Dick Dale on Overcoming Cancer, Raising Tigers and Indie's Surf-Rock Revival

Since Dick Dale invented that wet reverb and tremolo picking combo known as surf rock in the late 1950s, he's been through some rough waters -- court cases, divorce, disease -- but the 73-year-old guitar God always makes a comeback, like the sea tides which inspired his music.

Recently he's dealt with colon cancer, and a resulting infection forced the cancellation of his father-son Japan tour in August. Yet this month, he's back on stage and promoting the release of his latest anthology, 'Guitar Legend: The Very Best of Dick Dale.' On top of this, the 'Father of Surf Rock' just received yet another accolade (Orange County cultural legacy) to add to his stack of lifetime achievement awards and Hall of Fame inductions.

On the phone from California while he rests on his boat between hospital visits, Dale munches on grape leaves and yogurt, and nonchalantly unveils the secret to his career longevity: Be confident (peep the boastful resume on dickdale.com); discover your passions (perhaps train exotic animals?); and realize your music is about more than music. Oh, and don't do drugs.

How are you holding up?

I'm doing what I have to do to let my body heal. My first surgery was in 2008. It was three-and-a-half hours with three surgeons, then I toured the world, did about 39 concerts in 42 days. I went through six months of radiation, three months of chemotherapy. I'd get on the stage and nobody would know the difference. But when I was done, I'd want to go back to the hotel room and lie down and die on the bed. The radiation had shrunk my colon, creating an infection all that time for two years. It was a mess, if I kept on going the way I was going they said I would have died. They re-plugged me and made things work the way they are supposed to... It's been a touch-and-go situation for a while. I went down from about 195 lbs. to 151 lbs. I looked like a refugee coming out of a camp.

I can't stand on stage for the whole hour-and-a-half to two hours. But that strength will come back in my legs. I just got through doing a concert where they had to carry me on stage. I sat on a chair and we got standing ovations all night.

What keeps you rocking out?

Martial arts. I haven't done [it] since my teens, but you never every lose that if you've been trained by the right masters. That's what makes me last on stage. When I go through pain, I go into the martial arts training and I breathe a certain way.

You seem to have such a zest for life and trying different things.

My life is many windows. I've raised lions and tigers for 45 years, every animal you could think of: hawks, eagles, falcons, sea lions, to preserve them from being killed off by the poachers. I've surfed sun-up to sun-down every day of my life that I could be doing that. I'm a pilot so we have a private airport. I build houses. I'm like a jack of all trades, master of none. I just love to do a lot of different things and create. And [my 18-year-old son] Jimmy's the same way. As long as you have curiosity in your life, you won't stop to worry about all these mundane things people have stuck in their mind. Go forward, help someone else. Get your mind off something, and you won't think about what you're going through.

Do you think there's a lot of pressure on your son Jimmy to follow in your footsteps?

No, no. Pressure's all in the mind of the beholder. I've taught Jimmy a lot of wisdom...and wisdom comes from making mistakes through life.

Do you want him to play surf rock?

He can play anything, he can jump into any band he wants. The only thing is I wouldn't want to see him in a giant heavy metal band -- or any kind of band -- from the past where they're still drawing huge crowds. I'm concerned what their lifestyle is like, driving down the highways together, probably doing drugs or smoking or drinking beer and s--- like that, which we don't do. It's very difficult for a young mind to fight those things off. I did because my dad was very strict with me. But I've never put a drug in my body to this day. I pulled the tubes out of my arms when I was in the hospital and I rode the train of pain.

Do you still ride waves?

Yeah, I'll go back out there...as soon as I get my strength back.

What was surf culture like back in the '60s? Was it always drug-free?

