John Garcia Names His Most Personally Rewarding Album

John Garcia has fronted a number of bands over the years, but during a chat with Full Metal Jackie, the singer revealed the album that was the most personally rewarding for him.

Garcia’s resume is strong, having played with Kyuss, Slo Burn, Hermano, Unida and Vista Chino along with making multiple collaborations with other acts. So what did he choose?

“My first thought is [And the] Circus Leaves Town from Kyuss. That one is closer to my heart than all the other ones. I think I had a little bit more participation in that when it came down to writing versus some of the other Kyuss records,” says Garcia, though he is quick to note that he had the luck with playing with some great musicians across all of his bands.

His collective catalog is on display this summer as he and his solo band have been playing career-spanning sets on a tour that also features Telekinetic Yeti and Nick Oliveri on select dates.

Garcia discussed with Jackie his thoughts on Kyuss’ legacy, what its like to be a touring musician with a day job, what he looks for in collaborations (including one name pairing he’s worked with that he’d like to see eventually surface) and what’s been inspiring him of late. Check out more of the chat below.

It’s Full Metal Jackie and this week we are excited to welcome to the show former Kyuss singer John Garcia. You’re out there playing career spanning sets from your various bands, Kyuss, Slo Burn, Hermano, Vista Chino, Unida, as well as your solo works. That’s gotta be fun trying to put together setlists and reflecting on your career to this point. Looking back and taking in everything in your life that was happening at that time, what album cycle was your most personally and creatively rewarding?

My first thought is [And the] Circus Leaves Town from Kyuss. That one is closer to my heart than all the other ones. I think I had a little bit more participation in that when it came down to writing versus some of the other Kyuss records, but all of them really from Kyuss and Slo Burn, Unida and Hermano and Vista Chino, I’ve been very, very lucky to have played with such great musicians.

A lot of people think, why do I play in all of these bands and so on and so forth. I don’t have any rules when it comes down to if I should play this, when and how and if I stay in this act. I still have great relationships with the majority of my bands. And so to be able to go out and celebrate some of these records and bands and these songs, it’s special.

If someone’s just coming to these shows just to hear me play Kyuss, don’t come. That’s not going to happen.

Kyuss, “Hurricane”

John, we were talking earlier about your current tour and what fans can expect and of course it’s not gonna be just a Kyuss set.

Will I be playing Kyuss? Absolutely, sure. But also like you said, Slo Burn, Hermano, Unida and Vista Chino. So it’s kind of a best of and I’m in a really unique position to play songs from all of these records from all of these bands.

My guys show these songs an incredible amount of respect. They make them their own along with keeping to the heart and roots of the song. So it’s really something cool and really something special.

I have not done this on the west coast ever in my life. I’ll be turning 55 this year and I feel great. And with the support of my family and the doctor that I work for, Dr. Peter Hennin, who’s a veterinarian who I’m his right hand at the Palm Springs Animal Hospital, it’s great. So I have everybody’s blessing, but most importantly my family. And it’s something that I look forward to.

And again, this is just a celebration of my past.

It’s Full Metal Jackie. We’ve got John Garcia on the show with us. This tour is primarily in the Western U.S., likely hitting markets you’ve played frequently at this stage in your career. Do you make time when touring to experience more of the areas you play? And are there certain markets you just try to get out and explore when you play there?

I’ve been been traveling all over the world since I was in my late teens and early twenties. Europe, Australia, South America. I’ve never been to Asia, but out of all the places that I’ve been to, the United States is a beautiful country. And yes, Europe, it’s gorgeous and it has a lot of history, but the States, the West Coast, California, Oregon, Washington, the Midwest, I love visiting these states and being close to going through Wyoming and Idaho and Utah and Nevada and the southern deserts of Colorado.

It’s really cool for me and I’m a bit of a foodie myself, so I love just stopping off at the mom and pops on the side of the road, not the big corporate place but the family owned places and talk to the locals and eat the local food there. You find out what’s special there and the recipes that have been passed down for generations and some of these mom and pop roadside restaurants. That to me is really a highlight and it just makes it all the more enjoyable and not only just for me, but with my guys too.

John, tell us about your guys in the band.

You’ve got Billy Cordell, John Bennett and Greg Saenz, who I’ve been with for quite a while. I’ve got a great band, I’ve got a great crew. Everybody’s all respectful and just calm, cool and cordial and we’re all, you know, just super good friends.

This is a rarity for all of us. We all have full time jobs, we’re all fathers, we’re all husbands. John Bennett, he’s an English teacher. Billy Cordell, he has a very successful yoga business in the Coachella Valley. And Greg Saenz, he manages and runs one of the biggest and most prestigious bars in a very, very prestigious country club down here in the Coachella Valley.

And I help run Palm Springs Animal Hospital with Dr. Hannon. So to be able to take a break from the norm, which we’re all lucky to have great careers, but to be able to take a break from that, honestly Jackie, and to go out and do something like this, this is something special and this is something that we do not take for granted.

We appreciate being able to do this and having our wives and our kids be supportive and having our jobs be supportive and say, “Go have fun. You have our blessing.” So this is something that we don’t take for granted. And we’re in a very unique, unique position to do something like this. And we know it.

So when we play the Casbah, when we play the Fonda, when we hit Sac, San Francisco, Portland and El Corazon and in Seattle, which is legendary, and I played there before up through Vancouver and all the way through Canada and down through Minnesota and Wisconsin, this is a really cool thing. It’s a celebration again.

I go back to that word of celebrating of my past and this music. And then the guys have interjected some really cool blues instrumental music that they’re going to inject into the set halfway through. So it’s past, it’s present, it’s future. This is for the couples, this is for the kids, this is for the families.

