Bad Brains: A Band in DC (2012) - full transcript

Bad Brains! Bad Brains!

Bad Brains! Bad Brains!

Bad Brains! Bad Brains!

Bad Brains! Bad Brains!

Bad Brains! Bad Brains!

Bad Brains! Bad Brains!

Bad Brains! Bad Brains!

Bad Brains! Bad Brains!

No, I'm not the son of God.

I'm not Lucifer,
I'm not a demon,

I'm not the devil.



Thank you very much.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

You don't wanna do it?

It's no good.

I can't believe it.
All these years.

Finally get away from this shit.

So, good luck
with your life, man.

Don't be calling my
house and shit.

talking about this and
that and that and this,

'cause I see you coming
to sabotage shit.

You're a sell-out,
I'm telling you that.

Now, I hope I never have
to see your ass again.

We're at the famous
secret studio

of the Brains.



My friends ask me if I be into
exotic dancing or film-making,

well, I'm a little
shy about that.

But I love all people.

I think the time has come
for black and white

to truly unite.

Hold on. Hold on.

Okay, let's try it again.

If I'm an expert at anything,
it's lining up those songs.

For many concerts, many
years, I've done that.

And in many records.

I've just had an idea about...

I know how that shit
should drop, man.

Should drop
that shit like this...

Right now, it's a little
sporadic, you know.

Well, we're getting ready
to build a new empire, baby.

We're gonna take those sweet,

young children, teach
them a better way.

Starting right now.

I'm standing in front
of the White House.

Where every president,
since George Washington,

has lived and worked.

I played the bass originally
in a band called Stress.

We used to do funk
covers basically.

Earth, Wind and Fire.

Parliament-Funkadelic.

Me and Gary went to
junior high school together

and I introduced Gary
to my brother.

I remember meeting
Gary at a concert.

He asked me, could
he play my guitar?

I said, well, sure.

Ad he starts playing all
these cool jazz riffs

and classical
rhythm-and-blues lines.

You know, H said, "Yo, man, I'm
gonna play music with you.

"I'll be in a
band with you."

He kinda wanted
more of a challenge.

So I said, let me
pick up the guitar.

H started playing the bass.

We used to sit down and
practice and practice.

HR and I sit down there

fingers be bleeding.

But now, Darryl was
younger than all of us.

I was in this band
called The Young Explorers.

We used to play covers of
like Earth, Wind and Fire

and all that kind of stuff.

We then assured Darryl that
he wasn't breaking the law.

It wasn't illegal
to be a musician.

And Darryl started playing bass.

HR started to sing.

Tried to play like what we
were listening to, you know.

Return to Forever,
all this jazz fusion stuff.

Chick Corea.

Stanley Clarke.

George Duke and all those cats.

I actually wrote Stanley
Clarke letters and shit.

Like fan-club shit.

My biggest influence
was Lenny White.

I'd seen him live before and
he just tripped me out, man.

Looked like it was a
motion picture in action.

I saw a PBS special

and they were highlighting
the New Wave out of London.

I think the first band I saw

was the Sex Pistols
and The Damned.

That was the shit.
That was the new thing for me.

I went and bought
all their albums.

And I took 'em to Darryl
with the same enthusiasm,

"Man, you got to
hear this stuff, man.

"You know, It's gonna
drive you crazy, man,

"but you're gonna love it."

Sid hipped us to this band
called the Dead Boys.

We heard the Dead Boys,

I was like, yeah, that's what we
wanna try and start doing, you know.

We were called Mind Power.

And then I found
this Ramones song.

Bad Brains was like Mind Power,

it was the same thing.

But Bad Brains reminded
me of like your brain

being up in the refrigerator,
like rotting and some shit.

So, to switch over
from punk Mind Power

to Bad Brain, and go to...
That's what I thought was cool.

It was the summer of 1979,

word was that there was
and all-black, punk-rock band

in Washington, D.C.

Never seen one of those before

and they're local,
we gotta check that out.

We were walking down to
the Bayou to see the band.

