What can you tell me about PHANTASM 4?

Nothing. Obviously, you know that I enjoy talking. Don knows this, so he tries not to tell me much, but he loves to tell me stuff. 'Cause we do that with each other. He has not let me read the script.

What I know is that a song from your cd ("Have You Seen It") is for P4 and that Roger Avery (Oscar-winning screenwriter of PULP FICTION) has written a script, or the script, or has co-written a script with Don.

Yeah Roger wrote the script, and Don is overseer. They're looking for the right deal and they've been looking for the right deal for a long time, and this does not surprise me.

Well, judging from the time between installments it seems like Don takes great care to find that the film is made by the right people.

He does, and there's a lot of integrity in these things and in the dealings. It's a wait and see situation. Things heat up and things cool down, and I've been talking about this picture for three years now. It's to the point where we're gonna do the picture, but I don't know when. I couldn't even tell ya man. Just about the time I think, "Well you know, in the next couple months," boom something occurs.

I've heard some things about it from Don. They're wonderful things and I think anybody that's into the series is gonna love it. Alot of action and excitement, alot of twisted things. [Editor's Note: PHANTASM 4 was recently released to video and was reviewed by ER.]

One of the things that I like about the films is how Don adds a little hook or twist to each installment that makes you interested. It's not like a lot of the horror series' that bring nothing new to the table.

What's interesting about PHANTASM is that it's a growing, living project. The themes that he repeats on...for example, in the first one Michael gets attacked in the Volkswagen and the dwarfs are pummeling his head against the back window and they just throw his ass out and he ends up rolling and laying on the street with that yellow line looking right down it. And if you recall, in PHANTASM 2, the same thing happens to him in the wreck in the 'Cuda. There's certain little things that repeat that make you go, "Wait a minute, what's going on here?" I don't know. The thing is growing. Like what's going on with Mike?

Yeah, I just got done watching 3 about half an hour ago, and what is happening with Mike? And Reg is trapped against the wall by a thousand spheres! It's also impressive the way he's been able to keep the same characters going through the three films with the theme of family, friendship and commitment. Let me ask you about your cd a little bit. Alot of the songs seem like they're written from a very personal perspective. Is that how you approach all of your songwriting or is it just how the songs on this collection come across?

No, I think that's how I approach all of my songwriting. I can reach down into the pool of humanity and bring these things up because I've been there and done that.

Well, you've had a lot of diverse experiences to draw upon.

It's true. I've often said that I've been blessed with two curses. That keeps kind of coming back to me. I act and I play music. I'm a total creative person. It's very difficult to live in the world as a creative when the world's focus is monetary, you have to learn how to survive. And that's a big part of the music on the cd, survival and learning how to survive and get through things. There's a lot of lessons in the cd. And as you listen to the cd and read the words, you know that this is someone who knows what they're talking about and this wasn't mindlessly thrown out. They come over a lot of years, as well. I wrote nine of the songs. There's three songs from three friends of mine. "Photographs of Mars" is a song that I learned back in 1974 or 75 maybe. A guy that used to come into this place that I managed the music in and I also played in, a guy named John Harrington wrote that song.

It's just such a beautiful take on traveling through America and what you see and it's an overall visual picture of how America is and it hasn't really changed and it's still vital today in my estimation.

What else can we expect from you? More musical projects?

As is usual in my life I maximize every project that I get involved in. I really believe whether it's my project or whether it's a film that I'm doing for someone else -- I just did a film called THE WISHMASTER with Bob Kurtzman and that's gonna be out in October, Wes Craven was Executive Producer -- I enter every project as if I own it or a piece of it anyway. And so I work tirelessly on everything that I'm involved in. It's not a gift if you can't give it.

The creative lives for humanity. And I don't mean to get messianic here or silly or stupid. It's true. As a creative you have a great desire to lay it all out and talk to people and reason with them. There's a passage in the Old Testament where God speaks to man and he says, "Come, let us reason." And I think that God, the Creator, is still speaking to us today, his creatives and to mankind, and saying "Come, let us reason." And I think that's where film should be at, where art should be at. I think music should be there. That's why I am alive in my estimation. I don't stop when something's in the can, so to speak.

Right now we're working very hard on promoting the album, it's a grassroots thing. Plan 10 Recordings? It's a friend of mine in Chicago that had enough faith in me to put his money where his mouth is, and I respect that. I'll always remember that, no matter how any of this turns out.

EDITOR'S NOTE: I'd like to thank Reggie Bannister for taking the time out of his schedule to talk with me. As a big fan of the PHANTASM series it was a thrill to talk with one of my all-time favorite actors and find out he's just as cool as the character he plays. If you're interested in ordering Reggie's CD, which runs the gamut from folk to rock with a little country mixed in, contact Plan 10 at 1104 Woodwind Drive, Suite #1, Plano, IL 60545-1061.