(Michael Bloch)
Yesterday we shared the adorable story of the indie rock band that picked up indie director John Waters as he stood hitchhiking on the side of a road in Ohio. This morning the bassist for Here We Go Magic, Jen Turner, spoke with us about their magical experience with the director of Pink Flamingos. It turns out Waters hitchhikes a lot—he’s even hitchhiked with Patty Hearst—and gets plenty of rides even when wearing a hat that says “Scum of the Earth.” Here’s Turner’s tale of her six hours in a van with John Waters. (Here We Go Magic’s tour continues tonight in Chicago
Have you been deluged with media inquiries? Absolutely. In the beginning we were just sort of tickled with it. It’s just such a cool story that you can’t not share it. The fear is that you beat something to death but at this point I’m just still delighted with the mysticism of it. We picked up John Waters hitchhiking! What on earth? I’m just sort of rolling it over in my brain like I lost a tooth up there or something.
Now what do you say to conspiracy theorists who think that John Waters is a huge fan of Here We Go Magic, and this was just orchestrated as a publicity stunt to promote the band? [Laughs] Wow. That would…I’d be completely awed. I would push that story, I wouldn’t mind at all! But the truth is we actually picked him up hitchhiking. It was a complete and utter coincident.
So what happened once the car pulls up alongside him and he gets in the van? We pulled up and we saw him and everyone went, “That’s definitely John Waters.” We opened the door and I said, “Hello how you doing? Where ya coming from?” And he said Baltimore. We were like, “Uh huh,” totally knowing that he was from Baltimore. So we said, “Come on in!” He got in the van and he got all tangled up in the seat belt, it was really adorable. That was the first thing that happened. We’re traveling in a van and there are all these seat belts that block your way. You know, the ones that go from the side to the seats in the middle.
So he was totally tangled and he didn’t even remove himself. He just sort of sat down, entrenched in seat belts. He was a perfect gentlemen. We addressed the fact that we knew it was John Waters and he very calmly accepted that information. It sort of rolls on from there. The shock of the event wore off pretty quickly in exchange for the warmth and the kindness and cleverness of this human being that’s now sitting next to you. He became a human being very quickly. He answered every single question and he was even a little shy about photos. Finally it was like, “My mom wants a picture” and “Do you mind if I Tweet this” and he was fine with it. We were like, “What on earth are you doing this for?” He was like, “I have a lot of control in my life and I just wanted to let go of the reins a little bit, have an adventure.” He’s such a true artist and it’s so cool!
(Courtesy Jen Turner)
Did he say how long he’d been hitchhiking? Well, that day he had been standing there for many hours. I guess no one recognized him. Not to mention he was wearing a hat that said “Scum Of The Earth.” I don’t know if that was helping him or not. He had been hitchhiking for a few days from Baltimore, I think. He said that half the drivers that picked him up knew who he was and the other half didn’t know who he was.
Did he open up about his experiences hitchhiking? He mentioned that people will go wildly out of their way to take him places, even people that didn’t recognize him. I think he was happy with the kindness of strangers because people think it’s a myth that anyone is kind anymore. Not like the old days when I’ll pick you up on my horse and drive you in the country. I think he was trying to say that everyone had been super nice. He got a lot of local guys. At some point, when it was getting really late, he finally made a sign that said, “To the next hotel” and he got a ride really quickly.
Do you know where he’s ultimately headed? No, I think maybe the wild blue yonder? Seeing where the road takes him. Not like us! We have an exact way we have to go. I wanted to go with him!
You guys are a bunch of working stiffs. [Laughs] Absolutely. I gotta work in Chicago! We asked him to come with us! He considered for a little while but he had to go with the flow.
Did you ever see that Seinfeld episode where Kramer is hitchhiking and he gets picked up by these weird hippies and things go terribly wrong? I haven’t seen that, no.
Turner and Waters (Courtesy Jen Turner)What were some of the questions you asked him? I had to ask him the cliched ones, like did Divine actually eat the poop? Was there actually an enema? Did they really give the dog a special diet? Those things. He was asked a lot about his art projects. He’s got the photo project in which he photographs TV shots and then creates storyboards with them.
The funniest thing was when he got into the van and sat down, tangled in the seat belts, he said, “Hello I’m John Waters.” [Laughs] That’s so funny. He was also talking about how when he was hitchhiking with Patty Hearst and he got into the car, he got in the front seat and she got in the back seat and the driver was like, “Hey are you John Waters?” And he said, “Yeah, but that’s Patty Hearst.” And she said, “Ah, he made me do this!”
He made Patty Hearst hitchhike? Yeah! Which is funny considering her past.
He bought you lunch or something? Yeah, he did. We were going into this Italian deli with our per diems, our little $20 a day thing, we were thinking we would get a coffee and maybe a little bit of cream cheese to share between all of us. He was like, “Okay! Well I’m buying!” So we were like, “Okay! Well, in that case I’ll have a whole angel food cake, three bagels…” It was very kind of him. He was a gentleman, you know?
I’m not surprised to hear that. He taught you some new words? Yes! He did teach me some new words, which he instantly credited to all the other people he’s been hanging out with. The first one was “trendsexual.” He was saying that he thinks that it’s time to get back in the closet because there are too many out there now and it’s too cool to be gay, I guess. The other one was “blouse,” which is such a great term because it means a feminine top. You know, like the opposite of a bear.
How long did he ride along? About six hours.
Wow! Yeah, about six hours. He got in the car about 10:30 in the morning and we dropped him off at about 5:30. We made sure we were dropping him in a big place. He left his glasses in the car.
Oh no! Yeah, we had to bring him back his glasses.
You brought them back? Someone did. Someone from our label was at the show and he lives kind of near where Mr. Waters was staying. He’s surrounded by fairies, everyone just wants to help him. He’s so loved. The response we got was incredible people being like “Ahhh I love him!! I’m crazy about this guy!” But you can understand why, he’s so cool, he’s such a gentle spirit and he’s so earnest that of course people are going to love him.
Did he give you any advice? Just by the mere fact that what he was doing was advice enough. Live it. Do it. Work hard. He writes at 8 a.m. every single day. That was really, super inspiring. He works really hard. He’s a super hard worker. I was really excited by his work ethic and his lightness. That was advice enough for me.
Is there anything else you want to share about this amazing experience? Maybe just that it’s hilarious that this is happening the week that our record comes out. We got more attention! Millions of people. We literally got 1,000 followers on Twitter because we picked up John Waters.
And you expect people to believe that’s a coincidence? I can’t expect people to believe that because it’s so far-fetched. But the truth is that it really happened! I’m still flipping it over in my mind every couple moments. Like, Here We Go Magic, there it is!
It’s great viral marketing; my hat is off to you. I have a feeling we’re going to see a lot of indie record labels doing crossover promotion with indie movie stars and directors and getting them to pick up hitchhikers. It’s a brilliant strategy! Yeah, thanks man. I’m actually a marketing major from Harvard.
