Carolina Rebellion

I attended the final Carolina Rebellion music festival at the NASCAR fairground in Charlotte, May, 2018. In future years it would be renamed the Epicenter festival. I was there to see Queens of the Stone Age but caught the other acts performing that evening. The lineup struck me as odd. Carolina Rebellion is supposed to be a metal festival but the headliners were Billy Idol (new wave), Incubus (nu metal), Muse (prog) and Queens of the Stone Age (hard rock). Which probably explained that while we were coming in to see the headliners, the true metal fans were all streaming out of the venue.

I entered the raceway fairgrounds in time to catch the second half of Billy Idol’s set. He, of course, made clear and obvious reference to his song Rebel Yell. The crowd appeared to be mostly generation X. Idol was having a grand time. His shirt was off, his lips jutted and his, doubtless dyed hair, spiked. The 80s keyboards were gone, replaced by gnarly guitars as Idol strutted up and down the stage like a rooster. I don’t think he took himself too seriously.

After his set ended, we skipped Incubus and went after food and drink. Afterwards, my wife and I setup for Queens at an empty stage on the far side of the fairgrounds. The crowd started to fill in well before Incubus was over. We spent our time checking out the outrageous outfits.Most of the people wore boring black t-shirts and shorts. A few had on scary masks. Some of the girls wore barely anything; fishnets and electrical tape.

The crowd ages appeared mixed, gen-X and millennial with a few boomers. There was a definite white trashy vibe going on but I couldn’t tell if it was legit. A Bud Light ad came on the overhead and the crowd loudly shouted “dilly, dilly!” at the screen. I was struck at how easy it is to get supposed rebels to yell nonsense memes.

As the sun set, the mood changed. I picked up on a familiar energy in the crowd. People were sizing me up. It reminded me of metal shows of the late 90’s. At dark, Queens came out on stage. and the crowd exploded into chaos. The young people decided to act like it was the 90s they’d missed.

Because the bands only get a hour to perform they truncate their sets and play only their hardest material. A mosh pit quickly formed around me. I planted my legs and people behind me put their hands on my shoulders to use me as a protective firewall.
Every couple of songs I’d get pushed closer to the stage. There were people, of all genders, crowd surfing. Suddenly, a girl fell from the sky onto the back of my neck. I went almost to the ground before zombie hands came out the darkness to pull us back up

The music blared so loud it warped time and space and the stage cameras lost focus with every downbeat. The band played with passion and vigor, letting us up for breath only for one slow number in the middle of the set. Josh Homme addressed the crowd and commended us on being individuals who didn’t need anyone to tell us what to do. I almost yelled, “dilly, dilly” in response.

Then it all ended. The lights came up and the crowd left the field full of human detritus; plastic cups, empty cartons and an amazing amount of clothing. The band had played thirteen songs in an hour. It felt too short but we really couldn’t have taken much more. The crowd was beat-up and smiling. The euphoria of survival without major injury.

We made our way over to see Muse, who had already started their set. We spread out a blanket on the lawn and I took my shoes off. Muse had a much better video system setup that made use of complex CG geometry. After a couple of songs to recover our sanity, we got up and made our way forward.

Muse played to the crowd. There wasn’t a single second of silence in the set. All the songs ended with guitar segues. Most of the transitions were metals riffs from 80s hair bands. Matt Bellamy white-trashing his prog-rock credentials just for us. While Muse had a keyboardist on stage, the camera rarely focused on him. The band had an hour to play and they dropped their pop radio hits, favoring guitar rock instead. Some redneck threw something on stage, hitting Bellamy. He just kept playing like nothing happened.

Bellamy’s anti-authoritarian messages were thrown up on the screens in single word bursts to ensure his message got through to the festival crowd. They even used surprising gimmicks to keep the crowd involved by variously dropping balloons, streamers or confetti.

