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 Tracy Almazan is a dream of an interview subject. She's a veteran of NYC rock bands, the Wives and Helldorado, where she drummed and played guitar, respectively. Then, in the summer of 2000, when Nashville Pussy bassist Corey Parks left the band, Tracy was recruited and spent over a year touring with them. During that time, Tracy befriended the ladies in NP's opening band, Betty Blowtorch. Here's where the "dream" becomes more of a nightmare. In December of 2001, after a gig in New Orleans, Betty Blowtorch bassist/singer Bianca Halstead was killed in a freak car accident. Tracy and the rock world were devastated. A few months later, I'm sitting with Tracy in a bar in the East Village. She's here to talk about why she decided to leave Nashville Pussy to start a band of her own, tentatively called Sucker. But the subject of Bianca inevitably comes up, as does the lawsuit against the man driving the car when Bianca was killed. It helps to know that Tracy was also once the assistant district attorney for the Bronx. What follows is everything we don't know about what it means to be a member of a kick-ass band. We also learn about that horrific night when the world lost Bianca, and why Tracy's decision to be true to herself is the ultimate definition of dignity. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
NYROCK: |
Why are you leaving Nashville Pussy? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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TRACY: | Well, I've just done a lot of thinking. I'm not really a bass player. I told them when I joined, they're my favorite band, they're probably the only band in the world that I'd consider picking up the instrument for. After two years, I was kind of feeling dissatisfied playing the bass because it's really not my thing. I've been drumming since I was five, and playing guitar forever, so when you're out on the road as much as Nashville Pussy is, you need some type of serious satisfaction. I'll always love being onstage, but I wasn't getting that thing that I think I need to really do this every day of my life. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
NYROCK: |
Are you primarily a songwriter? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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TRACY: | Yeah, I've written tons of songs, and two of the songs that I wrote the music for are on Nashville Pussy's new album. I'm probably happiest sitting on my couch at home writing songs. I love being onstage, but everything else is "eh," I could do with it or not. [But] how do you tell three people that you really care about that you've decided not to participate in the thing that's most important to them? It was really hard. I'm not the greatest communicator, especially when I'm upset, so I made it very business-like and tried to express how sorry I was. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
NYROCK: |
What was their reaction? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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TRACY: | "No. No you can't. You can't leave. We have tours..." | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
NYROCK: |
Was it bitter? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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TRACY: | To them, it did come out of the blue. I gave them about 30 days notice so they could find somebody to go on this next tour. So they're annoyed, I'm sure, but hopefully at some point they'll understand that I gotta do what makes me happy and hopefully this will all work out for the best. I hear they got a great new bass player, Katie from Famous Monsters. So I kinda felt like I was passing it on, like here's somebody else's shot. You know, I had a great time, now it's time for somebody else, somebody who'll be there till the end. Nashville Pussy will be out doing it forever and ever, and God bless them. And hopefully, I'll be at their shows. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
NYROCK: |
So tell me about Sucker. Has this been in the back of your mind? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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TRACY: |
[Now] Blare lives in California; I live here. She came out for the [Bianca Halstead] benefit. She came out a week in advance, and we jammed a couple of times with some musicians that we knew. And then at the benefit, Chip played drums for us and Gyda Gash played bass; we both played guitar and Squid [from the Lunachicks] got up and sang. It was like this insane female thing that was just so rock and as good as it gets. We all kind of got inspired after that. As soon as I came home, I got a call from Squid. She was like, "Would you be interested in drumming for me?" and I was like, God, I haven't drummed in literally two years, but yeah of course. And I was like, by the way, I'm writing all this stuff, would you play bass for it? And she was like "God, I haven't played bass in like two years, but yeah I'll do it." | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
NYROCK: |
So, tentative line-up for Sucker: you, Blare, Squid? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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TRACY: | I desperately want Squid. I'd be playing guitar. I don't know who I'd get for a drummer. Jennifer Finch [of L7] wants to do some writing with us, so it's gonna just work itself out. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
NYROCK: |
