Billy Reese Peters.

FOR HIS 27TH BIRTHDAY, Aaron Lay, lead singer of Billy Reese Peters, found himself in Las Vegas--naked except for captain's hat and glasses--in a bathtub full of beers and ice. Someone took a picture. It made a nice flyer. Mike, the bassist, drives Balls Deep, his van half-painted teal and orange, unfinished for a couple of years, waiting for a Dolphins' Super Bowl berth to finish the job. Picture rock'n'roll that spills over the audience like a hucked pitcher of beer, soaking you, then quickly evaporating from the heat. Embrace the reckless fun of knowing better--way better--that a series of shot specials at a strip joint before a transcontinental flight wouldn't end well. Then passing out and quietly puking into a sock during the trip until the flight attendants wise up. Bottle it all up, throw it down a slip'n'slide, give it another margarita to prevent dehydration, and you've got Gainesville's Billy Reese Peters. Think shirtless party rock'n'roll, like if Cheap Trick tapped a Descendents keg while Elvis Costello is filling your cup. And then they all get dogpiled.

Todd: Who is Billy Reese Peters?

Aaron: Billy Reese Peters is my dad's first cousin. He's sorta the black sheep of the family.

Todd: Was Billy Reese the guy that traded a girl for a shotgun?

Aaron: Yeah. He and my dad would go drinking in Charleston, which was like 40 miles north of Madison, where I grew up, because at the time, draft beer was like a priceless commodity in Madison, a luxury. They'd go up to Charleston on these two- and three-day benders when they'd get paid. They met this girl at a Greyhound bus stop. She was 18 and my dad and Billy Reese were a bit older, but Billy Reese really hit it off with this girl, a runaway from Texas, and she apparently had really large breasts. They go back to Madison and they're drinking in this beer joint, and there was this guy that kept trying to sell this really nice shotgun that nobody wanted. Billy Reese wanted it, but he didn't have any money. Billy Reese keeps grabbing the girl's boobs, saying "Check it out! Everything's bigger in Texas! Maybe you just give me the gun and maybe she'll just go with you." The guy agreed, gave Billy Reese the shotgun, and the girl willingly walked away with Shotgun Man. He was pretty low.

Todd: Tell us about your dad and Hasil Adkins.

Aaron: Hasil used to play around Madison in the beer joints. My dad and him were kinda drinkin' buddies. They weren't good buddies, but they drank together and hung out, and when Hasil was trying to play with a full band, my dad played drums for a bit. Anyway, my dad had a job reading power meters, and once a month, he would go cut off the power of people who hadn't paid their bills. One day, he looked at the list and said, "Oh shit, I've got to cut Hasil's power. He hasn't paid his bill." To this day, as far as I know, Hasil has a sign in front of his place that says, "No Trespassing or You Will Get Shot," and it's all spelled wrong. My dad goes to cut off the power and Hasil comes out with a shotgun and says, "Motherfucker, get off my property!" My dad knew he was drunk so he left. He sees Hasil like a week later at the post office. My dad grabs Hasil by the throat, throws him against a wall, and says, "If you ever pull a shotgun on me again, you'd better make sure you kill me!" And Hasil's like, "Aw, hell, Bart, I didn't know that was you!"

Todd: Tell me about the plane ride you and Mike took out to the Tiltwheel tour.

Aaron: Oh my God. It actually worked out perfectly, because our flight left Tampa at six in the morning, and Toys That Kill was playing in Tampa the night before, so we decided to go to the show and stay up all night so we wouldn't miss our flight. We got wasted, and Jimmy was in town visiting family so he drove us to the airport. He saw this nudie bar on the way there and pulled over. They had some kind of weird special on shots of liquor. I just remember me and Mike were hiding in this dark corner of the airport, drinking beer and trying to stay awake. We get on the plane and Mike says, "I'm going to sleep," and he lays his head on the fold-down tray in front of him. After a few minutes, I hear the sound of liquid hitting the carpet. I look over at Mike, his head's sideways, asleep, and there's just puke slowly oozing out of his mouth. I didn't know what to do, so I grabbed the in-flight magazine and tried to scrape it back towards his head so it wouldn't get on the carpet. The lady next to me panics and grabs a stewardess, so I ran into the bathroom, and when I looked out, Mike had this confused look on his face and had no idea what was going on. For the rest of the flight when people were sleeping, we would make puking noises and they would freak out because they thought we were really puking and it would get on them.

Todd: What do you guys sing about? What are you interested in music for?

Aaron: I know this is a pretty generic answer, but we were all just buddies. I'd been watching Will (Grabass Charlestons) play in bands for a long time, and when our first drummer left, Will was around and wanted to play with us because we were already just hanging out--so it just seemed natural. All of us just always had fun together. Even when we practice, it's just sort of an extension of our friendship. We definitely feel that all too often people who make music take themselves far too seriously and seem to forget that the point of playing rock and roll is to have fun. We try to bring that every time we play a show and strive to encourage other folks to have as much fun as humanly possible.

Todd: What's the most requested song, the one that people sing along to the most?

Aaron: Probably "What's Up, Ding Dong?" It's loosely based on the time that me, Mike, and Will got beat up by the same guy simultaneously.

Todd: How'd that happen?

Aaron: We had played a show with this fucking amazing Gainesville band called Love You Dead, and the place we were playing offered us either money from the door or free booze. We opted for the free booze, got wasted, and we're standing in front of our house later on when these two guys walk by, shirts off, tucked into their back pockets, no-necks, huge, muscular guys. We were just standing there getting ready to go to a party and Will turns to one of the guys and goes, "What's up, ding dong?" They just snapped. We basically just got our asses destroyed by this one guy.

Todd: What's "Bustin' Fuckin' Loose"?

Aaron: It's the name of Mine and Mike's horseshoe team. We're the reigning horseshoe champions of Gainesville. I'd like to say that, had certain people shown up to the tournament and certain other people not drank so much, the outcome might have been different, but we were proud of our victory.

Todd: Does Mike Collins really want Dan Marino to become president?

Aaron: Let's ask him. [Asks Mike.] Oh, yes.

Todd: What qualities would he bring to the White House?

Mike: I'll just quote NFL Films here. There was a little special on Dan Marino in 2000 after he had finally given up the game, and they said, "Catching a pass from Dan Marino is like catching a pass from God." Who do you want for President? You can have John Kerry, Bob Dole, George Bush, or you can have a guy that's been compared to God. of Gainesville."