Lux Interior and The Cramps circa 1980

Above is a previously unpublished photo I took of The Cramps (L>R Nick Knox, Lux, Poison Ivy), and below one that was used small in my book FUCK YOU TOO of Lux Interior, both at the Roxy in Los Angeles circa 1980.


Lux passed away on February 4th 2009. He was a truly incredible front man. I saw the Cramps several times beginning in probably 1979, and shot photos of them at least two or three times. The Cramps were a great band, and he would do some of the weirdest shit you ever saw. Besides wearing really skin-tight thin rubber pants, every time i saw him, that would always stay just barely above his pubes no matter what position he got in, making you always think they were gonna fall off at any second during the show, i'd say the craziest thing he'd do was when someone would throw a shoe (an old nasty sneaker no less, that had probably been kicked around the floor for a while before it got on stage) nearly hitting him in the face, and rather than throwing it back at the perpetrator he'd take his own beer and pour the whole thing into the shoe, then hold it above his head and proceed to pour the entire thing, from the nasty sneaker, down to the last drop into his mouth! Another variation on this theme that i had seen included a dirty rolled up ball of socks being thrown at him that he stuffed into his mouth for the hell of it. And that's just a few examples of the silly stuff that blew me away. I met them backstage once to show them some of the pictures i had shot before, and they couldn't have been nicer folks. The band was great and he was great, a very sad loss to rock'n'roll.

And here's a video for Garbage Man, one of my favorite songs by the Cramps: