June 7, 2026

Bill Mosely aka Chop-Top at Milwaukee Metal Fest - PipemanRadio Interview

Show Notes
Transcript

PipemanRadio speaks with Bill Mosely aka Chop-Top at Milwaukee Metal Fest while we have the backdrop of the Ambassador Hotel famous for the 2nd murder by Jeffrey Dahmer. We had a lengthy conversation of Bill's career and stories including Texas Chainsaw Manicure and how that scored him the role of Chop-Top in The Chainsaw Texas Massacre 2 and his famous saying "Dog Will Hunt." We also talked about his music with Buckethead, his time as a journalist including with National Lampoon, where it all started and how he even worked with Rob Zombie.

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Hi, you have done to censure.

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Wow for you.

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Your This is the pipe Man here on the Adventures

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of Pipe Man W four c Y Radio, and I

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am at Milwaukee Metal Fest with.

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Bill Mosley Nice.

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So I gotta tell you, I was at the show downstairs,

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and I was pleasantly surprised when you got up on

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stage and got to announce the band and do your

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voice up there for the Texas toast Chainsaw massacre Ban.

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I love that name, and so I want my first

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question is you've done a lot with music. You've done

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a lot with acting. Which passion came and how did

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they coexist?

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Well?

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I think writing probably came first, and also music. My

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mom was a great boogie woogie piano player. Nice and

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my two brothers and I older and younger brother all

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took piano lessons. My older brother and younger brothers were

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both good piano players. My younger brother was a great

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piano player. I wasn't really into it as much. I

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was more of a percussionist, and I know that the

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piano is a percussion instrument, but I needed something else,

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so I ended up picking up the trombone in grade school.

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I think in about the fifth grade or sixth grade,

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and I wasn't really that good at the trombone, but

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I had a lot of air. So I ended up

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moving from the trombone to the tuba.

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Wow, And I.

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Was very good at the tuba because I had a

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lot of air. I couldn't read music, but I just

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squeezed down the little the three little valves and just

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fucking blue.

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And then.

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Somebody in the music department of my little school in Barrington, Illinois,

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the countryside School, I saw something in me, and so

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they promoted me to suzophone, even though I was a

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little shrimp of a guy.

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And I ended up.

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Playing suzaphone in the all district band Wow, and we did.

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A bunch of Susa marches.

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And I still to this day don't read music, but

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I can blow and you know, I have a good

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sense of percussion, so I had rhythm and air. And

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so that was the beginning of my music career.

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Nice.

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Yeah, And I could bet you, probably after me knowing

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a lot of artists, that many of the artists here

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at the festival probably can't read music either, because you know,

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not everybody really goes that route, you know, and it

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is a different route to go for me.

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I play.

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I started out in percussion. I played drums. I played

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in the school band, school orchestra. And it's funny you

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mentioned the horns because I used to look over as

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I'm playing the timpany at the trumpet players and the

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trombone players. I'm like, maybe I want to try that,

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but I never did. And then but I did go

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to guitar. Then I went to singing thrash medal. I

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sucked at all three, so now I do this.

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Well, that's good.

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You know, we all try to fail upwards, right exactly.

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You know, it's so funny because in sixth grade, sixth

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or seventh grade, I was friends with a kid in

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class named Christopher English.

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His dad.

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This was in Barrington, Illinois. His dad was the editor

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of Downbeat Magazine, very famous jazz magazine at the time.

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And when I went.

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Over to Chris English's house, I remember for Halloween, his

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father had rented a copy of Creature from the Black Lagoon,

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which he showed in his living room, you know, on

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real you know reels like you know, eight millimeter. I

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guess it was probably, I don't think it was sixteen.

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I think it was eight millimeter. And I loved that,

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and Christopher English also introduced me to the bongos, and

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I play them to this day. So I love the bongos.

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I still do that.

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Yes, stay too the bongos.

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So but yeah, I ended up having a band with

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my two brothers, the Moseley Brothers Band, and I played

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the drums and I played harmonica and I did the vocals.

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My younger brother played piano, my older brother played bass,

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and we played for like you know, we I played,

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We played for our cousin's wedding. We played basically, we

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just played at home, uh, just because there was there

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were a lot of problems in the family at that time.

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My parents had split.

