When the lyrics are that spunky and bold, it’s quite hard not to be taken aback, and Steel Panther often have no line they are afraid to cross with their lyrics. Recalling his collaboration with the band, Justin Hawkins said in the recent video of his Justin Hawkins Rides Again Youtube series that the lyrics were out of his comfort zone and out of his wheelhouse; however, he couldn’t help but admire Panther for their daringness in their words.
“This was always my observation about Steel Panther,” Hawkins began, sharing his initial thoughts about the band. “When I first had an opportunity to sing with them, I was like, ‘Oh yeah, I could, love to do that; sounds brilliant.’ I’d seen them live when they did a lot of covers as part of their residency on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles back in 2008-2009.”
The singer noted, “I was there quite a lot doing a bit of session guitaring and a bit of songwriting stuff out there, and I’d always go and see these guys, and they were awesome. They just played really note-perfect covers of these brilliant songs from the ’80s, and they didn’t have that many of their songs in there.”
“I didn’t quite know what to expect when they said, ‘Oh, here’s the lyrics,’” said Hawkins about going in blind by not knowing how their lyrics would be. He added, “I was looking at them going, what, it’s really a long way outside my wheelhouse in terms of the way the humor is fully passed a line, and they don’t give a f*ck; it’s pretty impressive. I wonder if you could put a bed of incidental music that clouds that out somehow because they’re not going to stop. So I was basically shocked by the lyrics that they sent over.”
He continued, “I sang it, but it was with a degree of resignation to what it was; you know, it’s a long way past the line that I like to put. I like to have one foot in each, but they go a long way past it and offset it with some brilliant playing.”
Even though Hawkins was on board to sing the song, the lyrics were too far off from where he would prefer them to be, so he sang ‘Party All Day’ with some hesitation and maybe not giving it his best shot. Although the lyrics crossed lines for him, he admired Steel Panther’s courage for being unapologetically themselves to perform those songs live for fans.
