The Darkness Recall Autographing a Man’s Rump and a Stuffed Dog’s Privates

We recently had the pleasure of interviewing Darkness frontman Justin Hawkins and drummer Ed Graham. At the end of a captivating conversation with half of the British rock giants, the duo reminisced about some of their most memorable encounters with fans, which included signing a man’s rump and penning an autograph on the testicles of a stuffed family dog.

“Obviously, one of the reasons that people think we’re a classic rock band is because we’re one of those bands that occasionally has the pleasure of signing breasts,” says the frontman Hawkins. “Not everybody gets that opportunity, but we do. We’re lucky in that respect. The other day I signed a man’s ass. [Laughs] That was a first.”

Having sparked another fond memory, Hawkins turned to drummer Ed Graham and asked, “You’ve actually signed a stuffed dog’s testicles before haven’t you?” In a brilliant moment of dry English humor, Graham responded, “I think I wrote ‘E’ on one ball and ‘D’ on the other.”

Hawkins explains, “It was a family dog that had passed away and the family had it stuffed. And then the grandmother had died and left the dog to this guy. Apparently he always used to hate that dog when it was alive — that’s what he told us. He had been left this heirloom in his grandmother’s will and wanted to turn it into something positive, so he had the Darkness sign it for him.”

Stay tuned for the rest of our in-depth interview with Justin Hawkins and Ed Graham of the Darkness.