All language subtitles for Stiv.2019.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-QOQ

♪ Yeah baby it's a mystery

♪ The things you
do to yourself ♪

♪ Night time, it's a mystery

♪ You're all by yourself

♪ You cry tears

♪ You crawl out

♪ Get paid your future's made

♪ But your life, it
goes not at all ♪

♪ Ten ten's got no
bright light shining ♪

♪ Nowhere honesty

♪ Ten ten's got
your life now baby ♪

♪ Nowhere honesty

- Hey Kathleen, it's
Stiv calling from Paris.

Why don't you phone me back?

Just like to say hello.

Give me a call back.

I'm at 3-3-1

4-0-2-6,

7-1-0-1, in Paris, bye.

- Yes, he was happy.

Definitely happy.

They were walking the streets
of the city hand in hand,

hand in hand.

Fuck, hand-in-hand.

- But she was cool.

I think they were very,

I think during the session,

she read like Edgar
Allen Poe, by flashlight.

She was a real goth chick.

I liked them, I though
they were a good couple.

- She made it worthwhile.

And that's what it's all about.

I finally found love.

When you love someone,
you can love yourself.

- They were into
bondage I think.

They gave me a lot
of information,

about Eric Stanton,

the drawer.

They were into that
culture, for sure.

- Yeah, he liked Elvira.

If he had his way,

the whole band would
have been done up in PVC,

and wearing women's
stilettos, and stuff,

but that was just him.

Just mainly for
the look of things.

- It was the next
stage of his life,

so he was finding himself,

and he was incredibly
happy with Caroline.

They absolutely
adored each other.

They had a flat
in central Paris,

and they seemed to really take
to Parisian life, as well.

- It was strange to know someone

for such a short time,

yet you felt like
you knew them longer.

So the first time really
was the party on the boat.

So you're going to his
40th birthday party

on the River Seine,

and we had a great time.

It was great.

There was a little piano
on the boat and everything.

There was only seven
or eight of us.

Myself and Jim,

who is the singer
in the Hypnotics,

and that was our band
that we had started,

that Stiv was
championing really.

He was really quite righteous

in championing us and,

take the torch the baton forward

for rock and roll,

and you get to
hang out in Paris,

at Carol's place, Stiv
and Carol's place,

their penthouse flat-type thing,

where you could sit on the roof

and see the view of Paris
and the Eiffel Tower,

it was a beautiful flat.

And we'd hang there and watch
AC/DC videos and things,

and Stiv had many plans
forwards, going forwards.

Many plans, I mean
he was only 40.

We went to his 40th
birthday party.

- Paris influenced
people, you know,

I never wrote before
I arrived in Paris.

It's a city, but
that's up to you.

To me, been more,

concentrated,

if I may say, spiritual, not in,

God, and, no.

More thinking about life,

about creating different stuff.

♪ Let's rock it out

♪ Here stands on my right

- We had the video clip
with our band, Jad Wio,

with a song called Priscilla.

He said, oh,

we all like this video clip.

I like the song too.

Once if you play in Paris,

I would like to play with you.

- One, two, one, two, three!

♪ Here stands on my right

♪ The glamorous Priscilla

♪ She's the queen of escape

♪ She plays with
dangerous fate ♪

♪ Here stands on my left

♪ The vicious Leona

♪ She's the animal trainer

♪ Come on in you can see them

- It was really after
the Sputnik had finished

in the very late 80's.

We were all looking around
for the next thing to do,

and Tony said, look Stiv really

wants something to work with,

and to write some songs with.

So Tony and I tried writing
a couple of numbers for Stiv,

and that's where we really
got to know him better,

and hung out a bit more.

And eventually I went to
Paris to make the record,

which became The Last
Race with Stiv, in 1990.

- I remember, was it
Sounds or Melody Maker,

Carol Clark ran a story about

the new New Lords
of the New Church.

Okay, because Stiv ostensibly

was gonna get a
new band together,

which was Vom who'd been
in Doctor and the Medics,

and Kris Dollimore, who
had been in The Godfathers,

and he was gonna have Neil X
on board, to produce as well,

but it was gonna
be a supergroup,

so over from New York,

we were gonna have
Dee Dee on bass,

and Johnny playing
obviously, guitar.

That was gonna be
Stiv's dream team

for the Paris sessions.

- Dee Dee was all
psyched up about that,

and yeah let's do a record.

So, it was all
planned for Paris.

But then we had the slight
problem with Dee Dee,

flipping out a bit.

- He stayed for some
with Stiv and Carol,

and sometime Johnny, he
left his gear over there,

so in a moment he
through a tantrum.

He through liquid on the pickups

of Johnny's Gibson Les Paul
Junior, and he burned it.

- He had destroyed
Johnny's guitar,

and poured bleach all
over Johnny's clothing,

and Johnny obviously
got freaked out

and ran away from
Stiv's apartment.

- Stiv was really
really straight,

for this record.

He was really on it, it was his,

it was his solo
album that was gonna

make or break
everything, I think.

- We went in, Stiv said,

here's a couple of
songs I want to try.

We cut them in the
first couple of hours.

So he got us out, and he said,

I've got this other
one I'd like to learn,

played us a bunch of songs

which he'd had in mind
for years, I guess.

I've always wanted
to record this.

And we just went through
and recorded everything.

- He came from Girard, Ohio,

which is a suburb of Youngstown,

which is the biggest town
of rock and roll Cleveland,

close to that, so they
all had this like,

it's old steel town.

- I met his parents
a number of times.

He'd lived in what
was a permanent

like a trailer home.

And they were very

middle American, I would
say, typical from Ohio.

His dad was amazing, very
funny, just like Stiv.

And his mom was the
traditional housewife.

- His parents were
like total opposites,

you didn't know what
attracted them to each other.

And they really represented

Stiv's bad side
and his good side.

But his dad was like a
joker, a practical joker.

His name was Steve Bator.

He sang in a polka band,

as the front man.

He was just a really
really really sweet guy,

and as I got to know
them I went over once,

to their house, and they were
showing me photos of Stiv,

growing up as a child,

and one photo, this black
and white vintage photo,

you see Stiv, with his
pants completely down,

and his mother's trying
desperately to pull them up,

and the neighbor
children are running up

but they're behind
them in terror.