Most of the way through the set, Bellamy kicked over his amp and used his guitar like an axe until it splintered into little matchboxes. I wasn’t expecting the math-nerd rocker to be so rock-godish. Afterwards, I found out he has a world record in guitar destruction. I couldn’t help but think he was playing his part in our shared commitment to being white trash for the evening.

So the night ended. A night without obvious irony from the crowd or the bands. I had fun, no one got obviously hurt. But In the morning, I felt like I’d survived a car wreck.

Michael Knott’s Punk Ethos

The story of Michael Knott is hard to verify and even harder to believe. On the one hand, he fronted a Christian rock band, ran a Christian music label, led a Bible study and lived life as a family man. At the same time, Knott fronted an infamous rock group, co-founded a band with the guitarist of Social Distortion, recorded with Slash and partied like no one else. Along the way there were arrests, addictions and deaths.

I live on the wrong coast to truly follow Knott. We met once after he played a show in my hometown. I grew up listening to his music while living a sheltered, suburban life. Knott’s music both confused and fascinated me. So much so that I’m still listening decades later. There are mistakes and errors in the history I present here. Many of the events took place pre-internet or were only written about in underground magazines. The craziest parts are true.

Michael Knott was born in the mid 1960s in southern California. By the early 1980s, he’d started playing with an evangelical surf rock/punk band, The Lifesavors. At his first church gig, Knott “danced around a little bit on stage and they banned us from every Calvary.”1 It was around this time that Knott formed his first secular band, Idle Lovell. The band started playing LA clubs and sending out demos. Knott’s performances were over the top. He “would cover himself in funky liquids such as tomato sauce or clam chowder while tearing unsuspecting teddy bears to shreds.”

It was during this period that Knott moved to a flop house on the Sunset Strip with Lifesavors’ guitarist, Brian Doidge. To pay his rent, Knott would perform odd tricks. “‘I got a hundred dollars to do a naked swan dive off the Balboa pier in December. It would have been easier if I hadn’t eaten three Burger King double cheeseburgers before I did it.’ Other tricks from this period include “running naked through a place called Rattlesnake Canyon, carrying a pair of panties in his mouth all day that had been found on the ground and doing dangerous acrobatics on the ledge of his apartment building. One time, Knott even went to Orange County’s busiest intersection in his underwear and started running around in circles with a surfboard yelling, ‘Surf’s Up! Surf’s Up!’, for which he was chased by a cop and his police hound. ‘I’m glad I got away, because I couldn’t imagine going to jail in my underwear.’”2

In 1986, Knott took over as front man of The Lifesavors and changed their name to Lifesavers. The band released a mellow evangelical surf record, Kiss of Life. Knott later shared how, “I got popped for too many Vespa scooter tickets. I got three months of Cal-trans or trash pick up with a bright vest on the 405. The driver was out of the car, and some smart-a changed the driver’s radio station with a spin on the nob. All of the sudden, it was me singing this song on the Christian station and some one said — after they heard it was the Lifesavers and a Christian station: ‘What the hell is this crap?’”3

1987 was a transformative year for Knott. He created a major controversy with the Christian market and saw his first secular success. First, he changed the name of Lifesavers to Lifesavers Underground (L.S.U. or L.S. Underground) and released the record Shaded Pain. Instead of the sunny pop of the Lifesavers, fans were greeted with a dark exploration of pain. Allmusic gave the record 4/5 stars and mentioned that many copies of the record were returned by outraged listeners. “Shaded Pain recalls the same sort of hollow, threatening darkness conjured by artists like Bauhaus and Nick Cave. Knott sings like a man possessed. There is no absolution on Shaded Pain, just endless emptiness.”4 This was the second time Knott would nearly destroy his Christian music career.

