 By Matthew Parrish Comeback Kid: "Gun Store For A While"I worked in some boring places growing up as a kid...the most exciting was a fine dining restaurant where the owners would give me pints after work; I was around 14 years old. Come to think of it I guess that was a pretty cool job. But when I heard that Kevin Call the bassist of Comeback Kid use to work in a gun store...I thought I had been out done. Before I jumped to any conclusions I thought I would ask Kevin myself. Truth.Explosion: So you use to work in a gun store?
Kevin Call: Indeed I did. Well, to be completely accurate, it was a gun and bait store. I worked more often in the bait part of it, but the guns were still in the same room as me.
TE: Ahh so what was this gun/bait shop called?
KC: It was a tiny neighborhood place by my parents house called North Country Hunting and Fishing.
TE: Do you ever feel the urge to go back?
KC: No, I didn't really like the job the much in the first place and the owner was a nut job, so I never had any desire to go back.
TE: Is it still around? Where is it?
KC: No, it closed down a few years ago. It was in Osseo, Minnesota - a suburb outside Minneapolis.
TE: Is there any story behind why it closed down?
KC: Not that I know of.
TE: So how old were you when you got this job at North Country Hunting and Fishing?
KC: I was about 15 years old.
TE: What sort of duties did a 15 year old have in a hunting and fishing shop?
KC: My everyday duties would include scooping bait for people, selling rods, lures, and other fishing related gear - and a lot of sitting around and consuming all the Coke and candy bars we had for sale.
TE: Did you ever get to shoot the guns?
KC: Yeah, I shot a couple of guns. We had this box with this special material inside that could absorb any bullet the was fired into it.
TE: Yeah! Like some jelly type shit? I have seen stuff like that on CSI...or am I way off?
KC: Yeah, that stuff.
TE: So you would fire them into that stuff...
KC: We would try out different guns with that thing and there was another business next door that we had to call afterwards to let them know it was us shooting next door and not some one trying to rob the place and kill everyone. It used to freak them out.
TE: Haha...yeah I can see that happening.
KC: Rightly so.
TE: So you are blasting away at the special box...what was you favorite gun to fire?
KC: I don't know. I'm not a big gun guy, it kinda weirded me out. Maybe just a 9mm.
TE: Personally I have only ever fired a rifle at some fake deer thing. But I wouldn't mind trying a 9mm...I think I would try to fire it cocked all sideways like a thug...
KC: Ha.
TE: Any weird gun-freek customers ever come in?
KC: Oh man, all the time.
TE: Yeah I bet!
KC: You want to meet some freak shows? Just work at a gun store for a while.
TE: Haha!
KC: Not only were the customers weird, but the owner of the store was nicknamed “Crazy Bob” for Christs sake! What 15 year old works at a gun store under the supervision of a man named “Crazy Bob”.
TE: Do I dare ask why he went by the nickname “Crazy Bob”...
KC: He was prone to fits of evil chuckling and kept his pistol on him even when he went into the bank? What was I thinking?
TE: Ohh man...
KC: ANYWAY, we used to have this regular dude that came in. We nicknamed him “Gloves” because he would never touch anything in the store without putting on black leather gloves first.
TE: That is soo creepy! Would he enter the store wearing the gloves? Or put them on once he wanted to handle the guns?
KC: He would put his gloves on when he wanted to handle anything.
TE: Shit that is kinda suspect. What did “Gloves” look like?
KC: It's kind of hard to remember because he had a thick beard and would always wear huge sunglasses.
TE: So basically most sketches on America's Most Wanted...
KC: Yeah! So put a beard on that famous picture of the Unabomber and that's pretty much him. He was also tall and skinny.
TE: Did he ever act sketchy? Haha besides the fact he would wear gloves while handling the guns...
KC: Ok, well this one time “Gloves” came into our store while my boss, “Crazy Bob”, was on his cellphone. When Crazy Bob saw that he had a customer, he said goodbye to the person he was talking to and hung up the phone and set it on the counter. Gloves came up to the counter and Crazy Bob started showing him our newest shipment of rifles and they began talking.
TE: Do you remember what gun he was checking out?
KC: I think it was some semi-automatic, legal version of an AK-47.
TE: Ahhh...“When you absolutely, positively got to kill every motherfucker in the room, accept no substitutes”...sorry I just watch Jackie Brown for the first time last night...and thats a quote from Samuel L. Jackson's character...
KC: Word.
TE: So what are you doing while they are talking?
KC: Just kinda hanging out across the store, trying to listen.
TE: Ok, go on...
KC: So, Gloves puts on his gloves and started checking out the rifles...then he looked down at Bob's cellphone and froze. Gloves then looked up at Bob and yelled “What is that!? Who's listening to us right now!?”
TE: Holy shit! Gloves is mental...
KC: Bob assured him that no one was listening and that it's just his cellphone. Gloves screamed “Who is on the other line!?” Bob tells him that no one is on the other line, he then turned off his phone and placed it in his pocket.
TE: So now Gloves was cool?
KC: No! Gloves then shoved the rifle back into Bob's hands, turned around and ran off. As he was leaving, I was near the door and said “have a nice day”.
TE: Are you just trying to egg him on?
KC: No way.
TE: So what did he do?
KC: He stopped, looked at me and then looked over his shoulders and said "Yeah...I think I'm gonna lay low for a while."
TE: Wow...that is soo sketchy. Why did he think the owner was on to him?
KC: Pfft. Beats me. The guy was probably part of some militia and thought everyone and their mother was on to him.
TE: HAHA! A total nutter!
KC: I'm sure he checks his chicken McNuggets regularly for surveillance bugs or some shit.
TE: Do you think he was just crazy? Or really up to something?
KC: A little from column A and a little from column B
TE: Well dude that is some pretty creepy...yet quite funny shit. I got one last question...what is the “truth” about Comeback Kid?
KC: We're all gun toting maniacs.
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