And that was the
kind of pictures

that were in his family album.

I always got a very
strong impression

that his dad was really
happy for his career choice,

and his mother wasn't.

- His idols were
the three stooges.

And they would spiteful
things to each other,

and Stiv would make up
lies and stuff like that,

and then if you sussed him out,

he'd go, pricked
you, pricked you.

And he'd fooled you, you know.

- Even at that age I could
tell he was something special.

He was gonna go places.

He was just that
kind of a character,

very magnetic personality,

people were just drawn
to him, like that.

Even when I brought him on
the stage for the first time,

it was in the late
60's, in Canfield, Ohio.

It was an outdoor concert,

and I got a pickup ad
and just brought him up.

I'd never seen him play before.

But he had one
remarkable talent.

He could play a harmonica,

but he didn't have a harmonica.

He would cup his hands,

and do this blues stuff
and it was amazing.

- Stiv Bators and Mother
Goose, they were crazy.

I met 'em, well I saw them,

I encountered them,
first time, Mother Goose,

at my high school,

after a football game they used
to have dances for the kids.

And one night they showed up,

the band Mother Goose showed up.

And so me and my
buddies from our band

went in there to check it out.

We'd always check
out the other bands,

and we see Stiv and these guys,

torn jeans, torn
t-shirts, long hair,

come out, it was like, whoa.

And they start breaking
into like Rolling Stones,

Iggy Pop, Sonics,

all kind of crazy cover
tunes, rock and roll.

Stiv was rolling
around on the floor,

spitting, cursing.

He was into a lot
of different stuff.

Well he liked the
theatrics of Iggy,

and Alice Cooper, especially.

Those were his favorites.

And then he invited
me to his house,

his gothic mansion,
a week later.

So me and my friends showed up,

and there was a
full-on party going on,

the place full of people.

I'm sure there was a
lot of stuff going on.

Stiv comes flying down
the steps of this mansion,

with a road flare,
completely naked,

starts blasting out
all this weird poetry,

turns around, runs
upstairs, and that's it.

So that was like one of my
first experiences with Stiv.

The Rockin' Tomatoes
were formed,

after Stiv's final incarnation
of the Mother Goose band,

which was an institution
around Youngstown for a while.

He'd had enough of
the Youngstown scene.

He was living out in a
place called, Rogers, Ohio.

He rented a room in this
house, from these bikers.

And every time Stiv
would leave his room,

and go out, we were
out on the road,

the bikers and the girlfriends

would go into his room,
and steal his clothes,

the girls would wear 'em.

So he had had enough,
and just one day he said,

I'm done with this whole thing.

I'm moving to Cleveland,
I'm going to the big city.

- Cleveland had a lot of clubs,

a lot of bands,

and there was a lot
of places to play,

if you were a cover band.

They really didn't care too much

if you were an original band.

Blue Ash, we lucked
out, or The Raspberries,

because we had an album out,

so we could go and get by.

- I'm not outgoing with
people I don't know,

but turned out he was,
and he came over to me,

and he introduced himself,

and he was dressing according
to his name at the time.

He first introduced himself
to me as Stivian Scarlet.

And true to his name,

he was dressed in
scarlet from head to toe.

And then to top it all off,

he had this died
mane of black hair,

obviously a Thunders fan,

I picked that up
before he said a word.

- And I went and saw
the Stooges, in Detroit.

That's when I realized,

rock and roll has nothing
to do about music.

It's just attitude,

and social change.

- And how
tight your pants are.

- Exactly.

- And at that point I learned,

it was the wintertime,

and I learned that
he was no longer

in Youngstown at all,
he was in Cleveland,

and he was living in his car.

But he looked immaculate.

When I met him he was
already lying about his age,

and what was hilarious was,

I noticed that without
me prompting him,

he started lying about
my age, to people.

And I go, what are you
shaving years off my age for?

And he goes, you'll
thank me some day.

Stiv wanted to form a band
called the Atomic Bums,

and we had kind of a
real loose blueprint

that was based on The Stooges.

So, we didn't get
anywhere with it,

we couldn't find any
musicians that had any desire

to participate in,
particularly Stiv's, plans.

Because he was
really the leader.

- So that's when he
went to Cleveland,

and then Frankenstein began
to form at that point.

I remember he met
Eugene, Cheetah.

He kind of fell in with
Cheetah and those guys,

and Blitz, they were playing
with Rocket from the Tombs,

and Stiv would go in and start

hanging around with these guys,

and they'd let him get up
and sing one or two songs

at the end of their sets.

- Cheetah and
Johnny were the guys

most like Stiv and I would
have wanted to do musically,

out of all the
guys, in that band.

And we were interested in them.

But Rockets was a disaster area.

I didn't hear from him
for a couple of weeks,

and he called me
up on the phone,

and he goes, I joined
Rocket from the Tombs.

And I felt betrayed.

Why didn't you tell me
you were gonna do that?

I felt betrayed.

And I got hurt by it,
to tell you the truth.

But anyway, he called me
up about a week later,

and he goes, I
broke up the band.

He didn't break them up,

that was the Stiv thing.

- And so he kind of
worked his way in there,

and eventually him and
Cheetah, and Blitz,

were working on
their own project,

which eventually
became Frankenstein.

- He goes, I got Johnny,
and at the time, Gene,

'cause Cheetah wasn't
going by Cheetah then.

He goes, I got them
to form a band.

Frankenstein was the same
lineup that would occur

after The Dead Boys
recorded their first album.

It was Jeff Magnum,

Cheetah, Johnny, Stiv and me.

We were doing pretty
much the same material,

only it was kind of like

there was a little bit of
overlap with the glam era.

We had long hair, and we
dressed kind of fancy.

♪ But daylight kills me

♪ No love can kill me

♪ So please kill me

- Stiv infiltrated the Ramones.

They came to
Youngstown and played,

and they had to
get to Cleveland,

so he said he would
show them the way.

So he was going down
the Ohio turnpike,

and we're going about
70 miles an hour,

and Stiv gets out of the car,

he's driving the car, and
he gets out of the car,

and goes up on the roof
and moons the Ramones.

- And he like starts mooning us.

