MIKE VALLELY. Re-hash interview. Summer 2003.

MIKE VALLELY.
This is an interview I had originally done for Static-Void with Mike Vallely. We had loaded in the car and drove out to Hollywood to see Mike's band The Rats play a gig with Greg Ginn of Black Flag/SST fame. The show was pretty low key. But the music was on point and for those in attendance...it seemed they had a good time. I know I did.
Below is my original header and interview from that show.

Mike Valley speaks on Vallely skateboards, the industry, Australia, Slam City, CKY and his Greatest Hits! This interview took place May 26th after the Mike V and The Rats set at Dragonfly in Hollywood California. Enjoy...

You have been a professional skateboarder for almost 17 years now. Your carrier shows a person who always wanted to do their own thing, you always were trying to remain true to yourself, to stand by your ideals and it made you a bit of an outcast in the industry. Now you have your own company Valley skateboarders which seems to be something that was a long time coming, What is the concept behind the brand and what role do you play?

Well at the end of the day it definitely is about doing my own thing, I had the opportunity to do it so I did it. But I have to be honest with you about the company, the opportunity for me to do it means a lot to me. To use my name and to think that my name will always be synonymous with skateboarding, that rubs my ego the right way. But I hope beyond the surface shit, there is a part of me that believes or hopes that calling the company Valley skateboards and putting it out there in this manner will have some meaning, it will have a place in skateboarding. But right now is the worst time in the world to start this company. When I started it the industry was getting ready to take a couple steps backwards. It has happened before, it will happen again and things will come back around. But when that happens it becomes a business of supply and demand, I'm not about supply and demand. That's somebody else's headache, it's not my headache, and I don't give a shit about it. So I have had to kind of divorce myself in some ways from the idea of, this is my company and that this is something I'm going to invest myself in. I can't deal with conversations that are just about sales. That right now is the very ugly bottom line with the skateboard industry. It is a very scary business right now, companies are on the verge of going out of business, and everyone is trying to figure out some way to generate more sales. Everyone is trying to undercut one another; companies that said they would never do blanks are now doing blanks. Companies that had some solidarity, that were willing to stick together are now starting to fall apart. It's an ugly business and I want nothing to do with it, I'm more interested in riding my skateboard and going out skating at skateparks, doing demo's and interacting with skaters not selling skateboards. So like I said in a way I have had to divorce myself from and hopefully it comes back around were things are going well. Boards are selling fairly descent so my budget can open up and let me have some fun and put my heart and soul into the company in an artistic way that is in line with what my aesthetic is. I'm not willing to put that on the line right now because I have had my heart broken so many times in skateboarding. I felt like I have been trampled and stepped on that I'm not willing to give this to people who only concern is sales. So when things come around you will definitely be able to feel my presence in the company. If that doesn't happen and the company goes in a different direction, because all though it is Vallely skateboards and it's "my" company I don't have total say over the thing. These boards can end up in toy stores, you never know and if that happens then that happens. The business is funny like that right now, my bottom line is I know where I stand and I know what I want to do. I know that regardless of where the boards are sold, or what the bottom line is at headquarters I know where my bottom line is and I know what I'm to continue to do. It can become a tangeled web for a lot of people but I don't really get caught up in it anymore. I know what my path is and I walk it, they try to throw a web around me and I walk through it and I'm like what the fuck are you thinking.

You were recently in Australia doing demos and then in Canada for the Slam City Jam, how did those events go?

