Is it the government's roll to get in the way of self-expression if a citizen's views hit a little too close to home? Rock singer G.G. Allin raised the question in a phone interview from Ann Arbor, Michigan last week, just before embarking on a three-week tour through California, Texas, and the Midwest.
"The court of Milwaukee hasn't stopped me in any way. They've just enhanced my anger even more. I'm ready to take it even further now," he said.
Allin, 35, whose band has been playing hardcore rock and testing the boundaries of live performance for 13 years, was convicted in August for abusive and indecent conduct, and provoking a disturbance at a show at the now-defunct Odd Rock Café in February 1989. The singer, who defecated onstage and threw feces at the audience before simulating sex acts, says he was pursing a benefit for the homeless in order to pay for court costs.
"I came up with the idea the morning of the sentencing. My lawyer approached me with the idea that he thought they were going to make me pay for the court costs. I felt that I shouldn't have been arrested to begin with, so why should I pay for it? Obviously the judge, the taxpayers and the people in the courtroom don't need the money, so I figured, what's a better way to pay back the people of Milwaukee than to pay the people who really need the money? I thought I'd organize a benefit for the homeless. The judge pretty much shot the idea down. When he found out that there was no money in it for him, he didn't want anything to do with it."
Allin's arrest in Milwaukee was not the first to occur after a performance. The singer was charged with assault and battery at an Ann Arbor show in 1989, and has three pending charges for endangering the lives of minors in New Haven, Connecticut, which the court won't expedite unless he comes within a 300-mile radius.
"People weren't paying attention at a show, so we made them pay attention," Allin said. "We just started breaking chairs over their heads. I've held hostages onstage before, too. When people come to my shows, they have to realize that there's an element of danger. I support the philosophy that pain creates power, strength, and endurance. People who live a sheltered life, who never experience pain or tragedy, will freak out and die with the drop of a hat.
"I'd like to make rock and roll more spontaneous again, more dangerous. Take it away from all the corporates. Bring it back to outcasts. Bring it back to the real underground. Rock and roll has become too institutionalized, too commercialized. It's supposed to be for the real nonconformists and outcasts. It's not for monkey suits and college preps. Nowadays everything is so formulated. I say bring it back down. Bring it back to the dangerous levels. Bring it back to where society doesn't feel safe anymore. Society feels safe with rock and roll now because they control rock and roll. Let's bring it back to where it started before people with money and power started saying, 'We can dictate to these people what they can like and what they can't like, and if it gets too out of hand we can put them in jail and forget about them.'"
Allin insisted that when he is not onstage, he "puts up walls" separating himself from other people. It is only onstage, he says, that "the walls come down" and he allows himself to vent his moods and any pent-up emotions.
The singer also cited the fact that the audiences present at his shows pay money to see the performances, fully aware of what to expect. Allin recently performed three sold-out shows in New York, and record sales are reportedly steady.
And plans are still in the works for a public suicide on the chosen date of Oct. 31, 1992.
"It's the night for my soul to be the strongest. I have a restless soul and it's too confined in this life. When everything's been said and done, I can't see just going on and repeating myself. Once I've succeeded in breaking down all the barriers, it's time to end. I see so many performers, philosophers and writers just get old and stagnant. Why not quit at your peak, your strongest point?
"I'm going into this with no holds barred. I'm going into it the way I go into every show. Whatever happens, happens. I'm fully aware I could end up dead somewhere, but it's my life. There needs to be someone like me in rock and roll. I don't want anyone to leave my shows unthreatened or without an opinion one way or the other. Art needs to be provocative; it needs to make people think."
Lisa D'Acquisto
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