And I thought at the time,

this was like the sickest
thing I'd ever seen,

so we became friends, you know.

- And Stiv lied, because
Frankenstein had broken up.

We didn't even have a band.

And he said, oh yeah,
I got a band together,

we're called this and
that and you know.

And Joey said he
would talk to Hilly

and get us a Sunday night show.

Nothing spectacular, a
good slot or anything.

We said sure Stiv, so Stiv
calls up everybody on the phone,

and we all meet him
at Cleveland airport.

And he said, listen I just
got back from New York.

This place, we would finally
have a place to play.

He didn't say we
were gonna become

big rock stars or anything.

It was just, we'll
have a place to play,

CBGB's, we can
play there easily,

with what we're doing.

Stiv was really ambitious,

and nothing was gonna
stand in his way,

of what he wanted,

and he could infiltrate a scene,

any scene that he entered,

he could infiltrate
it, real easily.

It was effortless to him.

- Honestly for me, the Dead Boys

were the only real American
punk band in New York,

and by that I'm not trying
to offend other bands,

but the Ramones were
like the Beach Boys,

Blondie were very pop,

there was the whole art scene

with Patti Smith and Television,

and you had Willy DeVille,

and the New York Dolls,

that were more on the
glam, or the R and B side,

but the Dead Boys,

if I were walking down a
dark alley in the city,

I would rather have Stiv
and Cheetah there with me,

than probably any other
guy in a band in New York.

- We were going up there,

we were driving up there
once a month to play.

We played at CBGB's,
Max's Kansas City.

And we started to gain
a little momentum.

- They were it, they
were just so hard,

and just so on it,

and they were really
good musicians.

- The Dead Boys
had the attitude.

Punk is an attitude.

And Dead Boys had it in spades.

- The Dead Boys brought,

for the generation

of 1977, you know,

they brought the core
of what was going on,

which was the rawness
of the streets.

Like that real raw gang
violence to the stage.

- What we do onstage is just

releasing a lot of
energy and frustration.

Where is it best to do it?

Here, or out in the streets?

That's how most of
the kids get it out.

They watch TV,

and the see the violence there,

and they get it out
of them that way.

But that's not full
like you can here.

Here you can break a
bottle, or jump around,

or something like that, or just
watch us get it out for you.

So what we're doing
is really healthy.

- When Stiv does
what he does onstage,

he enjoys people to laugh.

He doesn't feel slighted by it,

it's all in the
spirit of having fun,

and we want people
to be able to vent

their frustrations, and
angers, and violence,

but not on each other.

♪ Can I describe
what it's like ♪

♪ To have sex with
the lights on? ♪

♪ And would ya feel right
if I did ya tonight? ♪

♪ And put the bite on?

♪ All this and
more little girl ♪

♪ How bout on the
floor little girl ♪

♪ No time to implore ya girl

♪ I'm just a dead boy

♪ You know that I'm
just a dead boy ♪

♪ I wanna be a dead boy

♪ I'll die for you,
if you want me to ♪

♪ Got feeling in my knees
that tell me the degrees ♪

♪ I been loved on

- We started drawing people.

And then, we were
gonna break up,

because we couldn't
do that anymore,

drive up to New
York, drive back,

drive up to New
York, drive back,

especially in the worst
winter in 50 years,

or whatever it was.

And so we were gonna break up,

if we didn't find management,

and Hilly Kristal,
the owner of CBGB's,

began to notice us,

that he was making a lot
of money off the bar,

whenever we played.

And he thought, hmmm.

So he said, do you
guys have a manager?

And we said, no.

And he goes, would you
like me to manage you?

And we said, yeah.

Sure, it was like
manna from heaven,

it saved us from ourselves.

So anyway, he put his
money where his mouth was,

and he booked us into
Electric Lady Studios

in New York City,

and we did a three-day demo,

and Genya Ravan was nice
enough to produce us.

- They had never been
in a studio before.

Everything was pending
on Hilly Kristal

paying for everything.

And when Hilly recommended
me to produce them,

of course they said yes.

Even if I was a stepping stone.

Turned out to be, that was
one of their best albums.

- We recorded it real real fast.

We were very very very
very high, and drunk,

and real fast.

We went into the studio,

and Hilly said, what do you need

to do what you guys do?

Would mean be the Dead Boys.

And we said, lots
of whiskey and beer.

And so they had literally
every three or four hours,

a caravan coming from CBGB's,

with Schlitz Beer
and Jack Daniels.

We were also taking a
lot of speed at the time.

In fact, I went outside,

and I was in an amphetamine
psychotic state,

and saw Peter Frampton,

who was in recording
his followup

to Frampton Comes Alive.

And I doubt that
he'll ever see this,

but I'd like to
apologize to him,

because he was at the coffee
machine getting coffee,

and I saw him, and
he was at that point,

he was the biggest
rock star in the world,

the biggest.

And I saw him, and he's
rather a small little fella,

and I came up
behind him and I was

completely out of my mind,

on drugs and alcohol,

and I stuck my chin
on the top of his head

and started growling like
I was this wild beast.

He turned around
and looked at me,

and left the studio,

and went on vacation, and
there was a sign that said,

we'll be back.

And he found out when we
were gonna be booked till,

and he was gonna come back.

So what did we do?

We went in,

and he had the most advanced
guitar gear in the world,

so we borrowed it, to use it
on Young, Loud and Snotty.

- I think they got
mixed reviews though.

A lot of critics
just hated punk rock,

so no matter what great
punk record came out,

it would get bad reviews.

♪ I don't need anyone

♪ Don't need no mom and dad

♪ Don't need no pretty face

♪ Don't need no human race

♪ I got some news for you

♪ Don't even need you too

♪ I got my devil machine

♪ Got my electronic dream

♪ Sonic reducer

♪ Ain't no loser

♪ I'm a sonic reducer

♪ Ain't no loser

♪ People out on the streets

♪ They don't know who I am

♪ I watch them from my room

♪ They all just pass me by

♪ But I'm not just anyone

♪ Said I'm not just anyone

- I saw the Dead Boys play,

and I saw Stiv,

curled up in a ball, in
front of the bass drum,

with the mic on the floor,

and I thought it was so cool,

and when I did meet him
about two years later,

I told him the story.

