Andy Panik and I met at the midnight showing of “The Decline of Western Civilization,” which played to an audience of about ten people. You have to remember that this was about 1980 and there just weren’t a lot of punk rockers in South Florida at that time. If you happened to meet someone with the same musical tastes as you it was a revelation! Out in the parking lot after the movie Andy and I started talking excitedly about the film and our influences. Andy was the product of the Cleveland Ohio scene while I had only been turned on to the English and LA punk variants. I was really a California kid lost in a cultural wasteland so our meeting was mutually beneficial. That very night Andy asked if I wanted to start a band. He'd just got a bass for Christmas so he was ready! Or so he thought. I was less sure of my own musical abilities. I’d played a little guitar but Andy assured me I could sing. So with about three songs he had written, with titles like Hippys Suck’ we came together a couple of times a week to rehearse in the room he shared with his younger brother. Little by little other people Andy and I knew started getting interested in this little project. When we scored a Pittsburg punker named Dirty Dave on drums it was time to leave the smell of dirty socks in Andy’s room and find a place to rehearse. Dave and I had jobs and Andy would get the money from his grandparents to go in a tiny local rehearsal room. It was at this time that I began to write lyrics. I felt the words weren’t as meaningful unless they were coming from me. I also started participating in the music as Andy’s songs tended to be a little too simple and redundant to me. Being in a punk band is a bit like being in a gang. And with the limited punk rock scene in Florida there was a definite us against them mentality. The adversity made us fight even harder to gain respect. The one positive was that every band knew each other and supported one another. This gave us the impetus to go on and play shows and finally record an eight song demo.

It was about this time that I left home. Luckily my friend Dave Fun who published a zine called The Boorington Journal was moving to LA and asked if I wanted to go. So at the age of 16 off I went with a demo in my hand to secure some kind of record deal. I asked my best friend in school to take my place in The Abusers while I was away so they could continue to play shows and grow. I knew we’d never make it as a band in Florida. There just wasn’t anything there. While I was in LA, living in band houses and punk rock crash pads, I got to meet all the heroes of the LA scene with the exception of Darby Crash from The Germs who had just died. Social Distortion, the Circle Jerks, TSOL, the Vandals, I became friendly with all of them and made a lot of contacts who liked the deomo. After six months I decided to go back to Florida to persuade The Abusers to move. I had one major problem. I had nowhere to live in Florida. So yes, I found myself living on Andy’s roof at night and sneaking back into the house when his mother left for work. After about two weeks I learned of another problem . The friend I’d left in charge of the band had no intention of giving up his new found singing career. As all the musicians in The Abusers were afraid of making the jump to LA this was the perfect excuse for them to stay in a dead scene. Since they had remained popular as a live band in my absence they just didn’t understand the need to move. However as my friend had no talent to write or really sing they soon realized that there was no Abusers without me. So a few months later the inevitable phone call came at my new job – a stint at the Pink Pussycat Boutique – a local upscale sex toys shop on the beach. After some persuading, I continued writing and recording on the same line for The Abusers. This was a really good time for the band creatively and for me personally. The Abusers became known throughout the region as trouble making kids who put on a terrific live show and as soon as we’d get 86’d from one club for fighting and destruction of property, we’d get the invite to open for say, The Misfits at another new club. As shitty and sparse as the South Florida scene was, there were some excellent bands like the Psycho Daisies, the US Furys or Charlie Pickett’s band the Eggs. And it was great to play with these guys – even though most of them saw us as nothing more than loudmouthed kids – which we were of course. The guys in these bands were local heroes to us and they pioneered the way for us to be able to play live by finding venues from sympathetic clubowners to assholes with a space looking to make a quick buck off of what they saw as nothing more than a fad – punk rock music. Of course another reason many of our “heroes” looked down on us was that they came from the New York School of tough guy rock n roll. To them punk rock was Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground – the Heartbreakers, Ramones and maybe a little Dead Boys thrown in. It wasn’t this new so-called hardcore, amped up Germs, Black Flag, Fear meets Minor Threat, Bad Brains, The Freeze in a blind alley with knives and brass knucks. This unrightously pissed off Mohawk and boots at seventeen contingent was scary to everybody! The shaggy intellectual leftist pseudo hippy punks that ran the record stores and wrote the fanzine columns blamed us for everything that ever went wrong in their scene making plans. At the same time we were a big draw to the shows so they couldn’t ignore us altogether, like they wanted. It was a shame really because I for one craved their acceptance and would have done just about anything for their support. But because it soon became obvious that no matter what small victories we made for ourselves or for the punk rock scene (we were one of the first bands to achieve local media attention) mutual respect was out of the question and we would have to look to other scenes to find it. Of course its always easier to be a big fish in a small pond and even after persuading our drummer Billy Blaze to go out to LA with me, I still couldn’t shake up the whole band into leaving Florida,