Doidge said of Shaded Pain that, “[w]e were to talk about the real issues Christians were dealing with, that normal people deal with, like relationships. [B]ut nobody liked it ya know? They wanted the Dream Life stuff that we had done but I hated that record. After that we just kind of said ‘whatever’ and we played where we could, but there weren’t a lot of places to play. I think after Shaded Pain people basically thought we had lost our minds.”5

Knott reflected that “[w]hen Shaded Pain came out, I was basically banned from playing many churches for two years. They were too taken back by the darker tone of the album. During that time I just did the Bomb Bay Babies instead.” The Bomb Bay Babies mixed glam and punk rock long before that became vogue. They performed in popular Hollywood clubs. According to Knott, “We actually almost signed to Capitol, and we did sign a publishing deal with Windswept Pacific.”6

1987 also saw a really funny release by Knott under the moniker Michael Moret. He released a one off techno single, | Want Me. The track became an international hit and he was offered a contract to record a full album. Knott reportedly burned every copy of the single he could get his hands on. By 1989, Knott and the Bomb Bay Babies had failed to reach broader success and Shaded Pain had destroyed L.S.U.’s ability to get signed to a Christian label. Knott’s response was to form his own label, Blonde Vinyl, the first independent alternative Christian record label. In his personal life, Knott moved back to Orange County, attended Calvary church and got married. He would soon after have a daughter, who shows up in several of his later songs.

For the first couple of years of the 90s, Knott focused on running Blonde Vinyl records. During this period, the label would release over 30 albums in various genres from punk, grunge, rock to industrial. In 1992, L.S.U. released The Grape Prophet, Knott’s first rock opera. Allmusic gave the record 4.5/5 stars. saying, “[e]ssentially a small-scale rock opera about the cultish practices of a bizarre Christian sect. Knott exposes the menacing heart of darkness lurking beneath the veneer of faith. Assuming the role of the Angel of Death, he points the way toward a shadowy end.”7

Facing more controversy, Knott explained the basis for the story. “About two years ago a group led by Bob Jones, an older gentleman from Kansas City, came out and visited the Vineyard Churches in Anaheim. I was leading a Bible study, and it was doing pretty well. We had a lot of young bands, and a lot of young people, so we basically worshipped for thirty minutes and then had about a thirty minute study. One night the people in the group suggested we go see Bob Jones at the Vineyard. According to what they had heard, he [Jones] was a prophet of God with some great things to say. Anyway, Jones comes up and starts to prophesy about how he had predicted what would happen to Jimmy Swaggart, and claimed that this was proof his prophecies were valid.” Over half of the bible study decided to leave and follow the “K.C. Prophet.”8

By 1993, Knott was still getting pushback from many in the Christian music business. Asked about his song “Radio Satan,” Knott said, “[I]t’s about a Christian rock radio disk jockey that caused me some problems. And, you know . . . Radio Satan / Radio Lies / You’re wearing your halo’s way up high / You’re praying to Jesus to save my life / Radio Satan / Radio Lies. It’s just strictly mocking this person who thinks that they’re the hand of God in a sense. And judging me and I’m joking around and calling him Satan.”9

In 1993, Blonde Vinyl went under for various reasons including the bankruptcy of their distributor. One can assume those reasons also included financial mismanagement. Around this time, Knott started recording in Gene Eugene’s Green Room studio. Eugene fronted the Christian alternative band Adam Again and co-ran a Christian music label. It seems likely that a lot of the albums Knott recorded were underwritten by free studio time at the Green Room. A debt Knott would find a way to pay later.

