No Shame In Flamboyance: An Interview With Gere Fennelly

Popshifter: This is of course reminding me a lot of The Runaways.

Gere Fennelly: Oh yeah! Well, that’s why they took us over there; because The Runaways had done really well. In America, they were sort of a joke; if anyone even heard of them at all in America, they were considered a joke. But in Japan. . . they love gimmick bands and so they loved The Runaways. And the deal with us, was that we sang in Japanese.

Popshifter: I saw that in the video!

Kim Fowley in his glory

Gere Fennelly: It was like The Runaways but singing in Japanese. But the thing is, they had no idea how misbehaved American girls were (laughs) and all we did was get in trouble over there.

Popshifter: (laughs)

Gere Fennelly: I was ready to go home anyway—all of us were. I mean, it was fun but (laughing) enough was enough.

Popshifter: You were talking about the Runaways. . . did you ever have the occasion to meet Kim Fowley?

Gere Fennelly: No!

Popshifter: Probably lucky on your part! (laughs)

Gere Fennelly: The girls that were in Rox had come down to L.A. before I was in the band. They’d been a band maybe six months before I joined. I remember the bass player saying Kim had peanut butter smeared on his walls. Which is how weird he was.

Popshifter: (cracks up)

Gere Fennelly: For some reason I always remembered that, like Kim Fowley had peanut butter smeared on his walls. So they met him and thought he was a total weirdo. I was the same age as the Runaways. I think when their record came out I was 15.

Of course, I had that record, but I never thought they were that good. That’s the funny thing. I always thought they sounded kinda shitty—

Popshifter: (laughs)

Gere Fennelly: I mean, I liked the idea of them, but I didn’t think they were that good musically. I liked them but I thought it sounded kinda cheesy. (laughs) I mean, I love it now, but back then, I was all into Led Zeppelin and Aerosmith and their stuff just sounded thin to me. I was pretty much a snob when I was a kid! (laughs)

The ghost of Liberace
keeps on hanging ’round

Popshifter: I know you’re a big Liberace fan.

Gere Fennelly: Oh totally, yeah!

Popshifter: When did you first become inspired by him and what was the trajectory of your Liberace fandom?

Gere Fennelly: Oh my god, well, first of all, I was always really really flamboyant, even when I was a little kid. I went to Catholic school and I’d wear these big gaudy rings on all my fingers. This was in 1969 when I was nine years old.

I was always into Liberace and my parents knew who he was. I think I must’ve seen him on TV or something. A lot of times the piano player is always the dullard, like the dullest person in the band.

Popshifter: (laughs)

Gere Fennelly: And this is why, later on when I knew who Elton John was, I liked him so much. Because he was a great musician and he was really flamboyant. And the same with Liberace. And my parents actually took me to see him when I was a kid! I was always super into him.

He was a great musician, but he was flashy, and entertaining, and fun, and you know, I liked all that stuff. Even when I was a kid, I was always the most outrageous and I never cared what people thought. I’d go out of my way: “You think I’m weird? Well, I’m gonna be weirder!”

I never could fit in so I never even tried. I would go out of my way to be the weirdest kid in my class and I didn’t care if people made fun of me. I would like, give them more ammunition to (laughing) make more fun of me.

Click to read more from Gere on. . .

Liberace
Redd Kross
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