I went to Australia and it was billed as a Farwell tour. The intention was to Australia, do the States and do Europe this year. Pretty much say this is going to be my last big tour, I'm going to put the pressure on to perform and bleed at every demo. There is going to be some big ugly scene at the end were I try a trick a hundred times before I make it which is pretty standard for me. I love it but it is also pretty painful and it has taken its tool on me. Being on the road that much...I just can't be away from my family for that long. It becomes harder and harder to justify especially when you have a ten year old daughter who really needs her dad right now. So I billed this thing as a Farwell tour, the U.S. tour still may happen, Europe I don't know. I don't what to be this several year drawn out thing, like Farwell, Farwell you know. But it is probably going to bleed into next year, I hoped not but it looks like it's gonna. I'll probably go back to Australia, I'll probably do demos again, I'll probably skate but it's not going to be in the same manner. It's not going to be a big hyped up hoopla thing. Next time I go to Australia maybe it's with the band, maybe I visit some skateparks and I session with the locals. I don't anyone to feel like I'm coming in and I'm going to put on a show or that it's all about me. I really have grown out of that; I'm kind of over that. So I'm trying to say goodbye in that sense, but I don't need to prove anything anymore. I'm coming in one more time, if you've never seen me do a demo, come out and check it out, I think you'll have a good time. After this you may get to skate with me, or see me skate but there won't be a big hoopla about it, at least not in my own head. Other people may create hoopla, but I'm going to be like I just came to skate and if I don't pull one trick it doesn't really matter.

That was kind of the idea and I went down to Australia and everyone was like, "no I don't believe it, you'll be back." I was like of course I'll be back. As far as the Farwell tour in Australia it was really good. The Australian skaters have always treated me great, they always rolled out the red carpet for me. People come out to demo, they get fired up, they cheer me on and they participate. It's best place to skate for me, it's a crowd that really understands where I am coming from with my skating. They don't buy into the hype and bullshit about me that comes out through out the skateboard media. They know I come to skate and I'm all about the skating. They are just like we came to see you skate, we don't care about how many people you beat up in the cky video, they don't get caught up in that stuff. There is some folklore around there for sure but generally they are about the skating. When I'm in that environment where people are just fired up on the skating and they're there to see me skate I feed off that. My best skating has gone down in Australia...Then I went to Slam City and that was billed as my last Slam City. Like I said I'm on this Farwell tour but I don't know how long it's going to last, hopefully not to long. I've been to all the Slam City contest but one, so I've been there nine times. I never have cared to compete, I've done well in a few of them and other times I'm 120th or something. It never really mattered to me, I always looked at like 45 seconds or a minute that is my personal demo. My wife was like, "try and do your best, to finish well, it would be a good way to go out." I was like Ann the reality is I'm not going to skate good, I'm over it and I don't care to compete. I mean of course I'm going to go out and try my best, first thing that happened was I missed my first trick, so then it was over. I had a few descent runs but nothing really came together. But I got lucky because they do this thing called Best Trick and it is perfect for me. It's a timed session so you have 20 minutes to do your thing. If you give me 45 seconds I might not be able to pull it together but if you give me 20 minutes I will do something that no one else can do. So I got that opportunity and I do the best trick contest, they had this vert wall thing with like 5 feet of vert. On that particular obstacle I won the best trick event, I feel like I had a good showing and I was able to walk away winning the best trick event, I felt good about my skating. When they were giving out the awards I had another session, I had the whole street course to myself and everyone was watching me. I was like fuck the contest it's about skating and sometimes the best skating goes down at practice or after the contest. The idea of competing is actually stupid to me but to actually get up there and I have this whole arena full of people and I get to do a demo, even the other pros are watching me. So it was fun. I go to a lot of events and you think that you've been through it enough but I go there I get like, fuck this! I get angry; I go through this whole emotional thing. I shouldn't even be here, fuck all these motherfuckers. I think I'm not even going to skate; I'm going to grab the mic and chew everyone out. I think of all these crazy things I can do, I'll just start beating everyone's ass, I start thinking everyone in skateboarding needs their ass kicked. I have all these wacky ideas going through my head and at the end I get to skate and I feel good. I get to skate, get it all out and that's why I started skating, so I can squash that shit in a very positive and productive way. Luckily no security guards came on the course, no one tried to push me off my board, so I got to just skate it out and it felt good.

What's up with the DVD, Mike V's Greatest Hits?

