Superstar Chicago DJ Bad Boy Bill invaded Nashville recently with his banging peak hour style of floor-filling music. Before coming in, he chatted with our own DJ B about his international travels, mixed CDs and original tracks.
DJ B: I understand you're somewhere on the coast today?
Bad Boy Bill: Yes, I'm out in LA.
DJ B: What's going on out there?
Bad Boy Bill: I've just got a little pad out here, so I'm trying to avoid the cold weather and stay warm.
DJ B: Are you doing any work while you're there, or just hanging out?
Bad Boy Bill: No, right now I'm just hanging out. I'm doing some work, I'm pretty mobile with my businesses so I could just work from basically anywhere where I'm at.
DJ B: Cool. You have anything going on in-between now and when you show up here in Nashville on the 31st?
Bad Boy Bill: Yes, I'm going to Germany this weekend coming up. I think I have a gig on the 30th but I'm not sure, but yes, I'm looking forward to Nashville for sure.
DJ B: Have you been here before?
Bad Boy Bill: I believe I have, can't remember exactly when but it's been a while.
DJ B: So, where in Germany? I noticed in looking at some of you bio material that you actually had a residency in Deutschland for a while.
Bad Boy Bill: Yes, I'm going to two cities that I love, one is Koln and the other is Munster.
DJ B: Have you been to the Dome in Kelm, the big cathedral there?
Bad Boy Bill: No, I haven't done that yet..
DJ B: The last time I was in Germany, I actually graduated from high school over there, but the last time I was over there they had a big Andy Warhol exhibit at a museum right next-door to the big cathedral there. Because one of the things that Warhol painted was the cathedral itself. So it was, it was pretty cool.
Bad Boy Bill: Where did you go to high school, which city?
DJ B: It's a little place in the western part of the country called the Hunsrook, it's right in the Mozo river valley where all the white wine comes from.
Bad Boy Bill: OK. What's the biggest city near there?
DJ B: The biggest city that's nearby is probably Koln, it's about the same distance from Koln and Frankfurt. There's a place called Zorin that's relatively close, which you've probably never heard of but…
Bad Boy Bill: Right, right, right.
DJ B: It's south, well it's kind of central western Germany is where it is.
Bad Boy Bill: Gosh, yes, because Düsseldorf is where I fly into a lot of times or Frankfurt, but I mean I play a lot in that area. I’ve been to Hanover and just a ton of cities that I've played over there.
DJ B: Have you been to Berlin for like the Love Parade thing or anything like that?
Bad Boy Bill: Yes, I've played Love Parade in Berlin three years in a row a few years back and I do a lot of the big festivals, Nature One as well. I mean, there's just a ton of stuff that I do in Germany, it's usually a lot of summer stuff too, there’s a lot of stuff going on.
DJ B: Yes, a lot of festivals and stuff like that. Did you do Hurricane this year?
Bad Boy Bill: No, I haven't done that.
DJ B: There's a local band from here that was over there and played that festival, they said they had a pretty good time there. So, how did you get the Germany hook up, I mean did you go over there with like a label deal or you just know people?
Bad Boy Bill: No, it's probably because a lot of the guys from Germany are fans of old school Chicago house music and one guy in particular actually came to Chicago and tracked me down in a club I was playing at in Chicago. this is years ago he was the owner of one of the clubs and he got my information and he brought me over there and I just saw my reputation build just from going over there so much and I've been going there ever since. And now actually the guy that owns that club is actually my booking agent over there, so he handles a lot of my bookings in Germany and the nearby countries.
DJ B: So have you had a chance to work with PVD or…?
Bad Boy Bill: I mean I think I played on the festivals that he's done but it's not like I know him personally.
DJ B: Not like you're close personal buddies.
Bad Boy Bill: When you play at a festival, a lot of times you don't see other dj’s. They come in at different times and they do their thing and I do my thing.
