The Dead Boys were short-lived, recording just two albums before they broke up. But their first album, 1977’s Young, Loud and Snotty, was one of the great punk rock albums to come out of America.
The band hailed from Cleveland, rising from the ashes of the legendary Rocket From The Tombs, but they made their mark in New York City as CBGB’s regulars.
By all accounts, original Dead Boys singer Stiv Bators was an exciting and unpredictable performer. Sadly, he died in 1990 after being hit by a car.
Guitarist Cheetah Chrome and drummer Johnny Blitz recently reunited the Dead Boys to celebrate their debut album’s 40th anniversary, with Jake Hout ably taking Stiv’s place on vocals and general mayhem.
I saw them at the Viper Room in 2017 in one of Jake’s first shows with the band, and it was a memorable, deafening, off-the-rails show.
The Dead Boys will be performing at The Garage in Ventura on Wednesday, May 29. Tickets available at www.ticketweb.com/event/dead-boys-die-group-the-garage-tickets/9395645?fbclid=IwAR249Buxp2XVNxDqTll1YmNU6XfYVX9y6lR9h0jf9toZ0sRc2rib0hHtFMQ.
Cheetah Chrome talked to Noozhawk about the upcoming show and the band’s earlier days.
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Jeff Moehlis: What can people look forward to at the upcoming show?
Cheetah Chrome: Oh, jeez, whatever Jake’s got in his devious little mind [laughs]. I don’t know, it depends on the spur of the moment. Somebody might get hurt, you never know [laughs]. It’s a very exciting life.
JM: How did you connect up with Jake?
CC: He had the band The UNdead Boys before this, where I guess they got together one or two times a year to play Dead Boys songs dressed like zombies.
My guitar player knew these guys, and people were telling me, “Have you heard this band the UNdead Boys? They’re really good …”
I hadn’t seen them, and we were supposed to play at the Whisky about six months before the Viper Room shows, and we decided that we’d get him and the bass player.
We needed a bass player, and wanted to save on flight tickets, so we got the bass player and the singer who drove down to LA [laughs]. I didn’t feel like singing. I never thought it was going to end up like this.
With Jake, we ended up killing it. [Drummer Johnny] Blitz was going to be coming back into the fold anyway, and when he did we got the full line-up together finally.
JM: I want to ask you about the original singer for the Dead Boys, Stiv Bators, who sadly is no longer with us. How would you describe being in a band with Stiv?
CC: He was one of the best performers in the world that I ever worked with. He was just an amazing performer and an amazing person. He was my brother, you know?
I waited a long time before I found somebody that could do it. With Jake, I finally realized that this is the guy. It’s worked out fine ever since. I am very proud of my choice. You can’t replace Stiv. I love Stiv so much that it’s hard to even talk about it.
JM: The Young, Loud and Snotty album is regularly hailed as a milestone in punk rock. Looking back slightly more than 40 years later, what are your reflections on that album?
CC: I’m really proud of it. We had no experience in the studio whatsoever when we made it.
We were told it was supposed to be a demo tape, you know? After it was all recorded, we were back in Cleveland and a decision got made that they were going to release it as it was, not to go back in the studio.
To me, it stood up the test of time and everything, but it could’ve been better. That’s why we redid it the way we did, because there still were a couple of things in there that we didn’t like, like I didn’t like my guitar sound.
Nothing really to do with [producer] Genya [Ravan’s] fault, because Genya did a great job on the album.
If we were to go in and re-record it, it would’ve sounded a lot closer to what we did a couple years ago. But it wouldn’t have been that different. So we managed to settle our score with it [laughs].
I’m proud of the record. I listen to it every now and then. The songs are good, and we played good on it. It definitely was a milestone for us, I don’t care what anybody else thinks about it [laughs].
JM: The Dead Boys were from Cleveland, but then you decided to move to New York City, and you became part of the CBGB’s scene. Do you have any favorite memories from the CBGB’s days?
CC: Oh God! That’s kind of a difficult question. I mean, to tell you the truth, it’s hard to pick out one because there’s so many. Just the memories of the time.
I was 21 years old, just a kid living the dream. It’s just basically memories of the whole scene. It was just a wonderful time in my life. For two or three years we could do no wrong.
JM: In 1977, the Dead Boys played a few shows in California, I believe Los Angeles and San Francisco. What was your California experience like back then?
CC: Oh, it was sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll [laughs]. That was everybody’s experience in California back then. We got out there, and it was a great place. We stayed at the Tropicana Hotel, and after the gig we had a bunch of chicks around us, like a Motley Crue video I guess [both laugh].
For the full interview with Cheetah Chrome, visit http://music-illuminati.com/interview-cheetah-chrome.
— Jeff Moehlis is a Noozhawk contributing writer and a professor of mechanical engineering at UC Santa Barbara. Upcoming show recommendations, advice from musicians, interviews and more are available on his website, music-illuminati.com. The opinions expressed are his own.