Interview: Parry Gripp

Parry Gripp is the singer and guitarist for the “nerd rock” pop punk band Nerf Herder, whose self-titled debut album was released in 1996 and included their best known song “Van Halen”, which is a biting tribute to the David Lee Roth era of that band. In their first run, they also released the albums How To Meet Girls (2000) and American Cheese (2002), and recorded the theme song for the TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

In an surprising second life in music, Gripp has written and posted a number of catchy/hilarious songs on YouTube including “Nom Nom Nom Nom Nom Nom Nom” (31 million views), “Boogie Boogie Hedgehog” (6 million views), “Spaghetti Cat (I Weep For You)” (3 million views), “Guinea Pig Bridge” (6 million views), “Space Unicorn” (15 millions views), “Raining Tacos” (28 million views), and “Baby Monkey (Backwards on a Pig)” (27 million views). There may be some truth to the lyric from the latter song: “The world has gone insane”.

This interview with Parry Gripp was done in person on 2/5/19, and was for a preview article for noozhawk.com for the Nerf Herder show at Mercury Lounge in Goleta, California on 2/16/19. (Dana Ross Sherlock photo)