GG Allin

Allin's earliest musical influences were 1960s British Invasion bands including the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and the Dave Clark Five.[18] In the early 1970s, Alice Cooper became an important influence on Allin.[19] Allin's earliest recorded musical endeavors were as a drummer, he also wrote most of his songs on an acoustic guitar. In his mid-teens, he and his older brother Merle, who plays bass guitar, formed their first band, Little Sister's Date, which lasted a little over a year.[18] The group covered songs by Aerosmith, Kiss, and other popular rock bands of the time period.[18] Both Allin and Merle gained a strong interest in punk rock. The Ramones and the Stooges were major influences on Allin.

He graduated from Concord High School in Concord, Vermont, in 1975, and shortly after formed the band Malpractice with his older brother, local musician Jeff Penny, and Brian Demurs (a high school friend). Allin played the drums for Malpractice until the band separated in 1977.

In September 1977 to April 1984, he started fronting the Jabbers. Allin's 1980 debut album was Always Was, Is and Always Shall Be for Orange Records. In addition to singing, he played drums on most tracks. It would be reissued for the first time on CD in 1995 by the Halycon imprint. At one point, industry veteran and the Dead Boys producer Genya Ravan served as his manager. Tension within the Jabbers mounted as Allin grew uncontrollable, uncompromising, and vicious. The Jabbers disbanded the spring of 1984, their second to last show was opening for Charged GBH.[20]

Allin fronted many acts during the early to mid-1980s. This includes albums from the Cedar Street Sluts, the Scumfucs in 1982 and the Texas Nazis in 1985. Allin remained in the underground hardcore scene, yet was not part of the East Coast hardcore scene. His performances in Manchester, New Hampshire, with the Cedar Street Sluts earned him the nickname of "the Madman of Manchester".

Allin gained wider attention with the ROIR cassette-only release of Hated in the Nation (1987) containing tracks from Allin's out-of-print catalog with the Jabbers, the Scumfucs and the Cedar Street Sluts. The tape also featured several in-studio and in-concert recordings with an all-star band assembled by producer Maximum RocknRoll and early Allin patron Mykel Board. This band featured J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. on lead guitar and Bongwater record producer/musician Mark Kramer on bass.

By the mid- to late 1980s, Allin was addicted to alcohol and generally abused any intoxicants provided to him.

Allin first defecated onstage in 1985 at a show in Peoria, Illinois. According to fellow performer Bloody Mess, "I was with him when he bought the Ex-Lax. Unfortunately, he ate it hours before the show, so he constantly had to hold it in or he would've shit before he got onstage... After he shit onstage, complete chaos broke out in the hall... All of the old men in charge of the hall went fucking NUTS!.. Hundreds of confused punk kids were flipping out, running out the door, because the smell was INCREDIBLE."[21] Defecation became a regular part of his stage act.

Allin idolized country music legend Hank Williams and saw himself as a kindred spirit. Both were relative loners and outsiders, both were habitual users of intoxicants, both lived with few (if any) possessions, and both traveled the country relentlessly. Allin's acoustic output, documented on the EP The Troubled Troubador, was heavily influenced by Williams. He recorded his own rewrites of Hank Williams, Jr.'s "Family Tradition" and David Allan Coe's "Longhaired Redneck", calling his own versions "Scumfuc Tradition" and "Outlaw Scumfuc", respectively. Later, Allin also released another country album, Carnival of Excess, his most refined record.[22]

During this period, Allin collaborated with Bulge (also known as Psycho under a different name, on the album Freaks, Faggots, Drunks and Junkies), the Aids Brigade (the 7" EP Expose Yourself to Kids) and the Holymen (You Give Love a Bad Name). Allin also began performing many spoken word pieces. Video footage of these is available but rare. Unwilling to seek steady employment, Allin supported himself by selling his own records. Allin was also fascinated with serial killers. He wrote to and visited John Wayne Gacy in prison a number of times and Gacy painted a portrait of Allin, which became the album cover to the soundtrack of the film Hated: GG Allin and the Murder Junkies.

By this point, Allin's performances, which often resulted in considerable damage to venues and sound equipment, were regularly stopped by police or venue owners after only a few songs. Allin was charged with assault and battery or indecent exposure a number of times. His constant touring was only stopped by jail time or by long hospital stays for broken bones, blood poisoning, and other physical trauma.

Another attraction to Allin performances was his continual threats of suicide. In 1989, Allin wrote to Maximum RocknRoll stating that he would commit suicide on stage on Halloween 1989. However, he was in jail when that day came. He continued his threat each following year but ended up imprisoned each following Halloween. When asked why he did not follow through with his threats, Allin stated, "With GG, you don't get what you expect—you get what you deserve."[23] He also stated that suicide should only be done when one had reached one's peak, meeting the afterlife at one's strongest point and not at one's weakest.[24]

In June 1993, Allin made an appearance on The Jane Whitney Show. This interview is infamous for being his last interview and for Allin's aggression toward the audience. Allin openly stated that he would commit suicide and take his fans with him. When questioned by Jane, he clarified that he would make them commit suicide as well or he would kill them. Allin also stated that, at 35, he could sleep with 12-, 13- and 16-year-old girls, boys and animals and claimed that he raped both women and men at his concerts.[25]

Letter from November 1989

In late 1989, Allin was arrested and charged with "assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder" of a female acquaintance in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

In a psychological evaluation made as part of the trial, Allin was judged as having at least average intelligence, and was described as "courteous, cooperative and candid". The unnamed evaluator noted that Allin did not appear psychotic, and seemed comfortable with his unorthodox lifestyle. However, the evaluator asserted Allin was dependent on alcohol and had a mixed personality disorder with narcissistic, borderline and masochistic features.

