Long Beach Dub Allstars recently released their cover of Butthole Surfers’ classic ‘90s jam “Pepper.” In a video shared exclusively with The Pier, LBDA frontman Opie Ortiz revealed the link between the two bands.
“Our connection with the Butthole Surfers is through Sublime,” the singer explained. “Sublime was doing pre-production or post-production, I can’t remember when it was, but [guitarist Paul] Leary came to town and they were all doing shit or whatever. So he came and hung out.”
The two musicians hit it off and Ortiz – a world recognized tattoo artist – inked the Butthole Surfers’ rocker.
READ MORE: How Opie Ortiz Gave Sublime Its Eternal Symbol
“I ended up tattooing him and we kind of really just chopped it up and talked about music and all kinds of crazy stuff,” Opie recalled. Flash forward several years, Long Beach Dub Allstars wound up in the studio with Leary. “We ended up recording (2001’s) Wonders of the World with Paul Leary. So that was our, like our larger connection through that.”
LBDA’s cover of “Pepper” appears on the upcoming compilation album, Operation Irie (available for pre-save now). Ortiz says their song choice was obvious when they were invited to be part of the project.
“It’s just a killer song,” the singer remarked. “It had a huge effect on me because I mean Butthole Surfers are just super iconic in my genre of music and punk rock and psycho whatevas.”
