John Doe

Music fans know bassist/vocalist/renaissance man John Doe from the pioneering L.A. punk band X, but since the mid-’80s, his rugged good looks and sly sense of humor have served him well in a string of offbeat, character-driven movie and television roles. Doe recently recalled five scenes of random high (and low) lights from his extensive film career:

1) “Allison Anders calls to prepare for filming Border Radio [1987]: ‘Bring that blue plaid work shirt you wore in the last scene.’ I’m sitting in my closet looking at three blue plaid work shirts. In the scene, I walk out the door in one shirt and into the next in another. Continuity is for sissies.”

2) “The babes run to the pool getting naked for the henchmen’s big party scene in Road House [1989]. ‘Cut!’ The next conversation I hear is the producer screaming at the babe wrangler, ‘I told you I want those tops off before they get to the pool!’”

3) “In the Peabody Hotel in Memphis, the night before Great Balls of Fire [1989] begins filming. Jerry Lee Lewis sits down, plays the hotel piano, which no one is supposed to play. The night manager strides up to stop him, only to be caught by the sleeve of his jacket by a bellman who says, ‘No man, that’s the Killer.’”

4) “Adam Horovitz [aka Ad Roc] and I riding motorcycles down the Las Vegas Strip for Roadside Prophets [1992]. We lose the film truck, get lost and roar through the valet parking queue at the newly opened Mirage Hotel.”

5) “It’s 4 a.m., the camera crew has just walked off the set. We need to cut five pages of dialogue down to two for the emotional climax of Drowning On Dry Land [1999]. Since there’s no crew, the director puts the camera on his shoulder and hollers, ‘Action!’”

X plays the Tabernacle Thurs., Aug. 24 with the Rollins Band and the Riverboat Gamblers.