've been listening to these classic tunes for ages, and yet these are new tunes. It just proves "The Wheelies" superior songwriting ability.

Putting their own spin on Dr. John's "Right Place, Wrong Time," "The Wheelies" contrast the new song classic sound, with this old tune new sound addition. You just have to wonder if Dr. John is somewhere out there listening to this cover, and thinking to himself "Yeah, that's what I should have done with this song." It's rare that a cover is that good, but this is just one of those rare records.

Other great tracks are "One Drop Of Water," and the personal edged "Dandy Lion," inspired by Mike Farris' father. Yet, at the same time, there really isn't a single track on this record that you can afford to miss. The masterful song writing, the fantastic guitar work, the thick and sticky bass work of Steve Burgess, drummer Terry Thomas' perfect placement of pop and crash, and of course the simply amazing vocal stylings of Mike Farris, make this record a must own.

Access to the Music Zone recently caught Rick White, Bob Watkins and Terry Thomas for a few words. The following are those words:

AMZ = Access To The Music Zone BW = Bob Watkins RW = Rick White TT = Terry Thomas

AMZ - So you guys have just kicked off the tour. How's it going?

BW: It's been real good. We're having a lot of fun.

AMZ - Great! Let's get right into the new record. "Big Wheel" takes both from the softer side of "Magnolia" and the aggression of your first record. Was this a conscious effort to balance the two, or simply natural progression?

RW - I think it was a natural progression. I mean personally, I don't think we were consciously trying to balance anything. That's just where we were when we hit the studio.

BW - Yeah, I agree.

RW - It does have some of the fire of the first record though.

AMZ - What brought on the decision to bring Paul Ebersold, the producer of the first record, back on production?

RW - Well, I thought Michael Barbiaro ("Magnolia" Producer) was great, but Paul, I don't know what he does, but he just brings the best performance out of the band.

BW - A lot of it is that we're just good friends with Paul. He's easy to work with, and it's kind of like besides working with him, we just really like to hang out with him.

RW - He's real greasy too. He bring the grease out of what we do more then Michael did I think.

AMZ - Do you think that Paul influenced the record to be a bit harder and more aggressive?

BW - Well, when we first got together on this one, all we did was play hard rockin" stuff. That's what we really wanted to do more than anything. The smoother, softer stuff was like an added by-product of us working together that came out later, ya know. Kind of like an added bonus.

RW - I think that's where the natural progression on this record comes in. We got to fool around a bit more this time out.

BW - Yeah, and Paul's not afraid to let you tune your guitar real low and transpose and experiment a bit more.

AMZ - So you feel that you did get to experiment a bit more on this record?

BW - Yeah, definitely.

AMZ - Then what, or who, influences the songwriting process?

BW - It's all of us really. Someone will bring a song in, sometimes complete, sometimes just a part, and we'll work it out together. Still other times we just kind of jam and a song comes out of it.

AMZ - Where do the topics you write about come from?

BW - Life, sex, drugs, money. (laughs)

AMZ - Specifically, "Dandy Lion" was a more personal piece. Was it difficult for Mike Farris to approach the topic, and what do you think brought him to write about it at this time?

BW - No, I don't think he had any difficulty writing about his dad. But it did feel like he was working some stuff out. I would imagine it was like a growing process.

AMZ - What made you pick "Right Place, Wrong Time" as a cover?

BW - It's fun to play and it has a good beat - you can dance to it. (laughs) We wanted to do a cover, and that was really Paul. We were listening to a bunch of songs, and he heard it and said "That's it man, that's the one."

RW - Yeah we had like three we wanted to do, and he said this is the one. Like "Just trust me, I'm always letting you do what you want but do this one for me." And he was right. It came out great.

AMZ - So Dr. John, and the more classic rock side of the spectrum, is that what you guys listen to most of the time?

RW - Nah, we listen to everything man.

BW - Yeah, if it's good. "Hank Williams" to "Rage Against the Machine." (laughs)

AMZ - Wow now that's diversity for you.

RW - Yeah. (laughs)

AMZ - OK, so name five CDs that are in your collection right now.

BW & RW - Um, the new "Semi Sonic," "Bare Jr.," Bobby Bare's new one, "Jr. Brown," "Lenny Zero." "Radio Head's" new one is cool too.

*At this point Terry Thomas Joins the interview.

AMZ - So Memphis is becoming the proverbial hot spot to record hard rock records. What about Memphis do you think is drawing hard rock bands to record there? Most people would think Memphis is a "Country" town.

BW - Boy I don't know. Memphis is just such a natural place for anybody to go and record a record.

RW - Man you can just get out of the car and cut the vibe with a knife down there. I love Memphis, it's just a great place. The whole town just lends itself to the whole jukin' and jivin' vibe.

TT - It still has that same vibe from when "Elvis" and "Johnny Cash" were recording there.

AMZ - Yeah, you think of Memphis and you do think of "Johnny Cash" and "Booker T" and those guys, but just recently "Megadeth" went down there to record, and then you've got home town guys like yourself putting out records like these. It's a pretty cool contrast.

