Patterson Hood calls U.S. presidential candidate Mitt Romney "a fuckin' idiot"

The Drive-By Truckers have never been known to hold back when it comes to political commentary. Perhaps the finest example of the Georgia southern-rock/alt-country band's nailing of a high-and-mighty politician comes via "Ghost to Most", its 2008 indictment of the Dubya-led war in Iraq, in which songwriter Mike Cooley slyly compares the ex-president's twisted vision to that of a KKK member:

"Talkin' tough's easy when it's other people's evil and you're judging what they do and don't believe/Seems to me you'd have to have a hole in your own to point a finger at somebody else's sheet."

Cooley's co-songwriter in the DBTs, Patterson Hood, is not a fan of Bush either, or of his Republican party as a whole. When he called me the other day in advance of his show this Saturday at the Biltmore with his other band, the Downtown Rumblers, I asked Hood if he had any comments on the current presidential race. Get the kids out of the room.

"Oh yeah, I'll be glad when it's over," he replied. "Hopefully Obama's gonna take it and... I mean Romney's just a fuckin' idiot, you know, and the last thing we need... I mean we're still tryna clean up the mess the last assholes made, and now they think we've forgotten? And we're gonna put them back in charge?

"Crazy! I can't believe they've done as well as they've done in the polls, but I think it's because of the unemployment rate and stuff. But anybody with half a brain isn't gonna put those assholes back in charge."

For more from the outspoken Hood—including how he saved himself from thoughts of suicide by writing 500 songs—see the story in this week's issue of the Georgia Straight. Read it on paper for that old-school southern-rock vibe.

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