Said it was a great
anti-rock star moment,

it was so punk rock,
it was so cool,

and he was like, well, I took
Quaaludes before the show,

and I passed out and
kind of couldn't sing,

and I couldn't stand up.

So that's why I did
the show laying down.

- I think he had a
hard time finding validation

as a musician before
the Dead Boys.

I think we all did,

all of us in the band.

And it validated him,
and all of a sudden

people were admiring
what he did.

They liked it.

He was getting good
positive response.

People were paying
attention to him.

And I think he found
a validation in it.

And also, it was
really a lot of fun.

My God, we were like
kids in a candy store.

- Yeah Stiv was always so nice,

and so professional,

and seemed to be
very intelligent,

even though they were
doing this crazy, nutty

self-destructive stuff onstage,

I always thought
Stiv was kind of

the brains of the outfit.

- Some of the crazy
times I would say,

would be when Stiv
was on the road,

and starting to get

messed up about us being apart,

and he would phone me

with crazy threats
about being depressed,

and telling me that we climbing

out on the ledge of the hotel,

the window ledge of the hotel,

and then I wouldn't
hear from him,

it was before cell phones,

and there were a few times
that I called Cheetah

at the hotel and asked him

to get him in from
the window ledge.

♪ All my boyhood friends
told me I'd fail ♪

♪ Spend my lifetime
friendless or in jail ♪

♪ And all the girls
at the school dance ♪

♪ Wouldn't give me
a second chance ♪

♪ But I won't look back

♪ But I won't look back

- The second album was weird.

It was just kind of a negative
thing from the get-go.

Felix Pappalardi had
put up kind of a feeler

to Sire Records.

There was no guitars
on the record,

and the more that
Cheetah and I would,

particularly Cheetah,

Cheetah didn't waste any
time protesting that.

And I agreed with him,
he was right, 100%,

and the more he protested,
I think the more

Felix said, screw you,

and got rid of him even more.

- The second album is like a
lot of bands go through this.

They're together
for a year or two,

they write a lot of songs,

and then they put
out the first record,

which is all their best songs.

And then it's like,
the second album

is due a few months later.

What do I do?

What do we do?

And they end up
writing everything,

more hastily and they
don't perform it onstage.

- So they had just finished

their second album, in Miami,

and he was really
distraught, heartbroken.

He said the whole thing
was kind of a heartbreak.

The band was fighting, there
was fighting within the band,

they weren't happy
with the recordings,

and he was actually
kind of considering

leaving at that point.

- We lived in various places,

throughout our relationships.

Stiv would come and
stay with me in Toronto,

when he was not on the road.

We lived at the Chelsea for
about three months, in 1978,

and our neighbors
were Sid and Nancy,

and we did a cable TV show
two weeks before Nancy died.

- We were living on the edge.

We were approaching violence.

We had those knives, we
got one for Sid Vicious.

Those knives, those
double-O-7 knives.

They were big.

Stiv had one, I had one.

I think Blitz may have had one.

Yeah, he was stabbed
really really horribly.

I mean they weren't
expecting him to make it.

In fact, this one
doctor more or less

brought him back from the dead.

And I threw mine
away that night,

because I thought,
who am I kidding?

Walking around the
streets with a knife?

It's gonna end up
being used on me,

so I got rid of it.

- It definitely gave a sense of,

the danger that was coming,

and the increasing
substance, like drug use,

that was also causing chaos
on the lower east side.

- Cheetah was really
really falling,

as a person.

Thank God he got back together,

and picked himself back up,

but he was really doing a lot
of serious heroin, by then.

And, his wrist was broken,

so he couldn't do the
gigs we had lined up.

We went to Keith
Richard's birthday party,

as you have already asked,

and he had broken his
wrist, roller skating.

And he went to the hospital,
Keith gave him his limo

to take him to the hospital.

Best trip the hospital
Cheetah's ever had.

So we got George Cabinus,

who was a guy from
an Akron band,

and we were friends with him,

and he was gonna
fill in for Cheetah,

until Cheetah got better.

We were swamped with people
who wanted to manage us,

and we were in way over our
heads with these people.

We had the guys, Pink Floyd's
attorney was courting us.

It was heavy hitter people.

They thought we were
gonna be the next Stones,

which I could have told
them that we weren't.

But this one guy said,
I will manage you.

I won't give his name.

I will manage you, if
you can tell Cheetah

to just get off the dope.

You'll never make it
with him on the dope.

So Stiv called Cheetah
up on the phone,

and said, you have to choose.

This is what really
happened, I was there.

You have to choose between

heroin and the Dead Boys.

And Cheetah said, fuck you.

Just did.

And that was the end of
the Dead Boys right there.

I knew we couldn't replace him.

♪ I am an evil boy

♪ I am an evil boy

♪ I am an evil boy

♪ I am an evil boy

- It was weird the
way it happened.

Jimmy was still there,

and all of a sudden
Cheetah was gone,

and they've got their little
stripey blazer jackets.

He appreciated
really good poppy,

poppy garage songs
from the 60's.

Like It's Cold Outside,

and all that nuggets
kind of stuff.

That's what he wanted to do,

instead of just being a
straight on punk band, forever.

- That's what the
Dead Boys had been

morphing into.

Stiv was done with punk rock.

He was done,

and he was bored with it.

He didn't like the
way the people looked,

that did it, and he didn't like,

he thought the sound
had been worn out,

and he wanted to go
back to the 60's roots,

and he had a perfect
partner in Frank Secich,

who was a fabulous
songwriter, musician,

from the Youngstown area.

♪ I am an evil boy

- And then it kind of became

a Stiv Bators Dead Boys thing,

and we toured for the
next year like that,

with different
personnel changes.

- So we did a lot of shows,

before we recorded Disconnected,

and most of those shows
were done with Jimmy Zero.

So we toured quite a
bit with that band.

Jimmy left, and
that's when we went

to California to
record Disconnected.

I got this call from him,

and he said, I've
tickets for you,

I want you to come down to LA

to record this new
single that I'm doing.

And that was with Frank Secich,

his friend from Ohio
who was in Blue Ash,

and his friend Eddy Best.

- Eddy, met Jeff Beck.

Loves your guitar playing,

get back out here, Stiv.

