Roxy Saint: The Mr. Skin Interview

What made you choose to put out a DVD album instead of going the traditional route?
I think the music industry is changing. I am, yes, a musician but I wanted to put a DVD out because I want to change the format of music. That's a very bold statement, but I wanted people to see me as I was expressing my songs.

Your DVD reminds me of early Richard Kern films with their explicit sexuality. Is he an influence?
Yeah. I also like Andy Warhol a lot. And Blue Velvet. I'm also a big fan of Breaking Glass. More stuff that's geared towards sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll, like Andy Warhol was with The Velvet Underground. I just wanted to exploit Hollywood in a different way.

What Andy Warhol films are you into?
Edie. I like a lot of his art as well. I'm just really inspired by Edie mostly, and the fact that he could just sleep and he could film it and it'd be great. I've really tried to put a lot of things together and make it my own. My main goal is being real and exploiting Hollywood. People in the underground music there, it's a totally different world than Disney and all the stuff we know it for.

So, where'd all those dirty images in your DVD come from?
Well, it's 'cause I'm more like a voyeur-type, I think. I get everyone really drunk and encourage them to do things they wouldn't normally do. I'd just film and I would do this every night, have a party or go somewhere and I create this energy around me. It's more like me winding people up.

Maybe you could share with us how to get pretty girls to take off their clothes for the camera?
At first, I wanted to get girls with boob jobs. I'd tell them, "I'm making this video and I really want you to be in it. I'm in rock 'n' roll." Because I'm a musician it's kind of like the same thing as being a guy. You know what I mean? It's not like the girls are groupies or anything like that, but I was kind of testing them to see how far I could make them go.

How far did they go?
Some of them would do whatever I say. It was interesting. It was made up from the rock 'n' roll. They just wanted to hang out with me. It's kind of like a genderless thing in a way. Most guys have all these groupies and girls around them all the time, so why not a girl? I was just testing the limits of people. Girls that say they're straight or gay or whatever, I wasn't really doing it myself but I was creating it through other people.

No wonder everyone wants to be a rock star. You get all these really hot girls to take off all their clothes and act out. Does that turn you on?
I'm kind of schizophrenic, so my answer changes all the time [laughs]. Some of the girls I made friends with because I thought they were good and I wanted to use them in the video. But a lot of them were kind of like groupies; they wanted to go out with me. I just took advantage of that. At the same time it helps them because they want to be actresses. I gave them something back. Most of the girls, they just wanted to please me. It's like I'm a guy and I'm in a rock band and I go, "I'm going to put you in a video."

The girls aren't your typical video vixen-types, they seemed real, so I just assumed you ran with a pretty wild crowd.
Some of them, yeah, but others I just found. I would see somebody and say, "I like this person." There was a scene going on around me at the time. I was trying to prove some point of you don't have to be fucking a guy to have all these girl groupies. If a girl is smart she can have all the guys and the girls.

It's more of a power thing, it's not like you have a certain type of girl that you think is really hot.
I think Angelina Jolie is hot (Picture: 1 - 2 - 3). She's not helpless. She's not a victim. She just kind of takes charge. She just has an attitude about her. She's a rock star, but she's a movie star, you know? And the movie Gia that she was in was so cool because she was so pretty and she liked girls. To little girls it's like, wow, it's interesting.

I don't really like that many other actresses. Actresses that I liked before are now trying to be rock stars.

Are you talking about Gina Gershon ?
Yeah, and Juliette Lewis; it's kind of ruined it for me. I don't know why. I guess I'm judgmental [laughs]. I don't think actresses can become rock stars, but rock stars can become actresses.

Do you see yourself as an actress and a rock star?
I see myself as a rock star and director. I've been offered movies. I've been offered record deals. In my own way I wanted to take those offers, but something kept me from doing that and that was trying to prove my point. I don't think I would deserve the credit I'm getting if I was doing movies all my life and then all of a sudden wanted to be a rock star. I'm thinking, "What character are they going to play onstage?" To me that's not real.

Your films are quite provocative. Do you remember the first time you saw a sex scene in a film and how that affects what you're doing now?
I remember a Sharon Stone movie, Basic Instinct (Picture: 1 - 2 - 3). That was kind of cool to me. With her and the girl. It was just really powerful. You see so many weak women around, I mean, I'm not saying everyone should be a lesbian, but it was just a powerful moment to see that scene. It wasn't that I wanted to be a lesbian or I am or I'm not. It's just different and I was, like, wow, they're doing something that I've never seen.

