The bass player and singer on naming his chickens, selling his Banksy and surviving cancer
You used to keep chickens named after women from Blink-182 songs. Which was your favourite?
There was Wendy, Holly, Josie … I forget the others. We lived in London, but also had a 25-acre farm out in Somerset with a Georgian farmhouse that was built in 1750. A guy from the British Beekeeping Association, who worked at the local church, would come over and help me open up my hives and harvest the honey. It was crazy how much honey we got – up to 150 jars a season. It was the best honey I’ve ever tasted.
Did you really have to sell your Banksy because you were worried someone might steal it?
It was more that we worried it would get damaged. People would come over, lean in way too close with a glass of red wine and say: “Is that really a Banksy?” The more money it was worth, the more precious we got with it. Eventually, it was so much stress, we sold it and gave some of the money to charity. My charity is haematology oncology research. My wife volunteers at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. It was right after the fires in LA, so we wanted to donate to the Firefighters Association. I also wanted to take some of the money and invest in new up-and-coming artists.
