Why did you leave Trouble?
    "During the Plastic Green Head tour in Europe I basically told the band I was gonna leave cos I wasn't happy with the direction of the band, namely the increasing mention of drugs in the lyrics. I guess it does have something to do with the fact that I'm a Christian but it was more that the drug thing wasn't me as a person and I didn't want it being associated with me."

But aren't drugs a big part of the whole doom and stoner rock scene?
    "It doesn't have to be that way and let me just say that I didn't really go for the super religious biblical lyrics found in some of our early releases either. To be frank, I'd have been quite happy to stay with some of our early 90's releases (Trouble's self titled first release for Def American), that kind of heavy blue groove.... My influences, as well as most of Trouble were probably the early 70's heavy rock bands like Purple, Zepplin, Budgie and of course Sabbath, which influenced us most in the early Trouble years. But the changes that Trouble went thru were because we allowed our other influences to also creep in."

So was that heavy religion stuff cos of Jeff Olson (Trouble's first drummer and lay preacher and currently Supershine's drummer)?
    "Actually no. It's funny you should say that but Eric has always written all of Trouble's lyrics! I guess it came from Eric's early interest in Biblical subjects, not from his interest in being a Christian, but from searching for something that was interesting."

Wow, you all sound pretty different as people, how'd d'you all hook up?
    "Eric and I played in a band together in high school but real heavy music wasn't popular in the late 70's so we ended up putting ads out to get other members. We ended up finding Rick (Wartell) and we all clicked together cos we all wanted to be as heavy as imaginably possible and I think we pretty much succeeded with the first album ha ha! We recorded a live show and a guy who was helping us with our publicity, Wade Brooks, was distributing these tapes to the underground and Metal Blade had gotten hold of a copy. Brian Slagel made us an offer but we actually ignored his first letter cos we wanted to get something bigger ha ha! We held out for a year but then he sent his second offer and we figured this was as good a place to start as any."

What about amazing veteran drummer (and vocalist) Barry Stern?
    "Well, being from Chicago we'd known him for years man. He was in (hard-core street metal outfit) Zoetrope and we did shows together and hung out. At the time Zoetrope was on a downswing and we needed a drummer so we asked him as he is a great drummer as you witnessed from that Expo show - very animated and real a slammer ha ha!"

I guess its fair to say that Trouble's now a dormant band but available for hire!
    "Ha ha, thats basically it. Exactly in fact, ha ha! Nowadays we've all got day jobs man. My wife and I have a small office cleaning business. Ron (Holzner) and Eric (Wagner) have construction jobs, the last I heard. Barry works as a DJ. And Rick cooks and sells fresh fish in a restaurant!"

Tell me about your Supershine project with Doug Pinnick of Kings X - where's the name come from?
    "I guess its stems from the believe that if you split your soul your spirit will shine. We actually did a cover of a Grand Funk Railroad song called 'Shining On' and the lyrics to that song also kinda fit in nicely with the concept that I'd been thinking about doing when I left Trouble. But as I developed the project it got to the point that I realised that I needed a singer. I'd always been a fan of Kings X and I've met Doug Pinnick (Kings X bass vocalist) plenty of times over the years so I asked him. I didn't want this to be a one-off record but I wanted Supershine to be an equal partnership between myself and Doug."

That sounds like quite a combination!
    "Supershine is basically Trouble's music but with Doug singing it. Its soulful singing with a few harmonies but basically still that heavy groove rock that we talked about. And I do emphasise the heavy ha ha!"