Fond memories of GG
I picked up G.G. Allin’s, Carnival of Excess, last week, and it just goes to show how easy it would have been for him to achieve commercial success. It’s a country album, one of his last recordings before he died, and it’s surprisingly good. My thoughts on GG will always be related to a rather unhappy and dark time in my life, which may have been why I related to him so well. And his death will always be one of those great moments I will never forget.
I found out about GG’s death through the most unlikely of sources, Bobby Steele. It’s hard to imagine now, but, in 1993, before the internet, news took a lot longer to trickle down to the masses. GG had died on June 28th, 1993, but no one in my circle of friends knew it yet. GG was reportedly going to kill himself on stage that Halloween, and had sunk into a state of despair beyond even his normal levels.
On July 1st, I’d shown up early at Cogan’s, the old punk club in Norfolk, not the new pizza place, hoping to talk to Bobby again. Having been one of the original Misfits, and a bit of a underground punk legend, he was more down to Earth than any of the other Misfits I’d met at that point. The show at Cogan’s was the Undead’s first show back in the states, and things were a bit hectic. The show had no promotion, Cogan would go out of business, again, not shortly after, and they had no one there to even help set up the stage or sound equipment. Bobby’s health at this point was really bad. He was even frailer than the previous time I’d met and seen him play. The rest of the band showed up late, there was no one even there to see the show. So a few friends and I, said we’d do whatever we could to help. I helped get the stage ready, carried in stuff, and made a general ass of myself towards the guy running the place, telling him to get his act together. In the meantime, we started calling everyone we could think of to come to the show. It was the summer, and lots of the Norfolk punks I knew, or friends I had, left for the summer when classes were out of session.
We got a pretty good turn out for such short notice, and Bobby was really appreciative. He let me come up on stage, and sing Bullet with him. It was a great show all things considered.
Later that night, we helped tear everything down for him, and hung out till the wee hours of the morning. It was at this point, that he told us that GG had died just a few nights before. And that’s my favorite memory of GG. It’s not the man, his music, or his antics. It’s me, sitting around drinking with Bobby Steele, talking about the NY punk scene, music, life and sharing a moment and a memory for GG.