Blonde Benny
& Kill City

All right, blonde Benny. Why was I blonde? I was too busy trying to be Randy Rampage and Eddie Van Halen all at the same time.

It’s around 1982, and you can see there’s a girl teasing my hair for a show we’re about to do. Her name was Joan Stevens, and she was from a band called the Wrecks, and her friend Bessie Oakley, and her other friend Terry, who I was hanging out with at the time—fun for me—and just had a blast.

I think it was a gig that East Van Halen was playing with the Wrecks, probably at the Smilin’ Buddha. The performance that you see there, though, is with a band called Kill City, which was Ron Reyes from Black Flag. He was there, and Stevie was from I, Braineater [reference uncertain], and his partner Jim Cummins—the legendary Jim Cummins.

And we just had fun. It was called, like, a—it’s called, like, a screw-around band. Trying to keep the swearing—just replace “screw” with an F. You know what I’m talking about.

It was basically people who liked to play together got together, and we put together these short-term bands and had a bunch of fun. But we definitely had a great time partying with the Wrecks, and that’s how we got the picture of Joan teasing my hair—and who knows what else came after that. But certainly a fun time. I think that’s why you have fifteen. Enjoy.

Transcript lightly edited for readability. One archival reference remains marked for future verification.