On the other end of the line, in a hotel room in Nashville, is Wolfmother's bass player and organist Chris Ross. Considering the band has just gone Gold in the UK, has a forthcoming single being used as the soundtrack to the Jackass sequel and are the hand-picked band playing tribute to Led Zepplin's induction into the UK Music Hall of Fame, I'm surprised to be met by a drained and blocked up sounding rock and roller.
"I've got a cold," Chris sniffles. "It's all the touring at the moment. We're pretty much on the bus every day. Playing the shows is amazing. But it's pretty tiring too."
It's no wonder he's so pooped really. Wolfmother have recently been joined by the Jackass boys, who tagged along to a few shows. And according to Chris they don't reserve their pain-threshold testing tricks for when the cameras are rolling, and watching your back can be quite exhausting. "It was excellent to hang out with them. They're really nice guys. But they live that 24 hours a day. That kind of freaks me out."
Imagine living in constant fear of electric shavers, which for Wolfmother's lead singer and guitarist Andrew Stockdale - sporter of an afro bigger than Big Brother winner Pete's swear box bill - has got to be a bit of a worry. "We do a show for an hour and or so, that's us done, and then we can kind of chill out. Backstage is usually a kind of a sanctuary space," Chris adds. "But with them there you're on edge. They're constantly like that. It's far out."
At least the risk paid off. The band's single about one of rock's most infamous pair, Joker and the Thief, is being even more rapturously received than before.
"When we played ‘Joker and the Thief’ at the end of shows it always got a pretty good reception. But I think it’s becoming more evident now that people are getting more exposure to it. The other night we played it and people were like 'Waaaaaah'. So it must be getting out there more. The movie's released now and the single's gone to radio. It's interesting to see how people work like that. The more accustomed they become to a song the more they get excited."
Not to say Wolfmother need a brand like Jackass to help spread their full-bodied prog funk - like Queens of the Stone Age with a vibrato Ozzy Osbourne behind the mic. The band have already secured Radio 1's Fearne Cotton as a fan. Oh dear, maybe that's not so good, is it?
Luckily, Chris says, gig-going types are also loving them. "It's great to see it develop. We've come and played places with next to no people in them and now our manager is sending us an itinerary saying nearly all of the shows are sold out."
For Wolfmother, these shows are much more than just a performance. A large part of the band's musical journey is about learning to get the most from their experience. Chris explained: "It's like how a DJ reads a dance floor to know what tracks to play to keep everyone going. We don't say we're going to do a jam in this song or we're going to do a nice wigged-out spacious jam when we're playing something heavy. You've got to read where the audience is at. It makes it more exciting for us as well. When you take chances it's more rewarding than going from A to B. With us its like 'woah what happened there' or 'aaaah I stuffed that up'."
It may come as something of a surprise that this spontaneous and experimental approach has been used on a number of ads, including an overseas iPod campaign. So just how does Wolfmother's wigged-out head bang-friendly material end up on TV? "We like really good song structure. It's a nice solid foundation but there's also a lot of interesting textures and weird leftfield things. It's about finding a balance between a good stable song structure and something interesting. Not too boring and not too freaked out. You always have to find the magic spot where everything's fitting. A lot of music seems to be about finding that balance."
It's all very well talking about balance but if the guys found just hanging out with the likes of Johnny Knoxville and Steve O exhausting, they've a corker of a challenge ahead of them playing tribute to the founders of rock excess, Led Zeppelin, as a way of inducting the 70s power band into the Music Hall of Fame.
"I remember growing up and listening to Led Zeppelin and thinking, 'yeah this is cool,' heavy for rocking out and stuff. The opportunity to pay tribute to that is kind of an honour. They're a classic band."
So why do Wolfmother think they've been chosen for the tribute? Their penchant for private jets? Harems of groupies which hanging onto their every mono-syllabic word? Or is it the trail of trashed hotel rooms? "Noooooooo," Chris chuckles with the energy of a paperweight and in need of honey and lemon. "We always get those references to 70s rock. We're like a jam-based band. For that whole generation that sort of music was very organic and we've followed that same aesthetic of letting the music develop, twist and turn. It doesn't have to go verse, chorus, verse two, bridge. We always let the song go where it wants to. And we got the vibe that people think we can maybe do it justice."
Do I detect just a fraction of rock god ego peeking through? "Everyone paints the picture of a rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle”, Chris says. "But it's really busy. It's a passion that turned into a job. Playing the shows keeps driving you but often we spend less than 12 hours in a town before we're off somewhere else. We're told, you can bring your family on the road. I was like, 'man I wouldn't subject anyone who didn't need to be here to this. Hotel rooms are a luxury. But whenever I suggest I may not be getting my basic needs [food, shelter, etc] someone says, 'but everything's going really well’."
Tour bus blues aside, Chris says he's finding solace in his free time. "I carry a lot of accessories now. I'm a bit of a girl," he admits.
What, like dangly earrings and headbands? "Noooooo. Like a classical guitar and a lot of books. The guitar is the yin to the yang of the heavy stuff we do on stage. My manager bought me a huge suitcase to fit it all in. It's obscene."
Could you fit a person in it? "Well nice and scrunched up, but you could get a person in there easily."
I'd be careful then if I were you. A wee man could jump out of your suitcase, armed with electric shavers at any time, landing you with an untimely haircut.
Words: Kerry Eustice