Allin initially denied the charges, claiming that the woman was a willing participant in their sexual activities. Allin admitted to cutting her, burning her, and drinking her blood, but insisted that she did the same thing to him. Allin also claimed that inconsistencies in the woman's statements to authorities supported his assertions. The judge in the case agreed there were substantial inconsistencies in the woman's account. Ultimately, however, Allin plea bargained to the reduced charge of felonious assault, and he was imprisoned from December 25, 1989, to March 26, 1991.[26]

It was during this time in prison that Allin began feeling re-energized about his life and "mission". He wrote The GG Allin Manifesto[27] during this period.

After his release from prison, Allin skipped parole to go on another tour, footage of which was shot for Todd Phillips's documentary Hated: GG Allin and the Murder Junkies. The film contained graphic scenes from a performance Allin gave at the rock club Space at Chase in Manhattan's East Village. A heavily intoxicated Allin stripped naked, defecated on the floor, wiped his feces on himself and threw feces into the audience. He also threw beer bottles, breaking a woman's nose, and assaulted several other people in the crowd. Clips were included from other Allin appearances, as well as interviews with Allin, his band, and their fans. The film was released in 1994 and later followed on DVD in 1997.

In 1991, GG recorded an album entitled Murder Junkies, released by New Rose Records, featuring Antiseen as his backing band. This album contained 10 musical tracks and 10 spoken-word pieces. Other than Freaks, Faggots, Drunks and Junkies, Allin considered this album to be that which most accurately captured his persona and stated philosophy on life. It was also during this period that Allin recorded the album War in My Head – I'm Your Enemy, released on Awareness Records and featuring the band Shrinkwrap. This particular album consists of one 45-minute track that is a collage of spoken-word pieces which Shrinkwrap put to music.

Allin's growing notoriety led to appearances on various television shows: Geraldo, The Jerry Springer Show and The Jane Whitney Show. At the time of his death, Allin was making plans for a spoken-word album.[28] He also mentioned a somewhat unlikely European tour, enthusiastically talking about it in the hours before his death.[29]

GG Allin married Sandra Farrow on October 6, 1978.[30] They divorced in 1985.[30]

In the mid-1980s, Allin became involved with a teenage girl from Garland, Texas named Tracy Deneault.[30] She became pregnant, and their daughter, Nico Ann Deneault, was born March 13, 1986.[30] Nico chose to distance herself from her family.[31] Allin and Tracey Deneault never married.[30] At the time of his death, GG Allin's "girlfriend" was Liz Mankowski. Mankowski was 17 when they met. They met when they appeared together (alongside Mankowski's sister and father) on The Jerry Springer Show. They also appeared together on The Jane Whitney Show, in 1993, with another Allin fan called Wendy.[32][33]

GG Allin's older brother Merle Allin served as bassist for his last band, the Murder Junkies.

Allin was an extreme individualist, misanthrope,[6] and anti-authoritarian, promoting lawlessness and violence against police officers in many of his lyrics; his essay, The GG Allin Manifesto,[34] was intended to summarize his personal philosophy. He revealed on Geraldo that he believed his body to be a temple of rock and roll, and that his flesh, blood, and bodily fluids were a communion to the people. Another reason given for his onstage antics (by Dino, the drummer of his band) was that he wanted to draw a parallel between his actions and "a society that's going crazy with violence". He has also said that if he was not a performer, he would probably be a serial killer or a mass murderer.[16]

Regarding Allin's views on death, he believed in some form of an afterlife. He planned to kill himself onstage on Halloween many times in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but was stopped due to prison sentences around every Halloween each year. He explained his views on death in the film Hated: GG Allin and the Murder Junkies, stating: "It's like I've got this wild soul that just wants to get out of this life. It's too confined in this life. I think that to take yourself out at your peak... if you could die at your peak, your strongest point, then your soul will be that much stronger in the next existence."[35]

Allin's funeral took place on July 3, 1993, in his native New Hampshire, at the St. Rose Cemetery, Littleton. At his funeral, Allin's bloated, unpreserved corpse was dressed in his black leather jacket and trademark jock strap.[36] Allin was buried with a bottle of Jim Beam beside him in his casket, as requested (openly stated in his self-penned acoustic country ballad, "When I Die"). As part of his brother's request, the mortician was instructed not to wash the corpse or apply any makeup.

Allin's funeral became a low-level party.[37] Friends posed with his corpse, placing drugs and whiskey into his mouth. As the funeral ended, his brother put a pair of headphones on Allin. The headphones were plugged into a portable cassette player, in which was loaded a copy of The Suicide Sessions.