Frank Turner Is Besties with Andrew Jackson Jihad

Not all dudes with acoustic guitars are created equal — just ask Frank Turner. Ever since rising from the ashes of post-hardcore outfit Million Dead, Turner has enjoyed a successful solo career spanning six studio albums, including the recent Positive Songs for Negative People. The English singer-songwriter has bounced all over the planet with his tunes about brutal hangovers, lapsed anarchist beliefs, what it means to be British, and all the girls’ hearts he broke (and vice-versa).

Twice, Turner has asked Phoenix folk-punkers Andrew Jackson Jihad to join him on such excursions, including a few dates in Hungary and Germany. Turner describes himself as close friends with the band and says they stay at his house whenever he plays in London.

“They’re one of my favorite bands, actually,” Turner says. “I absolutely adore them on record, and they’re really good live as well.”

In fact, Turner even played drums for Andrew Jackson Jihad on the last half of their European tour. 
“I thought that it would be cool if they had some drums going on,” Turner recalls. “I kinda got drunk in Germany, bought some secondhand drum kit — some piece of shit — and just put it on the back of the stage and joined in. So I was technically in the band, briefly.”

“After the last song, we disassembled the drum kit and just gave it to the crowd,” Sean Bonnette, says AJJ frontman. “We signed the bass drum for a kid and then he got stopped walking out with it because they thought he stole it!”

But how did AJJ and Frank Turner meet anyway?

“Funny story, actually: We met at a charity auction,” Bonnette says. “We were both bidding on one of those Easter Island statue heads you used to see in SkyMall. Ben [Gallaty] and I were about to let Frank have it, but then that nerd from Weezer outbid both of us.”

“He's nothing like the charming and charismatic man you see on stage,” Bonnette says of Turner. “He's a completely different kind of charming and charismatic man.”

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