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There was a bunch of stuff going on, and so

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we found refuge in the music. That was our haven

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and it was a beautiful thing. So that was really

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the beginning of it all. And that was also how

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I learned how to just make it up, like make

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up the lyrics as I went along, and that ended

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up putting me in pretty good stead when I made

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some music with Buckethead. His Buckethead is a very mysterious

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character and you know, you might see him for a

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couple of days in a row and then not hear

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from him for six months. So and all of that

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is not about his behavior, but it's about you gotta

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you gotta come ready right now. If you think, well

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we'll fix it tomorrow, that may never happen. So when

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I worked with Buckethead, every all the Cornbug songs we

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ever did over from the nineties to the probably from

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the I guess it was, yeah, the nineties, seventy eight,

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so maybe the eighties and the nineties, whatever time we

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had together. We never did a second take of any song.

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I love that, and we did about I think we

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did more than fifty songs, but never there was there

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a second take, And very seldom did I have any

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written lyrics. So I would just make this stuff up.

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And it was one of those it was. And my

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younger brother and I we had that same connection, which

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was where you just he played something and I made

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up the words and it all seemed to fit.

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That's where the improv come.

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Totally, and that's where that came in. And and that

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that same kind of connection I had with with the

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with Buckethead. Yeah, like he plays something and I'd say something,

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or I'd say something and he'd play it, you know.

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So you know, and that is you know, when artists

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had that kind of a collaboration and that kind of connection,

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it's really very.

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Exciting, it is.

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And I love what you're saying too, because I think

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it makes it more natural and fans dig on that

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because they can tell that you are a true artist

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opposed to somebody just going through the motions. I'd say

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the same thing about especially at metal festivals, which I

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go and do metal festivals all over to US, UK

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and Europe, and I never have a script, never have notes.

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And I see all these other people, I'm like, if

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I was the artist, I would slip my throat right

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now because that shit's boring as hell. I would literally

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take their script and probably throw it on the ground.

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Yeah, I've done with people that do shows in my station.

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They come in, they do it, and I'll go in

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if I know them, you know. If there's somebody I

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don't know, I might not and I'll just take their

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script right in the middle of their radio show, you know.

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And it forces people to be creative, is what happens.

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When you have that gripped, You're not being creative, You're

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you use it as a crutch.

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Yes, and I thought.

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Actually I was led to believe until apparently there was

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some equipment or gear problem that I was going to

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actually sing a Cornbug song on Thursday night of this

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of the Milwaukee Metalfest.

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It was a pre show.

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There was some entertainment, and I was supposed to sing

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a song. And I thought, you know, well, let's see,

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there's no buckethead, there's nobody to rehearse with. I haven't

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been on stage in you know, a couple of years,

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but that shouldn't be too daunting. So I was trying

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to figure out what song would be the best one,

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and I thought of an old Cornbug song called.

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Spot the Psycho. And it's pretty pretty rudimentary.

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That's perfect for this too, That's what I thought.

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Let's see, uh, let's see.

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Yeah, I mean, he killed the dog, he killed the cat.

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His only friends a vampire bat. His brain is fried

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like a double eg. He's got a knife. He'll make

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you beg Spot the Psycho, Spot the Psycho, down a

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air down down to now.

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Already liked that song right there, good one as killer. Yeah,

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now you also.

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But we didn't perform it because there was no gear

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or band or something.

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But well, maybe you have to like do something like

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a tour mat like bring back that, you know, because

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that's pretty cool.

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Well, I haven't talked to Bucket in a while, so

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it'd have to be some kind of a kind of

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a karaoke.

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Right right, And I was.

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It was cool to find out that you were also

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a journalist too, so it's like you've dipped in every

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area of creativity there.

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Well, that was you know, I was an English major

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when I graduated from college, and uh so the first

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job I had was as a advertising copywriter for a

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shop in Boston, Massachusetts, and I did that for a

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couple of years. That was Schmullenberger and Nargisson, and I

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was the head copywriter. Also I was the only copywriter.

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So you know that that title, that title was stretched

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a long way, no doubt, but you know I did.

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I think my my greatest hit was h That was

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in the the Olympics where there was an Austrian downhill

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skier named Franz Klomber and he did an amazing daredevil

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on like one ski going one hundred miles.

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An hour and won the gold medal. Yeah, in the

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Winter Olympics.

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Back and I don't know when that was was at

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maybe seventy six something like that, and.