BW - I can see that. Bands like "Megadeth" are in a way an extension of that. When Johnny first came out, he was dark and hard. I could see bands like "Megadeth" having an allegiance to Johnny in a way.

RW - Yeah, it's all the same attitude, too.

AMZ - Al Green was a big influence on this record in a way, and more specifically, to Mike Farris. How does that story go?

BW - Well speaking for myself I think Al's music is just really inspiring all around, but you would really have to talk to Mike on that one. That was really more Mike Directly. He just loves Al's work and I would imagine it greatly influences his singing.

AMZ - With the summer festivals like H.O.R.D.E winding down now, do you feel that "Big Wheel" may have lost some of the momentum it could have had, had it come out earlier in the year?

BW - I don't know, I hope not. (laughs)

AMZ - I remember catching you guys for the first record on H.O.R.D.E., and it just seemed like you guys where in your element.

RW - Yeah, H.O.R.D.E. was great, and it would have been cool to get out this year, but I think we're having just as much fun on our own too.

AMZ - With top 40 radio leaning toward the metal/hardrock side, do you feel SCW will have a hard time fitting in this time around?

BW - Well, in a way it's to our advantage, but yeah, we do so many different things with our music that it's tough to find a niche. We have so many different kinds of songs that it gets hard for the marketing people to decide where to push us.

RW - It's kind of cool though. We get to go on all kinds of tours. We can go out with "Korn," and then turn around and play with "Joan Osborne" or "Kenny Wayne Shepherd." We can play with just about anyone.

AMZ - With the progression that SCW has taken thus far, where do you see the band and the sound going for the next record?

TT - Well, that's hard to say. It won't be any one sound. None of our records have any one particular sound.

RW - Probably more of the same.

BW - I'd like to see us play some more of those three cord, bash 'em up rock songs. (Laughs) 'Cause they're so much fun. It always seems to start off that way anyway, but then we come up with some pretty riff that kind of floats in, and then we're saying "Oh yeah, we gotta play that." So, like Terry said, probably more of the same.

TT - It's funny how we get flack for just doing what we've always done.

BW - Yeah. There was this controversy on our web page about The Wheelies have sold out vs. The Wheelies have just grown. It was kind of funny, because at one point, one of our long time fans pointed out that the songs that people were saying show us "changing our sound" are songs that have been around since the first record. So it's like there's people who think where changing, but the truth is, we haven't changed all that much.

RW - We just like writing all kinds of music that's all.

AMZ - "Boogie King" is the single on this record, right?

BW - Yeah. Last we checked it hit #10.

TT - #10 on the R&R Rock chart I believe.

AMZ - Is there going to be a video for that song?

BW - Yeah, and it's real cool too! The song's going to be in the new Chucky movie, "Child's Play 4: Bride Of Chucky," so we got some great stuff in this video. (Laughs)

TT - If we could have hired someone to write a story line around the song it couldn't have been more perfect. The clips from the movie work real well.

AMZ - Was that something the people from the Chucky movies approached you guys on?

RW - Yeah. This is how the story goes. The creator of the movie was driving in the car and heard "Boogie King" on the radio. He had no idea who it was, but he called the radio station to find out, and wound up getting in touch with our manager. He was like "I gotta have this song for my movie."

BW - Yeah, Rick has the quote of the year on that one too. He said "Hey guys, this time lets do it." (laughs)

TT - We got an offer to do a song for "Pet Detective," and we were like, oh we got too much integrity for that man, were not gonna sell out. We had our heads up our asses on that one. (Laughs)

AMZ - Have you picked the song for the second single yet?

RW - Nah, that's being debated as we speak.

AMZ - I love that second track, "Groove Me."

BW - Doesn't that 70's thing go so well with the rest of the song? It's like right out of Starski and Hutch. (laughs)

AMZ - OK, my last question is kind of lame, 'cause I've been listening to guys for so long and I still don't know, where does the name come from?

RW - Um, Bobby, you want to field that one? (Laughs)

TT - You want the long story or the short story? (Laughs)

BW - More like, you want the real story or you want a lie? (Laughs) In the beginning, we were trying to figure out a name. We'd run out of pot, so we started drinking and trying to come up with joke names. I was saying Screaming in front of everything, 'cause at the time, every other band had Screaming in front of there names, and I was trying to think of something funny. Mike had a friend from Knoxville who wanted to call a band the Cheetah Wheelies and I put Screaming in front of it. We all kinda rolled around and laughed. Then we stared telling people it was our name - as a goof, you know? Somehow it just kinda stuck, and we swore that we would change it if and when we got signed, but we just never did.

AMZ - It's kind of funny that you say that, because the way I found out about you guys was when the first record came in to my college paper, and I was like "Wow, what a cool name."

TT - Yeah, that was one benefit of the name. A lot of people had that reaction.

BW - It kinda causes a double take. (laughs)

AMZ - Well, thanks for your time guys, and good luck with the rest of the tour.

BW, TT & RW - Thanks man! We'll see you out there.