Atmosphere’s Slug Gets Real About Lucy Ford

The “When God Gives You Ugly” tour kicks off at Wilma Theatre in Missoula, Mont., April 9 and winds down, appropriately enough, at Slowdown in Omaha, Neb., May 22.

Additional dates include stops at The Orpheum Theater in Flagstaff, Ariz. (April 14), Showbox SoDo in Seattle (April 24), MacEwan Hall Ballroom in Calgary, Alberta (April 29) and House of Blues in Boston (May 13).

P.O.S. is coming along for the fun as an opening act on select dates.

2002’s God Loves Ugly is the second-full length album for the hip-hop duo of Slug and Ant. The album was re-released Jan. 20 after being out of print for over a year.

Atmosphere has built a hardcore fan base in part because of the connection many fans feel to Slug’s lyrics, which often center on the character Lucy Ford. As the follow up to 2001’s Lucy Ford, God Loves Ugly continues to explore the title character of Lucy.

Slug (real name Sean Daley) told Pollstar Lucy Ford was originally a play on the name Lucifer and represented the female devil.

“When I wrote Lucy and when I was writing about Lucy, I thought that Lucy represented the dichotomy between me and women and my own flaws as to why I couldn’t maintain a meaningful relationship, as well as the type of women I was attracted to,” Slug said.

“In retrospect, when I look back on it, 10 years later, I’m like ‘Man, by no means were any of those women in my life really so bad that they deserved to be demonized.’ Really, I think what I was demonizing was myself and my own codependency on alcohol, drama, marijuana, sex, validation, the whole validating game. … I really don’t think any of these people were bad people. I think that more so, I was caught inside of cycles I couldn’t break, going from one codependent relationship to another to the point where it just kind of swaddled me and it’s what I decided to rap about.”

Slug said that he was able to use the character of Lucy Ford and the songs to initiate dialogue with young fans.

“On the bright side, I talk to kids all the time who feel as if those songs were helpful for them, just as far as navigating their own beginnings of the codependency cycle,” Slug said.

“I definitely had my moments of regret that I ever wrote a lot of those songs because I accidentally hurt a lot of people’s feelings, including my own. But here we are today, 10 years later, and I’m kind of glad it happened because I’ve been able to channel it in positive avenues.”

To check out Atmosphere’s HotStar Pollstar cover story, click here.