It's like the all-stars! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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TRACY: | (laughing) I don't know. I don't really feel like a star; that's for sure. It's more about personalities. We all get along and have fun. They're great people, so it should work. We'll see. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
NYROCK: |
What kind of album do you want to make? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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TRACY: | I want to make the next Rocks by Aerosmith. I've been listening to Aerosmith for the past nine months almost exclusively. They're so fucking great. Between them, the Rolling Stones, Lynyrd Skynyrd, that's all you need to know about rock music. Throw a little AC/DC in there, and you've got the rock thing going on. So everything I'm writing is really rock. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
NYROCK: |
God bless you. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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TRACY: | Yeah, it's kind of strange since rock is so small now. I don't even know what's going on with rock. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
NYROCK: |
I'm waiting for that conglomerate of women to come together and blow everything to pieces... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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TRACY: | (laughing) The Alliance! There are so many amazing female musicians out there now just... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
NYROCK: |
...floating | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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TRACY: | Yeah, floating and trying to decide what the fuck to do. There are people that don't know that there are girls out there playing guitar like guys. Blare and I have been talking about doing a single, and recruiting Squid and some other people, start it like that. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
NYROCK: |
Would you want to do a full-blown tour? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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TRACY: | I think it would be a recording-before-touring type of development. Blare and I are really into it, she's just such a great person that I kinda feel like all this shit, this unspeakable shit that has happened on that last tour, something good has to come of it. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
NYROCK: |
What did you learn on that last tour? What did you take back from that? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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TRACY: | I take a lot of comfort in the fact that Bianca, literally, maybe a day or two before she was killed, finally realized for herself that she kicks ass. She didn't always think that. She didn't have an ego; she didn't think she was this big rock star; she had doubt, self-doubt. She was really scared when the girls [Sharon and Judy] left*, she felt a lot of responsibility. She was like, Oh my God, can I do this, just me and Blare? And I think she got it, like "Wow! It sounds really good, and we're pulling this off and I am really good." She was really where she wanted to be, and I think that's important, because you don't know when it's going to end. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
NYROCK: |
Did that influence you in any way to take that step to say, you know what, it's been great being a bass player but... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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TRACY: | I'd be lying if I said it didn't. I had these thoughts for a while about Nashville Pussy, like this isn't exactly what I'm supposed to be doing. And it did make me think, if I died tomorrow, I'd have to say I am not satisfied, and I don't want that to happen. Because I haven't really talked about leaving, I've heard these theories and rumors and it fucking cracks me up. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
NYROCK: |
Like what? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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TRACY: | People think I just got very depressed about what happened, and it's fucking depressing, believe me, but it's not like I was sad to the point that I'd never play guitar. It just kind of motivated me to get something positive out of this and do what I need to do. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
NYROCK: |
Um, so there's no easy way to approach this, but however you want to talk about what happened to Bianca.... You guys were there on tour, and after the show... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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TRACY: | After the show we decided... This guy Brian McAllister was there. He had come to a couple of other shows, and I don't know how he got down to New Orleans, but he showed up in his brother's Corvette in New Orleans. The premise was that he was going to interview her after the show for this Web site, Metal Sludge. We were trying to figure out where we should go after the show. We agreed to meet back at the Matador, this really fun rock-n-roll bar. We got in the van, and Bianca got in the Corvette with Brian. We all drove to the French Quarter. We were in the Howlin' Wolf, and we came back about an hour later at the Matador, and Bianca was in a really good mood. She had already done her interview with this guy. There was such a big group of us, so at some point we decided to go down the street to this place called Molly's. Fifteen minutes into