By: Erich Roden
The crowd’s been chanting, “Let’s go Dropkicks! Let’s go Murphys!” for a while now, ‘anxiously’ awaiting for the Dropkick Murphys to finally come out on stage: they’re the headlining act on the Harley Davidson® stage at Summerfest 2011 in Milwaukee tonight. I’m standing on stage left, behind the guitar tech, anxiously waiting myself. The lights finally go out on the empty stage; “Foggy Dew,” the Dropkicks’ live-show intro song comes over the sound-system, signaling to all that the show’s about to start. It’s a powerful song, performed by The Chieftains, and sung by Sinead O’Connor. Her incredible and recognizable voice is nearly drowned-out as the crowd, already lined-up from the stage to the lakefront (thousands!) erupts as the intro-hymn comes on – the wait is over. The lights come on, the Dropkick Murphy’s back-drop curtain falls behind the stage and the band comes out from all sides of the stage swinging with “Hang’em High.” It’s on!
Just a few hours earlier, I’m driving to a local hotel in Milwaukee to meet up with Jim Sewnig, a Chicago fireman, and another friend that I’ve been fortunate to get to know over the years: Scruffy Wallace. Scruffy is the piper for the Dropkick Murphys and I always try to catchup with him when he passes through Milwaukee for their gigs. He’s been on the road for six weeks already and it’s time for the Dropkick’s swing through Milwaukee to play at the “world’s largest music festival:” Summerfest. Dropkick Murphys shows are always epic at Summerfest: the crowds are enormous and it seems that every firefighter from Milwaukee and all parts of the Midwest come out to see them; in fact, every firefighter within a thousand-mile radius of any Dropkicks show seems to show up when they play. I’ve been telling Scruffy for a couple of years now that I had to interview him for Urban Firefighter Magazine the next time he swung through my town. Although he’s not a firefighter, he’s someone every firefighter needs to meet, and I needed to get that into a profile of Scruffy. Ergo, Scruffy and I grabbed a table in the hotel bar and I was happy that he let me pry into his life a bit – it’s a humbling story.
A transplant from the U.K .at the age of 11, Scruffy picked up the bagpipes at the age of 14 after joining the Cadet Corp. The (pipes) were an important part of his heritage as they’re the predominant, timeless instrument in the U.K. More importantly, his grandmother stressed upon him that they were (the) instrument that would sound (loudly, of course) homage and respect for his family roots. And roots seem to be were Scruffy’s grounded to: it begins in the U.K., to the United States where he had no problem finding even more humbling roots.
Scruffy joined the Military in 1992, and was assigned to the Canadian Army’s 11b (infantry), 3rd Batt. PPCLI. He spent nine months in the European theater in Yugoslavia where he endured a rite of passage many soldiers today are experiencing: combat. While this profile obviously has a firefighter-centric bias, Scruffy’s never forgotten about the soldiers he’s hunkered down in cold, harsh and unforgiving conditions with; and those that are serving now that he would hunker down with again – in a second. His affinity for those that willingly perform selfless and self-sacrificing acts as their ethos is echoed by the rest of the Dropkick Murphys as well. After leaving the Military, Scruffy returned to civilian life and joined the Steelworkers’ Union. Never one to lose perspective, he discovered and fought with another fraternal group who he and the Dropkicks still champion today: the union worker.
The Dropkick Murphys have been behind union workers since their inception. Why? Perhaps it’s because they were all union members themselves at one point in their lives. Their music and political action ensure that the worker always has a voice; and they were approached by several unions recently during the recent war on collective bargaining in several states. Scruffy says the band, regardless of past or future fame, will always be a ‘working-class band.’ This, he says, keeps them grounded to their roots and is why they play music in the first place. As such, Scruffy only buys American-made products and vehicles and, most importantly, enjoys an occasional Miller High Life! Disclaimer: the latter helps keep the author employed as it’s made in Milwaukee…
Paralleling their incredible music and talent, it’s these common-man roots that seem to draw firefighters to the Dropkick Murphys. Furthermore, once you get to know Scruffy, you discover that his support of soldiers and the working-class become, perhaps, the most important of his virtues. For instance, Scruffy relayed a story to me about his recent tour stop in Tempe, Arizona:
“It’s 110º out and the A.C. on the tour bus goes out. Everyone was getting hot and I tried several times to get the generator on the bus started, but it would just keep going out. I was about to start complaining about the heat to everyone when I stopped myself and thought, ‘what the hell do I have to complain about? I’m riding in a tour bus going to play music throughout the Country and do what I love to do. I wonder how hot it is in Afghanistan and Iraq right now.’ I thankfully realized that I really didn’t have anything at all to be bitching about.”
