Honolulu Weekly

The Olympics have concluded, and after all the controversy, all the pomp and circumstance, members of the United States team have an additional 110 medals to their name, more than any other country. USA! USA! USA! But while you were busy watching Michael Phelps shatter records, there was another international competition you may have missed: The Air Guitar World Championships, held every year in Oulu, Finland. This year, San Francisco resident Hott Lixx Hulahan (real name: Craig Billmeier) outplayed over 19 other countries, the first win for the U.S. since 2004. But before taking on the world, he had to defeat former Waipahu resident Fatima Hoang, who won the national title in 2005. Huang, who performs under the name Rockness Monster, spoke by telephone from his Los Angeles home of his love for Hawai’i, the elusive art of achieving “Airness,” his decision to retire and his fears that the sport could be turning into a spectacle.

Let’s start by talking about your Hawai’i roots.

[My family] left Fresno in ‘93, when I was 14. Moving to new places is never fun. I remember when we first moved there it was so muggy, it was just a terrible time of the year. But when we first went to the beach I was like, “Oh yeah, I can dig this.” We ended up in a very small place in Waipahu, and it was culture shock to say the least. I came from a magnet art school to Waipahu High School, which was worlds apart. I was reminded of all those inner city urban educational movies. I was like, oh no, somebody could stab me in the back at any moment. But it was a pretty good time. I always call Hawai’i home. My wife is from Mililani and we talk about coming home all the time.

What brought the idea to compete?

It was 2004, early summer, a friend of mine in Hawai’i sent me a clip of [2005 World Air Guitar Champion] C-Diddy performing. I said, this looks like stupid kind of fun that I’ve always enjoyed–karaoke, being in bands–I’ll give this a try. So when Aireoke came to Los Angeles–I believe it was the first time it had come to L.A., C-Diddy was there that night and I went up and did Slayer’s “Raining Blood” and I kinda just went nuts. It was received pretty well so I just kept going for a couple of weeks.

And then came the regional championships.

Yeah, regionals, and the nationals would be almost immediately afterward, like a back to back thing. So I won a bid to the regionals. I prepared two songs because if I won the regionals I would have to compete in the nationals 15 minutes later, which is what ended up happening. I did Slayer, and I did “Welcome to the Jungle”–two, I’d say, quintessential air guitar songs. I did really well, and I just barely lost to Sonyk-Rok [Miri Park], who ended up winning the World title that year.

But you won the national title the following year and were sent to Finland to represent the U. S.

I didn’t do very well, I didn’t even make it to the second round. What they look for in Finland, it’s really different from what they look for in the States. It’s elusive, but they aren’t going for a huge spectacle. They’re going for entertainment.

But who finances a trip to Finland? Is this out of your pocket?

It’s all paid for, and now they give you prize money, which is sort of why I keep doing it because I’m a whore like that. But the trip alone is pretty awesome. It’s just madness. It’s all air guitar, all the time, and you’re meeting all these other people from other countries. What I found is you’re really representing the United States in a way that the Olympic competitors do. What’s really nice is when you can change to opinions of others of the United States though goodwill and camaraderie. I think Hott Lixx does that really well. He was just playing air guitar for a world stage and not just for America’s sake.

The rules seem pretty lax, particularly for the U.S. Hott Lixx won his regional championship in Washington D.C., but he’s really from San Francisco.

I’ve found that to be problematic. The rules have always been pretty lax. There was a guy this year who traveled to about 12 competitions. He was doing it for fun, but he was also trying to win the competition. What I’ve always liked is up until this year I was always representing L.A. I felt weird about losing L.A. this year and having to go to San Diego. But when I did win San Diego, I felt that I was representing them and not L.A. But there’s something admirable sticking to your own city.

This year saw some serious injuries. New York finalist Betty B. Goode had to have a toe amputated after breaking it on stage, and Hott Lixx mangled his thumb in the national competition. Is air guitar moving toward something that’s judged on crazy, or even dangerous, physical antics?

I’m afraid of that. It shows one awesome thing, which is passion, and the moment and how great the single minute can be and what it can make you do. But at the same time, if it just escalates to people just injuring themselves, it might be taken as escalation just for the sake of escalation and not for the sport. There’s always the crazy costuming, but this year it wasn’t as crazy as it usually is. I think that’s a conscious effort from a few people trying to bring it back to air guitar. C-Diddy brought this crazy costume, but when he was on and playing, it wasn’t about his costume anymore. It was about his awesomeness.

What brought about your retirement?

Part of it was for the sake of art. Since I’ve won the nationals I’ve been straying away from crowd-friendly routines. When I did “Beautiful People” by Marilyn Manson, I didn’t feel good about it for integrity’s sake. It’s not about being funny or pandering for the audience, it’s more like what we do, the audience finds entertainment in. That’s the way I approach my routines. This is what I want to show you, and take what you will from it. But in retirement, I heard something from John Elway the other day that it’s 51 percent that you want to retire, and 49 you don’t. That’s kind of what I’ve been going through now, it’s this whole Brett Farve thing.

Do you hope to bring this to Hawai’i? Is the world is ready for a Slack Key air guitar champion?

That would be awesome. The ’80s hair metal gets redundant so quickly, so to bring something new in would be just so much more awesome. Ideally it would be great to have the competition be won by a huge Samoan guy rocking out to Metallica. There’s been some discussion with the air guitar people and promoters and I have some friends from the beautiful island who can help. It’s a huge orchestration now. But Hawai’i would be a great place to end the tour.

How many times have you been asked about air groupies?

I get it, not so much with interviews, but I get it from random people. And they do ask. And there are groupies. I’m married and my wife is there at the events, so I’ve got to be the married guy. I get as far as signing boobs.