In 1994, L.S.U. released the more mainstream rock Grace Shaker. Most of the band that recorded the album would go on to form the secular band Aunt Bettys Ford. Allmusic gave the record 2/5 stars, stating that, “After a series of financial windfalls and failed label ventures, Michael Knott, something of a cult icon, returned to Alarma Records, who had released Shaded Pain seven years previous. Rumors had begun circulating about Knott’s struggles with alcohol addiction, and Grace Shaker did nothing to quell them. A record soaked in booze and smelling of stale cigarettes, Grace Shaker documents a back-and-forth struggle with substance abuse, ping-ponging endlessly between sin and redemption.”10

Also in 1994, Knott released his most well regarded solo album, Rocket and a Bomb. The record heavily featured Gene Eugene. Differing in tone both musically and lyrically from all of his previous work, Rocket and a Bomb is what would now be considered alt-country. AllMusic gave the record 4/5 stars, saying that, “Rocket and a Bomb is collection of 11 tales about the eccentric individuals with whom Knott shared an apartment complex in California. There’s ‘Bubbles,’ a despondent drug addict who is abducted and raped on the very night he decides to clean up his life. Most famously, there’s Kitty Courtesy, who may or may not have killed her husband and boiled his remains for dinner. Rather than use these characters as an object for scorn, Knott treats them with genuine respect. Witness the tender treatment he gives ‘John Barrymore Jr.,’ a delusional old man convinced he’s the son of acting great John Barrymore.”11

According to Knott, the album retold stories from when he lived in LA. “I was living on Sunset and Fairfax in an old rundown apartment complex and those were all people that lived there, in that complex [like] Kitty Courtesy. It’s true as far as I know. Her husband disappeared, and she was cooking something and she’d never let us know, and, I mean, it smelled like cooking human remains or something, and eventually she lost her mind and became a street person, and we finally saw her pushing her cart down the street. Well, that’s Hollywood for you.”9

1995 was a busy year for Knott. He released two solo records, and album with L.S.U. and busied himself playing shows with his new secular band, the Aunt Bettys Ford. The band was named after the Betty Ford Clinic, which would turn out to be apropos. According to Doidge, “Michael and I started talking about getting a record deal, another secular type deal. So, Michael got a drummer, and I put an ad out and went through a ton of guitarists until we found Andrew Carter and we started Aunt Betty’s Ford.”5

Knott’s aggressive acoustic solo record, Strip Cycle is the best regarded of his solo records from this year. Recorded for Tooth and Nail records, AllMusic gave the album 4/5 stars saying, Knott “sings about junkie rock stars and deranged girlfriends in a direct, plainspoken manner that belies the lunacy of his subject matter. ‘Tattoo,’ the record’s strongest song, seems to tell of a prostitution ring gone awry. Strip Cycle also finds Knott speaking candidly about two intensely personal subjects: his dire financial straits and his constant battle with alcoholism. Also stirring is the album-ending ‘Denial.’ Its chorus is grim and unrepentant: ‘I feel free with God and a bottle in me.’”12

Christian magazine True Tunes News reviewed Strip Cycle by pointing out all the dark humor on the record. ‘‘Sugar Mama,’ the story of a once hard-luck friend [Brian Doidge] now enjoying his life as a kept man, contains what will surely and proudly go down as one of the most poorly executed trumpet solos ever recorded. On the sadly funny ‘Bad Check,’ Knott sings, ‘Wrote a bad check to the government/Wrote a bad check to my parents/Wrote a bad check to this cello player/She didn’t know it at the time, ’cause I’m singin’ it later,. . . ‘Sometimes I wish those shiny red lights on cop cars were just big bright cherries/I wanna bowl/I wanna knock down some pins.’”

In reviewing the song, ”Rockstars on H”, True Tunes says, “Sesame Street lesson for today: H is for Heroin. Knott wheezes anemically such phrases as ‘they were cool when they were poor/now they’re just rich spoiled druggies on ho’es,’ and ‘they’re so wasted they can’t play at all.’”13 Given twenty five years of space, many of these lyrics sound autobiographical.

Also in 1995, two records canned in 1993 finally saw the light of day. Gene Eugue’s record label released a post-punk album recorded by Lifesavers (not L.S.U.), Hungtington Beach (no rating, Allmusic). The album, co-written by Brian Doidge, contains some of the wildest lyrics ever distributed to the Christian market. The album documents police harassment, misogyny, child sex abuse, drugs and violence. From “Huntington Beach Police”: “Huntington Beach police force, grabbing my groin again.” And from “The Day Elvis Died,” “she left me when I was just a kid/she hit me with a rigid fist. . . mum and dad had me on a vacation. . . she hooked up with some high-schooler guys/I guess it was fun getting free beach rides.”