This story’s point was not a self-righteous one by any means, he meant it, and I’ve had enough discussions with him over the years to know it – roots…
Scruffy’s music resume´ includes gigs with several famous bands: Not Guilty, Grounds-for-Dismissal, Caber-Toss and The Mahones. He joined the Dropkicks in December of 2002 and has been fortunate to have recorded some of their most recognizable and identifying work. I asked Scruffy why it’s been four years since their last album. He stated that the Dropkick Murphys have a strong commitment to their fans. This requires them to reach as many cities, towns and stages throughout the world as possible, and the trade-off is less time in the studio; it’s been “go-go-go” as he says. They decided last year, however, that it was finally time to get back home, take a six-month break and get into the studio to record a new album.
Their music is always written around the aforementioned support of the working-class and also family traditions: Scruffy states that family always makes you a better person and it definitely exudes through their music. This is another appealing quality of the Dropkick Murphys’ ethos and further validates their appeal to firefighters, soldiers and police. These are fraternal groups, and so are the Dropkicks. Their draw of these groups to their shows notwithstanding, the Dropkick Murphys established a charitable organization to ensure they are never forgotten, even after the stage and crowds empty: The Claddagh Fund (claddaghfund.org). This organization is an eclectic cause: each member uses the fund to support their own respective causes: soldiers, workers, recovering substance abusers, etc. – no one is left behind by the Dropkick Murphys. Scruffy also maintains contact with his old Army Unit and is deeply connected with the U.S. Army’s 75th Ranger Regiment, Ranger Battalion. He also supports the Knights of Columbus and Wounded Warriors causes.
I asked Scruffy what was next for the Dropkick Murphys and him. His answer: “Non-stop touring.” In fact, they are going to play yet another epic show on September 8th and 9th at Fenway Park: “Hallowed Ground.” Oh yeah, they’re also favorites of the Boston Red Sox organization, too. The Dropkicks were as determined as anyone to bring a World Series Pennant back to Boston. They were big fans of a Red Sox fan-base group formed in 1903 called the Royal Rooters. The ‘Rooters’ used to sing a song after they won about a parrot named ‘Tessie.’ The Dropkicks were asked to record a new version of the tune about a parrot and they said, “no way;” however, when they dug into the history of the famed bird, and the fact that the (Sox) haven’t won a series since the last time the tune was sung, they decided to give it a shot. And a shot it gave the Red Sox: the song was recorded, played, and the Pennant came back to Boston, after an 86 year slump. The song is now the second of three songs played every time the Red Sox win. I guess you could say that the Dropkicks are here to take care of the common-man and his past time, too…
It’s almost time for the band to get ready to head up to the stage. I’m sitting in the Dropkick Murphys’ tour bus while Scruffy is showing me a ton of family and friends photos on his laptop. I’d be a wreck before going on stage in front of thousands, he’s flipping through photos with a sense of calm, and we’re only 10 minutes to show time. Band members are milling around, getting ready, and they are treating me like I belong there. There’s not a sense of elitism anywhere on this bus, on stage or in any conversation with these guys – true class-acts. I sit back for a second and enjoy the nice air-conditioning in a real rock-star tour bus (it’s a hot summer night in Milwaukee). Scruffy chuckles and repeats how he almost bitched about being hot in Tempe. That’s when I realized that I wasn’t just sitting across from a famous rock-star, I was sitting across from a regular guy with the greatest sense of humility…the band is on the second song of the set, and a union worker in the crowd throws a union shirt (or banner, couldn’t tell where I was standing) onto the stage. Scruffy goes over during the song, picks it up and places it over one of the amps, taking care to ensure it’s visible to everyone; always one to keep the Dropkicks’ and his perspective out in front.
