The Darkness frontman Justin Hawkins discusses his love of spiders and seeing the world topsy-turvy
The Darkness' Justin Hawkins is a big fan of focusing on the present. Just don’t expect him to be clean while doing so…
“You have to really focus on the thing you’re doing at the time you’re doing it. If you are talking to someone, do it properly. Look them in the eye. The way I play football is the way I live my life. When you’re in a match you’re completely immersed in the game, and your attention is on the ball. You’re not looking at your phone, and you’re not worried about things that are happening in your life. You’re focused on the present, and focus is very important.”
“I did a bit of shoplifting as a child. Just petty crime. It nearly broke through into adulthood, though. My first foray into adult theft was an attempt to steal a pair of sunglasses, but I got caught and never did it again. I learned from this, and now I pay for my sunglasses.”
“I don’t shower as much as a normal person. I don’t prioritise them. I always think about what’s going to happen on a given day, but if I don’t factor a shower in, then it doesn’t happen at all. It would need to be in the calendar. My management need to schedule it or it won’t happen.”
“When I was living alone, I had a house full of spiders. They were making nests all over the front door – those conical-shaped egg places that they make. Most people would jet wash those things off, but I let them be. So, I wasn’t showering and I was living in a spider house. I once had to destroy a black widow, which made me sad. We were recording near LA and I spotted one on the wall next to the engineer. Everyone completely freaked out, so I had to unceremoniously destroy the spider, which I wasn’t happy about. They even made me burn it because of the venom.”
“I don’t know if it’s a real recollection or a dream – I guess it must have been a dream – but I remember waking up and looking out the window to find that everything outside was upside-down. I was looking out to sea, but it was the wrong way up: clouds at the bottom, sea at the top. Maybe I was supposed to be in Australia that day.”
“I didn’t apply myself or try really hard. I did okay, but I think I could have been more academic if I’d been less lazy. I always did the minimum that I had to. People used to think I was a bit unusual at school. They used to refer to me as ‘rare’. After a while it stops affecting you and I began to embrace it. But I do wish I’d studied harder, because I think by now I could be a professor of rock’n’roll or something.”
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