Before the LoveDoll's tenth annual concert, on Sept. 2nd, the two Jons got a chance to interview Jeff McDonald. Jeff was in a good mood, despite his cracked rib and was kind enough to answer some questions we've gathered from the fans on AOL.

Visionary: I was wondering about the Fillmore show you did with Penelope Houston? How was that? Was that the first time you met her?

Jeff McDonald: I believe so. Actually, you know what? I was so busy running around, I didn't really get a chanceto meet her at all. Which is ironic, since we're such huge fans, but overall it was kind of uneventful - unfortunately. (which explains why he seemed a little stand-offish that day!)

V: What's the deal with the original cover from Born Innocent? It's put in appearances on the cover of Third Eye, and in the CD booklet for Phaseshifter.

JMc: Yeah! No one's even noticed that, you guys are the first; that's great. It's our kind of magic secret weapon. Hopefully it'll appear on every record.

V: What are your favorite bands that you've played with?

JMc: Oh jeeze... the Dead Boys, the Go-Gos, the Germs, the Lemonheads, Teenage Fanclub... STP was really fun - we had a great time on that tour.

V: ...and you're on tour with them in Europe?

JMc: Yeah, you know we're not really sure, those things are always in the air until you're actually there. So we're really not quite positive yet, but I think so.

V: If you could turn people on to some bands, like, four up-and-coming bands... what would they be?

JMc: That's difficult, usually everyone knows about the up-and-coming bands... I'm a big Muffs fan, Pink Kross from Glasgow - they're amazing...ummm... I don't know. Everyone knows the bands I like... Okay, two from the present and two from the past... the Quick and Sparks.

V: Okay, this question's from Valerie: Any tattoos, body piercings, or children we should know about?

JMc: No... actually I do have a tattoo... [rolls up sleeve to show us his hand and eye tattoo] but it's very small and uneventful.

V: Vices - do you have any?

JMc: Smoking, unfortunately; eating junk food. Boring, very non-rock and roll vices.

V: Who is your ultra-fox of the year?

JMc: Oh, what's that girl's name from "My Strange Life" or "My Unusual Life" or what is that new show?. Oh God... what is it?!? ["My So-Called Life"] It's the new teen "Fifteensomething"-type show. I just saw it for the first time last night, and the girl who's the star, she has red hair. I don't know her name, but I think any of your readers might know who she is [Claire Danes]. She is, like, the coolest new thing.

V: Did you use the Shaggs as inspiration when you recorded "Yesterday Once More" for the Carpenter's tribute album?

JMc: Actually, we kind of had to forget about them, because their version was so great that we didn't want to be too influenced by it. Because I really worship that version of "Yesterday Once More". You know what? We interviewed Richard [Carpenter] and I totally forgot to ask him what he thought of their version. I really like the second Shaggs album. If you have the CD maybe you don't know that it's two albums, but "Yesterday Once More" is from their second album, "Shaggs Own Thing". If you have the CD, it has both albums complete.

V: You did that Sky Saxon/Purple Electricity thing...

JMc: That was a bootleg!

V: ...how was that?

JMc: It was fun! Sky wouldn't rehearse, so Steven and I were just forced to jam, and Sky made up on-the-spot lyrics and he was kind of unaware that we were doing, like, "Dazed and Confused" and "Cherry Bomb" - all these classic songs from our repertoire. And then when I saw the bootleg, the joke was on him, because it said "All songs written by Sky Saxon." You know, forget Led Zeppelin, forget the Runaways, forget everyone else he was stealing from...

V: How did you get Gene Simmons to come to the Palace and sing Deuce with you?

JMc: Gene asked us, he wanted to do it. We were on tour and he just left a message on Steven's machine and we said, "Ok, great!" It wasn't like we really looked for him or anything. We hadn't thought of it, cuz we don't really do "Deuce" that much any more. He said he'd wanted to do it and we figured, "Ok, we'll do that."

V: What's the first song you wrote that you still really love to play?

JMc: I don't know... jeez... I always liked "Linda Blair". We've kind of temporarily retired it, but it's still one of those numbers that comes up every once in a while.

V: Any songs that you just cringe to play?

JMc: [without missing a beat] Yeah, "Peach Kelli Pop"

V: Really?

JMc: People always wanna hear that song, and it's just we've been playing it for so many years that it's just a nightmare for me. But I will do it ocassionally; I mean, I don't hate the song, I'm just sick of playing it.

V: What was in the Flaming Neurotica Starter Kit? I never got one, and really regret it.

JMc: Ketchup packets, incense sticks, an incantion, photos of Linda McCartney, a Yoko Ono mask, explicit directions on how to cast a good spell on yourself. It was way witchy. Very way before Courtney Love and her new witchy thing.

