Ryan Leach is a skateboarder who grew up in Los Angeles and Ventura County. Like Belinda Carlisle and Lorna Doom, he graduated from Newbury Park High School. With Mor Fleisher-Leach he runs Spacecase Records. Leach’s interviews are available at Bored Out (http://boredout305.tumblr.com/). Razorcake is a bi-monthly, Los Angeles-based fanzine that provides consistent coverage of do-it-yourself punk culture. We believe in positive, progressive, community-friendly DIY punk, and are the only bona fide 501(c)(3) non-profit music magazine in America. We do our part. An Oral History of The Gun Club originally appeared in Razorcake #29, released in December 2005/January 2006. Original artwork and layout by Todd Taylor. Photos by Edward Colver, Gary Leonard and Romi Mori. Cover photo by Edward Colver. Zine design by Marcos Siref. Printing courtesy of Razorcake Press, Razorcake.org he Gun Club is one of Los Angeles’s greatest bands. Lead singer, guitarist, and figurehead Jeffrey Lee Pierce fits in easily with Tthe genius songwriting of Arthur Lee (Love), Chris Hillman (Byrds), and John Doe and Exene (X). Unfortunately, neither he nor his band achieved the notoriety of his fellow luminary Angelinos. From 1979 to 1996, Jeffrey manned the Gun Club ship through thick and mostly thin. Understandably, the initial Fire of Love and Miami lineup of Ward Dotson (guitar), Rob Ritter (bass), Jeffrey Lee Pierce (vocals/ guitar) and Terry Graham (drums) remains the most beloved; setting the spooky, blues-punk template for future Gun Club releases. At the time of its release, Fire of Love was heralded by East Coast critics as one of the best albums of 1981. Unfortunately, Los Angeles didn’t see the album in the same light, accounting for much of the band’s time in New York. When brilliant, formidable bassist Rob Ritter (1955-1991) left the fold in 1982, the initial lineup was broken. A revolving lineup and the artistically successful The Las Vegas Story followed. The Gun Club remained dormant until a solidified lineup of Jeffrey Lee Pierce (vocals, guitar), Kid Congo Powers (guitar), Romi Mori (bass) and Nick Sanderson (drums) reconvened for their 1987 surreal masterpiece, Mother Juno. Soldiering on until 1994, this lineup (sans Congo Powers for the Lucky Jim record) released three full-lengths and an EP. Then the unexpected happen: Jeffrey Lee Pierce passed away due to a brain hemorrhage on March 31, 1996 at the age of thirty-seven. At the time of his death, Jeffrey was working on his autobiography (Go Tell The Mountain) and a new lineup of the Gun Club with musical soul mate Kid Congo Powers. What follows is a chronological oral account of those close to Jeffrey and various Gun Clubbers, whose playing was integral to the Gun Club’s artistic success. All of the following interviews were conducted between March and August of 2005. Some were conducted at the interviewees’ respective homes (Ward Dotson, Jeffrey’s sister Jacqui Pierce and brother- in-law Johnny Faretra), at Millie’s on Sunset (Keith Morris), via long distance telephone (Kid Congo Powers, Romi Mori and Terry Graham) and one by a quick email (Alice Bag). The closing lines belong to Leon Catfish, guitarist/singer of The Guilty Hearts and lead guitar player of my favorite current L.A. band, the Starvations. Leon and I were talking outside of a Guilty Hearts show about the usual—the Gun Club and Rob Ritter— when it struck me just how important the Gun Club are. Leon and I are clocking in at or under the quarter century mark and continuously discuss a band that hasn’t existed in over a decade. Leon plays his Telecaster in his own refreshing, unique manner, but in a style unmistakably influenced by Jeffrey. Just as Jeffrey took influence from Bo Diddley, Jimi Hendrix and Howlin’ Wolf, we today reach back into his rich catalogue for influence; proving the Gun Club is not ephemeral. Innovators are not forgotten. This piece is dedicated to Jeffrey Lee Pierce and Rob Ritter. Interviews by Ryan Leach Jacqui Pierce: My uncle Fred was a jazz musician, so we grew up with music. My Mom collected 45s—mostly R&B and soul. Jeffrey was ten years old and started taking lessons to learn how to play guitar, and he stuck with it. A lot of people don’t do that, but he really loved it. He practiced a lot in his room. He would play “Stairway to Heaven” over