They’ve been dubbed “The hardest working original band in Ventura County”, but to the uninitiated, a band called Preachers & Pornstars may elicit images of some white trash metal sleazefest — some ungodly mix of Nashville Pussy, White Zombie, Lynyrd Skynyrd, a truckful of moonshine and a garage full of crack. The band’s MySpace profile does little to dispel the image. Under “Description,” they list one fan’s opinion of them: “If by some weird twist of fate Kurt Cobain (before he was killed by Courtney), Rob Zombie, and Ozzy ended up in a huge orgy with a gaggle of white trash debutantes, the stain on the sheets would be them.” Then there is the music. Shannon Parson’s haunting vocals, Mike Jones’ thudding garage-metal guitars, Ron Cochran’s thunderous bass lines and drummer Scotty Nolan’s powerhouse beats and partial striptease at the occasional show, along with song titles like “Roofies & Handcuffs,” may have you looking for the Jim Beam bottle or the “adult content” label. Underneath it all, however, the music and songs pay at least as much heed to ’70s road warriors such as Grand Funk Railroad and Black Sabbath as they do White Zombie. “Shan’s very much the frontman type. He gets up in your face. Out in the parking lot, he’s the nicest, coolest guy, but up onstage, he gets so into the music, something happens.” states Cochran, “He turns into someone else. It’s like Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde.” Making a name for yourself through the abundance of emo / screamo bands in Southern California is not an easy chore. “We’re not really effected by the scene around us, when it comes to writing our material, because we feel that there really is no scene at the moment for what we’re trying to do. We’re busting our asses to change that. It’s time for rock to make a huge comeback and I feel that we’re actually helping that happen.” states Parsons. “We’re 4 guys with different musical backgrounds, meeting at a crossroad and using all of our influences to make kick ass music that we would listen to. How can we expect to get other people into what were doing if we’re not enjoying it ourselves.” Preachers & Pornstars have had their fair share of opening gigs in their first year of gigging. They’ve opened for Powerman 5000 and played back to back gigs with Prong, The Exies and Drowning Pool at the World Famous Whisky A Go-Go in Hollywood. They also landed the opening slot of HELLYEAH's Balls, Volume and Strength Tour, when it made a stop at the Majestic Ventura. When asked about the Preachers & Pornstars experience so far, this is what Parsons had to say - “It’s been an amazing rough ride so far. We’ve made it through a ton of crap in our first year and a half (losing and replacing members, car accidents, broken bones, blood, sweat, tears, uncontrollable rashes, etc.) Life’s full of all kinds of shit like that, but if you want something bad enough you just have to pull yourself up, dust yourself off, learn from the bumps, get back down to business and make shit happen. It’s that simple and I wouldn’t change a thing about any of it. ”