Billy and I lived in a tiny apartment in LA turning people on to the new music we hade made. By this time I was the driving creative force of The Abusers and I produced our recordings with a certain conceptual focus in mind. Of course as a producer you are only as good as your engineer is to realize this focus. There is a mutual communication that is necessary to a successful recording, All that time the only engineers we could afford was a studio house engineer who would inevitably be some progressive rock or jazz snob and could care less about anything but a band’s limited finances. This is of course what happened to the many sessions leading up to the so called “glam” record. But I’m getting ahead of myself. When Billy got homesick after a few months he left me with an apartment I couldn’t afford but I stayed in punk rock heaven until the beginning of 84. When I went back to Florida Andy started calling to start a new band, We’d both been tracking punks roots to the Stooges and NY Dolls and decided to create a new Abusers with a more pounding, grinding rock edge. Speed was out, mean strong grooves were in. I began renting the back half of the oldest house in Ft Lauderdale. A 1927 semi-Victorian wreck of a house. This was to be our headquarters. Located in the middle of a slum, the only neighbors were alcoholics and gangstas and they didn’t mind the noise of rehearsals. It was better than the usual screams and gunshots. Many times I’d open the front door after a sweaty relentless rehearsal to the sound of applause from skid row bums standing on the street hooting and hollering with toothless grins. This was the beginning of The Rock City Angels.

Rock City Angels came from an inner band argument between my choice of “Underground Angels” and basically Andy’s idea of “Rock City” which I felt was a little too obvious and a bit braggardly. To keep the peace the rest of the band suggested combing for compromise, hence R.C.A. To be honest the Angels had such a rapidly revolving door of musicians that it would be difficult to give an account of first members. The band actually went through several phases. The first was a revival of the shambles left from The Abusers to test the rock n roll waters and to be able to play gigs for eager promoters that quite honestly needed a band that appealed to both punkers and rock fans. When those gigs dried up because the only two venues catering to original music closed down, we went into phase two. To remain a working band at all we had to play covers. Remember this is S. Florida home to Spring Break and tourists from around the world. Every club wanted human jukeboxes with a hip shake. Club owners had decided that people wouldn’t sit still for a band that didn’t play songs that they knew, so we tried to break into that world, with every intention of sneaking original songs into the set list. Don’t worry – we nevwer became a Top 40 band – but we learned two sets of cool old rock songs from The Beatles, Stones and Who to Jerry Lee, Elvis and Chuck Berry. This actually became an extremely important learning process even though we never did actually play gig one after six months of hard work, because through this exercise in futility we learned how songs were arranged and composed. I was able to put this new found knowledge into the writing of my own songs and in collaborations. The true Rock City Angels that became popular in South Florida opening for out of town bands like TSOL and Tex & the Horseheads, and finally headlining our own shows, grew out of this project. It was me, Andy Panik on bass, Davey Lightning and Taggart Reid on guitars and Billy Starr on drums.

Ringo Jukes joined RCA after everyone of us finally made the jump to LA, losing Billy Starr in the process. He felt he couldn’t leave Fla because he had hooked up with one of his best friends/old band mates. Ringo answered the ad for drummer needed in Musicians Exchange and after joining some rehearsals decided to give the band a chance. Ringo joined the band for the same reason we had left Florida. We had a record deal. Not a big one, but a foot in the door. We decided as a band that we weren’t getting anywhere after too many years of hard work. I was just too frustrated. I’d had enough of beating my head against a brick wall and was moving to LA for good. We were all going our separate ways. One final gig was our only commitment and we planned on blowing it out 0- going out with a bang. I had my plane ticket and was pretty shit faced before I got to the venue. When I walked in I got hit with the news that our demos had been sent to New Rennasance and they were releasing it. This would become known as the “glam” record and wouldn’t actually be released for another ten years.

