Baby rock gods
Tex: My complete inability to do anything else guided me to this. I got sacked once too often and it coincided with an opportunity to leave Brisbane and go to Sydney and off I went.
Spencer: It was a passion to follow that dream.
Tex: I never had a dream. I just took every opportunity that came. It's dangerous to dream.

Student rock gods
Tex: Me and Spencer shared the same teacher ten years apart, in different countries [Spencer in New Zealand and Tex in Australia]. He was a colourful character. Looking back, he was the coolest teacher I ever had. I do see it as some spooky link between us.

Touring
Tex:Try to keep your side of the room relatively tidy. Don't leave your socks in the sink. Be considerate to the buddy that you are sharing a room with. I would recommend earplugs for sleeping in the same room as another man. Oh, and the farting! Always leave the window up.

Keeping it together
Tex:The key to the longevity of the band is having a break and not doing it for a while. [After a few years of doing our own thing] we have been playing live again since late 2003 but have kept away from the studio for nine years. I couldn't do this sort of thing all the time. As fun as it is, being an incredibly loud and aggressive rock band has its limitations.
Spencer:We've never really broken up.
Tex: [But any punch ups] you're thinking about must be Brian [Hooper, bassist] and Tony [Pola, drummer]. Tony can't hit Brian anymore because he broke his back. They were the only two that really hit each other. There is far less tension between members of the band than everyone on themselves. Everyone is their own worst enemy and most of the damage that is done is self-inflicted. Generally, the whole range of excessive behaviour that rock and roll promotes, being around drunk people all the time and the kind of crazy situations, are commonplace when you are constantly in this heightened environment doing gigs. It's a bit of an event when we play. It's quite a bit more than a bunch of guys playing songs on stage. It's almost irrelevant what we play so long as we project this atmosphere of fear and destruction and devastation! I'm joking.

Mid-life crises, rock style
Spencer, 51: I've had about three. My first was about seven or eight years ago.
Tex, 42:I had a midlife crisis about 28. Well I don't expect to live much more than 56 so when you do the maths that was my midlife crisis. I was searching. You start getting adventurous. I didn't buy a sports car or get a much younger girlfriend. My girlfriend is six years younger than me - that's a bit dodgy, isn't it?
Spencer: So what's 21 years younger? I had a girlfriend who was 21 years younger.

Fatherhood rocks
Tex (his daughters are Tuesday, 16, Scarlet, 11, and Ede Mae, 3):Try to get home in one piece from tour, try to remember where home is and try to remember the children's names. Even though I'm not away an excessive amount of time, there are a couple of weeks I might be away and that's sort of the down side of going away. But when I'm home I'm totally immersed in what my children are doing. Apart from cooking the dinner and mowing the lawn I have heaps of time to spend with them and I enjoy nothing more. I do everything with them. I live in the country so we created a pretty good child environment with lots of outdoor areas to wander in and lots of things to eat off tree and plants. It's a wonderland for a child. I help them with their homework but can't help my eldest daughter with hers because I never went to Grade 11 but I can help Scarlet with hers.
Spencer (His son Alvin is 4):I take him to the zoo. And he likes riding on trains. Any kind of trains is fine with him as long as we are riding it. He is kind of a Boxcar Willie [the American country hobo musician]. And we wrestle and stuff.

Educating the kids
Tex: My daughters' favourite artists seem to be Red Hot Chilli Peppers - are the common denominator with kids. My eldest daughter is right into "give me music", taking it all in, and she listens to anything she can. She asked me about Joy Division the other day. She was right there when Girl Power and Spice Power happened when she was 7. And she was into Delta Goodrum but has moved into the rock world and Red Hot Chilli Peppers was a doorway into lots of other music. She is into The Doors at the moment. She might need some guidance through The Doors.

Rock god lovers
Tex [partner is Kristyna]: We've been together a thousand years! 14 years, actually. We're fiancées forever. She does everything. She is amazing. She is the most switched on, can do, practical human being I've ever met. She makes me look bad.