What you did, Rudy Ray Moore, was totally amazing! When you think about it. Like you were totally Do It Yourself. Totally DIY, No radio play. No advertising. You did it all yourself. You got it out there.
I walked the streets of the ghettos through the United States. When I say walked the streets we would get in our car and load it up with a trunk full of records and go from city to city, passing out records, letting people hear what we had, and before we'd leave the town, the record store was buzzing "where can I get it at", that's the way we made hits in my days. Not by radio airplay, because you couldn't play it on the air.

Have the cops ever shut you down at all, at any of your performances? Did you ever get arrested because of your act?
No.

Did you ever have to fight or use any martial arts to perhaps defend yourself against somebody that might have been insulted by your act?
No. The people that came out to hear me, they knew what was going on because it was advertised that way. "If you are offended by explicit language, don't come in." So the advertisement was for explicit language and they poured in. So we didn't have that problem.

You must have gotten quite a bit of interesting mail over the years, haven't you, Rudy Ray Moore?
Yes, but it was not so derogatory. I have always been commended for my performance. People have always loved to come to see it, and I have never had that in the clubs, maybe a little bit, uh, women you know may, uh, object, but them, you know, if they wanted their money back, they was given it back and they could leave.

Who were your rivals, Rudy? Were there any rivals on the circuit who were up against you like the Baronness Bobo? Was that a rival?
No. Baroness, the Baroness Bobo, uh, if you repeat that name anywhere, the average person would know nothing about it, totally forgottten. So the Baroness Bobo never stood close to anything I was doing because they only had one record to my knowledge, and it was a dog.

Donald and Rudy

But Rudy Ray Moore, you had many records, and I'm sure you inspired quite a lot of people. Were there any comics, once you started getting going or comedians who tried to tread the same water that you did?
Oh yes, all of them. From, uh, the great Richard Pryor was one of the main ones that jumped on the bandwagon and it took him four years to start doing it, but when he found it was working, he jumped on the bandwagon. Then Renaldo Ray, the Risin' of Renaldo Ray, he did one. And Leroy and Skillet from the Laugh Record Company, the president of Laugh Records, suggested that they go in that bag, and Wild Man Steve come behind me doing the same thing. And Blowfly come behind me rappin' the same way.

You were on Kent Records, or a division of Kent. That was the same label as Ike and Tina Turner. Did you ever get to open for Ike at all?
Many times. Fifty times. And I'm very disgusted today because Tina Turner as great as she's gotten today, I used to introduce her as the MC at the old California club, I would call her "The Hardest Working Woman in Show Business," "the cashmere voice of miss Tina Turner, let's bring her on!", and she's gotten to be a superstar, and she's never requested me to join her, not one time within her life.

She doing a big farwell tour now, she could at least get you to open for her!
She has not thought of me and I'm very hurt, and a lot of the other comedians- like those that have copied me, they have never invited me not for one appearance and I am the orginal King of Comedy, still standing!

You are King of the Party record. You are Rudy Ray Moore, Dolemite. What was it like recording with the Phantom Surfers?
I enjoyed doing it. I didn't record with them. I did the pieces that they use and they put it into the record. And they also carried me to Las Vegas Grind at the Gold Coast Hotel and I did introduce them on stage there to a massive 3000 audience.

You introduced Andre Williams as well. Do you remember him from back in the day? Like you were at the Las Vegas Grind there. Do you remember Andre Williams?
Bacon Fat. Yes, I've known Andre for years. He had forgotten me, but he had remembered my work when I introduced him and went backstage.

I interviewed Andre a little while back Rudy Ray Moore and he said that he was too pretty, that Andre Williams was too pretty to do what you did, he said he was too pretty to be Rudy Ray Moore, and he said, I quote, "I never wanted to be a Rudy Ray Moore because I was too pretty. I'd have been dead. Rudy Ray Moore looked like the type that tell the truth and not intimidate people. I couldn't do that. I think Rudy Ray Moore opened the door to the sex message. I think that there could have been five or six more Rudy Ray Moore's this market would have been discovered earlier had there been more Rudy Ray Moore's. Rudy Ray Moore is definitely a pioneer." But I was curious, he said he was too pretty to do what you did.
Well, he's an old man now and he still ho's a little bit but he was I guess in the ladies' eyesight a handsome man. I will give him that credit. He wasn't bad looking. He wasn't one of them ugly boys.

Was it hard to work yourself into a surf sweat at all, Rudy Ray Moore, to work with the Phantom Surfers?
Uh, no. I enjoyed them because I felt like doing the best that I could throw out there because they respected me so highly, and they wanted me to be a part of their show, so I gave them my best.

Now when you recorded with Melomite, Melomite Mel, of the Phantom Surfers at King Cotton Studios, you were photographed petting a pig! Rudy Ray Moore petting a pig!
Yes, uh huh. I liked the big old'.... that was some pig too. Oh lord.

Rudy Ray Moore, apparently for every dirty song Blowfly, writes, he has to memorize a line of Biblical verse! What do you think about that?
I think young man is fabulous with his rendition of "Shittin' on the Dock of the Bay". That was the one I liked.