And here comes this opening
band, the Bad Brains.

We all went up to the front

and had our minds
completely blown.

We walked out of
there going, "Damned, great.

"But the Bad Brains..."

D.C. had a "punk-rock scene."

That was a very, very
small group of people.

But they congregated
around this one club

in Adams Morgan, section
of D.C., called Madam's Organ.

At Madam's Organ,

I remember standing in front
of Bad Brains one night

with HR so close,
I could smell his breath.

And I said, "I sure hope
that guy doesn't land on me."

Wham, I'm on my back, with HR
pinning me to the ground

singing on me.

I was like...
"Whoa!"

And that was kind of, uh,

the, uh, kind of,
the start of my life.

Oh, we going by
R Street, hold up.

This where I used to live
when the Bad Brains started.

Right there, that's where
the Bad Brains started.

- This is R Street.
- What day was it?

R Street.

Where punk rock started.

We was gonna play
faster and more technical

than the Ramones

and be more chaotic
than The Damned.

You go up Addison Road,

you see the notorious
Al Tolson...

And this where
the rehearsals started.

This is where the music
started formulating.

The glue that hooked us all up

was our friend, Alvarez.

We could go over
there on Tuesdays

and Thursdays, in the evening,

for three or four
hours, and jam.

Because his mother
would go and play bingo.

We used to own some Fred Sanford
up in this motherfucker.

I'm sorry to see
the spot like this, man.

I know, man, gosh.

Look.
What the fuck?

The fire department
ripped the whole house.

Looks like the whole
place has been

torn apart.
Ripped.

Two-alarm fire...

Came and kicked everything.
Look, I have nothing.

My clothes, everything is gone.

We all used to jam down
in this basement right here.

Yeah, this is where we used
to do it at, right here.

This was the beginning.

Darryl used to play
his drums right here.

Bass, drums. Right in here.

You wanna see your tape recorder?
Yeah.

This the tape recorder
when we used to record

all the Bad Brains music on.

- That's it?
- Mmm-hmm.

- Yeah, that's pretty.
- I've never seen that.

With all that, like, all
that shit written on it.

Yeah, so I've had that
for years.

That's what I'm saying, that
was over ten years, probably.

You wouldn't mind signing that, would you?
Not at all.

What's up, kid?

Come in here and tell
them how we used to do

back in the day.
Do you like the store?

You like the way the store looks?
This store is beautiful.

Did you meet everybody?
I met all these nice guys.

We were talking about
punk-rock days.

This band is insane.

This band is insane.

No, the band's not insane.
The lead singer is insane.

♪ Not as much
but with such intensity

♪ I'd like to be what they
would not want me to be

♪ I like to cram their
chivalry inside of their guts

♪ I'd like to leave it
all behind

♪ With the rest of the nuts ♪

One of the most incredible
things about Bad Brains,

which I'd never seen before,

was the fact that,
from the first measure,

of the first song,
HR's in the audience.

HR is singing to people.

HR is pulling people on stage.

The audience became
as much a part of the show

as the band.

As far as what
a frontman should do,

and how a frontman
should be, physically,

as far as blowing your mind

and making you wanna
buy the T-shirt.

Or, like, if that
guy led a charge,

you'd go invade Gaul.

HR and Iggy Pop, to me,
are the two most charismatic,

"I-wanna-be-that-dude"
frontmen I've ever seen.

Yeah, I was a very shy child.

It took everything
in their power

to get me to come on,
on that stage.

But then, once I did,
I'd do my best to vocalize.

I can remember being just
a little bit jealous

because everybody was like,

"Oh, my God, you have
to see this frontman."

"He's the greatest thing
you've ever seen," you know.

"He's the wildest guy
in the world."

"He does backflips
off the stage."

I got into a conversation
with my dad one day

and he said,

"You know what, I think I'm
gonna share something with you.

"Why don't you go read a book,"

and he gives me this book,
and I see it

and it says,
Think and Grow Rich.

And it made sense, you know,

to stay positive, not to worry.

