February 14th, 1992, Atlanta GA: One of G.G. Allin's first shows after emerging from almost three years in prison for assaulting a woman. During the show he spits Vodka at the audience. when the band launches into one of his "hits" G.G. jumps into the crowd and starts raining heavy blows on several zealous fans who run at him in the hopes of being assaulted. G.G. performs some of his best songs like "Die When You Die," and "Bite It You Scum." During the performance he pisses on the stage, on the thirsty crowd and on himself. He cuts open his bare chest with a razor and wipes the blood all over his body. His show lasts almost a half an hour, that's almost a record for a G.G. Allin show. His band is the Murder Junkies; his younger brother Merle is the bass player.
"When we would tour," said Merle. "We'd go out on the road for a month and play 14 dates. Usually when you tour for a month you want to do 25 shows. With G.G., you could only do about 14. He needed to recover every other day. No one could take that abuse. Nobody could keep up that pace. Not even G.G."
Most shows were usually shut down by the club owner or the police. G.G. racked up 52 arrests for sundry charges of misdemeanor assault to indecent exposure during his career. Most shows included G.G. being naked. Spittin at, pissing on, and punching the crowd were common fair. Also expected was G.G. cutting his head open using the microphone, daring the crowd to stick their fingers in his ass, burning bibles, using small American flags to wipe the feces from his body, destroying pictures of Jesus and the crowd favorite - shitting.
"He'd only do it if he wanted to," said Merle. "People would come up to him and say, 'You gonna shit tonight?' Then he wouldn't do it. Only when he felt like it."
Some stages contained only the instruments, a stool, and three bottles of laxatives. G.G. ate his own feces, smeared it on himself and of course, threw it at the audience. To improve his regularity sometimes a turkey baster was used for an enema. At one show the resourceful G.G. used a large orange pylon to open the floodway.
"G.G. Allin is an entertainer with a message to a sick society. He makes us look at it for what we really are," said recently executed serial killer John Wayne Gacy: whom G.G. visited while Gacy sat on death row in Illinois. "Make no mistake about it, behind what he does is a brain."
And Gacy was right. Behind the fury and rage was a drive to save rock and roll, returning it to what it could have been. The bloody of a lifestyle, pumped through a generation to spear them on - to destroy the established. To not take shit from anybody. When G.G. Allin began in the late seventies, disco was king. With bands like the Bee Gees, Donna Summer and Tavares burning up the charts, rock was near death. The punk revolution that began in 1977 with the Sex Pistols, was long dead by 1980. In the eighties there were the faux-rockers like Duran Duran, Poison and Warrant. It looked like true rock was on its last legs. But, G.G. Allin believed that rock could be saved. He also believed that he was the man to do it.
February 15, 1992, New Orleans LA:
G.G. is hard at work again at a smaller club than last night. The original club reneged on allowing the show that day. Pounding himself with the microphone, he taunts the police to come arrest him. The show is played with the lights on, and with an almost entirely new set list, G.G.'s body is sliced and bloody as he exits the stage.
Born August 29th, 1956 in Littleton, New Hampshire, Jesus Christ Allin - a name bestowed upon him by his ultra religious father - sets forth to wreck havoc to all in his path. The name was changed to Kevin Michael, by his mother before her eldest son's entrance into first grade. "G.G." originated from the pronunciation he and his brother had of the pontifical name at an early age. The family moved to Concord, Vermont, where G.G. attend [sic] Concord High School. Dedicated to drums, Kevin "G.G." Michael joined the Concord Drum Corps, spending most of his time parcticing on the drum kit at home.
"He was dedicated to his drums," said Merle. "He would've spent every minute playing if he could."
Neither home life nor school was going well for G.G. One day G.G.'s father took little G.G., Merle and his mother into the cellar of their home. Four holes were dug in the ground. The holes, his father said, were for them. One day, he said, he would kill them all, then himself.
School was equally as difficult. Almost no one still teaches at Concord High from when G.G. was raising hell there. Those who are still teaching there, don't remember him. The school has refused to release Allin's conduct and educational reports due to school policy. The trouble, though, was with his peers.
G.G. was extremely anti-social, and rumors of G.G.'s cross dressing going to school were confirmed by Merle.
"I mean, yeah, he'd do it," Merle said.
The legends and rumors of G.G. have made him a counter-culture hero. Almost any story told about G.G. is believable.