Fluid was Knott’s second solo record, recorded in 1993 but released as his third solo record in 1995. Fluid (1.5/5 Allmusic) is a concept record that details how Knott’s friend, absolutely not Brian Doidge, broke up with a woman who, in a state of shock, stole his car and wrecked it at high speed. The woman survived the crash but was left in a coma. The album details how God and the devil fought over her soul.

At the same time he was releasing records for the Christian market, Knott’s secular band, Aunt Betty’s Ford, was making a huge impression in Hollywood clubs. Knott started negotiating with Island records for a two record deal. London records then flew Knott to New York to make him an offer. As one insider put it, “The Aunt Betty’s Ford sets have stressed material contained on the group’s nine song demo, which has been making rounds within the industry. The Jekyll and Hyde shock of ‘Jesus,’ the surf-punk shake of ‘Cruel,’ and the angst-driven railing of ‘Widget Man,’ combined with Knott’s totally over the top stage presence, have left all but the most jaded label reps completely floored.”14

As Doidge explained, “we just started playing teasers until we became teaser favorites and all of a sudden we had a record deal. I mean, it sounds like it was easy, but looking back on it, it was kind of like once that was what we decided to do, we did it, and we ended up with a record deal. It was kind of strange, it was surreal, it was a really weird time.”5

Knott added, “Aunt Bettys was received very well in the general market. The punk community actually embraced us, so we did shows with bands like Voodoo Glow Skulls and the Aquabats on one week, and Fastball and Kenny Wayne Shepherd the next. There was a lot of diversity in our fan base.”6 Aunt Bettys Ford was forced to change their name after a legal threat from Ford Motor Co to the Aunt Bettys.

The newly named band rerecorded the title track from Rocket and a Bomb. A review of the demo included this caution, “[f]ans of the [Christian music] version may be taken aback by the song’s big finish, which rides out over a moving Carter guitar solo as the vocalists repeats a four letter expression of disappointment over and over and over again [Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!].14

Elektra made a last minute offer and Knott signed with them. The contract gave him control of the recording budget and production. He recorded the album at the Green Room and co-produced the record with Gene Eugene. Thus, Knott was able to pay his debts with the Green Room. This also meant no one at Elektra had any skin the game if the record didn’t sell. Seizing control of the musical direction of the band was the punk rock thing to do but maybe not the wisest business decision.

1996 was supposed to be the year Knott finally broke free into the mainstream. The inside of the CD art showed Jesus working as a bar tender which could have been a metaphor for Knott. The lyrics were punk but the music was not grudge or glam, mostly just rock. It’s hard to see how it would fit on mid-90’s radio. No one in the Christian or secular press reviewed it

The first song on the record, “Jesus,” starts off acoustic, “Jesus, won’t you help me find my way/won’t you send me some money in the mail,” before slamming the listener with angry guitars and screaming, “I’m gettin’ sick. . . gettin’ tired/gettin’ fired. . . I’m gettin’ out.” Asked about the song, Knott says, ”[t]he song gets violent at times but that’s what life is like. The song is not anti-religious. I believe in God, but my life has gotten screwed up somehow, and no matter what I believe, this is how it feels.”2

The lyrics push boundaries, even secular ones. The song “Feel” is about being willing to have a sex change to keep a lover. “Addict” is about drugs, of course. It includes the bridge lyrics “paying off the pigs with kisses.” “Speeder Mode” is about a crazy girlfriend he can’t keep up with. “Suicide Sex Doll,” is about a vet’s sexual preferences. “Little Fighter” is about a an insane punk girl, “there’s a great big mouth, a great big lie/there’s a handful of this, a throatful of that, and she gets it done, it’s a bloody mess.” It’s hard to imagine who the market for this album could have been.

