CATLETTSBURG, Ky. — Joe Waugh’s appearance causes an instant and visceral reaction from practically all who look at him.

Even without the signature, dyed mohawk that distinguished him from far away, Waugh remains instantly recognizable due to a facial tattoo, a circle around his left eye, that causes many to look upon him with utter revulsion. Sitting in the Boyd County Detention Center for the past year, Waugh shakes his head and confesses his confusion when he talks about being labeled a terrorist.

Waugh, along with Jessica Greer, was indicted for blowing up “Malotov cocktails” in a train tunnel near an apartment complex in Ashland, Kentucky, in July. Each was charged with use of weapons of mass destruction, wanton endangerment and criminal trespassing, and face five to 10 years in prison if convicted. The criminal investigation was prompted by a video posted on Greer’s Facebook page believed to show Waugh and Greer at the scene as the devices were detonated. The video shows what appears to be the co-defendants making and blowing up incendiaries, while wearing bandanas over the lower portion of their faces. 

As a self-described anarchist, Waugh said his political views were immediately intertwined with his charges, even though he denies ever making a statement about being an anarchist to any arresting officer. During an exclusive interview with The Ashland Daily Independent last week, Waugh said the past year has been difficult.

“My daughter graduated high school while I was in here. That was kind of bittersweet,” he said, adding that jailer Joe Burchett allowed her to visit him wearing her cap and gown.

Waugh declined to discuss specifics of his case in consideration of an impending court date. He began by tackling the first question many ask regarding his appearance, and the story behind the tattoo on his face.

“It’s actually an old squatters rights tattoo. Back in my younger days I used to travel around a lot — kind of hopping trains and hitchhiking across the United States. It’s an old squatter’s rights tattoo,” he said, noting he got the tattoo about 10 years ago.

Q: Can you talk about why you’re in jail?

“In my view, how I see it, I think that if I were a normal-looking person, none of this would’ve happened. It’s a lot of hype. As soon as they heard the word anarchist, which the arresting officer said the first thing I stated was ‘By the way, I’m an anarchist’ — which I’d be a complete and total idiot to say. Nothing like that was ever brought up.

“What we were doing — this is about all I can say. We were making a music video. That’s what it was. We was making a music video — an edited music video with music and everything. Was that maybe in bad taste? Yeah. Was there any damage? No. Was there anybody intended to be hurt? There was no malice intended or anything. And, I think the way I look and with what my political views, or lack of political views or whatever, it kind of blew up into something it never was.

“What it was — it was so innocent and goofy. When it was put on it was more like, ‘Hey look how cool this looks!’”

Below are excerpts from his Q&A.

Q: Do you expect a fair trial?

“I don’t think there’s no way I can. They labeled me — like one of the newspapers, the top thing said ‘Wannabe terrorists.’ Now see, especially right now with all the terrorist stuff on TV, ISIS and all that crazy stuff like that — they’re putting me up in there like what was that bomber? The Boston Marathon Bomber. With all that going on and them putting ‘terrorist’ with my name, they’re treating me like I’m some kind of anarchist extremist religious nut or something, and that actually has nothing to do with my case.

“I think I’m misunderstood a lot. You know, if you saw me on the street — the way I dress, the way I look — not very many people stop and talk to you first before they come up with their own, you know, thoughts,” he said, recalling a railroad official looking into the case asked him if he was “a real bad person or someone who did something goofy.” Waugh said he replied that he had no bad intention.

“I don’t think there’s no way I should be in jail right now. I mean, I get it. Sometimes people do something with malice toward someone or something like that but I don’t look at it like that. I think it was blown completely out of proportion. There’s a lot of things I want to say but I’m … I want to say a lot.”

Q: Are you a terrorist?

“No. No,” Waugh said. “I don’t get it. It’s like I said it’s just a bunch of fear-based hype. It’s easy headlines. You know the newspaper, the news business, all that stuff. You know, I look the part. You know? I look the part. I couldn’t believe they used the word terrorist. It really shocked me.

“I feel like I’m black in 1960s Mississippi,” he said. “I felt like when it started happening it was kind of like a witch hunt. That’s kind of how it felt. It just kept — every headline, everything just kept getting worse and worse and worse and when I go back to what really happened, I think ‘Gosh, I can’t believe it. Something that goofy as a music video and it went nuts.’ Like, I still can’t believe it. Here I am almost a year later.

“Talking about anarchists. You know, I have a lot of anarchist views, but there’s a lot of views that I have that are the same views as the forefathers — like freedom of the press. I believe in that. I’m a big person on civil rights. But, you know, they act like being an anarchist is this big sin, that it is a sin to be a big anarchist,” he said, citing an Abraham Lincoln anarchist-like quote about people’s obligation to overthrow the government if they grow weary of it.

“When you say the word anarchist, that’s not what people are thinking of. They’re thinking of somebody in a black mask, raising chaos,” he said.

“I wouldn’t want to be in any other country. I like living in the United States. I don’t want to get dropped off in no Third World country. I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else. I just think the power should be in the hands of the people instead of the very few. It’s easily corrupted like that.”

Q: You’re basically like a lot of people, against big government?

“Not necessarily against it, I just don’t agree with a lot of it,” he said.

Waugh concluded, “I make a better bad guy than a good guy, even though I’m actually a good guy.”

Preston writes for the Ashland, Kentucky Daily Independent.