I met Johnny (Depp) at a show The Kids put on down in Miami and liked him right away. We were quick friends with an underlying competition as we had the same taste in women and I often found it annoying that we’d be competing for the same girl. We met again in Hollywood as RCA was on the search for a second guitarist to back up Mike Barnett/Angel. Mike was from Fla also and knew Johnny better than I did, so a team up was a natural. Besides, we all lived in the same apartment building. Johnny Depp was an extremely talented musician and songwriter. He was really good at coming up with compelling riffs which could then be used as a song signature or an ascending or descending guitar line that a song could be written around. As far as his playing, he had a precision in his style that allowed a second more lead oriented guitar to fall back into a lazier even slightly sloppy approach as an interesting contrast in style. This allowed the band its own distinctive sound. When Johnny joined the band he was indecisive about his future. He had come to LA with his band The Kids who promptly split up and literally stumbled into some acting jobs. After a dopey horny teenager movie he caught the lucky break co-starring in one of the biggest horror films of the decade – “A Nightmare on Elm Street.” Wes Craven was impressed with his natural unpresumptive acting style and began to say so in print which led to his biggest job yet. When he joined RCA he had just returned from the Phillipines working on this Vietnam story. It was called “Platoon” he told us and it sounded really cool. Of course at that time no one realized how important this film would end up. So when asked if he would join the band he answered with an excited affirmative. After a few gigs and writing collaborations he had every intention of using the band as his artistic outlet. His girlfriend, an actress herself, was the only sour note we ever heard. She wanted him to lose his “immature band buddies” and concentrate exclusively on acting jobs. An audition she urged him to persue ended up on the money. The same day we were offered our record deal on Geffen he was offered 21 Jump Street. He called to tell me the news but wasn’t overly excited. TV was not what he wanted but he needed the money quickly for a family emergency. I told him I understood and asked him if the band was still in his future. He was psyched about our deal and told me not to worry he would fly down twice a week for rehearsal and shows and only asked that we try to accomadate our schedules for him. Personally, I had no problem with this. I saw the series as a publicity coup whether the damn thing was successful or not. You couldn’t buy that kind of exposure we’d get and I really didn’t want to lose him as a player. The bad news is not everyone is so open minded or capable of seeing the big picture. Our other guitar player, Mike Angel, in a fit of jealousy confronted Johnny with an ultimatum.. Two hours after I agreed to keep our partnership, Mike corned Johnny in his apartment and told him it’s the tv show or the band. This left Johnny with no choice but to quit, he could see the resentment building. This was the beginning of a schism between Mike Angel and myself that built to an inevitable split six months before scheduled recording began. An excellent example of his riff style of writing can be found on Young Man’s Blues with the song Mary.

When we had completed our lineup- Ringo on drums, Andy on bass, Johnny on rhythm, Mike Angel on guitar, the gigs in LA came fast and furious. We started breaking attendance records at the Music Machine, the Lingerie, the Troubadour etc. Then we got a big break by being asked to be the house band at the infamous Scream Club playing with everyone from The Red Hot Chili Peppers to Sigue Sigue Sputnic to a new band just fresh off the Venice Beach circuit Jane’s Addiction. Our next big house band gig was at Coconut Teazer on the Sunset Strip where we ended up being approached by someone from Geffen Records. Other major labels had approached us but after talking with their A&R men I was left unimpressed. I remember one guy from Electra who had never heard of Eddie Cochran – Summertime Blues, Come On Everybody, Something Else – who was a major inspiration to me. I found those lapses in musical education to be unforgivable. However, after meeting with the Geffen rep, I was suitably impressed to give our management the go ahead to begin negotiations.

We were lucky enough to have great headlining bands to open for (When we weren’t headling ourselves). And most all our experiences were positive. But I would have to say my favorite experience was opening for Joan Jett at the University of Arkansas in the mountains. Her audience responded the best to us anyways, but at this particular show the fans went crazy from the first note. There was a barricade between them and the stage and I shouted for them to tear it down. To my, any everyone else’s amazement, they did! Cops and bouncers were running away and the kids were screaming and they didn’t stop till we finished our set. I started a freaking riot man. It was awesome. After the set were were excorted by kids wanting autographs, pieces of clothing, anything. Wild!

