(GG Allin and the Murder Junkies)
So, it’s come to this: The GG Allin chapter. His brother and former bandmate, Merle, is a really nice guy because, going in, I didn’t know what to expect. Hold your noses everyone, here’s a look into the brutality, human feces, nudity, heroin, and death that was the GG Allin experience.
Let’s go back to 1991 and the first tour we did with GG. Knowing what to expect, but to actually have it happen while you’re playing and watching it all unfold in front of you, is a totally different fucking story. Today, you can watch all the video of those performances you want, and it’s not even a tenth of what was actually happening if you were there. This story is legendary in San Diego. It was a place called the Spirit Club, and the floor was set up with tables and chairs in a kind of sit down and watch a show formation. Normally, what I would do with the club owners or the promoters in charge of the show, was go to them behind GG’s back before the show. I said to the Spirit Club owners, “This is what could happen. You should really put away these tables and chairs. Also, you should really serve alcohol in plastic cups tonight.”
The owner just looked at me and laughed. He said, “No, no, it’s fine. I’ve had Black Flag and such-and-such here before.” He kept naming bands while shrugging off my warning. I said, “Well, that’s your decision. But you’d be wise to move all your tables and chairs.” He didn’t heed my warning. A couple hours later we got on stage, start to play, and before long, the entire place looked like the fight scene of some old Western movie. Tables and chairs were flying all over the place. I think this show is the most scared I’ve ever been on stage. Bottles and chairs were flying at the stage, breaking all around my head. If someone on that stage said, “I wasn’t scared!” man, you weren’t fucking alive and breathing.
It was a goddamn war zone. GG was hanging off one of the water pipes, and he ended up breaking it. There was water, beer, shit, and blood all over the place. We actually ended up getting through most of the set. It was the craziest show I was ever a part of. If you talk about GG and San Diego, someone will say, “You remember the Spirit Club from ’91?” We would always go to the shows early, and people loved hanging out with us until GG got drunk. Once GG got on stage, it went from a love to hate relationship real fast. People that were loving us and buying us drinks before the show, were the people throwing shit at our vans, breaking windows, and slashing our tires.
GG’s protection from the crowd was covering himself with his own feces. He figured that nobody would touch him when he was covered in shit, and he was right. When he was covered in shit and throwing it into the crowd, it was kind of like his armor. GG’s pre-game ritual was just getting as drunk as possible. His attitude and craziness depended on how long we had to wait before a show and how much he was able to drink during that time. We had a show in Joplin, Missouri, in 1993, which was our last tour with GG. It was in the middle of nowhere. We got to the show really early, probably earlier than we should have. There were too many bands on the bill and, back then, we never traveled with any equipment. We realized after the first tour that traveling with equipment was the worst thing we could do because we’d always have to flee the club with amps, drums, and guitars on our backs. People would already have smashed our shit anyway during the show.
After that first tour, it was always prearranged that one band on the bill would have to supply us with equipment, and we still do that to this day. So, we’re backstage in Joplin, and GG was getting really antsy. When GG wanted to do something, you had better be ready to go, or he was going to leave you behind. Or he might do something far worse. The band whose equipment we were set to use was onstage playing. We had already been paid, as I made it a point to always try and get paid before we played. All the shit that GG would break during the show would otherwise be deducted from our pay.
As we were waiting forever backstage, GG was pacing while getting more anxious and pissed off. He was like a caged animal that was drinking and getting fucked up. I could see that he was ready to explode. Suddenly, GG runs out of the dressing room, jumps on stage, and tackles the lead singer. He threw the guy to the ground, knocked over all the equipment, and barked, “You guys are fucking done!” Yep, they were done. The whole fucking show was done, and we didn’t even get to play. At this point, it started to become a mob scene. We had already gotten paid, and we weren’t giving our fucking money back. We told our driver to get the van, and we planned to get out as discretely as possible, as the band GG attacked obviously wasn’t going to let us use their equipment anymore.
We all piled into the van, and the next thing we know, there were four or five vehicles following us down the highway. We were driving and saying, “Fuck man, there’s a goddamn mob after us.” Finally, after miles of being tailed, we said, “Fuck these assholes! Let’s pull over and see what they fucking do.” We pulled over, they slowed down, and after getting one look at us, they peeled off in the opposite direction. They did not want to fuck with us.
Another really bad one was from 1991 in New York City. Todd Phillips was filming for the documentary Hated. We knew the show was going to be on film, so GG was primed to go. A week before the show, I had to meet with the owner and booking agent to sign a bunch of papers. I was signing off on all this shit, basically promising in writing that GG wouldn’t do this or that. The whole time I was signing and making these promises, I was thinking, “This is insane. This is never gonna happen.” I always played along, saying that GG would behave and everything would be fine. The club we were slated to play was really small. The room with the stage was decent size, but there was a bottleneck to get out. It was only about two or three people wide, and that spelled trouble.
Night of the show, Todd had the cameras set up, and GG was getting really fired up. Everyone was excited to play, and the place was fucking packed. Because of the cameras, I knew it was going to be an all-out GG attack. Sure as shit, after the first line of the first song “Bite It You Scum,” GG busted this poor kid in the face. As soon as GG cracked that kid in the face and broke his nose, blood sprayed everywhere. People freaked out and ran for the exit. It was mayhem, and people were stomping all over each other. GG ended up breaking two kids’ noses that night. The show lasted about two and a half songs, and the cops barged in as we were singing “Kill the Police.” GG made his escape that night, but the club Space and Chase closed down shortly after.
Because GG died of a heroin overdose, the biggest misconception is that he was a junkie. The fact is he rarely ever did heroin. It was just something he did when it was available to him or when he was around someone who did it. Sure, GG would do any drug, but he was mostly just a heavy drinker. I think the fact that he rarely did heroin was one of the contributing factors to his death.
If GG was hanging out, chilling with my wife and I in my house, he was as normal as you and I doing this interview. He was a really smart guy and a fucking genius at writing songs. I couldn’t have asked for a greater brother, and that’s the truth. We grew up together knowing we wanted to play music. We were best friends. He was great in an atmosphere with just his close friends and not out in public being GG. As soon as he got out with people and fans he didn’t personally know, he had to outdo everyone. The people that tried to outdo him, he would totally explode on. The people that actually approached and talked to him after a show who weren’t total assholes, he was totally cool with them. But because of the stage show and the violence, everyone assumed that he would have been a dick or smacked them in the head if they tried to talk to him. Eventually, I’m going to write a book about my whole fucking experience with GG.