Adam Ant Is No Longer a Goody Two Shoes

By Shelley Leopold Thu., Sep. 13 2012 at 3:34 AM

Hannah Domogala

Adam Ant, the charismatic post-punk British pop star responsible for a generation of pirate shirts, returns to the U.S. after a long absence. Now 57, he's picked up more tattoos and a smoking habit since we saw him last; despite being battle scarred from years in the music business and recent bouts with bipolar disorder, he has kept his cool.

The current Ant persona, a black-clad, wisely edited version of his MTV teen idol past, shows Ant (aka Mr. Stuart Goddard) to be a darker, grittier performer. His flamboyantly-titled, guitar-driven new album Adam Ant Is the Blueblack Hussar in Marrying the Gunner's Daughter, is due out on his own label in October. Speaking from London, he tells us about his show at the Mayan tonight, and how an '80s icon goes about aging gracefully.

So, you're touring off your upcoming album already?
We've been in Europe, England and Australia. In the States, I'll be playing stuff from previous albums with one new song. I wanted to put on a show that if I went to see it, I would hear something that I liked. It's gone very well. We're nearly sold out on the entire U.S. tour, and that's a lovely feeling.

Do you have a favorite song that you love to perform?
The new show is really a nod back to Kings of the Wild Frontier (Adam and the Ants' breakout 1981 hit album), and the idea of what [the ant warrior character] would look like 30 years later. Perhaps he'd been a hussar in Napoleon's army and he'd walked to Moscow and back and survived! The idea of aging with grace and what he'd be like as a more mature kind of guy, having seen a bit of life. That's the concept. It reflects back to my favorite record, which is Kings.

So that's how the new album title came about?
Yeah, very filmic in its approach, and you'll remember it!

How was making this new record different from the others?
Lyrically, it's more personal than the others, and its got a bluesy, swampy feel to some of the tracks. I worked on it with Boz Boorer (The Polecats, Morrissey). Seventeen songs in total, and it's a bit of a journey.

We hear you've taken up smoking. Does that mean "goody two shoes" doesn't apply any longer?
Yeah, probably that and many other things (laughs). When I did "Goody Two Shoes," I was approaching life as an athlete would. I had never been interested in smoking or drinking and I've never ever been interested in drugs taken out of choice. I thought to myself one day, 'Why not [smoke tobacco]? This is my body, I'll do what I want with it.' I think people read more into that [song] than I did.

You used to live in Los Angeles. Anything you miss?
I had a house in Los Feliz for about eight years and enjoyed myself enormously. Hugo's restaurant on Melrose was my favorite hangout. They do a chicken pasta that I used to love.

Adam Ant plays the Mayan tonight.

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The Mayan

1038 S. Hill St., Los Angeles, CA

Category: Music

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cmwhalen2001

He is free to do as he pleases - if he wants to smoke a zillion cigarrettes a day - fine with me. But as a chanteuse, a singer - that is how he earns his living - it is dumber than a sack of hammers for him to start a smoking habit. I've noticed a dramatic change in his vocal range since he started smoking and his voice is much worse for the wear and tear on his lungs from the smoking. His vocal range is nowhere close to what it was before he started smoking - but it is his body and he can do what he pleases with it. He also started drinking - but that's his private business. I also don't care if he shags every woman from Maine to Mexico.....He still is enthralling, mesmerizing, a conjurer, snake-charmer, wild-man, highly seductive, snake-hipped, feral, phosphorescent, flammable entertainer. Even as he is pushing 60 - he is remarkably fresh faced and has an almost child like beauty in his countenance. I doubt he has a face pumped full of Botox like every two-bit celebrity in Hollywood. He looks quite trim, fresh and natural in his late 50's. Adam has a fan base from little tykes in grammar school, kids in their 20's dig him, and us old geriatric Baby Boomers who were feral punk kids in the 1970's are still his ultra-loyal devotees. I am dripping wet with sheer anticipation for his performance in San Francisco, October 18th at Regency Ballroom. Having been an Ant Wench since the 1970's when I was a little punk rock girl in my nubile, tender youth - I am intensely interested to see how the resurrected Adam Ant has re-invented himself. His remission from bipolar illness is a testament to the heroic nature of his temperment. Antpeople world wide are thrilled to see Adam rise like a Phoenix from the ashes. Not for ANY rock star would I travel four hours on the train, blow $$ on hotel and get scorched $9.50 "service charge" for a $29.50 ticket. Only for the love of Adam would I make this kind of effort to see him live in concert after a 15 year absence from the music industry. Long live the

Under Lord of Ant Culture and Insect Nation. I want to ADAM HIS ANT, but that's never gonna happen - since he can easily snag girlfriends who are in their early to mid 20's. I'm the same age as Adam Ant, so I can fugggedabout any foolish notions of him and me hooking up! That hasn't stopped me from fantasizing since 1997 about doing UNSPEAKABLE things to him!