Do what now?
[Hasil Adkins interview (June 1, 1999)]
During a phone interview with Doc, legendary one-man-band rockabilly artist Hasil Adkins would exclaim “do what now?” as a replacement for the general query “what?”
“Sometimes I listen to your records and I think, How is he doing all that? So you’re working the drums with your feet?”
“Do what now?”
“You’re working the drums with your feet, then?”
“Yeah, I play drums, bass, and lead, and rhythm, harp – you know, harmonica–around your neck. I can play organ and piano with my elbows. I’m riggin’ that up now. I can play about anything, but I gotta get it all rigged where I could get to it, you know, so I can play it all at the same time.”
Its meaning has changed a bit with third-party overuse, and has now become a standard answer to any sort of confusing circumstance or a way of dodging labor-suggestive queries:
“Aren’t those the tater tots with red powder on them?”
“Do what now?”“Weren’t you supposed to empy the trash?”
“Do what now?”
– Jeff Stendec (September 26, 2000)