1979 was the year that the Blind Boys hit the scene. Infamous for fights, graffiti and closing down venues due to unruly shows, the Blind Boys blazed a trail of terror in the music scene. They were the spark that ignited an explosion of hardcore punk bands for many years to come. They were a volatile mix of motley mofos that embodied the spirit of punk in the truest tradition. They were punk, they were hardcore, and if you did not like it, you might just have gotten you fucking face caved in!
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1980 Commonwealth Times interview with Frank Hutton aka Dickie Disgusting
at the height of the popular pre-Hardcore, punk rock phenomenon known as "Being Blind".*****************************************************
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Interview:Commonwealth Times, 1980, Richmond, VirginiaPISSED-OFF BLIND BOY
Dickie Disgusting & the Degenerate Blindboys: "We're nasty & they don't like it!"Dickie Disgusting, singer of the notorious Punk band Degenerate Blindboys,
known for sticking safety pins and badges thru the bare flesh of his skinny but heavily scarred chest,
pelting audiences with stinking lobster shells and dead goldfish, putting out lit cigarettes
on his enormous tongue, and using lewd, profane and vulgar language among other things,
sat down with us recently for drinks & scrambled eggs at McLeans Diner on Grace Street
in Richmond's bohemian Fan District for a very polite, mostly well-mannered and extremely
revealing look into the sordid New Wave world of Punk Rock and "Being Blind".CT: So give us a little background about yourself.Dickie: I was born in Pittsburgh...I don't want to talk about this.
...I was born, but I was never raised...actually I was raised by
Ralph Harper of Ricky & The White Boys. He was my hero.
My parents moved to Richmond, I lived on West Avenue.
I was one of those rich parochial school kids...but Ralph was my real mentor.CT: Did you learn anything at parochial school?Dickie: Fuck yes. Education-wise I went from an IQ of zero to an IQ of two.CT: Were you academically inclined?Dickie: That wasn't me. I played soccer...that's one thing I really loved at school,
...and our priest, Father Randy Rule...he was a 22 year old priest that was really cool.
I was a Boy Scout too, always "Be Prepared"...I really regret not making Eagle Scout.
I liked to get stoned and play competition Chess.CT: Were you different from the other kids or did you fit in?Dickie: My problem was I never wanted to conform to society.
I wanted to be the way I wanted to be, not the way my parents
and society wanted me to be.CT: Did you ever get in trouble?Dickie: I've been in jail. I was locked up for 13 months as a
juvenile for trespassing and breaking probation.
I was never a criminal. The thing was, they said I had a behavioral
disorder---they said they wanted to help me. They put me in mental
hospitals, jails and detention homes. I couldn't stand it and ran away.
I figured if they're gonna put me in a mental ward then I'm gonna act like a mental patient.CT: You had a behavioral problem?Dickie: The doctor said so. They said that I had an IQ of 138, but that
I hadn't learned to cope with society, that I wanted to rebel.
...This is REALLY boring. Can we talk about something else.CT: What about your involvement in bands, tell us about your musical talent?Dickie: I have no musical talent. None. I think I can write songs that will make
millions of dollars, but any asshole can do that.
All you need is two chords, some attitude and some luck.CT: But how do you explain all the weird and extreme reactions your band gets?Dickie: It's not what you do, it's how you do it. It's hard to say with the Degenerate Blindboys.
We all come at it differently. Our guitarist Mike Solano originally started the band in high school just to get school credit.
We all went to the "alternative education system" high school Open High.
Our drummer Adam Shaffer and bassist Ben Lawes were already playing with Mike,
and somehow I ended up at a practice session and just grabbed a mic and
started yelling stuff and we became a band. Mike, Ben and I had a similar attitude,
and attitude is a big thing. Adam was just into music and wanted to rock.
I was also heavily influence by Ralph Harper before he died.
Ricky & the White Boys were a huge influence on my life. But I wanted to be a "punk" band,
or what in Richmond was considered Punk at the time. And at first that's kinda what it was.