- G.G. was said to have hung around in front of a high school in Manchester, NH, and waited for the school day to end. When several students noticed him, G.G. quickly whipped out his dick and began running around jerking off.
- During a birthday party, G.G. had a woman piss in his mouth until he threw up. He then continued to drink her golden flow. This incident was captured on video by Merle.
- When a teen aged girl could not deliver drugs to G.G. and the rest of the band, he began throwing her around the room. After thrashing her, he yelled to the band, "Someone please get her out of here, because she's a minor. And I don't want to kill a minor."
- In 1992, while appearing on the Jerry Springer Show, G.G. claimed that if a woman was at his show and happened to be raped, she would be better off for it. A man in the audience asked if the woman wanted to leave, because she didn't know what the show was going to be like, would she still be raped? "Depends if I get to the door before her" was his reply.
- During a spoken word performance at New York University, G.G. appeared naked. He then proceded to shove a banana up his ass - chucking it at the crowd. He then demanded that everyone take off at least one piece of clothing. When people began steadily streaming towards the door, G.G. ran after them, hurling chairs. G.G. was detained briefly by the police. He was asked to sign an agreement to never re-enter the campus to avoid future legal procedures. Despite many calls to the Arts Office at NYU, officials have refused to discuss the issue.
"That's the best thing about him," said Merle. "Any story about him, you can probably believe. It adds to the legend."
June 27, 1993, The Gas Station, NYC:
The show is so violent and brutal the police and club owners shut it down after just two songs. Ranked up on coke, G.G. is thrown through the drum kit at one point and more cops are called to quell the riot after the stoppage. In the end G.G. walks through a French glass door, before exiting the club covered in his own and other's blood.
G.G. then leaves with a stripper he has been hanging out with. At an East-side apartment copious amounts of alcohol are served. About three bags of heroin are present and injected by the partiers. One by one people fall off or pass out. G.G. collapses on the bed with his woman, and sleeps restlessly. It's well past midnight now.
Around 4 a.m. one woman is still up. She sees G.G. get out of bed and lay face down on the floor. Gurgling noises emerge from his throat. The woman falls asleep soon afterwards. A few minutes after 6 a.m. G.G. is found dead on the floor. The Coroners report's state he died of a heroin overdose. More than likely he choked or smothered himself with something on the floor. It is agreed by all parties that his death was not by his own hand.
G.G. Allin is buried in Littleton, NH., past the Old Man in the Mountain, almost into Vermont. Interstate 93 North, which runs from Cape Code into Vermont, taking you right through downtown Boston, leads you there. It is the second Littleton exit. Take a right after you exit, and follow the road for several miles. Right before the beginning of down town Littleton, take the sharp left. Follow this road until you see the Littleton Fire Station and Ross Funeral Home. Across the street is an enormous cemetery. G.G. is buried near the street. Presently, perhaps because of the snow, or perhaps because the stone is gone, the grave is not visible.
Police hawk-eye the grave yard and visitors are not made to feel welcome. The people living across the street watch you as well. Their dogs bark incessantly until you leave. Perhaps the grave stone is gone, but we won't know until spring. Go there, take a piss, or a shit. Pour some Jim Beam - G.G.'s favorite - and pay your respects. Don't try to tamper with the stone or push it over, it appears that has already been done.
G.G. lived and died his own way. There were no limits, no future, no stopping. Did he save rock and roll? Take a good look at the charts. Hootie and the Blowfish, Notorious B.I.G. (and all the other no-talent Gangsta-rap idiots) Alanis Morrishit and the Presidents of the United States of America. All of them have made a home. Maybe he just didn't have enough time.
"I don't know if he could've," said Merle, who now leads the Murder Junkies. "It's a huge task. I don't know if any one person could have."
G.G. sure tried though.
"Hypocrites, trying to kill rock and roll," G.G. once said to a court of law. "But you can't."
Matt Sanborn is the Editor-in-Chief for Angry Youth Comix. This summer he will be releasing the comic book series, Skin is Like Paper: The G.G. Allin Story. The story will be co-written by Sanborn, and G.G. Allin's brother Merle Allin, and drawn by J. Ryan, the Head Artist for Angry Youth Comix.
Sanborn has also set up the Small Publishers Defense Fund, to defray legal costs for writers and artists harassed or arrested by legal officials. Information on the fund, or Angry Youth Comix, can be obtained by writing Angry Youth Productions, Box 83, Groveland, MA 01834.
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