Wayne Kramer on writing music for sports & a 2019 Rock Hall Of Fame induction for the MC5

As the co-founder of the Detroit-based band the MC5, Wayne Kramer is not only a rock icon, but widely credited as one of the founders of punk rock. Rolling Stone has included him on its list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists Of All Time," and Kramer has worked steadily in recent decades as a solo artist, in-demand collaborator, and composer for film and television projects.

So even if you are not familiar with anthems like "Kick Out The Jams" (as covered by Jeff Buckley and Rage Against The Machine alike), "Looking At You" (as covered by The Damned) or "Rocket Reducer No. 62 (Rama Lama Fa Fa Fa)" (as covered by The Melvins), you still probably know some of Kramer's compositions by seeing Step Brothers or the NASCAR-related Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.

2018 has brought the release of Wayne Kramer's first memoir The Hard Stuff: Dope, Crime, The MC5 & My Life Of Impossibilities. Simply put, Kramer did not have an easy life, and he has overcome tremendous obstacles. Beyond the aforementioned memoir and composing work, Kramer also keeps busy with his Jail Guitar Doors -- which provides instruments, workshops, and prison concerts across America -- and his touring MC5 tribute called MC50 with members of Soundgarden and Faith No More; MC50 is currently in the midst of a United States run, which will be followed with European dates.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Wayne Kramer by phone, and below are some of the highlights for Sportskeeda. More on Kramer can be found online at www.mc50th.com, while more on The Hard Stuff can be found on the Da Capo Press website.

In terms of composing for film and television, I know you've worked on a lot of great projects. [Baseball comedy] Eastbound & Down and so forth… What was the first project that you lent your hand as a composer?

Wayne Kramer: It actually started back in the 60s and in the original MC5. We had a couple of projects come in. One was scoring some scenes for a documentary film, Paradise Now, then we did some scoring for a really awful underground movie called Gold. So it started back… I think probably the thing that jumpstarted me was I wrote a theme for an extreme sports show [on Fox Sports called], 5-4-3-2-1. That went well and the show was a big hit. So more work came out of that and I got to meet more people and they were ready for me to be “the new guy.” It's kind of fun.

That's very funny. And if I think about your career, you were in a cutting-edge band that still gets covered today, but of course, there were some years where people didn't want to know you, per se. When did you start to realize that the work that you did in the 60s and early 70s was influential?

Wayne Kramer: Well I kind of knew it right from the beginning. I mean, we talked about it a lot and we put a lot of effort into writing music and creating work that would have that would be of substance that wasn't subject to decay with time. And so I always felt like the work had the staying power.

Now going back to the 5-4-3-2-1 show, were you a sports guy? When you Google “Wayne Kramer” and “sports,” nothing really comes out that you were a [Detroit] Tigers fan or anything like that…

Wayne Kramer: Oh yeah, you wouldn't know because I did seven albums of extreme sports music for Fox Sports. So my stuff was all over the place. Hockey, football, baseball, soccer…

Did that require being a sports fan at all?

Wayne Kramer: I don't have no allegiance to any professional sports franchises…They exploit the workers to a degree that should be illegal. And I question the entire premise.

Well, that's kind of what I would expect from Brother Wayne Kramer. But speaking of institutions, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nomination, people are talking a lot about that this week because it came up in the news again. Do you care about that? Is that something that you give any thought?

Wayne Kramer: When my writer friends asked me about it. (laughs) You know, you're playing a band because you want you want to connect with people, and to be recognized by the Rock Hall would not be a bad thing. I still love rock & roll. I love Cleveland, we just played there last month. The MC50 tour and we rocked the house. So if we were recognized by the Hall as making a contribution to the rock canon, I wouldn't have any quarrel with that.

But actually, it has no real effect on my life. You know, I still have to put my trousers on one leg at a time. And I get up in the morning and make breakfast and I have to put in a day's work. So you know it doesn't really affect me, but it isn't necessarily a bad thing. Again, the premise is questionable. In sports you can quantify a guy hit so many home runs, he got so many points, he scored so many touchdowns. But how do you quantify art? Is it by record sales? Is it by you know anecdotal evidence? ... Art is so subjective, isn’t it? I'm not sure how you actually decide that.