It would show how

people who

refrain from living violently
would get a good response.

Bad Brains were
running this PMA thing,

and their whole thing was that
music should mean something,

but it should also
have a message

to the audience,
which pushes the audience

as part of the thing.

And that had
an enormous effect on us.

Have a positive mental attitude,

go out there and do
what you have to do

and make it work.
And if you do it,

it will work.

The punk music in
England was informative

but it was more like, you
know, fuck this, fuck that.

We wanted to try to
give an alternative

and unify the people

and, yes, we can make
a change if we're unified,

as opposed to just
saying, you know,

"This is screwed up
and that's screwed up.

"And that's just
the way it is."

I think that was the
difference, initially,

in our message,

and you know,
just being positive,

as opposed to destructing.

Everywhere else, punk rock was
like connected to nihilism,

like, set to destruction.

And actually, we heard
PMA sort of saying like,

like, "We're making something,
we're building something."

We just gonna burn out our
batteries doing this shit.

Getting all ready. Cameras.

Okay, that's enough
there, man. Come on, man.

What's happening?
What's happening?

What's happening?
What's happening?

Yes.

Buffy Sainte-Marie.

Buffy Sainte-Marie.

Countey, he's like
a hippy almost.

He still has a sweet,

hippy type of approach to this.

Hi there, everybody.

This is HR, Human
Rights for Brains.

We're here now in the
beautiful city of Portland.

Been waiting to see them
since I was this big. Wow.

My first hardcore album.

♪ So I'm sailing,
oh, I'm sailing on

♪ I'm moving, I'm moving on

♪ Sail on, sail on,
sail on, sail on

♪ Sailing on

♪ I'm moving on

♪ I'm moving on

♪ Sail on, sail on,
sail on, sail on ♪

♪ Redbone in the city ♪

By August 1979,

the band had recorded
the demo session

that became
the Black Dots album.

For us, it was just
this cassette.

That cassette was
our first recording.

In the guy's house.

One of the bedrooms was
where all the equipment was.

I think Earl did the drums
in the basement.

Put my amplifier in the bathroom

and Darryl's amplifier
in the other bedroom.

Then you heard me say, "Can
you hold it for a second?"

"Can you hold it
for a second?"

'Cause I was doing an
overdub in the basement.

So, I had to yell upstairs,

"Hold up, I'm not ready,
I've gotta tune."

♪ Redbone in the city

♪ Redbone in the city ♪

HR did the vocals outside.

He had some kind of
shrubbery or something.

That's why you're
hearing the crickets,

'cause he was singing
by the shrubbery.

♪ Redbone in the city ♪

The record was never a
record in those days,

it was just a cassette.

Had the Bad Brains pressed up

a thousand LP of that tape,

that single album would have
been a determinant record

in what's known as
American hardcore music

and American independent music.

And it wouldn't have taken
until the new century

for a documentary on that
band to come out.

Now, you started
out in D.C.

And you were there
for several years

before you made the
move to New York.

And what made you move?

D.C.'s for
politicians

and restaurant owners.

Really. Um...

We played enough
there, you know.

We played a lot in Washington.

We had a hard time
playing down there.

We mostly played like basement
parties and stuff like that.

They actually banned us.
Yeah.

There was only
three clubs at the time

and each club owner
knew each other

and we played in one
club and it's like,

"Oh, you guys entice riots and
you make people jump up..."

And those days, it was pogoing,

instead of slamming,
creepy crawling, whatever.

One calls the next one

and it's like, "Sorry guys,
you can't play anymore."

So, we said, "All right,
we'll go to New York."

I remember seeing the Bad Brains

not having a clue
what they were doing.

I mean, there was
jumping around.

So, we're watching it,
we were digging it.

But we just had never
seen anything like it.

They were light-years ahead

of anybody
playing on the local scene.

They were skilled,

they were original,

they were monster musicians.

Anybody who would see
them would obviously say,

"Well, this band is better
than any other band

"we've ever seen."

In those early shows,

you know, it'd be like a club
the size of this room

with like ten people in the audience.
Not even.