- We would rehearse

at a rehearsal studio all night,

usually up until six
o'clock in the morning,

until we felt comfortable.

We didn't do a lot
of these rehearsals.

A lot of the work was
done in the studio.

We had a hell of
a lot of freedom,

that was given to us by
Greg Shaw, at Bump Records.

And we were able to
experiment a lot,

and pretty much do
what we wanted to do.

Not all of us were able
to stand up straight

all the time when
we were doing it,

but it was a hell
of a lot of fun,

and there was a lot of laughter.

- The sessions went
on way too long.

There was a lot
of, me driving Stiv

up to Beverly Glen to score,

and then come back and do

many many many takes of
the same song and stuff.

But it was fun.

- Stiv and Frank, in particular,

were more influenced
by 60's pop music.

They loved Paul Revere
and the Raiders.

Everybody liked the
Raspberries from Ohio.

Frank's band, Blue Ash.

So I think a lot of the
power pop influences

came from 60's pop,

and from early 70's pop.

It wasn't like, oh we're out
to make this big hit album,

or anything like that.

We were just doing
what we were doing,

and it was gonna
produce whatever result

it was gonna produce.

It wasn't like sitting around

and trying to conquer the world.

There was very little talk
about commercial success,

or anything like that,

it was just to
make a great record

that, quite frankly, we liked.

- Well, you know, Stiv
was very ambitious.

He was always trying to
do the best he could do.

He was very serious
about his music,

and all I can say
is, his expectations,

where he expected
it to be the best,

and he expected everybody
to give their best,

and he always did,
and that's why live,

the guy would give out his soul.

He was a great performer,
and he loved music,

and he believed in it.

- So on Disconnected,
he was breaking away

from the Dead Boys,

and he was Stiv, the
solo project, that
was a great record.

And the B-Girls
actually sang backups

on one of the songs,
on that record.

And we were all living
at Stiv's bungalow

at the Tropicana
Hotel at that time.

- When we'd go onstage, he
would take off his sunglasses,

and I realized one night,

that he's completely blind
when he's performing.

He doesn't know what
the hell's going on.

He was knocking into
shit, all over the place.

- You knew that he was one

of the funniest
people in the world,

and did such insane things.

We all saw him car surfing,

which on one hand I
found to be funny,

and on the other hand,
very very frightening.

He did it with me at the wheel,

in a 1969 Cutlass, on
the 405, in Los Angeles.

He climbed out of the
car, and got on top.

And what I found out later,

is he was not only on the roof,

but he had his pants down.

- He's car surfing,

and people are beeping
and everything going by.

I thought, oh my
God, this guy's nuts.

- So he honed in
this telephone voice,

so what he used to do is he'd
call restaurants and whatnot.

- After Sham was splitting up,

Jimmy wanted to
do a solo career,

and the three remaining
members of us said,

let's stick together, we
like playing together but,

we need a good singer.

What were we gonna do?

We couldn't think of
anyone in England,

but the drummer was American,

and he had a contact for Stiv,

and he said, what about Stiv
Bators from the Dead Boys?

I'm sure it's not gonna happen,
but let's give it a try.

Ricky, the drummer,
phoned him up,

and to our total
surprise, he said, yeah!

I've just finished my solo
album, blah blah blah,

bored with America, love
England, I want to come over.

I love Sham 69, let's do it.

So he came over, unexpectedly,
and we formed The Wanderers.

- That's basically how
it all came together.

It worked, and we
decided to go on in.

Stiv had brought over with him,

these tapes.

Now this was the main
concept for the album,

because he was a
very interesting guy,

and lot of his
positive points was,

he was very sussed, and he
had his finger on the pulse,

and he was very interested
in future things,

and he brought over
with him these tapes.

- So you had all
these audio tapes,

and he would get
them mailed over

from this mad guy in Texas.

It could have been
a complete phony.

Apparently he was one of the
aides of President Kennedy,

and his name was Doctor Beater,

and the track on the
Wanderers album, Peter Beater,

is a little double entendre,
because in America,

slang for your dick is a peter.

And peter beater is a
bit like a masturbator.

- I mean one of the
first songs we wrote was.

The subject matter
just flew out,

with the help of these tapes.

- He was over there
doing something,

and I reconnected with him,

and I think he was a little
bit stranded in London.

So by that time,

we had had a little
bit of a success,

and we had our own
place that we lived.

Lee Rocker and I
had a little flat,

and Stiv would stay there,

he couch-surfed a little bit.

I think we had a cot.

- We were hanging out with
The Stray Cats at the time.

The record company has
thrown a big party,

in some big restaurant down
Westborne Grove, I think it was,

and we were invited,
so we went down there,

and the whole thing degenerated

into some massive
great food fight.

And we were ejected
from the restaurant,

never to return again.

So anyway, we were
back in my Jag,

and we were driving
back into London,

and I was talking to
Stiv in the back seat.

I turn around and
Stiv's not there.

What the fuck?

He's flipping climbed
out the window,

and he's on the roof, and
he's flipping body surfing

along Westborne Road
on top of the Jag.

I'm shouting out, you
scratch my fucking Jag,

I'll flipping brake.

- When Stiv first came
over he was all very up

the whole time, you know,
a very positive person,

and then there was one incident

where he couldn't somehow get
his money from the manager,

and Stiv got on a real downer,

and he pulled out all his
remaining money from his pocket,

which was quite a lot of money,

and just was saying, fuck
Tony Goode, and fuck England,

blah blah blah, and
burned his money,

and that's when I saw
like the little bit

of the other side of Stiv,

as I'm sure many
very talented people,

they have problems as well,

and that's when I first
saw that Stiv's got

a little problems
with depression maybe,

and being down.

So he wasn't all this up guy.

- He was living in my house,

and every single day
the phone would ring.

I'd run downstairs,
pick up the phone,

hello, oh it's Brian James,

hello Brian, how are
you, is Stiv there?

Yeah yeah, hold on,
I'll get Stiv here.

Next day, same
thing, same thing,

day after day after day.

When we were recording
The Wanderers album,

Stiv had introduced me to smack.

And we were recording
at Trident Studios,

where Bowie did Ziggy Stardust.

One night I crashed down,
and Stiv woke me up,

and he says, he says Dave,

I think it's time for
you to try some smack.

