It’s White Flag’s World, We Just Live In It: An Interview With Pat Fear

Popshifter: Who were the original members of White Flag? Were they all your neighborhood friends?

Pat Fear: They were all from the neighborhood, people that I went to school with and had known for a long time. The original members were me, Pick Z. Stix—who was the teen heartthrob lead singer of the local cover band, who was really popular, called Tyrant. They would do covers of Thin Lizzy and Judas Priest.

He was a very good vocalist, so we basically put him on drums! (laughs) Which he had never played in his life! And Doug Graves was the bass player in Tyrant and El Fee was the guitarist in Tyrant. And we found the most obnoxious person we knew to be the lead singer, with me taking a page from the Malcolm McLaren Handbook. We got Tyrant’s roadie, Al, who looked like Ozzy Osbourne, had hair down to his butt, and was out of control ANYWAY, to be “Al Bum” the singer.

He had never sung before, and it was perfect. I knew this was the genesis of bands like The Germs, with people who couldn’t play and had no experience. And it worked perfectly. (laughs)

We got the exact reaction we needed at the first two shows we played, which were these backyard parties and the next two gigs we played were opening for Black Flag.

Popshifter: Wow, that is so funny.

Pat Fear: We’re talking about full on platform boots, satin pants—

Popshifter: (laughing)

Pat Fear: —and Al dressed like Ozzy with a fringed shirt and spandex. Black Flag were friends of mine from the old days; I had seen them with Keith Morris. We borrowed all their equipment because we didn’t have any. The guys from Tyrant didn’t and had some but it wasn’t anything like what the guys from Black Flag were using: they had huge amps. Plus, we were lazy.

So we played and these people with shaved heads and Mohawks were like, “What? You’re called WHAT? And you’re doing WHAT? In front of me dressed like that?” These hippies would come out and then there was me, with short hair and a moustache, dressed like a cop, just to further infuriate them. And then we’d play hardcore. Interspersed with Black Sabbath covers. Really slowly.

Popshifter: (laughing) As opposed to really quickly, like The Dickies.

Pat Fear: (laughing) Yeah, exactly! And the singer looking like Ozzy helped. And that’s how Black Flag ended up looking on the back cover of our first album, S Is For Space, cringing in fear from us. Henry [Rollins] used to wear our t-shirts and stuff; they got the joke, you know, they’d seen what happened. Of course, they capitalized on what happened when the scene got really big, but they also understood the sense of humor we had.

Popshifter: You’ve had a lot of different people in the band over the years.

Pat Fear: It’s been a pretty loose knit thing. They’ve even played gigs without me, as hard as that is to believe. One of the best gigs was when I was going to school and had some school commitment, like a final or something. It was a Battle Of The Bands, which we entered just to cause trouble. It was a heavy metal contest for Claremont College, but I was going to UC Riverside. You had to be selected to be in the competition.

I had been hanging around with Blackie Lawless, who was later in W.A.S.P., when they were called Circus Circus. I had their demo tape, which was really good, and I sent that in as our tape and we got selected to be in Battle Of The Bands.

Popshifter: Hahahaha!

Click to read more from Pat Fear on. . .

Dr. Demento & The Ramones
Causing trouble
The Malcolm McLaren Handbook
Battle of the Bands
White Flag Goes to Greenland
Those missing 22 copies. . .
Os Mutantes
The Shaggs
Motel Spaghetti
Gasatanka

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