We started playing out at real shows at clubs with The Rage and some other bands, just trying
to develop our own sound, achieve some goals and get our angle out, only we didn't really know what our angle was.
Turned out it was anger. We were all angry suburban white kids.CT: What about this attitude? What is it? What are you angry about?Dickie: Let me explain. My opinion---and this might not be the opinion of the others---but
I'm really pissed off at the government and at society, at the mass hypocrisy of society.
All the shitty things people do to each other. We figured the best way to show people how
full of shit they were was to be even bigger assholes ourselves, but with a sense of humor.
Some of the stuff we say onstage that gets people so freaked out, we don't really mean literally.
We don't really hate Blacks and gays or want to kill Jews, shit, our drummer is Jewish.
We're just talking about what society is really like, but sometimes people take it the wrong way and don't get it.
Ninety-nine percent of the time I'm onstage I get really pissed off. I look out and see all these people
and a lot of them don't know what the fuck's going on. And the ones that get all dressed up
in their "new wave punk" clothes from the mall, they really get to me, they're so fucking cliche.
Then there are some really cool people who listen to us and have their own ideas. They know what's going on
and have the right attitudes---not this Dudley Bullshit poser crap.CT: Tell us more about your musical background.Dickie: My first band was called Penis Between Us, and to this day is my favorite.
That's was where I lost my musical virginity. But we never played out and it never went anywhere.
One member died, another was in the hospital a long time, and then I got locked up.
We had all these tragedies, but we could have been really great.CT: What are your musical influences?Dickie: The Degenerate Blindboys name comes from the original band the Five Blind Boys of Alabama, the black gospel group.
I have an album of theirs and always just liked the way the name sounded but we decided that instead of being like that,
we were gonna rebel against Jerry Falwell, Moral Majority, PTL and all that conservative jive and we were
gonna be the complete opposite of that. We were going to be the DEGENERATE BLINDBOYS!
We were "punk" before people around Richmond even heard of the Sex Pistols and all that.
We weren't like British Punk, we had our own variety.
We listened to the Pistols and the Ramones and stuff, but we came at it from our own angle.
I love Punk Rock, but I also love Janis Joplin, John Lennon, Gene Vincent, and Little Richard.
Shit like that---old stuff. I like Rockabilly and Blues. I never really got into Heavy Metal.
I never listened to The Stones or Beatles much either. I like Lennon as an individual.
I also like Eric Burdon & The Animals and Country music too.
When I get really laid back on 'ludes I like to listen to Country music on WXGI AM950.
I really love old-time Country and Bluegrass music, ...Hank Senior and Johnny Cash. Shit-kickin' music!
In their own way, Johnny Cash and Jimmy Martin are just as punk rock as Sid Vicious and Johnny Rotten.CT: You said you like Quaaludes. Are you or the Blindboys heavily into drugs?Dickie: No, we really don't do many drugs at all. We mostly drink beer. We drink a lot of beer!
People think that because of the way we look we're a bunch of drug addicts but that's not true.
Hell, most corporate executives do more drugs than we do. We can't afford the good shit.
Hmmm? ...I wonder what that girl over there looks like?CT: Which one?Dickie: The blonde.CT: Why don't you go over and talk to her?Dickie: I should. I believe in being nonchalant, just walking over and saying something suave.
I can be very suave. But they look like stuck-up preppy bitches---the kind that think I'm so cute.CT: Do you have problems with women?Dickie: Yes, I do. My big problem is...I don't want to say this...I have a half-inch cock---but I've got an 11-inch tongue.
I'm the Punk Rock Gene Simmons, haha. That bitch over there---I call'em fucking college assholes because they'd love
to go home with me, but they wouldn't want their sorority sisters to see them with me. But they'd love to ride my tongue!
Their social clique, or what I call their "social clit".CT: I guess you don't want to go to college. Did you ever finish high school?Dickie: I went to school for eleven and three-quarter years. I had one quarter left and I'd have a piece of paper.
