There is a rock star that lives in all of us. It’s an undeniable fact. However, there also are limitations that exist outside of our core would-be Mick Jagger. Whether it be a soul sucking work schedule or, let’s face it, a simple lack of time or skill necessary to make it in a band, there is still an undeniable truth that we want to rock and have the spotlight on us for that one great song that will bring the crowd to its knees. For that, we can thank the heavens there is a Karaoke Apocalypse, a show that allows fans to lead the way on stage as they jam out to their favorite punk, heavy metal or new wave classic with a live band behind them.

The Highball was christened last month with the premiere of Karaoke Apocalypse and the karaoke Gods found it to be good, but that wasn’t the first rodeo for The Dead Motley Sex Maidens. Far from it. The band that lifts every karaoke singer to rock nirvana has been holding it down in Austin for years. We caught up with band members Chepo Pena, Adam Tyner and Mario Alvarez before the show and got the goods on the driving force behind the Apocalypse. You can see the Karaoke Apocalypse again on Friday, December 11th.

Adam Sweeney: For those who don’t know what Karaoke Apocalypse is, what’s the origin and how long have each of you been in the band?

Adam Tyner: We started about five and a half years ago. I was living in New York and I was going to culinary school. I saw this band advertised as punk rock and heavy metal karaoke. They did it every weekend on the lower east side. It was packed on a monday night and people were rocking. It was so much cooler than normal karaoke. The first thing I thought was that when I got back to Austin, I have to start it. That was in 2001 or 2002. I put an ad in the Austin Chronicle and only got three responses. The only serious one was Chepo. He and I were there from the beginning. He called two of his friends to do it and it worked out great. We’ve been through a few bass players since then and we have our new guitar player, Mario. This is probably your second show, right? Your third?

Mario Alvarez: I think maybe the fourth?

AT: He’s a freshman. (Laughs.) We’re still working on the hazing. He’s the Jason Newsted of the band. We don’t let him speak. (Laughs.) But yeah, we’ve been doing it for about five and a half years.

Chepo Pena enters the room.

Chepo Pena: Mother fucker! I’m sorry I’m late. I was waiting to get drinks.

AT: (Laughs.) And here comes Chepo, the other founding member.

AS: Totally understandable.

CP: What’s going on?

AT: We’re just talking about how the band started. This is the best and tightest version of the band. Mario just brings it. He’s a killer guitarist.

CP: Yeah, he grew up reading metal magazines. I read Starlog. (The group laughs.)

AS: I heard you guys playing ‘Detroit Rock City’ earlier. Sounded good.

MG: That’s a brand new one too.

AS: What are some of your favorite bands?

MG: I’d say we play our favorite bands, most of them. That’s what is so funny about this. We write down our favorites and work them into the set list.

CP: So that’s be Iron Maiden, The Misfits, Ozzy, Metallica, The Descendents, Kiss. What else?

AT: I really like The Lemonheads a lot but we’re not playing them.

CP: Nirvana and The Sex Pistols are good.

AS: What are some of your favorite songs to play.

CP: ‘Heartbreaker’ is always good. Anything that’s new.

MG: ‘Crazy Train.’ And nobody ever plays it, but I’d love to do ‘Paranoid.’

AT: I love playing ‘Shout at the Devil’ with the whole Tommy Lee drumstick twist.

CP: I like to play ‘In Bloom’ by Nirvana. We don’t play it enough.

MG: Before I joined, I used to go up and sing. But now I realize I really love playing ‘The Trooper’ by Iron Maiden.

AS: If there was an apocalypse, what song would be played?

CP: ‘Hit me with your best shot.’ (Everybody laughs.) It’d be the only one people would know.

AT: I think ‘Ace of spades’ would sum us up. Punk rockers love it because it’s fast.

AS: Yeah, I heard Tim League doing it a while back. Good stuff.

CP: He does ‘Run to the hills’ with us. It’s cool.

AS: What are some songs that you would want to punch someone for asking you to play?

AT: How about The Proclaimers. That I would walk five hundred miles song! (Tyner starts singing it.) That’s catchy but it’s so damn annoying.

CP: No one has asked for Hannah Montana yet. People just know when they look at the set list. Sometimes people think we can pull it out of our ass. We do sometimes. We were doing a wedding and Marc Savlov came up and asked if we could so Mommy, can I go out and and kill tonight.” He’s like, ‘Chepo, can you do this?’

AT: That was Marc Savlov!

CP: Yeah. We didn’t know it but we did it acoustic. We figured it out and it sounded great.

AS: What is the craziest karaoke experience you’ve ever had.

AT: The wedding rehearsal at the campgrounds.

CP: (Laughs.) Yes. We did a rehearsal at Dripping Springs. Friday, they had a pre-party. There were only twenty people and it was cold as fuck. You could see your breath. But this was all over the place.

AT: At Club de Ville, Chepo’s amp broke and so he broke a hole in it. Then he started sitting in it. So he had these roller girls straddling him and pulling him around as he’s singing ‘Breaking the law’. (Everybody laughs.)

AS: You could do worse than have to live that experience.

AT: I’d say so.

You can check out the song list and info for Karaoke Apocalypse at www.karaokeapocalypse.com. For booking info, email Chepo Pena at chepo@chepo.net.