Oh fuck,

then we went out and
left on an American tour.

And when we got to the
States on this American tour,

Stiv introduced me to

probably New York's
most notorious junkie,

a guy called Spacely.

He was hanging out with
Thunders, and people like that.

And of course Mister Spacely

introduced me to the old needle.

So, I'm not saying anything
against Stiv on that.

I flipping take responsibility
for my own actions,

but anyway, I was now
flipping shooting up,

and flipping drinking,

and flipping
everything to excess.

By the time the tour finished,

I got back home, and I
ended up in isolation ward,

in hospital, people
coming in to see me,

had little white masks,

and flipping gloves.

This is in the days when they

didn't really know
that much about

the different types of
hepatitis and stuff.

- It was a very
brief period in time.

He fell out with
the manager really.

Thinks weren't right with it.

People didn't accept it easily,

but I think it was a sea
change in Stiv's life,

because he came to England,

and he came up with some
very different style lyrics

for that Wanderers album,

that really stand
up the test of time.

- They released
me from hospital,

and Rick Goldstein came over,

and said, it's a shame about
the band isn't it, Dave?

I said, what do you mean?

Dave Tregunna and Stiv have
gone off with Brian James.

There you go fucking,
it all fell into place.

And, at that point, I was
fucking gutted, you know.

- Stiv's lyrics, were really
kind of ahead of their time.

There's a song called,
Open Your Eyes,

which is, the
opening lyrics are.

Now that was written,

in the early 80's,

and 35 years on, it
seems just as relevant,

or even more relevant, today.

- He was a great lyricist,

and he was also a great
borrower of lyrics,

so I only realize lately,

because I had never listened
to the Lords of the New Church,

that a song that I
had written in 1977,

yes 1977, called, The Little
Boy Who Played With Dolls,

that Stiv had
actually taken that,

and many of the
lyrics are the same,

so I was shocked to hear that,

a friend had played it for me.

- When it came to
songwriting credits,

he would steal
songwriting credits,

and you wouldn't know it
until the record was printed,

and it was too late.

- We're part of the Beatles,
we're from London, England.

- They had everything
going for them.

They had the album, they
had the deal, they had

Miles Copeland, who
was backing them,

and everything was
going really well.

The first album, the
whole goth image was,

I think they found it
difficult to live up to,

because none of them were really

came from that goth area at all.

- They succumbed a lot
to 80's cheesiness.

They kind of looked like
they were wearing costumes,

and not clothing.

The production values, the Lords

weren't the only
band guilty of it.

Their production techniques
were very cheesy.

At the time I had
mixed feelings.

I was happy for Stiv,

because he'd worked
so hard to get

that kind of recognition,
that kind of success,

but I was jealous of him, too,

because I was back in Cleveland

struggling with my own
music, and getting nowhere.

And all of a sudden,
I see Stiv on MTV,

so I'm very ambivalent
about him doing this.

On one hand, wow, look it,
there's my friend on MTV.

Look at that.

On the other hand, that
son of a bitch is on MTV.

- To me,

it was Stiv and the guys,

Dead Boys, everybody.

The difference
was, The Dead Boys

were all very fine musicians,

very very very fine musicians.

The Lords were just
typical drummer,

James, he was not
the guitar god.

Cheetah was a guitar god.

So, what do you have?

You have Stiv is
the lead performer,

big voice, bigger
than life persona,

and he was carrying the
show on his shoulders.

- There was one number we
played called, Holy War.

So, all of a sudden in the
middle bit of Holy War,

where Stiv got something,

when the band carried
on this riff, jamming.

Stiv leaps off the stage,

and goes and grabs one of the
people out the wheelchair,

and starts dragging them, and
trying to get them onstage.

And they're kind of
freaking out like this,

and I'm playing
the bass thinking,

Stiv you've really gone too
far this time, you know.

So he manages to
drag this guy up,

who couldn't walk,
onto the stage,

and starts blessing him,

and all of a sudden
the guys gets up

and starts leaping
around like that.

And it had been a big windup,

Stiv had had one of his mates
sitting in a wheelchair,

all through the set, not
tell anything to the band,

and dragged him up to
freak everyone out,

including the rest of the band.

So Stiv had this
brilliant sense of humor.

- Stiv was married to a
lady by the name of Stacy,

who, although she was
an interesting lady,

she was very good for Stiv,

and although there
were issues there,

and particularly at the end,

and I think in a
way, unfortunately,
she broke his heart.

I think that was his
soulmate in many ways,

and I think he lost the focus,

I think he lost
his raison d'etre,

and I think it hurt
him, and after that,

and this is around
Method to the Madness,

the lyrics weren't as focused,

and the sound wasn't as focused,

and he wasn't as passionate
about all this stuff.

- And at that time, Andy
McCoy, from Hanoi Rocks,

had formed a band
called The Cherry Bombs,

and wanted me as bass player.

Stiv was living
with Mike Monroe,

and the two of them
were total movie freaks,

so they would love to
stay up for many days,

helped by substances that
keep you up for many days.

And then they would crash
for, in Mike's case,

probably a day, and
Stiv, five days.

Stiv was in a bad way I thought,

he was really,
didn't seem to care.

He'd lost it, and he was
doing a lot of heavy stuff.

And he said, Dave, I think
you're doing the right thing.

Good luck.

And that was it.

- The first tour I
did with them was the,

promoting the Lords really,

which was like the
compilation of the three,

let's say, a greatest
hits, by any other name,

but like the first three albums.

As I say, massive
tour of the States,

practically sold out
wherever we went.

I mean, fantastic shows.

There'd been some
kind of argument,

and we were all in a van,

sitting outside to
leave this show,

and Stiv was messing around
outside, in his normal fashion,

and the band were
getting pissed off.

Then suddenly he got
on the kind of front,

of the, it's like a mini-van
we were touring around in.

And he was sort of just
jumping about on that,

and I say, I think it might
have been Nick who said,

Stiv get in!

And you just watched, like
he sort of disappeared

for a split second,

his legs went up in the air,

and then he just came crashing
through the windscreen.

And he sort of landed, and
all the glass was all over us.

And it's just that, I was like,

what the fuck?