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By centennial, yeah, it was now that we're at two fifty. Yeah,

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I remember that well.

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And uh and so uh and we and one of

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our clients was Fisher Skis, and so they wanted, like

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they had a picture of Franz Clomber and his you know,

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his Fisher Skis and he his crash all met going

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down hill, and they wanted they wanted a good headline

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for that. So I came up with fast, Fast, Faster

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Fisher and they loved it. So that was that was

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my greatest hit as a copywriter.

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That's great, But I.

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Just thought, you know what this is, Uh, this is

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a little easy for me. And uh, and it's it's

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a kind of it's a kind of profession where and

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you know, no, no, uh, you know, I'm not trying

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to diss any of you copywriters out there, but it

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was just like it wasn't challenging for me in a

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in a in an artistic sense, let's put it that way.

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Well that makes sense, yeah, because it is a different personality.

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It's a different personality, absolutely. Yeah.

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And and the best some of the best adlines are

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are cliches, you know, and you know, and it's you know,

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it's it's low hanging fruit to some people in some ways.

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So I lasted about a year.

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Doing that and then I split town and ended up

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moving to the York in uh, I think it was

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nineteen seventy eight, and so there, and what I did

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there was I wrote for magazines.

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I wrote for National Lampoon.

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The best paying gig was a science science fiction magazine

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called Omni. Yeah, and I interviewed I interviewed scientists.

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That's cool.

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Yeah, So I lost.

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Well, that's like me. Okay.

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So I went to college for first pre med and

230
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then I graduate with accounting and marketing.

231
00:12:35.840 --> 00:12:36.399
There you go.

232
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And then I went to New York Academy of Dramatic Arts.

233
00:12:40.000 --> 00:12:43.080
Like I have all those personalities, like so one thing

234
00:12:43.320 --> 00:12:46.879
didn't fulfill anything. So it's like, you know, all these

235
00:12:46.960 --> 00:12:51.240
different things and not necessarily for reason either except my

236
00:12:51.440 --> 00:12:56.279
own knowledge fun because I'm a knowledge junkie. So it's

237
00:12:56.360 --> 00:13:02.279
like I collect degrees and certifications like some people trading cards,

238
00:13:03.000 --> 00:13:08.360
you know, but you know it. Also, I have a

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00:13:08.399 --> 00:13:12.480
trivia question for you, so we'll we'll now switch gears

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00:13:12.519 --> 00:13:17.840
to you know, okay by New York. Yeah, two, you

241
00:13:17.879 --> 00:13:21.840
know Texas Chainsaw massacre. Yeah, so I have a trivia

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00:13:21.960 --> 00:13:25.120
question for you, and it's a trick question because I'm

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00:13:25.159 --> 00:13:27.639
probably the only one in the world that knows the

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00:13:27.799 --> 00:13:32.600
answer to this question. Okay, do you know who was

245
00:13:33.320 --> 00:13:36.679
and I've never ever done this live or on my

246
00:13:36.879 --> 00:13:43.240
radio show or publicly ever, who was the roommate of

247
00:13:43.320 --> 00:13:48.679
Dennis Hoppers when he was in rehab before Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

248
00:13:48.919 --> 00:13:50.679
I wouldn't have the slightest idea know.

249
00:13:50.600 --> 00:13:52.080
You wouldn't because it was my father.

250
00:13:52.279 --> 00:13:53.720
Oh my god, that's like.

251
00:13:55.000 --> 00:13:57.080
It was so funny because he always used to brag

252
00:13:57.080 --> 00:13:59.360
about he's not with us anymore, but he always bragged

253
00:13:59.360 --> 00:14:00.840
about like, yeah.

254
00:14:00.639 --> 00:14:02.759
I was in the nuthouse with Dennis Hopper.

255
00:14:03.240 --> 00:14:07.799
Wow, right, you know like that that's pretty funny and

256
00:14:07.840 --> 00:14:10.720
it's he even he was definitely whacked out of his

257
00:14:10.799 --> 00:14:12.559
mind at the time. He called me up and had

258
00:14:12.559 --> 00:14:14.840
me try break him out of the place, right, And

259
00:14:14.879 --> 00:14:15.759
I did try.

260
00:14:15.679 --> 00:14:17.200
Your dad or Dennis my dad?

