The Death Of Lux Interior
On February 4, 2009 Lux interior died of an aortic dissection. In case you don’t know, Lux Interior was the frontman of The Cramps.
There are a lot of articles and blog posts already about this, so I’m not going to go into detail about the history of The Cramps or the circumstances of Lux’s death. Here is a good article that covers those details.
Although I am late in writing about this, I feel compelled to offer this post because, well, I love the Cramps, and I have for years. In fact the death of Lux Interior was one factor that compelled me to start GuitarWiz.net.
I was introduced to The Cramps in 1982 by my friend Jakki Repellent, bassplayer for The Repellents, a punk band from Anderson, Indiana. I was 18 and punk rock was fresh, and exciting. The Cramps were eerie and bizarre, an incredibly unique blend of b-movie camp, horror , rockabilly and punk rock. I loved them immediately.
In 1984 I saw them live at Phantasy Theatre in Lakewood, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland. To begin the show, Nick Knox came out, sat at his drumkit and started a beat. Then Kid Congo Powers came out, picked up his guitar and started to play. Next came Poison Ivy wearing a long flowing leopardskin cape. It lifted in the air as she twirled and removed it. A stagehand took it from her and another stagehand helped her on with her guitar. She began to play.
Then Lux Interior shot out on the stage, grabbed the microphone and began to sing. By the time the show was over he had stripped down to his leopardskin underwaer, he had broken 2 microphone stands into pieces, the microphone itself was broken, he was on top the left P.A. column lying face down with his hand in his pants, howling with the microphone in his mouth.
Everyone in the place was on their feet and dancing and soaking wet with sweat…it was a BLAST!
As far as I’m concerned this was one of the best shows I’ve ever attended.
And to top it off, as I left the theatre I saw the Cramps leave too. In a hearse.
It has always served as lesson to me that music is more than the notes, it’s show biz. Alot of musicians forget that.
So in remembrance of Lux Interior, I offer this video. This is how I will always remember him.
This entry was posted on Friday, February 27th, 2009 at 3:19 pm and is filed under Guitarists and Bands. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