Where did you learn it all, Rudy Ray Moore, Dolemite? What's the secret? Is your rhyming based on folklore, like the "Titanic" and the "Signifiying Monkey", some of the pieces you do. Did you learn all this from an old whino?
Yes. It come from the beer joint and liquor store "wineheads", that sit out in front of the liquor store all day and shoot the breeze and tell lies and when I heard them doing it and people would sit there giggling, (makes noise) "cluckcluckclu" all day long, I was already a comedian, and I said, "I should record something like that. I wonder if people would laugh if I was in this yard doing it?" So I got Rico the Wino and carried him to my apartment with my tape recorder and let him recite that stuff to me. And I went into the studio and recorded it and the rest is history.

Rudy Ray Moore, "The more you wiggle..."
The better it feels.

Rudy Ray Moore, "Screw your wig on tight..."
And let me tell you about the little bad notorious mutherfucker called Dolemite.

Rudy Ray Moore, Dolemite, you have some amazing album covers. On the cover of many of those records, you were naked quite a bit. Was it ever stimulating being there with all the ladies on the cover of those records?
Ohhh, well, now you're getting quite personal.

Oh! Sorry.
(laughs) You ought to know how easy I'm turned on, which was not hard to do now. Because I got all those naked girls. We worked with it though. We was there for business you know. And the business I mean was to make the album cover. And anything else come about, you know, we put that aside until the album shooting is over.

Rudy Ray Moore, you always, always, you were always were involved with the ladies. Queen Bee is my name...
(silence)

Rudy Ray Moore, Queen Bee is my name....
And fuckin' motherfuckers was her game.

How is Queen Bee doing?
Queen Bee passed two years ago.

Oh I'm sorry to hear that. She was a-
She's gone.

She was an amazing character.
Wasn't she? She was my co-partner and star on the road with me. We went many many many places and broke a lot of bread together. Shedded a lot of blood sweat and tears.

Rudy Ray Moore, "The Human Tornado" has the best beginning of a movie, ever! And that's not just because I'm the Human Serviette either! I love the beginning of the movie when you roll down that embankment. Was that hard to do? Like you were totally naked?
Very much hard to do. I was scratched up for two weeks. See, I didn't do the full stunt myself. There was somebody did the beginning of it, but in order to make it look right on film, I had to roll into camera, so they had to use my body. And they put me on that embankment and I rolled down some 50 feet. And I was scratched up.

And you were totally naked. I was thinking your cock there must have been totally ripped up there, Rudy Ray Moore!
(laughs) It was some scene. But I was daring and bold. I did everything I could do to make what I was doing work.

How are you these days? You haven't made any deals with the devil, have you Rudy Ray Moore?
Petey Wheatstraw, the Devil's Son-In-Law. I may do another movie. In fact, I'm winding up my movie career. I think I've gotten too old to continue. So I am going to do the "Return of Petey Wheatstraw". That will wind up my movie career.

Rudy Ray Moore, what is the movie you are shooting right now?
"The Millennium"

Can you tell us a little bit about the movie? Is Snoop Doggy Dogg in the movie?
No, but we have Lazie Bones of Bones Thugs 'N' Harmony. He's in it.

What's the plot line?
It begins with me coming from Africa, after 25 years. I move to Africa and I father two sons there. And my sister calls me and tells me to come home and help her, because the community has gotten bad. And "Dolemite you know how you used to keep the community intact. Come home and help me because they are killing and doing everything". That's the beginning plot.

Is there much Martial Arts in the movie?
Yes. I am whupping five at one time!

Rudy Ray Moore, what did you do in the 1980s, were you in Texas at that time? Like you began as a dancer, you did the R and B stuff, you moved to Los Angeles, you did Dolemite, Rudy Ray Moore, all the comedy stuff. What was happening in the 80's?
In the early part of the 80's I was a broke miserable man... I worked two bit jobs trying to live and then along came the 2 Live Crew, they sampled one of my records in 1986, and then I began to comeback after that. That's what I was doing in the 80s, absolutely nothing. But I was able to live because I always had a great stage act. I could make enough money to survive on, but they were the hard years for me, the 80s.

So the 2 Live Crew were the biggest influence on getting Rudy Ray Moore back in action?
They did a record called "Throw the Dick" that was sampled from my album, "I Can't Believe I Ate the Whole Thing" and the track was "Romeo and Juliet", that they sampled three and a half minutes of, and the rest is history. It got to be a smash hit. And they give me some money, more money than I'd had in a long time.

Rudy Ray Moore, why should people care about Dolemite and Rudy Ray Moore? Why should people care?
Well, I have the love of the people right now. The little people. And whenever I go out to appear I draw huge crowds of the little people, the people, the natural street people, the natural fun loving people. So they love me. And as long as I got them, I will always survive, because the power belong to the people.

Well thanks very much, Rudy Ray Moore, Dolemite. Keep on rocking in the free world, and doot doola doot doo...
Thank you.

Actually I was hoping for "doot doo," but how about a Dolemite finish? Doot doola doot doo...
Doot doola doot doo, doot doo! (laughs)

The Dolemite Web Site! - http://www.dolemite.com