261
00:14:17.480 --> 00:14:20.600
Okay, right, but I'm sure we have brought Dennis along.

262
00:14:20.679 --> 00:14:20.879
Yeah.

263
00:14:20.919 --> 00:14:24.519
Yeah, I was sixteen years old that I showed up

264
00:14:24.519 --> 00:14:27.039
at the place like I'm gonna really break him out.

265
00:14:27.120 --> 00:14:28.960
I don't know what I was thinking. But you know,

266
00:14:29.399 --> 00:14:31.559
I was sixteen and listening to my father. That's what

267
00:14:31.639 --> 00:14:32.200
I was thinking.

268
00:14:32.200 --> 00:14:33.399
Well, there you go, you know.

269
00:14:34.039 --> 00:14:36.519
Uh, well he because Dennis had had just come out

270
00:14:36.519 --> 00:14:39.159
of a rehab, I guess, and my understanding, and he

271
00:14:39.279 --> 00:14:41.639
had and he he came out and did a three

272
00:14:41.679 --> 00:14:46.480
pack of movies. One was Blue Velvet right, one was

273
00:14:46.600 --> 00:14:50.679
I think it was Hoosiers and Texas Chainsaw two.

274
00:14:51.440 --> 00:14:52.639
So that's a that's a hell of.

275
00:14:52.600 --> 00:14:53.960
A three What a comeback?

276
00:14:54.080 --> 00:14:56.679
Yeah, I mean like, yeah, he's known for the biggest

277
00:14:56.720 --> 00:14:57.799
comeback ever.

278
00:14:58.080 --> 00:14:58.639
Yeah, you know.

279
00:14:58.799 --> 00:15:01.879
So that I think is really cool too because it

280
00:15:01.919 --> 00:15:05.320
shows no matter what happens in your life, whatever issues

281
00:15:05.360 --> 00:15:09.799
you're having, you can change it, and it can be changed.

282
00:15:10.000 --> 00:15:11.080
It can be changed.

283
00:15:11.159 --> 00:15:14.039
Yeah, not necessarily you, but it can be changed.

284
00:15:14.080 --> 00:15:15.000
It can be changed.

285
00:15:15.200 --> 00:15:18.679
Right, A lot of times it's behind bars, but that

286
00:15:19.200 --> 00:15:20.159
it can be changed.

287
00:15:20.480 --> 00:15:22.559
So I want to know about I hope I'm saying

288
00:15:22.559 --> 00:15:26.600
it right. I want to know about the Texas Chainsaw manicure.

289
00:15:27.240 --> 00:15:32.200
Well, I was I was living in New York.

290
00:15:32.639 --> 00:15:35.080
So I was in New York from seventy eight to

291
00:15:35.120 --> 00:15:39.320
eighty six, and in nineteen eighty four.

292
00:15:39.240 --> 00:15:40.080
I guess.

293
00:15:41.279 --> 00:15:43.519
I was visiting. I was spending a little too much

294
00:15:43.519 --> 00:15:46.480
time in the mud club and Studio fifty four. I

295
00:15:46.559 --> 00:15:50.039
was writing a gossip column for US magazine, So I had,

296
00:15:50.519 --> 00:15:54.759
you know, free admission to a lot of late night clubs,

297
00:15:54.799 --> 00:15:57.639
and I certainly took advantage of that. So I thought

298
00:15:57.639 --> 00:16:00.200
i'd kind of clean my act up by spind a

299
00:16:00.279 --> 00:16:03.960
summer on a.

300
00:16:02.559 --> 00:16:05.759
Dude ranch in Cora, Wyoming.

301
00:16:06.200 --> 00:16:08.200
Wow. And that's a culture shop.

302
00:16:08.279 --> 00:16:11.840
It was the Boxar Ranch. And I was out at

303
00:16:11.840 --> 00:16:13.919
the Boxar and I was doing you know, I wasn't

304
00:16:13.960 --> 00:16:16.440
a cowboy, so I was doing a lot of gruntwork,

305
00:16:16.559 --> 00:16:21.200
like you know, digging irrigation ditches and you know, stuff

306
00:16:21.240 --> 00:16:23.200
like that. So I was out there, and I was

307
00:16:23.240 --> 00:16:26.679
working with a kid who was, like, I think he

308
00:16:26.799 --> 00:16:31.679
was maybe sixteen. His parents had sent him out to

309
00:16:31.759 --> 00:16:33.879
the same ranch to kind of make a man of

310
00:16:33.960 --> 00:16:36.519
him or straighten him out, I guess, because he was

311
00:16:37.039 --> 00:16:38.919
I don't know if he was a juvenile, delinquent or

312
00:16:39.159 --> 00:16:40.080
just a nut, but.

