From the bands bio: If you check your favorite Internet search engine, the term "Royal Ruckus" is likely to conjure up British article headlines such as "Parliament Raises a Royal Ruckus."
While the hip-hop duo of Jamey Bennett and Michael Walker may not be stirring up the Crown, the duo's name did stir Flicker Records' president Bob Herdman to take interest in the group. "I immediately liked the name, which compelled me to listen to their demo," Herdman remembers. "Their great melodies immediately hooked me as well my seven-year-old son who listened to their independent records every night for a month." Noting their appeal to a broad age spectrum, Flicker realized Royal Ruckus had mass potential.
Exclusive Interview with Royal Ruckus
I got to take a break from the heat for a bit while sitting on the big yellow tour bus, talking with Jamey and Michael. The A/C was nice, and the guys were even nicer.
Kim: You guys just came off stage. Ya'll have a lot of energy.
Michael: Thanks. We always try to keep it as fun as possible and involve the crowd as much as possible.
Kim: I saw people from five years old to what looked like late 40's jumping around and having a good time during your performance.
Michael: That's definitely something we've seen as a group. We've seen that across the spectrum of ages.
Kim: You guys are out of California and your web site calls you "just two average surburban white guys doing hip-hop".
Michael: That's pretty much it. You know we just talk about life and what God's doing in our lives.
Kim: So what's He doing right now?
Jamey: I'll tell you something I've been learning a lot about right now is just loving my brothers and sisters in Christ. It's so easy, especially as artists, to get up into your own little world and start to lose how to relate to your family. I've been learning a lot about how to spread that out.
Kim: What about you Michael? What has God been doing in your life here lately?
Michael: Really, I've been getting more into prayer. I've been out of it for a while. I'm just focusing more on my relationship with God and fellowship. It's really been amazing to see how God is always faithful, even when I'm not.
Kim: Where to after Toccoa?
Jamey: Well we get a few days off in Nashville.
Michael: Then we're going up to Kentucky - Louisville. And then Shreveport, LA and then New Orleans.
Jamey: Then we'll be out in California a couple of times this year which will be good. It gives us a chance to go home.
Kim: Anything new we should be looking for this year from the studio?
Jamey: Nothing necessarily that we're aware of that we can talk about for this year. But there will be stuff, some site stuff and possibly another Royal Ruckus project in 2004. We'll be very busy next year.
Kim: What's it like, being two regular guys and one day God says "You know what? I'm going to put you out in front of a whole bunch of people and I'm going to have to talking about me. I'm going to have you out there with some of those names that everybody knows and then you're going to be one of those names that everybody knows".
Jamey: It's really cool. You know, we started out with three guys. Three guys in high school and we were just goofing around and having fun. We never really intended to take it anywhere other than his living room and maybe a couple of birthday parties or something. And it just grew from there. It was totally God's hand working through it all and Him prodding us to take the next step. It's happened slow enough, we've been together about five and a half years, so it's not like "oh my gosh, what's going on"? But at the same time it's quicker than we imagined. It's great.
Kim: It's always great to be able to do something that you love and it's been great talking to you guys. Anything you'd like to say in closing?
Jamey: Buy the record and pass it on to friends.