FEAD
MAD
SEASON
COCKY, LIPPY, BELLIGERENT, hard to
interview, and everybody's punk rock hero,
Lee Ving, who has laughed in the face and
spat in the eye of everything Hollywood
stands for, has made a lucrative side career
of getting roles as punk rockers, thugs, and
gang leaders in many major movies and TV
shows. Frontman of the band Fear, Lee Ving
has paved the way for what we now take for
granted as the punk rock music scene. I
caught up with Lee Ving in a small shithole
bar in Detroit city, never having scheduled an
interview. I just drove to Detroit and asked
to speak to Lee Ving. The club owner said he
was backstage, waiting for his pre-show
meal (a cold pizza stuck to the box), so I was
handed the pizza and directed towards the
back. When I got to Lee Ving, he thought I
was the pizza delivery guy and started deny.
ing ever ordering a pizza and began to walk
away. I followed him to the T-shirt sales area
and started to tell him I was not the pizza
man but actually a writer who was interested
in doing an interview with him. He still
thought I was the pizza man and kept bitch-
ing about him never placing an order in the
first place, when I looked up and saw their
tour T-shirts for sale: "I am a close and per-
sonal friend of Lee Ving." This is where the
interview began...
-Jon Stain
For some reason, skin magazines like
Penthouse and Playboy have done inter-
views and pictorials on the band. Why would
they be interested in a punk band like Fear?
Penthouse took pictures of our live show at
the old Hong Kong Cafe in Los Angeles, then
they interviewed us and asked us some ques-
tions about slamdancing and punk rock. They'll
put an article about anything in Penthouse, and
people will say, "Well, we picked up the maga-
zine 'cause we just wanted to read that article
about those punk rockers," when you know it's
just a crock of shit thing they say so that they
can buy fuckin' Penthouse. It's all hard sell, like
you really buy Playboy when we're in it to read
the political slant. Like you really want to get
the way the GOP is going to figure out next
year's elections, or like find out who's going to
run and all that shit from a porno magazine.
You're not just a singer/frontman for Fear,
you're also a very accomplished actor as
well. What movies and TV shows have you
been in, off the top of your head?
I was in the Decline of Western Civilization,
the Penelope Spheeris punk documentary, that
was the first movie I was ever in, then I was in
Get Crazy, Flashdance, Streets of Fire, Clue,
Black Moon Rising, and a lot that I probably
forgot about. I got to sing two songs in two
separate episodes of the TV show Fame, I was
on Three's Company, we did the Tony Danza
Show, and sung two songs on that.
How did you get on Saturday Night Live at a
time when they were having guests like The
Rolling Stones and a bunch of yuppie stuff?
The late John Belushi and his best friend
were responsible for getting us on Saturday
Night Live. John Belushi was a big fan of ours
and a good friend of ours too. It was the most
bizarre thing that they had ever seen. They
were more used to acts like Bob Hope or
something like that than they were with an act
like us. But it was fun, a real good time.
Weren't you supposed to play the part of the
punk rock boyfriend with John Belushi and
Dan Akroyd in the movie Neighbors?
We recorded and prepared a song that was
supposed to be the trailer, the last piece when
the credits roll by, a musical piece for the
movie Neighbors. But this big Hollywood pro-
ducer/director decided that he didn't want
anything to do with it and wouldn't even listen
to it after John Belushi had spent several
weeks recording it just for the movie. So, John
kind of lost it and rearranged his office for him,
tore stuff off the walls and messed his desk up.
It was a story that was out the afternoon it
happened, right away. I heard from a friend
who had heard it from a friend that Belushi
flipped out and trashed this guy's office
because our song wasn't used in the movie.
But none of us actually acted in the movie
that song and those rumors were the only
connection we had to Neighbors.
Do you live in Texas or Hollywood?
Yes.
Is that a "Yes, I live in Hollywood," or "Yes,
I live in Texas?"
Put it where you want. I wouldn't pin myself
down to any specific state or any location in
any of the contiguous forty-eight. I figure that
all the folks out in Hollywood are doing the
best thing and that is where they ought to
keep themselves, because we're full up in
Texas, so you all can stay home and watch us
on the TV
Fear has survived while other bands from
the same era like Black Flag and the Misfits
have fallen to the wayside. What is the
secret to your staying power? What's next
in store for Fear?
Now, we haven't been at it that long, we've
only been at it a couple of weeks, but we're
getting pretty good at it, so come out and
see us. We've got a Fear CD coming out soon
along with more live performances, and we
intend to be in everybody's face from now
on, and all like that.
ABOVE
Layne Staley Mike McCready Barrett Martin Baker
The debut album Out now. Produced by Mad Season and Brett Elason On Columbia CDs, Cassettes, MinDiscs, and Vinyl