Moving to Tenn had nothing to do with Johnny. I wanted to record there after deciding on Jim Dickinson as producer for YMBs. At this time I was extremely inspired by the unpolished soul sounds of Stax Records in Memphis and Jim had been a part of all that. He had just finished work on The Replacements “Please to Meet Me” record which I found sonically brilliant plus I wanted to put distance between RCA and other LA bands which I knew we sounded nothing like. The closer we remained to our punk/indie roots the better as far as I was concerned. I felt it important to keep our outsider status which may have been a mistake in retrospect. I convinced the band to record in Tennesseee for a variety of reasons. One. I was eager to see and record in the city that produced the incredible Stax sound. I was incredibly into this music at the time. The book Sweet Soul Music by Peter Gularnick had captured my imagination. Two, the band had already been jacked around by our A&R guy who was too involved with GNR to give a shit in finding a suitable producer. When after 6 months it came down to Tom Dowd (Clapton, Allman Brothers etc) or Jim Dickinson who had just completed the Replacements, we jumped at the chance to work with Jim in Memphis. And finally, I thought it might be a good idea to separate the band from any possible bad habits as a way to force us together as a band unit.

There was absolutely no personal rivalry between GNR and the Angels. We simply were competing for the same publicity money. A label only has a certain amount of money to spend on publicity and so forth. Even though both bands were signed at roughly the same time, (GNR about 9 months before) by the time our record was released (at least a year and a half later) “Appettite” had already sold at least 6 million copies. We only wanted the same break they got. Why put all the label’s resources into an act that had already sold so many copies and would continue to sell regardless? Rock City Angels and Guns N Roses couldn’t be any more different.However, because YMB came out after “Appettite” and the two bands had a similar look and street credibility, people who didn’t know automatically saw us as a “knock off.” They didn’t realize we were contemporaries not followers. Besides, clothes don’t make the band style, songs do.

What about New Rennaisance you ask? You must remember that music is about communication and when you’re in a band you are trying to reach as many people as possible with your message. A minor to a major label is the difference of at least 1000,000 people you will touch worldwide and this substantial difference is what made the change. Of course Ann had already laid out money to have our demos transferred to disc, but in a nice change from most, only asked that Geffen pay back monies already spent to buy out her contract. To be honest I don’t think she had a clue as to what to do with us anyways. Her label was geared towards the kind of unmelodic heavy metal that was in vogue at the time and the Angels were an athema to her both musically and personally. So she was nice enough not to stand in our way. A few years ago Ann Boleyn decided to test the RCA waters and see if there was still a fan base out there. She was given permission to release the cd by the band – promising to release more material when the cd sold out. Well, she had a falling out with Andy Panik who initially worked on the project with her (which is why much of the liner note info is wrong, believe me, he never produced anything in his life), So this promise was forgotten. Along with our royalties, which I never saw a penny of. The sessions for that cd were quite obviously influenced by The Dolls and Johnny Thunders – who ended up living with me for a month – and“the Heartbreakers, T. Rex, Sweet, The Runaways, Cheap Trick and The Doors! I guess at the time “Born to Lose” and “LA Woman” kind of summed up the bands influences and my own personal preoccupations.

As you can see the change of musical styles had to do with the band’s natural evolution, no outside influences had anything to do with it. As the band was exposed to different artists and sounds so this was reflected in the songwriting and playing. This is why YMBs was such a range of musical styles. I often wish the album had a more cohesive sound. I’m hoping to fix that with Use Once & Destroy. As I said earlier, to complete Use Once & Destroy to be the best RCA album ever, I need more time in the studio. It’s so ironic because for just one grand or so I could finish it. RCA remained a working band until the end of 93. In the early 90s we played New York City, toured Japan for a month and finally worked with Brian Robertson of Thin Lizzy for a month in London before calling it quits. Personally, I moved to the Lower East Side of New York for a year, moved back to Hollywood for another year and finally back to Memphis where I still am. I don’t think there was any particular moment, we just all kind of drifted apart, waiting for a reason to come together that just never happened. Bad luck, bad timing, bad management, indifferent label support, bad legal counsil, we had it all.