An underground zine, Hypno, claimed that the songs came out of hanging out at “a small dive bar called the Helm located right in the heart of Orange County. The majority of Aunt Bettys’ songs involve true stories that happened here. For example, ‘The Lush’ was written after a gorgeous girl took Knott’s friend [“friend”?] home from the bar, and when she took off her clothes, it was discovered that she was entirely covered in tattoos. She proceeded to tie Knott’s friend down, beating him with a whip and going crazy. When she mellowed out, all she said was, ‘I’m the lush.’

‘Star Baby’ is about a gorgeous girl who came into the bar, and said her father had been abducted by an alien, while her mother had been impregnated by a cute Martian. The girl said she had received a transmission from outer space during dinner. Her command was to kill a rock singer. Knott comments, ‘and of course, everyone in the band pointed at me.’”2

The record, while a lot of fun, is offensive to just about everyone not currently involved in their local party scene. If press bothered to mentioned the album, they panned it. Knott had this to say about the reaction, “when we finished the Aunt Betty’s Ford record, Christian stores said they’d never ever carry it, and then the head of product at Elektra/Warner Brothers found out what my past was like and she said if they ever find out, and they will, that you were in these bands, then you can kiss your career goodbye!”9 Knott would later add, “Elektra was definitely unhappy that I had a history in the Christian market. In response, they would often twist my lyrics and ideas out-of-context in marketing materials to build up the darker elements of the album.”

The Aunt Betty’s debut immediately flopped. Allmusic gave the record 2.5/5 but didn’t write a review. Knott negotiated a release from their two record contract that, can be assumed, paid off their debts and left them with some cash. Knott wondered “[w]ould Elektra have done another album? It’s hard to tell because they didn’t do much with the first album. We actually negotiated out of our contract. We did so because there were lots of labels still into us. Island, Revolution, Silvertone, and a few others all talked to us, but only one label — a BMG joint venture — put down an offer. It was nowhere near what the Elektra deal was, but it wasn’t like we actually got what Elektra promised us either. We sat on the new offer for a while as we made the rounds with the different labels. Ultimately, I wanted to go with it, but the rest of the band wanted to quit.”6

Doidge later told the story of the Bettys as he experienced it. “I was never really sure what all the circumstances were about why we left the label because I was really a little too out of it most of the time to know, or even care. I just remember playing some shows, and then I don’t remember playing some shows. I think I probably played most of the last Aunt Betty’s shows in a blackout. So, the band was in the process of leaving that label, and Mike decided that it was probably time for us to part ways, which was understandable considering what a mess I was.”5

In 1997. the Aunt Bettys assembled a collection of demos that would be eventually released as their second album. In July, the band broke up. According to BAM Magazine, “About seven different major labels have been eyeing Knott ever since the Aunt Bettys left Elektra, but all were wary of signing a band that didn’t make much of themselves the first time out. Several suggested a name change would be in order. Others hinted that if Knott went solo, they could talk contracts. At that time, though, the Aunt Bettys were a solid unit and would hear no talk of dissolving. Now that it’s a moot point, the A&R folk get an opportunity to gush over Knott’s 20 to 30 ‘tamer’ new songs, which sound like early Beatles meets the Wallflowers meets Third Eye Blind. Knott explains it like this: ‘You could say Mike Knott has sold out one thousand percent, and he’s going to be the male Sheryl Crow. Cutting edge stuff just isn’t the way to go when you have a wife and daughter to support.’”15

In September 1997, Knott played a solo show at a dive bar in Costa Mesa, CA called the Stag. “According to Knott, the evening’s set marked the end of his attempts to break into the mainstream as a rocker. ‘This was the last hurrah. From here on out, everything’s going to be “Crash Into me,” referring to the mellow, singer-songwriter approach of the song by The Dave Mathews Band.’”16