V: You guy definitely have that thing of being like five years ahead of everyone anyway...

JMc: ...yeah...

V: I was wondering who or what is Saragon?

JMc: Nothing really, we just kind of made it like he was our retarded superhero, and we figured that would be interesting. We wanted to have a song about a superhero that we created ourselves.

V: That would be a good Saturday cartoon show.

JMc: Yeah, it'd be kinda strange, but that would be good.

V: If you were the last people on Earth, what would you do first?

JMc: The last people on Earth... That's a really weird question, because you wouldn't go ransacking places for things that you want because it wouldn't matter, cuz you could have everything. I've never pondered this question. I don't know. Shit, I absolutely do not know.

V: How old were you when you first picked up a guitar?

JMc: Probably like 10, no it was 11, and I got lessons from this Christian folk girl, but all she did was sit around and gossip and chat and we never really learned anything. I had a really terrible acoustic guitar that hurt my fingers, so I kind of gave up. Then my aunt loaned me her good Yamaha acoustic guitar and a Cat Stevens guitar book with the little finger diagrams in it. So I played Cat Stevens songs first.

V: When you were on the Tonight Show, what were you talking about with Merv Griffin?

JMc: Merv was really into my suit and he said "I could've sworn you were a British band... you can't get clothes like that in America". And he was really into Gere and her platform boots. He is a very nice man, actually.

V: What's the last book you read?

JMc: I'm reading "A Confederacy of Dunces" [John Kennedy Toole] right now... it's awesome - really cynical, nasty, funny book about this strange, bizarre, weird guy.

V: Any movies or books that you recommend?

JMc: I would recommend that book, and movies... I'm really into A Bucket of Blood - I just discovered that; it's an amazing film. A Roger Corman movie from the fifties, it's very much kinda like the original Little Shop of Horrors. It's about this weird, simple guy who works as a busboy in a Beatnik coffeehouse and he wants to be an artist and he accidentally kills a cat so he covers it in clay and becomes this, like, top artist and he starts killing people and covering them in clay. It's a very good movie.

V: Any words of advice for the youth of America?

JMc: Quit school if it bores you, figure out what you want to do and just go for it. And only go to school if you can apply what you're learning to your chosen career.

V: Any projects coming up that you can discuss? Recordings, movies, Tater Totz...?

JMc: I have this one project, but I can't discuss it, because if I discuss it, it'll never happen. No Tater Totz. Hopefully we'll record some new music after we finish these tours. Uh, going to Japan this week... that'll be really exciting. I've always wanted to play in Japan.

V: You guys have never been there?

JMc: As a tourist, yeah, but never to perform.

V: Seems like you should do pretty good over there....

JMc: Yeah, we hope so.

V: Are you going to go to a bathhouse?

JMc: In Japan?

V: yeah.

JMc: Like Shonen Knife? Well, maybe... I don't think they allow anyone with tattoos into the public baths, but we'll see.

V: Turn-ons and turn-offs?

JMc: Turn-ons - great pop songs, great pop bands, if a group has amazing pop songs and they're an amazing band, I worship them. And turn offs - disco, and techno music annoys me. And stupid baggy fashion for men, men's fashion turns me off...

V: "The Big Pants Kids Syndrome?"

JMc: Yeah.

V: We understand that there's a Redd Kross version of "Dancing Queen" floating around...?

JMc: We recorded it a couple of years ago because they were supposed to do some ABBA tribute in England, and it's out there but it hasn't been released. Spin magazine did an interview with us and they put a couple of tracks on the disc...

[Steven briefly enters the converstion]

SMc: But that only goes to college radio and stuff...

JMc: Yeah, but that sort of thing floats around, so...

SMc: Rodney Bingenheimer has it, you can call his show and request it - he'll play it and you can tape it.

V: Would you care to comment on the influence that the band STAROCK has had on you?

JMc: Have you seen them? They're a very powerful, strange and unusual band, those lucky enough to have ever heard them and feel their influence... you will be greatly enlightened. And I would just seek it out in any shape or form. The first clue would be San Francisco find anyone who collects weird public access video, and you might stumble across STAROCK. Music for the future. [Notice how he neatly avoided answering the question?]

V: What is your ultimate goal?

JMc: Oh gosh... jeeze... jeeze Louise... ultimate goal...umm.....I've achieved so many of my ultimate goals, I don't really have one. I keep my goals attainable, so I can just continue meeting each goal, but my ultimate goal... I'd like to be, like, one of the top power people in show business, so I can do all the weird projects I see fit, and wipe out mediocrity in this world.