Writer: Chris Ahrens | Photography: Peter Dawson
I am scheduled to meet Ray Barbee for an interview at 1:00 p.m., July 21, 2004. It is now 12:57 p.m. Will he be nice, mean, cool or cold? I wonder. I knew him as little more than a photo in a skate mag, and a Fender postcard where he is smiling, sitting on his amp, pretending to play guitar. I was in a room with him once for a private screening of The Passion of the Christ. He got away before I could shake his hand.
    At one o’clock, Ray calls to say that he is stuck in traffic. So we end up meeting him half an hour later over tacos and Sprite. Nothing to worry about, he is nice, cool and warm. A name that would soon become a friend. There is no trace that he is or has been high on his own press as a gentle rhythm comes forth in the cadence of his words. He’s a man on a mission. Not to be the world’s greatest skater or guitar player—in fact, he hopes to decrease his greatness in favor of another’s. Better let him explain it.

Risen Magazine: What sort of kid were you?
Ray Barbee: Did I get in trouble? [Laughter] My pop served in the Marines, he played football as a wide receiver, did some boxing, played sax in their jazz band. I have a brother two years younger and a sister seven years younger than me. Pop would take my brother and I out and throw us passes and teach us to run patterns. From his influences, I took to football and basketball and stuff like that. I got in a little trouble, but my parents did a pretty good job of instilling discipline and fear. All my pop had to do was put his hand on his belt and we knew, we better stop doing what we were doing. I was always sensitive to consequences, where my bro’ didn’t seem to care at all. He would do things that I would never do cuz I didn’t want to get it.

RM: Do you remember when you first saw a skateboard?
RB: That’s actually how I started skate-boarding…one summer my buddy and I rode our bikes. It was his birthday and his mom got him a skateboard. Right when I saw it, I thought, Man, that thing means business. We had seen skateboards before, but they were banana boards, but this board was a Variflex and I could tell it was for real and you could do something with it. For the rest of the summer, he was riding his skateboard and I was riding a bike, and I could tell he was having way more fun than I was. So I was like, I want to get a skateboard.

RM: Do you think that skaters are more rebellious than most other people?
RB: Uh, I think it depends. There’re definitely a lot of influences in skateboarding that come from the school of rebellion. Like early on in the ‘80s, skateboarding was influenced by punk rock music, and the heart of punk is anti-establishment, do what you want. That being the soundtrack to skating in the ’80s, it naturally gets adapted. With that and with skateboarding not being legal, that puts it in a position to be rebellious.

RM: Have you ever promoted skateboarding in the Black community?
RB: I think just by being out there I’ve been doing that. I’m thankful when people come up to me and say that I’ve encouraged them to skateboard cuz I was the only Black skate-boarder that they saw.

RM: Isn’t that kind of weird?
RB: Yes and no. I mean, it’s sad but the reality of where people grew up…Early on it was the brothers and sisters that used to give me the most grief, cuz they’re like, You tryin’ to be white? Skateboarding was associated with surfing, and so there’re those connotations. It’s just the reality of cultures and stereotypes. For me it was my buddy Isabel—he’s Black and he’s a couple years older than me and he was the best surfer and skater at our school. I’m thankful that I had encouragement and inspiration from him, and I’m thankful that I’ve had that same effect on people.

RM: Was your music influenced by skating?
RB: Early on my friends played in bands and things. After we’d skate the ramps, they’d have band practice and I’d hang out at the practices and bug them to teach me chords. Of course the first chord is the power chord, cuz that’s all they’re usin’. That was a lot of what we were into, things like Minor Threat, Social Distortion, Vandals. As I started playing more, I started getting into other styles of music and wanted to learn more.

RM: How would you describe your music?
RB: I don’t know; I’m definitely under the influence of jazz, finger picking. I really dig John Fahey and Leo Kottke and Mississippi John Hurt as well as a lot of the jazz giants. I definitely favor a lot of the chords that they play, but I just taught myself, so I don’t know what it is.

RM: Did it ever seem to you that faith in God and skating didn’t mix?
RB: Growing up you always heard that Christians couldn’t do this or that, and I know it played a large part in my perception of God. I thought that if I became a Christian I wouldn’t be able to do this or that. I kind of grew up with my grandmother. She has a strong faith, and I respected what she believed and I loved the Bible stories that she would read to me like David and Goliath. I had a reverence for God, but I didn’t really know Him. Then I’m with all my skateboard buddies who are always shooting it down. So it’s like this torn, limbo kind of thing.
RM: Was there ever a time you didn’t believe?
RB: The Word says The fool has said in his heart there is no God. Because of conviction or whatever, I was saying, Man, there’s no God. One year when Lance [Mountain] and I