Yes. People will say, "Oh, those surfers, they're a bunch of bums, they don't work," all that crap. Let me tell you something: They are responsible. I had a 1944 Woodie, the back body is made out of wood, a station wagon. You see them in the surfing movies with the boards sticking out the back. We'd go on surfing safaris and we'd just pile our boards into it and go driving down the highway, camping out, going to the beach. As time wen on, somebody at General Motors started saying, "Hey, look at these surfers getting their boards out, why don't we make a metal one, such as a van?" You know an Econoline van. The Woodie inspired the van, the van inspired the motorhome -- this all came from these so-called lazy surfers. Then, when you talk about clothing... I had a surf shop [on Balboa Island]. The surfers were responsible for beach attire. It's a multi-billion dollar industry.

In the past few years there's been a few indie bands -- Best Coast, Real Estate, Wavves -- using the beach for inspiration. Think there's a beach rock revival?

It's always been there. They call it surf punk, punk rock and this and that, but it all graduated from when I created that heavy sound with the big amplifiers. I went up to Leo Fender and said, "I'm a surfer and I have no money, could you make me a guitar?" I picked it up, I held it upside-down backwards because I'm left handed, and he started laughing, and we became very close ... We created these big speakers, these big output transformers, and they used to call me the 'Father of Heavy Metal.' They called me the 'King of Surf Guitar' because I was surfing sun-up to sun-down and the guys I was surfing with came to my first concert and said, "Whoa man, you're the King, you're the King!", so that style I created. That "digidydagidydigidydagity" was eventually used in the movie 'Pulp Fiction.'

Wavves 'King Of The Beach' | Best Coast, 'When I'm With You'
How did you end up collaborating with [director] Quentin Tarantino?

He came to me and said: "I've been listening to your stuff for years, it's a masterpiece. People make a movie first and make music to it, but I do it backwards. I get a song, I play it over and over and over again, and I get the energy from it and I create a movie." The guy is such a humble man, such a good man and not one of these used car salesmen types. Then the Black Eyed Peas come up to me and said: "Can we write words to your song? And we're going to call it 'Pump It. Turn up the radio...'" [Singing] And that's me playing. And it goes on and on.

Do you get sick of playing 'Miserlou?'

Never, because I make up stuff in the middle of it all the time. I just play from my mind every night, and it's the audience that causes me to play like that. In fact, I never play the same song the same way twice 'cause I can't remember how I did it the night before.

Watch Dick Dale Perform 'Surfing & Miserlou'

Would you let anyone sample your songs?

It's the greatest compliment in the world when you're being duplicated, you know.

But some bands need to be careful who they sign up with, don't you think?

If they want to do it, it's their prerogative. The problem is they've signed their lives away -- I always tell the kids don't sign any damn contracts. There's a YouTube video of me speaking about that.

Looking back on your whole career, what are you most proud of?

The people who come to see Dick Dale. I deal with children coming to my concerts with their parents. They watch what I do, and I play every style of music that I see represented by the type of people who come to my concerts. There's everything from motorcycle riders to teachers to kids to body piercers to whites, yellows, blacks, greens, purple skins -- no matter what. Why are they there? They're not fighting each other. Out on the street they would be, but you know what, at a Dick Dale concert they're not.

I don't like musicians who think their crap don't stink. No. You find out what they like and you play how they like it -- you play to the people. When I'm done, I get to meet them. We talk about their illnesses, their children, their whole lives. I had someone come up to me saying, "Millie won't be with me this time because we lost her." And they'd been coming to see me for 17 years. I comforted him as much as I could. His wife died. I had a child from Australia send me a letter, and the nun would write a note saying, "Please write him back, he's never reached out to anyone in is life." I spent about 8 hours trying to track him down at the missions, and he talked to me about half an hour about his uncle playing the didgeridoo. So it's like I've become a part of all these families. Like my own family, they are my medicine. That's what keeps me going.

So no retirement in sight?

I tell everybody when I die, it's not going to be in a rut with a big gut belly. There's going to be one big explosion and body parts on stage.

Listen to Dick Dale and His Del-Tones' 'Surf Beat'