313
00:16:42.320 --> 00:16:46.200
He was a sugar freak. And you know, in the morning.

314
00:16:45.919 --> 00:16:49.399
He would chug the bug juice and eat the frosted flakes,

315
00:16:49.440 --> 00:16:52.320
and you know, he'd have the fudgsickles and he would

316
00:16:52.399 --> 00:16:55.000
go into and then we were working under the hot

317
00:16:55.000 --> 00:16:58.519
wyoming sun and doing physical labor, and he would go

318
00:16:58.600 --> 00:17:02.879
into what I called sugar deliriums and he would just

319
00:17:02.919 --> 00:17:07.000
suddenly start speaking in tongues, but in like cartoon voices,

320
00:17:08.960 --> 00:17:13.079
advertising jingles, top forty songs, I mean, all kinds of

321
00:17:13.279 --> 00:17:17.359
crazy stuff. And we were I would usually just turn

322
00:17:17.359 --> 00:17:19.759
a deaf air to him. And we were working one

323
00:17:19.839 --> 00:17:22.559
day and he's going cap'n Crunch, cap'n Crunch, doing his

324
00:17:22.640 --> 00:17:25.359
crazy shit, and then all of a sudden, he goes

325
00:17:25.720 --> 00:17:29.319
Texas Chainsaw Manicure and then he goes back to cap'n

326
00:17:29.400 --> 00:17:32.519
Crunch and crazy rabbit talk and whatever he was doing.

327
00:17:32.920 --> 00:17:33.920
But I heard that and.

328
00:17:33.880 --> 00:17:35.599
It was almost like it it almost like it hit

329
00:17:35.680 --> 00:17:39.359
me on the head with a sledgehammer. And I went

330
00:17:39.400 --> 00:17:43.559
to Texas Chainsaw Manicure, and I immediately saw it in

331
00:17:43.640 --> 00:17:46.680
my head, like woman goes to a beauty parlor, you know,

332
00:17:46.799 --> 00:17:48.920
gets her hair down, wants sitting under the dryer, wants

333
00:17:48.920 --> 00:17:51.359
a manicure, you know, outcomes leather face.

334
00:17:51.400 --> 00:17:53.319
So I just I had that flash.

335
00:17:53.480 --> 00:17:55.200
I went back to the bunk house and kind of

336
00:17:55.200 --> 00:17:58.920
wrote out the rudiments of that. I came, I finished

337
00:17:58.920 --> 00:18:02.200
my stint on their anch, came back to New York City,

338
00:18:02.720 --> 00:18:07.640
gathered some friends, you know, worked out up scripts and

339
00:18:07.640 --> 00:18:10.680
and I ended up you know, getting a bunch of

340
00:18:10.759 --> 00:18:13.599
friends together. I think we probably I think it was

341
00:18:13.640 --> 00:18:15.400
maybe five hundred bucks all together.

342
00:18:16.000 --> 00:18:17.559
And I lived in Manhattan.

343
00:18:17.680 --> 00:18:21.000
We we found a beauty parlor out on Staten Island

344
00:18:21.519 --> 00:18:23.519
called Sonya's Hair Fashions.

345
00:18:23.680 --> 00:18:26.839
That's a perfect place to pick Staten Island to do this.

346
00:18:26.960 --> 00:18:31.960
Okay, right, home of Terrifire, so right, but yes, we

347
00:18:32.000 --> 00:18:35.359
went out to Sonya's Hair Fashion spend a day. I

348
00:18:35.799 --> 00:18:38.839
had met a guy at one of the clubs. He

349
00:18:38.960 --> 00:18:41.839
was one of the bouncers at one of the late

350
00:18:41.960 --> 00:18:45.640
night you know, Manhattan clubs, who was like a naval

351
00:18:45.799 --> 00:18:49.839
power lifter. He was like six three and three hundred pounds.