In 1998, Knott released the collection of unused Aunt Bettys demos as Ford Supersonic (4/5 Allmusic). The album opened with the song “Getting Normal,” with the chorus “I used to dive so high/now i’m just lucky gettin’ in the middle of a lie.” The record was released on a Christian label. Although full of drug references, the Christian press gave it glowing reviews. They either didn’t get the references or didn’t care. Knott also finally released the Bomb Bay Babies demos recorded a decade earlier as Bomb Bay Babies Volume 1 (no Allmusic review). Songs from the Bomb Bay Babies would be used that year in two movies, the TV shows JAG and Days of Our Lives and several ESPN commericals. Songs from Aunt Bettys and Strip Cycle would also end up being used in a couple of movies.

Later in the year, L.S.U. released another concept record, Dogfish Jones (4/5, Allmusic). Knott’s father is featured on the record and he searched around to buy a copy of it. As Knott related the story, “he’s so excited to go get this record, and so he went to, I think, five or six bookstores in Orange County. `Christian’ bookstores and not one bookstore had it. And you know what they said to my dad? `Well, Mike Knott’s not a Christian. Of course we wouldn’t carry that.’”1

In 1999, Knott helped form Strung Gurus with the founding guitarist of Social Distortion, Dennis Donnell. According to an April article in Mean Street Magazine, Strung Gurus “have already finished six songs. Danell remarks, ‘With Strung Gurus, we took on the difficult task of writing songs that don’t sound like anyone else and lyrics that make people really think about life. We wanted to stretch ourselves with songs that are catchy but that also transcend what’s happening on the pop charts.’ To put their sound in a general ballpark, one might say Bob Dylan meets the Violent Femmes meets the Smashing Pumpkins-but no real comparison can be made.”17 The Strung Gurus garnered early success with KRAQ who made their single “Sun-Eyed Girl,” their “Catch of the Day.”

Around the same time, Knott also helped form the Christian band Cush with members of the Prayer Chain. He then went on a solo tour with old friend Gene Eugene. “I really enjoyed the shows we did together in New York and Oregon. He was backing me on the piano, and I would sing away. We were like a classic piano duo in a hotel bar.”6

Life was looking up for Knott at the start of 2000. “The Strung Gurus’ debut, to be the second release on Masterpiece Records, neared completion, with an expected release in late May. In an interview for the Strung Gurus promotional bio, Danell had said, ‘I am very excited about Strung Gurus because the music is high energy and commercial, but it does not sound like Social Distortion.’ Rough mixes of four Strung Gurus songs were already in limited circulation and had started a buzz among fans and local journalists impressed with Danell’s versatility and writing abilities.”18

Then tragedy struck. On February 29, 2000, Dennis Danell died at his home of an aneurysm at the age of 38. “Members of Cush and Aunt Bettys joined Knott on stage for a Dennis Danell benefit concert at Verizon Wireless with a line-up that also included Pennywise, Offspring, X and Social Distortion.”19 Then tragedy struck again. On March 20, 2000, Gene Eugene died at the Green Room from unknown causes. He was also 38. Knott would later join surviving members of Adam Again on stage for a tribute concert.

Cush would release their indie Christian alternative record in the spring (no Allmusic review). Later in the year, Marathon records would release a live record of Knott and Eugene from their tour the previous year, Live in Nash-Vegas (no Allmusic review). They would also release a Michael Knott collection, Things I’ve Done, Things to Come (3/5 Allmusic) which showcased tracks from the Strung Gurus, Aunt Bettys, Cush and Knott’s solo career. In 2001, Metro One released a solo record by Michael Knott, Life of David (3/5 Allmusic). The record is more religious and mellow than most of his previous work. It ends with the haunting song “Hospital,” “I think I need forgiveness/I think I need more than the rest/I think I need just not to know/I think I need a hospital.”

