With his latest album, The Rebirth of Venus, Australian singer/songwriter Ben Lee is also still searching, but he seems to have landed on a path that works for him. The first three tracks are devastatingly beautiful and touching, but beyond that, I’m torn. I beleve he is sincere, but some of it is hard to swallow. I think I’m still seeking the truth myself.

The  short interview/review below ran in CityLife back in 2003. Doe’s country music roots run very deep and this new release is excellent, just as I knew it would be.

Doe in the spotlight
“There’s a way of rebelling without just doing it through the tempo and the volume,” John Doe said, following his Aug. 15 show at Live. With an easy smile and simple hello, he opened with Merle Haggard’s “Silver Wings,” and during the next hour and a half, he passionately traversed through his years with X to his latest solo release, Dim Stars, Bright Sky.

While he may sing the praises of George Jones, don’t call Doe a country boy. “At heart I’m an urbane person who likes the country for what it is, who really detests country people and provincial attitudes,” he says. Doe gave a tongue-in-cheek nod to his acting career by covering Buck Owens‘ 1963 honky-tonk hit “Act Naturally.” He described his recent stint portraying a villain in an episode of USA Network’s “The Peacemakers” as “a breath of fresh air.”

Asked about his 1992 film, Roadside Prophets, he said, “That was one of the movies I wish I could do over again. I would have had more time to prepare for it. Both of my parents had died within six months of doing that movie, I had been on tour for two months and I started flying back to Los Angeles to learn to ride better. I’d ridden a motorcycle like once or twice, and the very first day we started shooting our second daughter was born. It was like, ‘Holy shit — can I just do one thing?’”
–Poizen Ivy