Corey Parks is like a bad-ass biker broad wielding a fierce four-string. The trashy, inked-up bassist has always struck an intimidating figure onstage, whether she was stomping around in shredded fishnets and cowboy boots in Die Hunns next to punk pariah husband Duane Peters (U.S. Bombs) or literally spewing fire onstage with raunch 'n' rollers Nashville Pussy. With jet black hair constantly covering her eyes, and a face that's all pouty, hooker-red lips, Parks looks like she's gonna kick your fucking ass.
Chris Gomez
Charley Horse: Dirty Country Cowpunk.
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Scheduled to perform on Thursday, August 31.
Last Exit in Tempe
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But looks can be deceiving. When she answers her home phone to discuss her newest side project, a cowpunk band called Charley Horse that also includes singer Sean Wheeler (Throw Rag) and guitarist Chopper Franklin (current bass player for The Cramps), Parks is yelling for her and Peters' 2-year-old son, Clash, to get off his daddy's desk. Then she candidly and cordially discusses Charley Horse, breathing fire (which she's not doing in this band because "that stuff's just so gnarly on my lungs"), and drug problems. She's so amicable that we have to ask why The O.C. Weeklynamed her and her husband "two of the scariest people in Orange County."
"I have no idea," Parks says. "I think I'm the nicest chick on the planet. Duane, I can definitely understand 'scary,' but me? I just don't see it."
Parks' bass usually hangs between her mountainous double-D boobs and a big, modified Harley-Davidson logo tattoo on her stomach that reads "EAT ME," but the next time she plays in the Valley, she'll be standing beside an upright bass in Charley Horse.
"It's a lot like X, and it's got all the elements I liked about Nashville Pussy, as far as having a bit of a dirty country edge," Parks says. "Like Hank III says: 'We're gonna put the cunt back in country and the dick back in Dixie.'"
Speaking of anatomical epithets, why did Parks suddenly split from Nashville Pussy in 2000?
"On my end of it, I had a really bad drug problem," she says. "And I think they were probably pretty sick and tired of having to be in the band with me, so rather than try and stick me in rehab and wait it out, they thought it'd just be easier to replace me."
After her stint in rehab and reemergence in Die Hunns, Parks is now ready to rock with Charley Horse, and she says people should expect one hell of a show in Tempe. "I'm not too boring live," she says with a laugh. "Charley Horse is very danceable music, too, man. There are no heavy guitars about it — it's a lot of slide guitar and a lot of stripper beats.
"The chicks fucking dig it. We've always got hot chicks down front, and the guys always go where the girls are," Parks continues. "And people like to fucking drink, so it's always a fucking good time. If I weren't in the band, I'd say we're one of the best live acts around now, for sure."