And then suddenly, it's Stiv
what the fuck are you doing?

He says, oh you guys, I
thought you was in a hurry.

- And Stiv was heading down

unfortunately into
sort of a cul-de-sac,

which was really hard to watch.

Brian had his own
issues, as well,

and the two of them
weren't getting along.

None of us were getting
along, it's the truth.

I mean we were just
self-destructive.

We'd play in LA, and we
wouldn't be very good.

All the press would be there,

MTV would be there, we
weren't great that night,

but boy the next night in
Pomona, we were incredible.

- I hadn't heard
from him in a while,

and I was living in LA,

and I saw in the paper
they were playing

in a couple of bars around LA,

but I noticed one of
them was this truck stop

out towards Riverside,
or Barstow, California.

Just this out of the way
truck stop motel place.

Things weren't going well,

I think the Lords were,

he was getting tired
and burned out on it,

and things weren't going well.

And he didn't seem very happy.

And then I said
Stiv, what's wrong,

how you doing man?

And he basically looked
at me, and he said,

you know, if I had to do this
all over again, I wouldn't.

- Steph,
shock, horror,

I can write.

No, it's not Johnny.

I'll be in the States by
the time you get this.

The Dead boys rise
from the grave.

Halloween's Eve at the
Ritz in New York City.

I may be in Ohio at
my mom and dad's.

You can also track me
through Geoff Jones.

Get me, if you can, Stiv.

- When you had a band
like the Dead Boys,

they're so high energy,

they're so aggressive,

I don't think you can just
pick up your instruments,

and rehearse a few
times and then achieve

what you did

when you were young, loud,
and snotty, you know?

- I think we all wanted
that, to have that,

for the rest of our lives,

what we had in the Dead
Boys, the good parts of it.

We were a gang,

and we wanted that, and we knew

we would never have that again,

because we were too old,
and that was of its time.

But we never stopped wanting
to go back to that time,

and it caused us,

those emotions caused us to
make a lot of bad decisions.

We tried to recapture the past,

and I think he learned,

more than anyone,
that you couldn't.

He was also in a long decline,

that started I think, I
noticed it personally,

when he was in The
Wanderers, before the Lords.

He started a decline,
he started to change,

and by the time
he left the Lords,

when we would go on the road,

it was really depressing for me,

only because I, by
then, really loved him.

And he was kind of like Elvis.

Stiv was worn out.

He was kind of done with
the Lords before he left,

and I think, from
what I've heard,

there were kind
of done with him.

But, he didn't know
what else to do.

- This is Stiv Bators, of
the Lords of the New Church.

I'm here with Brian
James, Danny Fury,

and Dave Tregunna.

- And then when Stiv
and Brian decided that

they wanted to reform the
band, and Nicky, the drummer,

was already in Los Angeles,

and wasn't coming
back to England,

so Dave, you wanna
get back together?

We need a drummer.

And I'd hooked up with Danny.

- And we've recently
reformed the group,

with a new drummer.

- Mister Danny Fury.

- And we're going back
to our original sound.

That's the best thing
to say about the group.

We've gone back to

the original act of the band,

and the original identity.

- Yeah, that was the plan.

And then it all went wrong.

- I remember Brian saying to me,

all right you're in the band,

we're gonna go on
tour very soon.

How many rehearsals do
you need, one or two?

♪ There's no savior out there

♪ There ain't nobody
else who cares ♪

♪ Don't look to me
for absolution ♪

♪ There ain't no
clandestine solution ♪

♪ Life's a crime of passion

♪ Designed for direct action

♪ There ain't no
justice out there ♪

♪ This is the Lord's prayer

♪ Ain't nobody actually cares

♪ This is the Lord's prayer

- Stiv and Brian were the
force behind the music,

and I think they separated.

There might have
been some issues,

with Brian, not wanting Stiv
to do what Stiv was doing,

and Stiv not wanting Brian
to do what Brian was doing,

namely different
kinds of substances,

and I don't think
Brian, or his wife,

warmed to Stiv's girlfriend
at the time, Caroline.

That started to make a rift,

but it was totally exaggerated,

when we had booked a
whole European tour.

Stiv was living in Paris,

and the rest of
us were in London,

and Stiv suddenly
called up and said

that he couldn't do
the gigs of the tour,

he'd hurt his back.

- He was definitely
always going to the limit,

to his limit you know,

sort of giving it his
all, and more you know,

and actually to the point

where he really hurt
himself physically,

just banging himself up onstage.

- Brian came to me and
said, I've spoken to Stiv,

and I'm pissed off with him,

because someone told me
they'd seen him out clubbing,

and he's supposed
to have a bad back,

yet he went out clubbing.

- And apparently
Stiv said to Brian,

I can't do those gigs,

why don't you get someone
else to stand in for me?

And that's what Brian
told me Stiv had told him.

Later on, Stiv denied that.

Stiv said that
Brian had just gone

and advertised for a new singer,

so Brian said to me,

we've got to do these gigs.

Why don't we get a
different singer in?

And I was thinking well,

how are we gonna replace Stiv?

I said, let's at
least give it a try.

Let's go into a rehearsal room,

audition a few people.

So, Brian put this advert out.

- I think Stiv saw that ad,

and got really
really really upset.

- He said to me, Stiv had said,

why don't you go ahead?

Now maybe Stiv was
being sarcastic,

maybe he misunderstood
it, or what.

Anyway, we auditioned
a load of people,

and we thought, no way.

There's no way any of
these live up to Stiv,

we ended up canceling
the bloody tours anyway,

but Stiv had said
he'd do the Astoria.

When we did the Astoria gig,

Stiv didn't turn up for the
sound check or anything,

he just turned up late,

and he said he
was gonna be late,

and he turned up, and he
was quite friendly to us,

didn't give any hint that he
was gonna do what he did do.

- He slipped and put on a
T-shirt with a printed ad on it.

And fucking walked
onstage and walked up.

Name band, singer.

- So I did laugh and just
thought, what a fantastic stunt,

and only Stiv would do that.

Unbelievable.

- And then he just fucked
off right after the gig.

He didn't even go backstage.

He was out of there before
we knew what was going on.

And that was the
end of the Lords.

