By Ali Ikram
The last time Everclear played Auckland 14 years ago they were the undisputed kings of post grunge rock.
This week they play two Auckland gigs at medium sized venues.
Lead singer Art Alexakis never succumbed to the rock n roll cliché of drugs, because he gone through all that pre fame -first shooting heroin at the tender age of 13.
Not that there weren't more addictions waiting to tempt the Everclear frontman. Sex was one of them and it's the reason he says he's been married four times.
“I believe in the dream, I want the dream, I want the white picket fence,” he says. “I’ve always wanted that. I grew up in a housing project, I want that idyllic story book fairytale.”
It's something Alexakis never had as his dad walked out when he was six. He channelled the pain into records that sold millions.
Father and son almost reconciled a few years ago just before his mother died - the rocker asking his estranged dad to call her before she passed away.
“Be a man you do that I’ll let the past go. He said ‘yeah I’ll do it, no problem’. He didn't do it, couldn't happen, didn't happen. Now he tries to add me on Facebook it's sad.”
The money might be gone to wives one through three, so Everclear's back with new album “Invisible Stars”. The first single is all about what happens when record companies stop flying you to Barbados to record.
“Create your own clichés,” Alexakis says. “I feel that about life as well. I’m going to be a 70-year-old guy who’s going to high school graduation. Who cares but to be there I’ve got to take care of myself, eat right work out. I look good compared to how my dad looked at 50.”
But these days Alexakis says he's happy and is still saying it with music.
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