TripleM Planet Rock, October 2004, with Chris Cheney

Article Transcribed by Kim


MMM = Presenter dude
CC = Chris Cheney (or ChEEney as the dude kept calling him)

MMM - Chris Cheney from The Living End in the studio with me right now. I know you guys get asked this all the time, but how did you come up with the name The Living End?

CC - We were called the Runaway Boys before that, which we thought was a pretty dorky kind of name and we wanted to change it. And I was at a friend of mine's house up in Queensland and we had a lot to drink one night, and decided to put this old rock and roll movie on called Rock Around the Clock, which is just one of those old black and white rock movies with Little Richard, Bill Haley and all those kind of guys performing in it. And then we watched it, and at the end it says "The End" and then that kinda parts and "Living" appears in the middle with a question mark. We were just so drunk that I just thought "Maaan that's a great name for a band" and woke up the next morning, and um...you know...sort of...throwing up...*laughs* and I remembered the name, so I thought "ok, that's gotta be a sign". So y'know, I loved it coz it was such a neutral sounding thing, it didn't particularly mean anything at all, I just thought it was a great title for a group.

MMM - Typical rock star, just getting drunk and coming up with a name, I love it.

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CC - G'day this is Chris from The Living End on Planet Rock with Turbo. This week I'm playing some of MY favourite tunes. One of them is a current song by a band called Eskimo Joe, and the song's called Older Than You. Their song writing and their craft of songs in general is just out of this world, and they're really amazing at what they do and they're a special band I think *song starts playing, Chris rushes* and here it is! On Planet Rock, Older Than You - Eskimo Joe.

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MMM - Thanks for sticking around man

CC - Pleasure.....treasure.

MMM - Now I've heard that you guys have become pretty close mates with Jet, and you even got on stage at the Forum in Melbourne recently to close their gig with a cover of an Elvis Presley classic.

CC - That came about actually when we were on tour with them in the states back in March or something and we were playing uh..I think it was in Toronto or something...that particular show where it happened first. Like, they were playing and we were just watching side of stage and Nic kinda turned around and pointed and took his guitar off, and you know I did the usual thing of like "who, me?". I was looking around to see who the fuck he was pointing at, but he was pointing at me and just sort of threw me the guitar mid-song and um, being an Elvis fanatic I obviously knew it and I think he kinda knew that. So uh, I got up and played and we did 3 or 4 of them over there, and then um when they played in Melbourne recently he called me up and said do you wanna play on it here. So yeah, I was rapped. You know, that's the thing, we come from sort of different backgrounds but obviously we have similar influences, and it was cool to be doing that song in particular coz I think it's 50 years since that song was recorded, and it's arguably the birth of rock and roll right there in that song.

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MMM - With me in the studio this week live it's Chris Cheney from The Living End. You're looking quite comfortable there, I hope you're enjoying yourself.

CC - I am, I am.

MMM - Anyway, you were just mentioning before you were in the USA for a while last year and, uh this year as well...you just can't stop really. But the end result is that the American record deal with Warner fell over I've read somewhere, and by the sounds of it, it wasn't a bad thing.

CC - You know, I think we came to a sort of mutual decision to part ways, and coming from here and being signed to an American label, you know they want you to spend ALL the time there, and we've always been very wary of doing that, because we definitely want to not neglect what we've built up in Australia and stuff. So it's a matter of finding a compromise. I dunno, as long as I think we can keep making music and play to our fan base, to me that's the main thing. I just want to make sure we can be a self-contained unit, and no matter what albums come out on whichever label, you know as long as we can be a live band and tour I'm happy with that.

MMM - Ok well we're gonna be playing the latest single from you guys coming up in just a few minutes but first, here's something live from Nickelback. Isn't Chad an ugly man, do you think so?

CC - He looks like the Paddlepop Lion, that's great.


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This bit was only about 5 seconds long, but I thought it was funny.

CC - Hi this is chris CHEENEY (note - he emphasised the EE sound deliberately. Hehehehe.) from the Living End and you are on Planet Rock..