Blue Velvet with Isabella Rossellini (Picture: 1 - 2 - 3) getting beat and taking all that. It was very interesting and dark to me. Angel Heart (Picture: 1 - 2 - 3) was really good. And that movie with Faye Dunaway and Mickey Rourke, Barfly (Picture: 1), I like that. The danger and sex, just giving up, you know, you're already in the darkness so you just keep it going because you have to see it through. That's kind of what I'm doing with my music and film.

What's the attraction to the dark side?
I think it's because I was so angry.

Why were you so angry?
It's been a hard road, but now I'm doing good. I got cut no slack whatsoever [laughs]. It's just been really hard and I was kind and good and sweet and people try to take advantage of that. What I've become now is so different. It's taken me a while not to be afraid to say what I think. I say a lot of rude things or things out loud that most people want to say but they don't say them.

I've just lost my fear of people, like record companies or people that are going to say something bad about me. That's what I was trying to encourage in the DVD with the girls as well. If you say you're a slut, bitch, or something else, what more can someone say about you? Even if you're not that, but if you go out and say that it's much safer. It's not an emotional thing. In one of my songs I sing, "I'm a cheat, I'm a liar, I'm a creep." So, basically I can do whatever I want because I already said I'm a liar and a cheat. This is what I've become right now. It's almost like survival techniques.

It's a freedom. And you do seem awfully uninhibited in the DVD getting naked and dressing sexy. Is that the real you or are you playing a role?
I'm not a porn star. But if I don't have a guy or a girl and I don't have sex for a while I'm more sexy onstage. It's like I starve myself and then when I'm onstage or in front of the camera it's almost like a reward. It becomes more intense.

Guess you were pretty sexually frustrated while making the DVD because you're hot.
That's my secret. You know, the girls would flirt with me and I'd flirt back because I was trying to accomplish something. It was interesting, but I stayed in control. I didn't give that away to any of them. Even though the reason a lot of them were doing the DVD was they thought they could get that from me eventually, like I'd be attracted to them. I'm definitely more of a challenge, because I'm the voyeur.

I'm not aware of the effect I have on people in kind of a na? way. I'd get some girl to take her clothes off and get into a bathtub and do this or that and they would just fall for me. Me controlling them did something for them, but I didn't always realize that at the time.

Do you think pretty girls want to be controlled?
I think a lot of them, yes. I appreciate strong women. But I also appreciate people who want to please me or be controlled. If that's what they need to find themselves I'm all for it.

Everyone loves to pigeonhole, and I've read reviews that compared you to everyone from Iggy Pop to Marilyn Manson. Who are your musical mentors?
Mozart, actually.

The original bad boy of music?
Yeah, and I believe in him a lot. He had no outside influences. You know, he was insane. But he was a genius as well. I've been around every style of music, I'm also a songwriter, so I can write any style I want. I believe that every year, every month in your life you change as a person, and at that point that I was writing all the music I was really mad. And now I have to see that through because it has to be real for me. So, I'm not able to get away from it. I've created this monster and I want to see it through. It's very important for everything to be real for me, even if I have to suffer.

Speaking of the music, you have song titles like "Fuck" and lyrics such as in "Rebel": "Now what's wrong, you scared? I want you to go down there."
Yeah, it's about a girl going down on another girl. But the "Fuck" song, the place I was at, I was mad, I was rebellious. I wanted to say words that most girls don't say. I wanted to do things that Madonna hasn't done yet, which is really difficult.

The music industry to me is turning into something so packaged that it's gotten to a place where there are all these pop stars. There are no more Doors or Stones, no more amazing real stuff going on. I got angry and want to be the best at what I do.

Do you have obsessive fans?
Yes. I say in one of my songs that I'm starting a revolution and people are, like, you could be a cult leader, Roxy. I start a revolution so there are people who want to blow things up for me, poison anyone I want. I have people who want to throw dead body parts on me onstage. When somebody says that to you or writes an email like that it's really intense. So I don't make it an issue. I'm like, "Cool man, I'll see you at the show."