In a new video interview with music journalist Joel Gausten, former Prong / Flotsam And Jetsam bassist Troy Gregory discusses his upcoming, still-to-be-officially-named solo album, and other facets of his decades-long musical career. He also discusses late Killing Joke guitarist Geordie Walker, who passed away in November 2023 at 64.
Gregory toured as Killing Joke’s fill-in bassist on the group’s 1996 Democracy tour at Walker’s invitation.
“The special time with Geordie was those two weeks rehearsing in England,” he says. “We stayed at (regular Killing Joke bassist) Youth’s place. We would sit up all night drinking tea and eating cookies – biscuits – and smoking. We’d always go, after rehearsals, to this little restaurant around town, a curry place that he loved. It was fantastic.”
“He was always nice to me,” he adds. “He picked up on that, at the time, I was still very naïve, still very troubled, and still very stupid in a lot of ways. Rather than knock me (for) that, he would give me advice and was helpful. There was no one like that cat, and it was a pleasure to know him.”
Describing his time in Flotsam And Jetsam and Prong as his “college,” Gregory shares that his evolving creative ideas were the catalysts for his eventual departure from both bands.
“I turned 21 about a month or two after I joined (Flotsam and Jetsam). It was fun being in that group and playing those shows. I was still discovering myself and realizing what it is I wanted to do. I realized that what I really liked in composing wasn’t working for any of the groups that I was in. There was this whole thing – was I gonna stick with this? With the Prong thing, we over-toured the group. Everybody had their own little personal issues, and there you go.”
Check out the full interview below.
Gregory played in Flotsam and Jetsam from 1988 to 1991 before starting a two-year stint in Prong. His post-Prong activities have included work with The Witches, Swans, The Dirtbombs, Crime and the City Solution, Super Birthday, Sixto Rodriguez, Nathaniel Mayer, and Troy Gregory and the Stepsisters, among others. A sampling of his vast solo output is available at troygregory.bandcamp.com.