it, it's late now, like five o'clock in the morning, and I was like, I gotta go, I'm so tired. We're getting ready to get into the van and Blare drove. Blare and Bianca would be sober, so they'd drive. Everyone else was drinking, so we thought we'd be covered as far as having a safe ride back. I turn around and I'm like, "Where's Bianca?" and someone said, "Oh, Brian drove her back to the hotel." We're driving back on the highway, the hotel was maybe a 12-minute drive, I'm laying down on the back bench, and one of our roadies says "Whoa, check out that wreck on the other side of the highway." And I was like, "What kind of car?" And he says, "Red Corvette." I think we all thought it, and immediately dismissed it. Can't be, it's the other side of the highway. We just drove back to the hotel. We all just went to our rooms and I don't even know what time, somebody was knocking on my door... Tracy was told that Bianca was in fact involved in the car accident and had died the night before. Tracy started to get upset, so we took a little time out. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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TRACY: | The police department was great. They really accommodated all of us. They went out of their way to be as helpful as they could. The following day, we were all there together. The coroner opened up the office on Saturday so we could come get her jewelry. It's so bad.... She wanted to be cremated, and the waiting list in LA to be cremated was something like a month, ridiculous. In true LA fashion, there's a waiting list to be cremated. So her stepfather and her mom decided to have her cremated in New Orleans, and they were able to do it the next day. So we all decided to stay on and do it with her. Funeral hall was amazing; they let us go to the crematorium. They warned us that it wasn't a ceremony. It was a very industrial aspect of it, but if we wanted to do it, we had the opportunity to do it. It's like an oven and a button. I wasn't sure that I was going to do it because I knew it was going to be brutal, and it was. We woke up really early, and we brought a boom box and we brought AC/DC and we went to the crematorium following Bianca in a hearse. We went in. She was in a cardboard coffin, and, um, we played "She's Got Balls" by AC/DC and Blare and Kelly [Spencer, senior director of A&R at Foodchain Records] pushed the button, and we gave her the nicest send off we could. It's horrible. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
NYROCK: |
I'm sure it's the only way she would've wanted to go. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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TRACY: | Yeah. It's sad, but I'm really glad we were able to do that. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
NYROCK: |
Do you know the specifics of what happened? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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TRACY: | The coroner and the police there thought that he [Brian McAllister] was drunk. He was injured and needed surgery, and first of all, Bianca never ever would have gotten in the car if she thought he was drunk. So if he was drinking, it wasn't to the point where you were like, "Whoa, this guy's fucked up, I'm not getting in the car with him." Our general feeling about it, like the Nashville Pussy camp, was like, you know, this guy's a big fan, she's a hot chick, and he wanted to impress her. So he would've never let on [that he was drunk]. But being the cocksucker that he was, he was going to show off, and went over a hundred miles an hour in a Corvette and lost control, hit one car, cut the wheel, went across the median, hit an oncoming car that hit Bianca's side and killed her. Was his judgement impaired? Probably. You have one beer and your judgement is somewhat impaired. But, you know, I can't drive 100 miles per hour stone cold sober. He was so intent on impressing her, I'm sure that was what was up. Like early on that night at the Matador, he was peeling out, burning rubber. And Metal Sludge says they don't know who this guy is. So whether he really was going to submit [the interview] to them, I have no idea. The press reported [his name] as William McAllister because it was his brother's car. But his name is Brian, and he's the one that's being charged. He's gotta live with it every day of his life, and it's gotta be brutal. He obviously didn't know anything about her. She's a really careful driver. She had a hot rod that all her friends say they've never seen her do more than 40 miles per hour in. He was just like, she's this rock chick; she's wild; she's crazy; man, she's gonna love it when we go this fast. So he didn't even know her. It's really sad. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
NYROCK: |
Is there anything else you wanna talk about? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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TRACY: | Well, my old band Helldorado is going to be recording in about a month. That was a great band. We had a lot of trouble with our lead singer, but he won't be in on it. He's now a Born-again Christian. He renounces rock 'n' roll. Anyway, that's kind of exciting. And, okay, I bought a bar. I have three partners. And, um, yeah. It's like my first business venture. Anything to keep me out of a suit for as long as possible. * Guitarist Sharon Needles and drummer Judy Molish quit the tour in the middle of the night, leaving Blare and Bianca to finish the tour without them. April 2002
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