352
00:18:50.160 --> 00:18:54.759
So we recruited him as leather face. And and so

353
00:18:55.200 --> 00:18:58.359
we shot this woman goes into the beauty parlor and

354
00:18:58.400 --> 00:19:02.599
she gets her hair done. She's under the dryer. She

355
00:19:02.599 --> 00:19:07.119
she wants a manicure. The beautician goes manicure.

356
00:19:07.640 --> 00:19:08.000
You know that.

357
00:19:08.200 --> 00:19:10.720
You hear the saur rev and the slide of course

358
00:19:10.799 --> 00:19:13.279
got to be a steel door slides open and out

359
00:19:13.279 --> 00:19:16.039
comes leather Face, you know, and he's coming toward this

360
00:19:16.119 --> 00:19:19.319
poor woman who's literally trapped under a hair dryer, and

361
00:19:20.039 --> 00:19:23.319
he starts sawing on her fingers. She's screaming, bloody murder,

362
00:19:23.839 --> 00:19:27.480
you know. It's it's terrifying, and everything kind of goes.

363
00:19:27.559 --> 00:19:30.000
It doesn't do a blackout, it kind of red out.

364
00:19:30.240 --> 00:19:33.200
And then we come back and this woman has passed

365
00:19:33.240 --> 00:19:36.759
out lea, her face is gone. Beautician like pats are

366
00:19:36.759 --> 00:19:39.519
on the cheek. Man man, wake up. The woman wakes up.

367
00:19:39.559 --> 00:19:42.480
She goes, no, no, no, oh.

368
00:19:42.680 --> 00:19:45.960
She looks at her hands. She's got a perfect manicure. Wow,

369
00:19:46.200 --> 00:19:48.960
And then she goes. She comes outside to her husband

370
00:19:49.000 --> 00:19:52.799
in the pickup truck and I'm that's me, and I'm

371
00:19:52.960 --> 00:19:56.599
dressed as the and made up as the hitchhiker. And

372
00:19:56.680 --> 00:19:58.039
she comes out and she goes.

373
00:19:57.880 --> 00:19:59.839
Look, honey, I got the best manicure ever.

374
00:20:00.480 --> 00:20:02.640
And I had gone to the market and gotten a

375
00:20:02.680 --> 00:20:06.880
big hunk of head cheese, which doesn't really look very dramatic,

376
00:20:06.880 --> 00:20:09.880
but if you know what the ingredients are, it's very funky.

377
00:20:10.440 --> 00:20:12.400
And she goes, look, I got this best manicure.

378
00:20:12.400 --> 00:20:15.920
And I go, hey, that's great, honey, we should celebrate

379
00:20:15.960 --> 00:20:19.119
with some head cheese.

380
00:20:18.359 --> 00:20:21.240
And a friend of mine. You know.

381
00:20:21.400 --> 00:20:24.319
Fast forward like a month or two later. I was

382
00:20:24.799 --> 00:20:28.400
covering the making of I think it was twenty ten,

383
00:20:28.519 --> 00:20:32.640
a Space Odyssey sequel, out in Los Angeles, and I

384
00:20:32.640 --> 00:20:36.079
went to see a friend of mine who was already

385
00:20:36.599 --> 00:20:38.640
you know, a young guy. You know, went to prep

386
00:20:38.640 --> 00:20:40.480
school with him. He was a young guy, but he

387
00:20:40.519 --> 00:20:43.200
had already He and his partner had already written Who

388
00:20:43.240 --> 00:20:47.599
Framed Roger Rabbit? So he was an established, hot, young screenwriter.

389
00:20:48.240 --> 00:20:51.759
And I went out to his house for dinner and

390
00:20:52.119 --> 00:20:54.920
brought along the I'd brought along a VHS copy of

391
00:20:54.960 --> 00:20:59.000
The Manicure, all five minutes of it, and we played

392
00:20:59.039 --> 00:21:02.319
it after dinner, and my friend just loved it. He said,

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00:21:02.319 --> 00:21:04.000
oh my god, this is great. He said, you know,

394
00:21:04.440 --> 00:21:07.559
my partner and I have an office right across the

395
00:21:07.599 --> 00:21:10.440
hall from Toby Hooper, who at the time was working

396
00:21:10.480 --> 00:21:14.240

Bill Mosely aka Chop-Top at Milwaukee Metal Fest - PipemanRadio Interview

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