The DVD is something I really never thought I would do, a lot of people have asked me to do something like this through the years but I never thought I was in a right place in my own head to do it. But in the last couple I really feel I have grown up and evolved in a lot of ways. So I feel like I have enough distance from the incidences that are in the video that I understand them, I know the mistakes I made. There is also something about the incidences in the DVD that I don't regret any of it but at the same time I don't think I would do the same thing again, but you never know. Sometimes when I watch this video and I think about what's happening, what my alternative actions could have been then I think these guys got what they had coming. Then at the end of the day I realize it's not my job, people fucking suck but what are you going to do are you going to beat everybody's ass? Every fucking asshole that crosses your path, are you going to fight everybody-you'll be fighting for the rest of your life and that's a lesson that took me a long time to learn, thirty something years. The CKY fight, that's the last time I've been in a real physical confrontation with anybody and that was about 2 years ago now. People see the CKY video and are like, "you chocked out that gardener". The shits fake, it's skits, everything in CKY is fake except for my fight, the fight in CKY 3 is very real. I feel like in a lot of ways I make it very hard on myself and in other ways I just reckon most people are just so fucking stupid that I don't care what they think. "I saw in CKY, that was bad ass!!!" Yeah whatever dude. It just kind of roles off me at this point, people think I'm ultra violent, I have a bad temper, I have heard the most insane stories about things that I have done that never happened. There is nothing I can do about it, people are going to talk, the stuff has been seen, and the footage had been out there. So I figured I'll at least compile it and at least try and explain why some of these things happened. Although I don't really think anyone is going to listen to a thing I have to say in the video, I think they are just going to see the footage and it's just going to be perpetuated, the folklore is only probably going to grow. If that happens, oh well there is nothing that I can do about it. I know where I stand I know what is real for me, what's real in my heart and my soul. I know that I'm not that guy even though...look at the cover of the video, It's all hype, it is completely designed to make money. I cannot walk down the street, any day, any city without someone going, "You beat all those guys asses, I saw it on the Internet, I saw it in CKY 3, you're the fucking man." I'm like ok I've been skateboarding for 19 years, I've been there for it, I've participated in it, I'm an active member in my community, I'm proactive in every way and this is what people know me for. It's truly apart of who I am, part of my personality because I have been willing to stand on the frontlines I have gotten in physical altercations. But that to me is just an unfortunate extension of my base of operation, it's something I have had to learn about. My base of operation has never changed, I'm still the same guy, and I'm still going to stand on the frontlines. Although now I'm going to stand there and I'm going to go, that's not cool fuck that I won't do that. I used to think that my only option was to fight somebody to show them the violated me or crossed a line, this what you get. Now I'm like fuck you that aint worth my time but I'm still going to be there. If I see shit going down or I see somebody picking on somebody, if I see somebody do something wrong to somebody, violating them in any way I'm going to step in there. I'm gonna go don't do that, who the fuck are you to do that to this person. If they do it to me, if someone gets in my face, I'm not going to stand there and take it. I doesn't mean I'm going to beat there ass though, I used to think that was my only option, the only way I could show them but then I learned I must just like these mother fuckers. That's a horrible feeling to have, it's like at the moment of impact all of my being is in it, I think this is what needs to happen. Afterwards I go why the fuck did I do that now I feel like a bag of shit. So what am I driving at? I could have given you a very short answer to that question and I can also talk about it all night. I don't really now what to say, the video is what it is. The video speaks for itself, in some ways watch it with a grain of salt, it's pretty tongue in cheek. It's meant to be entertaining, it's meant to be funny, and there is also some stuff in there that may piss you off. There is some stuff in there that may make you think this guy is an asshole, there is some stuff that may make you think this guy is classic. But I can't tell everyone how to think about it. I think there is an audience for this, there is a smart audience that will watch it and understand it, there is also another audience that will eat it up and go overboard with it. Go out on the streets and try to fight everybody who fucks with them. The other will be so disgusted with me and be like, I told you this guy is an asshole, I knew it all along. Those categories of audiences have existed my entire career in skateboarding. I have had people chanting my name, talking shit, stabbing me in the back, not be willing to come up and talk to me about anything. My bottom line is I may be full of shit but if someone comes and speaks the truth to me I'm able to hear it. I'm able to say I was wrong; I'm able to apologize and say I'm sorry. In a lot of ways I put this video out to say fuck you, it is what it is, deal with it. If you don't like it fuck you! I'm giving you a lot of different angles, like I said it is what it is. I'm putting it out there and I'm comfortable enough in my own skin to stand by it.