Lunch with . . .Marty Casey

He lists his favourite favourite pizza topping as Brooke Burke, Kiwi band Shihad is his CD of the moment and if he gets nervous he may ask you what you got for Christmas, six months after the holiday.

The Queenstown Times grabbed lunch with Marty Casey - fans of the reality TV show Rockstar INXS may remember him as the blond-haired rocker who wrote Trees as his original composition, now fronting LA Guns - comprising former members of Guns n' Roses, and Lovehammers, a band founded when he was just 13.

QT: What are you having for lunch today?

Marty: Um . . .I forget what these are called . . .

QT: Sausages?

Marty: No . . .I'm having bangers

QT: What do you normally have for lunch?

Marty: I normally don't have lunch. I normally eat, if I'm lucky, once a day. And that's it.

QT: Breakfast?

Marty: No . . .Some sort of whatever you can grab between a sound check and a show . . . which is maybe a piece of fruit and some beef jerky.

QT: What's your favourite food?

Marty: My favourite food . . . besides Kylie Minogue? Um . . . pizza.

QT: What topping?

Marty: Brooke Burke.

QT: I know it's hard because you haven't been here that long, but so far, what's your favourite spot in Queenstown?

Marty: For what I like to do, it's right down on the main drag in town. I would like to go spend the whole weekend there and just do the bar crawl; jump in each one and see what they're all about.

That's a great way to get to know the beautiful energetic settings.

QT: I highly recommend the bar crawl! What are your favourite hobbies or interests?

Marty: I love the Nevis Arc, that's my newest hobby. I love jet boating, I love taking helicopter rides to the top of amazing mountains and drinking champagne when you arrive.

I love making fun of the rappellers coming down the mountain because we have it so much easier and we're so lazy.

I like blog writing and . . . bragging about all of these great experiences in New Zealand and letting my friends at home really know what they're missing.

And I like writing songs with the members of CanTeen.

QT: How long have you been working with them for?

Marty: I'd say we got started a few months ago . . .I got to meet [the organisers] in Auckland a week ago. They have their once-a-year big festival party, camp, so we're part of that.

I get to perform and write songs with kids, so that's really the biggest day we're all looking forward to.

QT: So what's your favourite way to relax.

Marty: Definitely the sunset, chilled white wine, getting to overlook something like this, or whether it be even Chicago, just on a deck.

But getting a lot of work done during the day and then just getting to start your night with some wine and just chilling is something I really dig.

QT: Have you tried the Central Otago wines yet?

Marty: No we haven't yet . . . we'll hook that up.

QT: What winds you up?

Marty: Besides wine? The interesting thing is people are surprised when I'm getting ready to go on stage I'm so mellow. I'm the chillest dude in the room.

Sometimes you're about to perform in front of 30,000 people and sometimes it's 300 people, so whatever you're doing I'm so, so calm and the minute I step on stage it's not like it's a different person, but it really is . . . it's another person that just kind of emerges out of you and all the confidence, strength [comes out] . . .

I could challenge Mike Tyson to a brawl the minute I'm on stage. But the minute I step off I recede right back into this other normal mode.

So what gets me off is just really stepping on stage, because that's the only place I know that I can have ultimate power and control.

QT: What cracks you up?

Marty: I think people that are just completely reckless. People like . . .LA Guns for example, permanent vacation lifestyle. They truly don't care about tomorrow.

So there is so much freedom . . . they absolutely crack me up.