NEXT Magazine
(NY, NY)

22 MAY 1998
Subject: The Velvet Mafia

Dean Johnson, first of The Weenies and now of The Velvet Mafia, breaks down the songs on his new album, We Know Where You Live - and finally gives us the true story behind his obsession with Stevie Nicks. But where are the bodies?

How would you describe The Velvet Mafia and what you do?
I'd call it musical theatre disguised as a rock band. We all play characters in the band; the sound is a cross between the B-52's and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. It's an outgrowth of glam-rock, with a post punk attitude. What I like about punk rock is the fact that anyone can do it. Anyone can get up on stage and make music. I never studied music and had no idea what I was doing when I formed The Weenies. I got my education on stage.
When did you form The Weenies?
Back in '85. Dean And The Weenies. We were a club band. We used to play Rock And Roll Fag Bar and some of the other clubs. It became something of a phenomenon. I did this song called "Fuck You" in the film Mondo New York. From that I was able to get a recording contract with Island Records. They signed me based on my performance of "Fuck You" but when they realized I was a gay activist and a drag queen, they freaked out and found an excuse to dump me. They released my record in an unmarked brown paper wrapper and then said that they were dumping me because the album wouldn't sell. (Laughs.) They printed out thousands of CDs of "Fuck You" and then decided to get rid of them. They dumped them into a dumpster behind the Island offices. Homeless people pulled them out of the garbage and sold them for a dollar on St. Mark's and it became a huge phenomenon. That's how I really established myself as a performer back in '87.

So Island Records probably isn't releasing this one.
No, Trip Records is putting out this album. They're a small independent label based in Miane, where I'm from. It's a gay-owned label and they have a definite political agenda. The themes in my material are consistent with the kinds of projects they want to promote.
Would you say you have a political agenda?
I would say I have a social agenda. I grew up in the '70s. It was a very hard time to grow up gay, and very hard for me to pretend I wasn't. I've been motivated primarily by trying to be as visibly and openly gay as possible, and hopefully make it easier for people who are growing up now.
Generally, your subject matter revolves around drag queens, hustlers, crack whores, rock and roll fags...
Well, I write about what I know. (Laughs.) Those are the people that inhabit my world, but you rarely hear them or see them in popular culture. I really wanted to show people the reality that I know with my lyrics.

Good titles on this album. "HIV: Her Infinite Vanity" is one that sticks out a bit.
"Her Infinite Vanity" is about how you just can't escape AIDS, even if you have it. It's there, every time you meet someone new. It permeates all facets of our lives and makes me very angry. That song is really just an expression of my frustration about HIV.
When you perform, how does the audience react?
Never had a negative reaction from an audience. Never. We're always met with unbridled enthusiasm. It doesn't matter where we're playing or what kind of audience we're playing for. In fact, straight audiences tend to be the most enthusiastic. I find it astonishing, actually. I think it's got a lot to do with middle-class guilt, you know? All this material dealing with drag queens and hustlers and drug addicts... Maybe everyone is feeling oppressed by mainstream culture, and that's why they respond the way they do - they react to the fact that I'm trying to tell it like it is.

Tell me about "Fierce Ruling Diva".
That one was inspired by Lady Bunny. She was the first person I ever saw wearing bellbottoms in the Eighties. We were laying in the gutter on Avenue A and drinking a bottle of Olde English 800. She was wearing these corduroy bellbottoms, telling me about her career as a two dollar whore out on the highways in Georgia, where she used to pick up truck drivers in her platform shoes. This was back in '86. I ran home and wrote "Fierce Ruling Diva."
"The Jersey Gigolo"?
That one was about my teenage boyfriend at the time. He was a go-go boy at The Rock And Roll Fag Bar and he's coming back for the reunion. I think he was from Paramis, New Jersey. He told me he'd gotten his education at the Paramis Mall. That song was dedicated to his mother.
"Baby Looks Good"?
That's about a teenage runaway who is killed by a sexual predator.
True Story?
What inspired me to write that song is finding out I was HIV-Positive and that I'd infected my boyfriend. I felt like a monster. I felt like a killer. That song is basically an expression of all of my horror and angst and fear. We're both very alive and very healthy today, but that was ten years ago when we thought that AIDS was a death sentence.
And "Deli Boy"?
"Deli Boy"! (Laughs.) That one's inspired by a deli boy who used to work at Katz Delicatessen. He was this Greek God teenager. It's funny because he grew up to be a junkie, and now I see him out on the corner of Avenue A occassionally, not looking nearly as beautiful as he did back in 1983, when I wrote that song. It's a Grecian ode, written in the style of the "Grecian Ode to Beauty and Heroism". There's a lot of classical allusions in that song.
More important than classical allusions, did you get the deli boy in the end?
No I didn't, unfortunately. It's all a fantasy.

"Mona Lisa is a Drag Queen"?
That was inspired by an article in Art News that came out about twelve years ago. They'd used a computer to determine that the identity of the Mona Lisa was actually Leonardo da Vinci himself. The painting is actually a painting of Leonardo da Vinci as a drag queen, basically. They matched up a self-portrait he'd done as an old man with the facial structure of Mona Lisa, and found that it was an exact match. Even though the story was on the cover of an established art magazine, it really didn't get a lot of coverage.
All right, what about the opener "Velvet Mafia [The David Geffen Song]".
I was in the steam room at the YMCA on Sixth Avenue, and this hairy little man kept staring at me and staring at me. Somehow, the title and song came to me immediately.
Was this hairy little man Geffen himself?
No! It was just some hairy little... well, I got 'round to thinking: what would it take for me to actually sleep with this guy? If he was David Geffen, I would do it.
"Money Can't Buy U Love [But It Can Buy You Me]".
Listen to the lyrics. I think it's pretty self-explanatory.

I ahould say that all of these songs were written ten, twelve years ago. Only a few of them are new.
I'm surprised to hear that.
When The Weenies fell apart, I started doing dope for awhile. I was a heroin addict throughout the entire Bush administration. When I stopped doing drugs and got my life back together, I'd pretty much given up any hope of continuing with music... but I was watching this video of Tina Turner doing "A Fool In Love" and it moved me so much that I started crying and I started to think I was staring into the face of God. Don't worry, I know that sounds incredibly cheesy. But I went back and listened to my old songs, and some of them had really held up. Strangely, I ended up meeting (bass player) Little Mary Feaster that same day. We hit it off instantly. Twenty minutes later we were up on a roof-top, smoking a joint, and planning to form a new band.
What kinds of music do you listen to?
I don't listen to it ever. It's like eating donuts when you work at Krispy Kreme. I spend so much time making music and thinking about it. When I come home, all I want to do is watch daytime television. Jerry Springer twice a day. My husband is Puerto Rican and he listens to classical disco all the time. He's the dictator of the stereo and I don't ever attempt to use it. (Laughs).
Influences?
I have many, but I don't listen to them... Lou Reed, The B-52's, Cher and Stevie Nicks... I worship Stevie. I've been in every single Stevie Nicks tribute that Jackie 60 has ever done. It's bigger than Christmas for me. I spend a month getting ready. I literally can't sleep the night before. My cat is named Stevie Nicks. So I have influences, but I never listen to them.

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