Gary Calamar on How Jace Everett Landed the “True Blood” Theme

Jace Everett will be performing at the Santa Monica Pier this Thursday, July 22 alongside Chilean rapper Ana Tijoux and Italian superstar Jovanatti as part of the free Twilight Dance Series starting at 7pm. KCRW is presenting the show and Gary Calamar, who is not only a KCRW DJ but a music supervisor for big time TV shows like “True Blood,” tells us how Jace’s song became the theme for HBO’s hit show:

“Jace Everett wrote and recorded THE PERFECT song for the opening theme for True Blood, although we didn’t realize it at first.

Alan Ball, the creator of the HBO show “True Blood,” told me a little bit about his writing habits. He said he will work on a script for a while and when he needs a break he’ll take a little trip to iTunes do some exploring and $99.00 later will get back to his script.

It was on one of these excursions that Alan found Jace Everett’s “Bad Things” for his then new series True Blood. We all thought it was super-cool but wasn’t sure it was “the one” . Second guessing is second nature for me. So, I as music supervisor of the show, went on a search for some other options, and found some bloody fantastic songs. We listened, we grooved, we dug, but in the back of our minds we were all still humming Jace’s “I Wanna Do Bad Things With You.”

Soon it became very clear that Jace’s song was ‘the song”. It’s perfect. A devilish blend of sex, menace, romance and humor…and it kicks ass. In a way i think it helped Alan and the writers find the unique tone for our show. I think “Bad Things” will go down in television history as one of the best tv theme songs…right up there with Green Acres and Mr. Ed.

Jace is in town and doing a show at the Santa Monica Pier on Thursday. I hope to see you there.”