So what? What musician needs a fucking piece of paper? Does Joey Ramone need a piece of paper?CT: Maybe you'd rather talk about women?Dickie: They're more interesting than school.CT: Some feminists I've talked to call you sexist and say you're a woman-hater.
What do you say about that? How do you feel about women?Dickie: That's a real hard question. As far as women go, I've only fallen in love with two.
One's dead, and I'd like to kill the other one. I can't deal with women in a band.
Nothing can fuck up a band faster than women. ....the best way to handle really hot
really good-looking chicks is to tell 'em their cunt smells like dead fish and tell 'em to come
back tomorrow. I can't understand women as a group. I can understand them as individuals,
but females in general I can't understand. And things I can't understand drive me berserk.
Seriously, all I can tell you is, ...if a woman puts her arm around you and kisses you, you have a chance.CT: Do women idolize you?Dickie: Ha! I am not idolized by any individual and know I'm hated by most people in general.
I'm nasty and they don't like it. The Degenerate Blindboys are nasty and we piss people off.
And we do it mostly for our own amusement as much as for that of our fans.CT: Didn't some militant feminist try to put your eye out with a glass ashtray?Dickie: No, that was Chris Gibson from BEEX. That happened at Benny's.
She's not a feminist, she's a punk rocker. She was just drunk. I actually really like her a lot.CT: I heard you were accosted by some militant feminists.Dickie: No, that was different. That was so fucked up. I was trying to be nice.
I had on a nice shirt and everything and this bitch starts giving me shit like,
"This isn't 1977 anymore," talking about the band and the attitude and I started getting real nasty.
And this is where it gets me: what's the difference between 1977 and 1947?
It's all a matter of what an individual wants---everything is just a copy of a copy of a copy.
No one can be original. You can do what you want, but it's probably not gonna be original.
It's about attitude. It's better to do what you want and be yourself than to just copy other people's attitudes.
I hate these preppy alligator polo shirt wearing assholes that get all dressed up in their
mall-bought "new wave punk" clothes and come to our shows.
They're so phony. People like that drive me crazy. I hate posers.
And besides, they're usually the ones that cause trouble at our shows.CT: What's it like to be a Degenerate Blindboy?Dickie: You want to know what it's really like to be a Blindboy?
I was walking down the street the other day, and this guy I didn't know was coming
towards me. When he's a foot away he sucker-punches me in the face, and yells,
"Fucking Blindboys! ...that'll teach you a lesson punk rock faggot!"
So then, I had to pull out my chain and seriously ruin this asshole's day, all for nothing.
And this is how all this ties together: I'm a pacifist, but I will defend myself.
Violence sucks, but I will still fuck you up. There are so many ways to solve problems besides fighting.
Maybe that's why what we do onstage upsets people so much because we're pointing
a mirror at them and their own hypocrisy and mocking society and all their bullshit.
We're showing people what they're really like. All their prejudices and hate and lies and
all their hypocritical bullshit. Some people take some of our lyrics seriously and think we really
hate Jews, Blacks, Fags, and shit, when we're really just making fun of society and calling
them on their own bullshit. We don't hate anybody, except maybe the government and hypocritical assholes
whether they're redneck Baptists, Irish Catholics or gay Jewish Negroes. It's about Attitude and Truth.CT: Regarding all that, there's a certain "bad boy" mystique that's been built up around the Blindboys.
Could you tell us more about some of your shows and what happens at them to create this phenomenon?
Also, unlike a lot of other punk bands, a lot of really hot teenage girls come to your shows.
I've seen them wearing homemade t-shirts that say "Blindgirls", what's a Blind Girl?Dickie: The Blindgirls are just friends of ours, punk rock girls from Open High that went to school with us.
And because we play with The Rage a lot who went to Open High too. They pull a lot of girls too.
And our bass player Ben, that fucker gets more pussy than Ron Jeremy.
But as far as public reaction goes, I don't know, it always varies a lot.
