In 2006 blues artist Jake La Botz wanted to get on
the road and play some paying gigs, but he was tired of the hit-or-miss bar
scene, so on a whim he booked himself a cross-country tour of tattoo
parlors. The resulting shows were such fun and so successful, he made the
event an annual tradition.
When I talked with him last Sunday, La Botz was
hanging out in southern Colorado at a Buddhist retreat, finishing up a
month of meditation and study before hitting the road for his upcoming
lengthy tour. Yes, you read that right: La Botz is a practicing Buddhist
who takes his lifestyle seriously, even if it takes him to tattoo parlors
while singing the blues.
“It’s interesting going between the two
worlds of traveling musician and silent meditation,” he says,
“but actually it’s just one world and it makes a good
balance.”
The Buddhist bluesman begins his 2008 tattoo-parlor
adventures in Peoria on Aug. 2, plays in Jacksonville on Aug. 3, and
continues nonstop for a month or so throughout the eastern and southern
U.S. before returning home to Los Angeles. He then plans a short meditation
break back in Colorado before heading to Europe for a romp through France,
Belgium, Germany, and stops in between. Yes, he’ll be playing any
tattoo joint he can in Europe, but, unlike the States, they won’t be
his only venues there.
La Botz grew up in Chicago, hanging out with old
blues players, and has led a colorful existence in his relatively short
time on earth. If you start with the stolen car in Colorado and end with an
appearance in Sylvester Stallone’s latest Rambo flick, this guy has some
stories to tell. The business of the pilfered car is way behind La Botz,
along with the long list of odd and very peculiar jobs he held while
struggling to make ends meet. He stumbled into acting by making connections
with the independent-film world during a stint playing everywhere in LA.
“It’s hard to be both a musician and
actor,” La Botz says. “Because the music touring is set up so
far in advance and movies just kind of fall in your lap, doing both is
tough to work out.”
La Botz is counting on more acting roles in the years
to come, but for now he’s content with sticking to the solo acoustic
tour of tattoo parlors in support of the 2008 release of Sing This to Yourself and Other Suggestions for a Personal
Apocalypse (according to his self-penned
description, the recording is the “most depressing album
ever”).
“Someday I’d like to write my memoirs or
stories, but that’s a lot of work and I’m a musician, which
means I’m lazy,” he says. “As long as I have a voice to
sing with and can hang on to a guitar, I’ll keep going in that
direction.”
Jake La Botz plays at 8 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 3, at House
of Ink (725 E. College Ave. in Jacksonville, 217-243-5464). Audience
members are not required to purchase or wear tattoos, but if you’re
thinking about getting a piercing . . .
Contact Tom Irwin at tirwin@illinoistimes.com.
This article appears in Jul 24-30, 2008.
