MaximumRockNRoll #110 - July 1992

Punks Over 30

G.G. Allin, 35, Singer/Lyricist

MRR: You're a particularly interesting case. Everyone's got a different take on the changes they go through when they get older, but you, at least publicly, have announced you're going to commit suicide. Is that still in effect?

GG: Right. I don't think age is really the point. When you become useless and have reached your peak...I would rather end it at my peak than grow older and be stagnant.

MRR: Live fast die young.

GG: Right.

MRR: So it is still in effect. I think your original date for death got cancelled because you went to prison.

GG: Actually, going to prison...I won't say it was great, because it wasn't great at the time...was a learning experience for me that made me a better criminal. It's definitely got me more involved in what goes on in the system, and makes me want to fight it that much more.

MRR: Do you want to stay alive to fight it?

GG: I want to fight it as much as I can, but it comes to a point where there's no fighting...But I've still got a lot of fighting...I want to fuck with the system any way I can. That's pretty much what I exist for. But at some point in the future I will set a date; I still have plans to do that - it's my ultimate goal, to commit suicide on stage when everything is done. Right now, I'm involved in an appeal, I've got 4 states that still have warrants out and are looking for me, and I'm in violation of my parole, as we speak. I never know from one day to the next what's going to happen. I'm continuing to tour and every tour there's generally 2 or 3 arrests and some hospital visits. For me, age has definitely expanded my mind and hasn't slowed me down. If anything, it's made me more powerful because my mind is great and my body can keep up with it. That's the great thing about still being able to do this at my age. I can keep up with any 17 year old, but the point is that when I sing about something, I mean it and I've been through it. A lot of the younger bands are singing about a lot of shit they might not have experienced, and I've been through that.

MRR: Considering the punishment you've put your body through, how can you still do that?

GG: It's amazing. I've broken so many fuckin' bones, my body is completely shredded. I go to the hospital and they look at me like "Why are you still alive?" I don't know why. I've done things to my body that most can't or wouldn't do, but it's good for me to have experienced that pain because it makes me that much stronger. I put myself through tragedy every day, and so when I'm faced with a tragedy, I can handle it.

MRR: I remember pictures of you on some of your early records, and you were this very clean-cut looking person; how have you gotten to this point from there?

GG: I was always at that point, but I was living a double life. I was seeing a psychiatrist, married at the time. GG Allin is who I am, this thing inside me, and has always been there. But I was trying to live so many different lives, so one day I told the psychiatrist who was trying to figure out who I was: "I know who I am. I'm GG Allin" and just walked out of the fucking office. I said 'fuck it', sold everything that I had, told my wife she could keep all our stuff, I just took some money and a suitcase and went and got a room and never looked back.

MRR: That was the big turning point...

GG: It really was. Every record after that I got a little more pissed off. The reason that I got involved with music to begin with was for revenge purposes. When I was with the Jabbers, we weren't out to entertain, we were out to annihilate. My whole purpose was to start this band, go into the clubs that we don't like, and we'll fuck 'em up and beat the shit out of all the people we don't like, and we'll break up. It just escalated, and I hated more people and wanted to fuck them up and it carried over into different states. We got banned in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, all the way down into New York.

MRR: If the main fuel in your fire is hate...

GG: That's the reason I got into rock 'n' roll and it's still a good reason to be involved.

MRR: Are there other emotions that fuel you as well?

GG: I'm fueled by every emotion. You have to be very passionate to be a good warrior, you have to know how to feel, to crush.

MRR: Is there anything that you like, other than what you don't like?

GG: I like myself, and that's pretty much about it. I keep very distant from people. I'm not a people person. I'm not really social. When I'm not playing I'll just sit in my room and close the door and get fucked up. I stay away from people and don't want to talk to anybody for the most part. That kind of gets my mind going, and that's what puts all these bullets in my head, and when I get on stage that audience is my target. They're the people...

MRR: Do you ever feel trapped by your image?

GG: No, not really. I'm very comfortable with it. I have no problem with it. I look like this all the time. I haven't changed my clothes since I got out of prison. That's just the way I live.

 
uncredited

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The GG Allin SuperSite Media Guide - MaximumRockNRoll #110 - July 1992; (updated 26-MAR-2004)
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