Hustler was a band I worked with here in Memphis in the year 2000. I wrote and co-wrote many songs with them and when we broke up I was left with an entire set of excellent songs. In 2002 I revised these songs for a new RCA album and financed the recording of this in Hollywood with mainly original members. Chris Yates played drums on these sessions and his drumming is excellent. It never entered my mind to have Ringo re-do these tracks. However, I would like to add Ringo’s percussion and several new instrument parts with a remix before the record is released. It is in its most raw and simple form at the moment, The whole recording requires sweetening before it is fit to release to fans.

The cool thing about the 80s era LA was the camaraderie between the kids: black, white, Mexican whatever. We all shared the bond of being different and loving music. As little as we might be accepted by our families and hometowns there was no question of this in the streets of Hollywood. If someone had an apartment it inevitably became a crash pad for lots of kids until you got kicked out. Everyone shred their food, beer, whatever because you never knew when you might need someone else. I think one of the saddest memories I have is when I realized that that time was gone forever, In the early 90s suddenly the spirit of trust went out the window. No one could afford to trust a strange kid because you would end up getting ripped off. The problem with the LA glam bands was that they had no idea where glam rock came from – The Sweet, Slade, T. Rex, Bowie etc. A good 90% of them were just jumping on the bandwagon with no idea as to original origins of the music. I think that ultimeately it’s the music that is most important, not the makeup.

I have a theory that people tend to develop their musical preferences at an early age – from 12 to 16 probably – and as we get older we persue those same musical memories – maybe a search for a record that couldn’t be found or afforded then but is a must have now. From the age of 20 on there is a musical treasure hunt for the hidden or undiscovered loves of our youth. So I often find myself getting uncontrollably excited over a copy of The Royal Guardsmen’s “Snoopy Vs The Red Baron” or the complete catalog of The Monkees and solo members cds. Of course I’ll aways have my heroes like Iggy, Social Distortion, Bowie, Thunders, T. Rex, NWA, Chuck D, early Ice Cube, but I still love to find new exciting sounds like Detroit Cobras, White Stripes, Olivia Tremor Control, Super Suckers, Rocket From the Crypt, RJD2, Killer Barbies, Coldcut. I’ve also discovered new world sounds that influence me – Serge Gainsburge especially, the Bollywood music, Ennio Morricone, Fransois Hardy, Lee Hazelwood and Black Box Recorder. All fantastic new sounds for me to plunder and have private love affairs with.

I prefer the music that inspired me to start singing/playing/writing – The Germs, Zeros, Avengers, Runaways, Dickies, TSOL, Adolescents, Aerosmith (old), The Who, Beatles, Kinks, Sweet, T. Rex, Fear, Vandals, The Jam, Clash, Adverts, Ramones, Generation X, Sex Pistols, Angry Samoans, etc. Those bands vibed intelligent, often heart felt lyrics with music that kicked you in the gut yet remained melodic enough to be etched permanently in your imagination.Much of today’s music is disposable and interchangeable as the stero components the songs are played on. Just as the typical Walkman is designed to last about a year (long enough for the consumer to decide on an upgrade) so too are the songs in style for the typical teenager – the market’s target audience. All this manipulative music industry mayhem. That ain;t Rock N Roll. The other LA bands I gravitated toward were the ones that came from the same punk DIY ethos I had. Bands like Redd Kross, Junkyard, the Joneses, Little Kings, etc. The bands I hated were bandwagon types that always smiled and seemed too damn happy. Never trust a band that smiles.

Of course there’s a future for rock music. It puts food on too many tables to disappear. Its just a question of what kind of music it will be. Personally, I hope that there is always an audience for true rebellion and not just another flavor of the month foisted on the kids as a new potential moneymaker for the record execs. I think that for straight from the heart , attitude driven rock to stay alive the big record companies will have to change the way they do business. Right now they sign a number of acts, release product, throw it against the wall and see what sticks. For these companies to remain valid and compete with indie labels that will give their all, they will have to go back to the practice of sticking with a young band and letting them grow organically, grooming them for success with patience and perseverance, not bailing if an act doesn’t go triple platinum out of the box. Let’s hope for the best

Most of today’s young rock bands could more than likely give me better advice than I could them. They know much more about the business than I ever did or will. My only advice would be to stay true to your original vision – don’t let lawyers, promoters managers, A&R people or anyone corrupt that ideal. - Bobby