SHILOH GREATHOUSE -- The Chrome Ball Incident Interview

courtesty of The Chrome Ball Incident

Steve Rocco-era World Industries is the stuff that legends are made of. In the early ’90s, it shook the industry to its core, and produced a group of pros that would go on to become the most influential in skateboarding. Shiloh Greathouse is an alumnus of that camp. Being an insider, he has unique insights into a period of time that provided the blueprint for modern skateboarding. The Chrome Ball Incident’s in-depth interview style is the perfect platform for Shiloh to tell his full story. We highly recommend that you dig into the entire piece when you have a moment. But if CliffsNotes are more your thing, we’ve pulled a few choice quotes below.

On filming for Love Child:

Yeah, it was almost always a crew of us out there filming together. I think there might’ve been a few solo missions but those were pretty rare. My 270 lip on the rail was a solo mission.

I want to say that we probably filmed for over a year on that but a lot of our early footage didn’t get used. We had a ton of 7th Street footage early on that never came out. With how quickly tricks were going in and out, it was probably too old.

We basically began filming for real on this tour we went on with Soc. That’s why you have stuff of me skating a flat rail in New Orleans in there. But again, all filming together. And once we got back home, I’m pretty sure every trick or line I have in LA was filmed with Daewon and Daniel there, too. So much of that stuff was all on the same day, you can tell by our clothes.

On Steve Rocco:

Rocco was such a cool guy, man. He immediately made you feel comfortable, just by joking around and his overall demeanor… plus, he had that high, squeaky voice. It’s funny because as gnarly as he could get with other brands, he was never once threatening to us in the slightest. He always took care of us, like a family.

The best was when he’d come on tours because he’d spoil us. It was never like that with Rodney as our chaperone, he was a tight wad. But not Steve… shopping sprees, gambling with you on tricks. 100 bucks for whoever got the trick first. He was always trying to make things fun.

Looking back, I honestly think Rocco would get psyched on bumming out Rodney. That Steve would encourage us to do bad shit, just to fuck with Rodney. I think he felt that Rodney was way too uptight and took shit way too seriously. I guess we were Rocco’s way of trying to get Rodney to loosen up a little.

On the X-Large Los Angeles Store:

Oh, that was a great scene we had going back then. X-Large was one of the first streetwear spots, Mike D from the Beastie Boys owned it. They had all the weird Adidas and stuff. It was cool. Billy worked there, back when he was riding for Real. A friend of ours, Paul T, ran the place. He was the manager, which meant he’d let us take pretty much whatever we wanted. I mean, we technically skated for them but Paul would just let us take anything. He didn’t care, that place was making a killing.

But that was the hangout for everyone. Paulo, Fabian, Joey… Guy would be there all the time. John Deago and Mike Daher ended up moving right across the street. You had Lockwood down the block. There was a Bank of America right there on the corner that we all used to hang out at.

courtesy of The Chrome Ball Incident

On Almost riding for Chocolate:

I knew about Girl, I just didn’t say anything about it because they are my homies. I wasn’t asked to be on Girl, though, they wanted Kareem and I to do another new company with them. This was the original plan, way back at the beginning before Girl had even started. Girl had such a huge team already, they didn’t have room for two more pros so Chocolate was going to be me and Kareem’s company alongside Girl, originally called “Sister”.

It’s funny because I was the one who orchestrated everyone quitting World to ride for Chocolate. Richard Mulder, Shamil, Daniel… I told them all to quit so we could start this new company over [at] Girl. And look at what happened? Those dudes all left while Kareem and I ended up staying.

On the origin of Menace:

Menace was the new company Kareem and I were promised for staying at World and not going with Sister. But Kareem being “Mr. Businessman” went off and took over everything. That’s just what Kareem does.

But again, I was the one who actually got those guys to quit their sponsors for it. Because Kareem didn’t really know Joey, Fabian, and Billy. Those are my boys. And once again, they all quit and neither Kareem nor I ended up riding for it. I don’t think Kareem ever rode for it until City Stars.

On leaving Dwindle and almost riding for Krooked:

I basically got kicked off. Deca ended and I didn’t get picked up by any of the other Dwindle brands, so I just went without a sponsor for a while. But honestly, I was content with it. After a while, I actually felt like I didn’t even want a sponsor. I liked being out of the public eye, man. I didn’t have to worry about as much of the bullshit back then. And because of that, I probably skated the best I ever had at that point.

I did almost ride for Krooked for a minute back then. I ran into Mark one day at a skatepark and he asked me to ride for his new company. It didn’t even have a name when he initially asked me, but I was getting boards for over a year. I’m pretty much riding Krooked boards for my entire Skateboarding is Dead part… hell, I basically had an entire part in that first Krooked video, too. But it didn’t end up working out. When it came time for the decision to be made about me, Mark was going through some personal stuff and was M.I.A. He wasn’t even around to vouch for me getting on and I guess the rest of the dudes weren’t feeling it.

Oh well, I kept doing my thing.

On his proudest moment and biggest regret:

That’s a hard one but I’d say my proudest moment was probably the day I got on World. That was literally a dream come true and it changed my life. I truly felt like I had accomplished something when I got on.

As far as a regret goes, probably not sticking with Sister. I’m glad I didn’t go but had I gone, I wouldn’t have had to deal with all that Flameboy shit at World. Because that would’ve never happened at Chocolate. And let’s face it, after Girl, World was going down that Wet Willy track regardless of if I was there or not. Chocolate was always going to keep it cool and not sell out their aesthetic for money…. If only Rocco would’ve just kept it like it was, the OG shit, I might still be at World to this day. It just wasn’t in him anymore.