- I spoke to him a lot the last
couple of years of his life,

like maybe two or
three times a month,

which is a lot, when
he's living in Paris,

and I'm living in Cleveland.

He had changed drastically.

I think he was giving in to
a reality that he was dying,

physically, dying.

I think he was giving
in to a reality that

he wasn't sure if
he had the energy,

or the desire even,
to do another project.

I'm not assuming any of
this, he told me this stuff.

- She tried to get him
to go to the hospital,

because he was hit by a car.

They'd gone out shopping,

and he was hit by
a taxi, I think.

And he just thought he'd had
an out-of-body experience,

and he was gonna be all right.

- I think the
postmortem situation was

that it was internal bleeding,
hemorrhaging, and so on,

and the next thing I know,

I've get me and Jim
at .

- He always had this
dangerous thing about him,

his whole career, the
whole time I knew him,

where he thought that
Jim Morrison dying,

really made Jim
Morrison a bigger,

larger than life legend
than he would have been,

had he lived.

And he would tell
me all the time,

I thought he was joking.

I have to die soon,

so that I can make sure
my legend lives on.

And I would go, yeah sure.

But, I think that part of him
actually did want that, death.

- At the end of the 80's, he
was kind of burned out on life.

He was burning the candle and
both ends for decades now.

That guy did more than most
people would do in 10 lifetimes.

So I think it was
almost inevitable

that something would happen.

He had always pushed
it to the limit,

and then went beyond the limit.

- It was like 50,
60 people waiting,

fans, friends.

Waiting at the columns
by .

When the hearse arrived,

the band, his band, the Lords,
and some friends, six people,

they were goosestepping
the coffin into the room.

I was shocked.

- I remember, as do several
other people I've spoken to,

at some point, when
you're in a van with Stiv,

traveling for miles
and miles on the road,

and Stiv starts chatting to you,

and at one point he says to you,

you know what, I've taken
so many drugs in my life,

I think when I die I
want to be cremated,

and I want you to snort my
ashes, to see if you get high.

So, I can't remember exactly
when he said it to me,

but he definitely said it,

and then after he
died and was cremated,

his wife said, Stiv
wanted people to do this,

and we all said, well
yeah he said that to me,

he said that to me.

So let's snort your
ashes, so we did.

And it hurt like hell.

- Boy it hurt real bad,
that really hurt bad,

because he was cremated
in his leather stuff,

with all his skull jewelry, his
jewelry, his silver jewelry.

So you can only imagine
what we were snorting,

it really did hurt
for some hours.

- So Steven J Bator, Junior,

the most infuriating,
impossible, frustrating,

little evil weasel
I've ever come across.

I miss him every day.

- Stiv to me, I loved
the mystery of Stiv.

That dichotomy of
characters between

the little prick
and the fascinating,

intelligent, guy he could be,

or the daredevil Stiv.

- If he was like he was
onstage, all the time,

he wouldn't have lived
to be 18 years old.

He was very different
than people think he was.

He was nice.

I think as front man
he had the kind of,

genuine, do what it takes,
go for it, kind of thing.

He would hang himself,

he would crawl
into the bass drum,

he really had the
reckless abandon

of a true front man.

- He was really really
entertaining to watch,

and I think like,

other than maybe
a few other guys,

like Iggy Pop, and maybe Alice,

and guys he looked up to,

he was definitely up
there with those guys.

He was unbelievable to watch.

- I think he was a truly
touching and legendary person,

who like a very small
group of people,

from that space and time,

gave everything that they
had to rock and roll,

were the spirit
of rock and roll,

understood the spirit
of rock and roll,

and we're not gonna find,

there's gonna be no
more Stivs, that was it,

he was a one off, and an
absolutely joyous creature,

and I'm very glad that I had
the opportunity to meet him.

- Stiv used to go on
about conspiracy theories,

and this idea that three men
controlled the whole world,

and that corporations

were really in charge,
not politicians.

And you can go back and listen
to some of his interviews,

where he talked about this,

and we all rolled
our eyes at the time,

and now we know that
it's actually true.

- A real prankster,

and a real, like a permanent
juvenile delinquent.

If he was alive today,

he'd be like a 70-year-old
juvenile delinquent.

- And I think had
he lived today,

he'd be one of those
forefathers of punk,

and maybe have more
respect than he did.

- And Stiv was very unique,

he was,

I'm sure a lot of people
who don't know the guy,

would think he's just whatever.

But he's a real sensitive guy,

and he was really
pretty special.

- The nicest,
sweetest guy, really.

As I say, lunatic nonetheless.

When I got to play with
him and tour with him

and travel with him,
that revealed itself,

on a daily basis.

- I believe in what I'm doing.

I always have.

And when there's no compromise,

there'll be no regrets.

♪ Baby baby I need you so bad

♪ I need something that
I never had before ♪

♪ I've been lonely from
the time I was small ♪

♪ Now it's time for me to
walk through the wall ♪

♪ Help me find a way

♪ Help me find a way

♪ Help me find a way

♪ To be with you to hold you

♪ To love you

♪ Become you to kiss
you to love you ♪

♪ To love you to hold you

♪ To love you

♪ Baby baby I want you so much

♪ You've got something
that I couldn't touch ♪

♪ Before I was looking
and I answered your call ♪

♪ Now it's time for
me to walk it all ♪

♪ Help me find a way

♪ Help me find a way

♪ Help me find a way

♪ To feel you to hold you

♪ To love you

♪ To touch you to kiss you

♪ To love you

♪ To love you to hold you

♪ To love you

♪ I can see a laser
that's shining brightly ♪

♪ Can I even know
what I need to be ♪

♪ I only knew that you're the
chance that I've been given ♪

♪ Baby I'm yours and I won't
stop thinking about you ♪

♪ Do you remember those days

♪ When we were teenagers

♪ And got high on toxic
fluids and flavors ♪

♪ Life was exciting while
listening to dirty rock'n'roll ♪

♪ Even when we were kids, it
was all about losing control ♪

♪ Life takes you down

♪ Life takes you down

♪ When all we
wanted to get high ♪

♪ Born with an

♪ A creature of the night

♪ Forever turn a revolution

♪ He shivered of the fight

♪ Stood up and lean
into the studio ♪

♪ Then conquered London town

- New Orleans,

that's where I'm from.