In 2002, a documentary film maker asked Knott to try out as lead singer for a band he was filming. That band would later turn into Velvet Revolver. Knott recorded 3 vocals for three demo songs laid down by Slash, McKagan and Sorum. The (then) former Guns N’ Roses members would go on to pick Scott Weiland as their vocalist. Knott eventually posted the songs on MySpace. Later in 2002, Northern Records released another Knott solo record, Hearts of Care (1.5/5 Allmusic), an Americana record. The first song on the record, “Detox Radio Station,” documented how Knott locked himself in the Green Room for two days until he detoxed from alcohol addiction. This would be the last record Knott would ever release for a label.

In the years since 2002, Knott has released several records independently. He has mostly focused on his own painting and being the curator for an art gallery. Brian Doidge ended up homeless. He eventually went to rehab, moved into a sober house and, after a decade, reconnected with Knott. They occasionally record together.

The 1990s were an incredibly epic time for Michael Knott. He released 5 L.S.U. albums, 4 solo, 2 Lifesavers, 2 Aunt Bettys, 2 collaboration and 2 collection records. He also released an album’s worth of singles and one off’s, performed on 11 records by other artists, produced 5 artists and ran a record label. Few musicians have ever had as creative a decade yet remained stuck in both poverty and obscurity.

Asked to reflect on his days with the Aunt Bettys, Knott said that “I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I have sad, sad times, good, good times, times where I’m extremely confused. Basically, I’m a human being and I believe in Christ, period. It doesn’t make my life rosy, it doesn’t make my life terrible, it doesn’t do anything with that.”1

The Aunt Bettys released a song on their second record called “Movie Star,” with the lyrics, “you still are my movie star/driving way too fast and didn’t get too far.” I’ve always wondered what could have been with Knott. He came so close so many times. He had so many second chances and he destroyed his fan base so many times. I came to appreciate Knott’s life in the 90s as an act of self-destructive avant-garde performance art. He always gave every audience exactly what they wanted: something to be outraged by. He chose his friends over success and he never compromised his art. Even when he was wrong. He didn’t always play punk rock but he lived the ethos.

References

1-Van Pelt, Doug, Johnston, “Michael Knott,” HM, 2003
2-Lorio, Jeff, “Aunt Bettys interview,” Hypno magazine, 1996
3-“Lifesavers/Kiss of Life,” Knottheads on H
4-Keyes, J. Edward, “Shaded Pain,” Allmusic
5-Ruff, Steve, “Brian Doidge: In His First Interview Ever,” Down the Line Magazine, 20 JAN 2009
6-Buchanon, Timothy, “Interview- A One Man Industry; From Bomb Bay Babies to Strung Gurus…,” True Tunes News, 2000
7-Keyes, J. Edward,”Grape Prophet,”
8-Lucchi, Michael, “K.C. themes fill L.S.U. album,” KCS Christian Arts and Entertainment Guide, 25 AUG 1992
9-DJ Anderson, “The 120-Minute Power Hour,” radio transcript, NOV, 1999
10-Keyes, J. Edward, “Grace Shaker,” Allmusic
11-Keyes, J. Edward, “Rocket and a Bomb,” Allmusic
12 — Keyes, J. Edward, “Strip Cylce,” Allmusic
13-“Michael Knott’s Strip Cycle,” True Tunes News, 1995
14-Elbel, Jeff, “Aunt Bettys’’95 Demo,” The Garlic Press, DEC 1995 Aunt Bettys’ original
15-Michael Knott concert review, BAM Magazine, Issue 513, 11 JUL 1997
16-Elbel, Jeff, “Concert Review: Mike Knott solo The Stag 19th September 10, 1997.”
17 “Strung Gurus,” Mean Street Magazine, 08 April, 1999
18-Jenison, David,“Social Distortion Guitarist Dies,” E! News, 01 MAR, 2000
19-“Mike Knott,” Revolvy.com