BC: Truth be told, I think you’re more creative than some of your heroes. It’s like you’ve sold your soul for rock’n roll and now you’re paying the piper - fulfilling your end of the bargin in order to keep this satanic boat afloat. Who do you think you sound like?
DY: You can hear a sprinkling of all my teachers in my voice: Beatles, Bowie, and Barrett. But, you can also note where each of those artists influenced each other as well. I was also brought up on “cut out” records. Those marked down LPs that they couldn’t sell and I could afford. So, many of my teachers were commercial failures! So that is also part of my make up.

BC: Tell me about the compound.

DY: The compound used to be my blood family’s house and land. When I was fifteen, they moved away and I stayed behind. Ten years later, it was a cosmic compound, filled with artists and junkies - people that just wanted to drop out, do acid, work on projects and then build a fire at night and all come down together. Being that this was all taking place in a small southern town, the rumor spread fast that I was the local Charles Manson and everyone at the compound had to deal with the cops fucking with us. It was a brilliant time but it was also very spooky.
BC: What circumstances led you to be abandoned in your parents’ house at age fifteen?
DY: My mother was/is a very devout Christian school teacher. She was taught, You are to love God more than even family. The church would send my mother to various schools to teach and she looked at it as God was calling her. I refused to move. I think I must have been trying to make her choose between me and the church. Well, The church won. In the long run, so did I. Those hermit years were very important in my development.
BC: You used to be a born again Christian. At what precise moment were you reincarnated as a cult artist?
DY: Well, I never got to be born again because I was born into it. But, right after the hermit years, when I was around 17 or 18, I went back to church as a bible class teacher. I decided to rip apart the bible study sheet and insisted that we read the bible from cover to cover.

It was like my 3rd class and we were still in Genesis. We started reading about the Nephilim, (giants that were products of angels having sex with earth women) the class was in shock! This lead to quite a discussion. The church leaders were not happy and I was told to stick with the bible study layout. I didn't! I was asked to leave church because I was ...reading the bible!

When everything else fell apart, the music was still there. Recording on my 4-track replaced prayer and live performances replaced church. Maybe I was just programmed to indulge in ritual.
BC: Tell me about Charles Earnst. Is he real and where might someone find him now?
DY: That’s a really good question and I don’t blame you for asking it. I wish I could answer it but I’d best not. Maybe if we meet for drinks again I will give you the details.
BC: What about Brian McKinney?
DY: He is real. He’s a local barfly. He tried to work his way into the compound but, he’s a parasite. He had nothing to offer. He just wanted to grope the girls and not get a job. Which in truth is what most of us wanted, but you have to give something to the environment, you can’t just take. Plus, the girls in the group told me he was icky ;-) We can’t have that.
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