Sometimes preps and jocks will show up at our shows and reach in their girlfriend's purse
and throw tampons at us and stuff and then start jumping up and down and getting into it and having a good time.
Other people start fights and just want to stomp heads. You never know. It's crazy.
Kosmos2000 is the best place we've played, they're cool, and they put up with a lot of shit with us, like our first handbill.
It had a backwards swastika on it and said "Love those Jews". It was a joke, but four rabbis called up
and gave the owner a lot of shit. They said they were going to picket the show but it didn't happen.
We were kinda disappointed, it would have been so great if they had actually done that.
Then there was Hard Times, We got in trouble there because we broke the stage.
Mike had this el cheapo Jap Les Paul that he'd been wanting to destroy onstage. You know,
do a real Pete Townsend number on it, just go apeshit. So, at the end of our show at HardTimes,
he grabs the neck sledgehammer style and just smashes it into the stage---but it didn't break!
Nothing happened, not a scratch! Which really pissed him off then! So he starts smashing it
over and over into the stage---over and over---but it won't break. It was the funniest thing I've ever seen.
Mike's whacking it so hard trying to smash it that he accidentally bashes a huge fucking hole in the floor
of the stage and it ended up costing more to fix the stage than we made that night. HardTimes is still pissed at us.
And we got into trouble when we played outdoors at VCU at Schaffer Court. They said we tried to start a riot. We did!CT: Weren't you charged once with "manufacturing pornography" at a show?Dickie: That was the show at the Copa. That was another really funny situation where our flyer got
us in trouble, but the club owner was a total dickhead too.
My friend R.Smith, the artist that does a lot of our flyers and stuff did this really cool poster
for the show at the Copa that had all kinds of Pop Culture icons and symbols all over it,
but hidden in those images were lots of other weird stuff too: naked girls, tits, dicks, cunts, asses, Ronald Reagan's face,
all kinds of stuff. And some guy with the state ABC Board saw it and got really upset and hassled the club owner
saying they could arrest us for "manufacturing pornography" because the poster showed cocks & vaginas.
Can you believe that? The Blindboy Degenerate Porno Factory! We loved that!
We were hoping they really would arrest us because you know, you can't buy publicity like that.
God, that would've been great, but they never did anything. It was hilarious! That's still my favorite poster too!
So the night of the Copa show comes and the place is totally packed. It's like sardines, shoulder to shoulder.
There's a big glass window next to the stage that looks out on the sidewalk in front and there's
almost as many people outside watching us thru the window as there are inside the club.
And we start playing and get about halfway through the third song and the owner pulls the plug and tells us we have to stop.
He gives us some lame excuse and they cut off the power and refused to let us play anymore.
They canceled our show that was booked for the next night too just because the owner didn't like our lyrics or our fans that showed up.
They wouldn't pay us the door money either and called the police on us. The owner was a complete dick.
He asked for trouble and he got it. They gave us and our fans a reason to get pissed off and it resulted in beer mugs against the wall,
pitchers on the floor, a fire on the sidewalk, slashed car tires and a bunch of other shit.
I didn't actually see any of it happen myself because as soon as they pulled the plug on us, I left to go
drink beer with a girl at the Village Cafe. Fuck the Copa and fuck establishments like it!CT: You're probably tired of talking about it, but could you say something about all the
Blindboy related graffiti and spray-painting that's been going on around the city?Dickie: As far as the Blindboys go, the band itself would never do something like that.
Well, not unless we were totally wiped off our ass, which we usually aren't. Honest.
Sometimes our fans get worked up and get hard-ons and go out and do crazy stuff, but it's not our fault.
We can't control what they do. Besides, if the Blindboys were gonna do something like that,
we'd do something with a little more risk, like painting a giant pink swastika on the 10th floor
or City Hall or on the door of the police station. Hell, we'd paint a damn swastika of the front
door of the White House! If you see "A Blindboy is something to be!" spray painted on the
side of Air Force One, you'll know it was us!
