Las Vegas Weekly

July 9, 2009 · 5:02 PM

Slightly Stoopid’s smart decision to tour with Snoop

By Allison Duck

When Sublime’s Bradley Nowell hand plucks your band from obscurity during high school, it’s probably a sign of good things to come. Slightly Stoopid was discovered and signed to Skunk Records by the Sublime frontman when its members were just teenagers. Sixteen years later, Slightly Stoopid has joined forces with Snoop Dogg, Mickey Avalon and Stephen Marley on the Blazed and Confused tour, making a stop this weekend in Primm. Slightly Stoopid’s guitarist and bassist Miles Doughty chatted with the Weekly about his thoughts on touring with The Doggfather, recording at the Palms and getting help from Sublime in their early days.

Your music can be classified in about six different genres. How do you describe your style?

We kind of play everything. We like to call it a melting pot of madness just because there’s really no other way to describe it. We play hip-hop, blues, acoustic, metal, punk rock, reggae, funky stuff, it’s kind of a little bit of everything.

What was your relationship like with Bradley Nowell of Sublime? Did he help discover you years ago?

He signed us to Skunk Records back in high school when we were, like, 16 or 17. He was just a friend and a mentor when we were kids and just kind of gave us our start. He got our name out with Skunk Records.

Who approached whom for the Blazed and Confused Tour?

[Snoop’s and our] agents happened to be friends, and we told our agent it would be sick to do something with Snoop. And Snoop was into it and we talked about it and he was down to do it. A fan actually named the tour. We put up a little message on our website to name the tour for the summer and some fan came up with Blazed and Confused and we liked it.

What tour date are you most looking forward to on this Blazed and Confused tour?

I think the whole tour is going to be dope. Slightly Stoopid, Snoop, Stephen Marley, Mickey Avalon- it’s pretty insane! We’re looking forward to every night. It’s going to be a party for us as musicians; we all get to jam together. Everyone does their own set then at the end of the night, we share the stage together.

I hear you have played some of the tailgate parties at UNLV. What is your connection with the school?

There’s no connection really, just somebody called our management. Somebody at the school paid us to play there. I like going to Vegas. I was just out there a few weeks ago. We went and did this thing for iTunes called “Live at the Palms.” It’s like a live jam exclusively for iTunes that they release before the tour. There’s probably going to be like 12 tracks on it. It’s a mixture of old and new stuff. I was hitting the blackjack tables at the Palms and won like $1,300, so I was stoked.

You have a string of pretty funny CD titles like Slightly Not Stoned Enough To Eat Breakfast Yet Stoopid, what is your next one going to be called?

I don’t know. Maybe it’ll be Stoopid is as Stoopid Does. We try to come up with something cool each time. That’s one of the hardest things to do, is come up with a cool name.

Have you toured with Snoop before?

No, this will be the first time. We met up a couple of weeks ago. It’s always kinds of nuts, I mean, it’s rock and roll. It’s going to be crazy. Snoop’s a cool cat. People don’t realize he’s just a regular cat. He’s awesome to be around, just a real smooth operator. He’s touring with a full band too, not a DJ. It’s going to be sick.

Cheech and Chong have said that when it comes to drugs and their kids, their only rule is if you take from the stash, you have to replace it. How are you going to be with your kids when it comes to drugs?

Well, I’m not going to smoke in front of them when they’re young or nothing. I’ll talk to them about it, but it would be hypocritical of me to say they can never do that. I’m also going to tell them to be smart about it. I do it and I’m still smart about it; I’m responsible. I smoke every day, but I still take care of my shit. Some people do it all the time and use it as an excuse not to get anything done, which is sort of stupid. Everybody’s going to try something. The best you can do is basically educate them to the fact that you can’t be stupid, don’t be slightly stupid I guess.

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