and over again. We knew he had a love for music and was set on learning how to play. Kid Congo Powers: I met Jeffrey in 1978. We were in line to see Pere Ubu and I had seen Jeffrey around a lot. We were always in line—this was during the punk explosion—and there were a lot of shows in Los Angeles that you had to go to. And on this particular night I was like, “Who is this guy anyway?” He was wearing a white vinyl trench coat with white girl’s cowboy boots and a polka dot shirt. We started talking and got drunk. That first day he said, “You should be in a band with me,” and I had never played in a band before. I had always been a music fan. I was like, “Well, okay, whatever,” and he said that I should be the singer. I told him definitely not. And he said, “You could be the guitar player.” I told him, “I don’t play guitar.” And he said, “Oh, that’s not a problem, I can show you some things.” And it happened really spontaneously. It wasn’t too long afterwards that we actually started playing around with some people and making a really terrible, terrible noise. Terry Graham: I started college here in Denton, Texas, but it was basically a seed store with a few cows—it was hideous. I had to go to Los Angeles. My cousin lived out there and I thought film school would be cool. But then you go to UCLA and USC and you realize you’re not going to get in just by walking in; it’s a little different than that. The next thing you know, I go to Kim Fowley’s New Wave Night at The Whiskey and the rest is history. Keith Morris: Jeffrey and I were living in Inglewood, right in the middle of the Bloods and the Crypts, but they never messed with us. There were probably only six white people in the neighborhood and we looked like a couple of freaks anyway. I walked around the neighborhood and I didn’t care. The gang members, if they think you’re insane, they won’t mess with you. And Jeffrey looked like a freak, too. He had bleached blonde hair. Kid Congo Powers: Jeffrey and I really hit it off because we had both traveled a lot—to Europe, around the United States, Jamaica—and he was writing for Slash magazine. He was really into reggae and we both had that in common. We were only nineteen or twenty at the time and a lot of people we knew hadn’t done that. We were also interested in New York music. I was running a Ramones fan club and Jeffrey was doing the Blondie one. Jacqui Pierce: Jeffrey was already hanging out at music spots because he was doing interviews. I think that was what drove him to be a musician, to actually get a band together, because he was interviewing people so much. And, he was around the scene. I’m sure he must have thought, “I can do that.” So he eventually formed his first band, the Red Lights. At that time, he was influenced by Blondie, Talking Heads, Television—big time Television fan, Tom Verlaine—some Bowie and Lou Reed. Pleasant Gehman: Jeffrey was the one who started me in music. He kept telling me I should have a band. I kept saying, “I don’t want a band,” and he goes, “Well, you would make a great singer.” And I would go, “I don’t know how to sing.” So he would tell me this every time he saw me. And then finally one day he said, “You should have a band and you should be the singer.” And I said, “I don’t want that. I don’t want to put one together,” and he said, “I already put one together for you.” We were called the Cyclones—this was before the Gun Club. Jeffrey played guitar and so did Johnny Nation. There was a guy named John on standup bass and Brad Dunning, who is now a really famous interior decorator, on drums and I was singing. We used to rehearse at Jeffrey’s mother’s house in Pacoima. We were horrible. There was no PA, so I was singing out of a guitar amp and basically screaming above the noise. A lot of people didn’t know how to play what they were playing, just like I didn’t know what I was doing. Jeffrey knew how to play, but Johnny Nation was just starting—he was really sucky—I mean, he went on to play with Lydia Lunch and the Reptiles and all these other things. Anyway, our first and only gig was at the one and only punk night at Gazzari’s. We were opening for the Last and the Go Go’s. I had been going out with the drummer and we broke up and weren’t talking to each other, even though we were rehearsing in a room that was six feet by ten feet.