Here we are. Get in, dig in, get your tickets. It’s going to be cool, it’s going to be a riot. And we’re here to take the listener on a ride and we’re gonna do that.

John, Kyuss earned a certain level of respect for their 90s output. And time has been kind when it comes to recognizing the talent within that band with years of separation from it. How do you feel about the legacy of Kyuss and the influence they yielded with other acts? Did that band meet, exceed or fall short of your expectations of what you thought it could be?

Yeah, it went far and beyond whatever my expectations were. I’m proud to say that I can ride on the coattails of Kyuss. That’s cool, that’s fine if people want to put it that way. But there’s more to my career than just Kyuss. I’ve embraced it.

I think that the word legendary and that word legend gets thrown around a little bit loosely. I look at somebody like Robbie Krieger from the Doors, I look at somebody like John Densmore from the Doors that are still alive and as an example and these true living legends and the legacy that they have left along with Jim and Ray, this is something that I consider to be true legends and leaving a legacy for me personally.

READ MORE: Brant Bjork Didn’t Like Kyuss Being Called the ‘Next Metallica’

I don’t take myself that serious and I don’t consider myself to be a legend or any of that stuff. That’s not who I am. I’m a veterinary technician who loves what I do and I do well at my job and I thrive at that. And my job is to help people who need help.

John, over the years you’ve had a number of great collaborations. One of my favorites was your pairing with Crystal Method on “Born Too Slow.” What are you looking for in your musical collaborations and is it different depending on whether it’s a band, an album project or just a one off experience with another group?

Yeah, what I’m looking for is a challenge. It’s great when Scott And Ken from the Crystal Method and say they got Wes Borland from Limp Bizkit and they want me to sing. I’m like, “Oh, wait a minute, do you guys know what I do? I don’t listen to EDM, I don’t listen to electronic dance music.” But was I familiar with their music? Absolutely.

I love that challenge of being able to go, “Dude, listen to this track.” Am I able to fit lyrics and a melody to something like this? And I jumped at that opportunity. I love those challenges.

I love this artist by the name of Adrian Quesada of The Black Pumas. He’s their guitar player and kind of the producer of Eric Burton. I would love to go in the future in that direction. I’m just a big, big fan of the Black Pumas. I would love to be able to collaborate with him sometime in the near or far future. We’ll see if that pans out. If it does, great. If it doesn’t, that’s okay too.

But man, if, if you haven’t heard the Black Pumas and if you haven’t heard any of Adrian Quesada’s solo music, I highly recommend going out and going down the rabbit hole. It’s well worth it, I promise you.

The Black Pumas, “Colors”

John, back about a year you spoke about working on music with Bill Kelliher of Mastodon and another past collaborator, Rich Mullins of Karma to Burn. Where did the friendship with Bill first start and what were the beginnings of trying to do something together musically?

You had the rhythm section, the original rhythm section for Karma to Burn, Rich Mullins and Nathan Lumbaugh. And when I first was turned on to them, they opened up for Kyuss back in the early 90s and I was floored by their music. I became really good friends with them.

Rich, we’ve always kind of kept in touch with each other. And Rich had this idea of working with Bill and Bill was into it. I talked to them both and they said, “Yeah, we have these ideas. Why don’t you come to Atlanta?” So I flew out to Atlanta and we did quite a few tracks. I think we did six or seven tracks. And they turned out to be really well.

As for Bill, that guy. Let’s talk about legends. That guy is a living legend. What a great guy he is. I can’t speak highly enough about him. He’s very talented. He’s a family man. He’s just an overall powerhouse of a guitar player. And he’s a family man. I like that. He’s not a drug addict. He has his head on straight. He’s peaceful, he’s kind. I’m now really good friends with Bill, and we just got along in spectacular fashion. And hopefully one of these days, more sooner than later, that music will see the light of day.

But between his schedule and my schedule, it’s pretty tough. Again, maybe one of these days we’ll be able to get it out and I certainly hope so.

John, as far as new music goes, what have you been working on of late? What’s been inspiring you, either musically or lyrically?

I’m inspired by the Black Pumas really, a lot. They’re just an incredible band. And Adrian Quesada, all of his solo stuff is absolutely incredible. It’s Eric Burton, not Eric Burdon, but Eric Burton, the singer for the Black Pumas. He’s an incredible singer, songwriter. But them together as the Black Pumas, that’s a force to be reckoned with. Absolutely incredible band. So I’m inspired by them.

Hermanos Gutierrez, two guys that do Spanish guitar, no vocals. Incredible. Absolutely incredible band. They’re phenomenal. So there’s a lot of Latin influence that it’s kind of creeping up now. I can’t speak a word of Spanish either.

I don’t plan to. It’s just I never have. I was raised by a German Polish woman, my mom, who took care of three kids on her own. Nevertheless, I’m really leaning towards challenges for me, whether it be an acoustic song or electric song, but I’m leaning towards the genre of, what I’ve been listening to, which is Hermanos Gutierrez, which is Adrian Quesada which is the Black Pumas.

Now, how that translates to whatever I put out, we’ll see how that all pans out. But writing with my guys is always great and we, we plan to hopefully come out with a record here in 2027. We’ll see how it all goes. But, you know, right now I’m pleasantly content, Jackie. I’ve got a wonderful wife, I’ve got a wonderful daughter, I’ve got a great son and an unbelievable career. And I’m happy and I appreciate the simple things in life.

Thanks to John Garcia for the interview. Stay up to date with Garcia through his Facebook, Instagram and X accounts. Find out where you can hear Full Metal Jackie’s weekend radio show here.