Not even the size of this room.

It was like a couple of shows

you started to realize
how incredible they were.

We had to go play
the great CBGB's.

I remember getting off
the Holland Tunnel

and coming up Canal Street

and turning on the
Bowery and, oh, there it is.

We kept coming back
and playing CB's.

So, we'd come once a month.

He said, "Okay, I'm gonna
give you guys Friday night."

So, Friday night at CB's. It
don't get no bigger than that.

They went over to England
to play with The Damned.

The Damned said, "Come on
over, we'll take you on tour."

They got their offer
within months

of their first couple
shows in New York.

You know, so, things were
happening quick.

So, we sold all our equipment,
except for our guitars,

and got the money
to get the tickets

to go to London.

Little did we know

there was a small, minor detail

called working papers.

Captain says we'll stand there

with a couple thousand,
you know, pounds and saying,

"They don't have
any money? Fine.

"Here's money. They're
coming on tour with us.

"Here's the money.
They have money.

"They can come into the country.

"As soon as you let them
in the country,

"they have money,
that's not an issue.

"They're not vagrants
they can come in here."

They got all these
spray-painted suits

and they're trying to pass
themselves off as tourists.

The local constabulary
at the time

didn't like the way they looked.

We were all sitting
in some room in the airport

waiting for the next flight out.

They took our passports.

We caught the flight to England,

caught the next flight back.

Come to find out,

our guitars had
gotten stolen in JFK.

They never even
got on the plane.

So, we had literally nothing.

We got back to New York,

we actually had to panhandle

to get the money to catch
a train to get back.

Back in New York,
they had no money,

lived on corn chips and beer,

and played on
borrowed equipment.

No fun. But
bass player, Darryl,

just became more
determined than ever.

It got hard.
It got hard for me.

You know, I didn't...
You know, after all that.

But I had to still be strong

and say, "Well,
this is what I'm all about.

"'Cause this is what I wanna do.

"And that's what I'm gonna
do, no matter what."

We all lived off
five dollars a day

for, I don't know, six months,

and we had to use
the old brain there,

'cause we were hanging out
in Washington Square Park

and that was the days

when they used to sell
loose joints for a buck.

We just like, "Hmm...

"We'd better get us five dollars
here and go buy us a bag

"and let's roll up
some joints."

Then we would take that,

turn that into

$15.

Because we lived
on the East Side,

we started selling the joints
in Tompkins Square Park.

Had to get $15 out of that $5,

since we had to go
buy the next bag

and then we had to have
$5 to buy food.

It was cool going up to New
York and struggling, you know.

It became quite an adventure.

It wasn't easy at all.

But we set forth to do that

and that's what
we did, you know.

And then we actually went
back to Washington

and lived for a while.

I was a restaurant owner

that had a lot of
celebrity patrons.

I had a waiter named Pierre,
who was a communist,

self-confessed communist,

that said that
he was doing a film

with he and his buddies,

would I be interested in
helping finance it?

And I watched it,
it was this awful film.

I was, you know,
getting a headache,

but they had filmed
the Bad Brains

at Max's Kansas City.

♪ Don't need no ivory liquid

♪ Don't want no afro sheen

♪ Don't need
the latest fashions

♪ Don't want my hair
to smell bad

♪ I've got my automotion

♪ I've got that superpotion

♪ And if you think
I'm going crazy

♪ Then pretty baby
it might be true babe ♪

The hair on the back
of my neck sort of went...

'Cause they were
so electrifying.

He invited us to
dinner, you know.

We had no money in those times.

It was like, wow, here
we are, punk rocked out

in this five-star restaurant.

And he said, "Hey, I'd like
to help you guys out."

HR called me Mr. Sussman.

Polite, very short
hair, no dreads.

I was a, you know,
Frank Sinatra kinda guy,

but I dug what they were doing.

I didn't know anything about
being the manager of a band.

They had basically
nothing, no van.

They had no equipment.

So, a friend of mine
owned a music store.

He took us up to Chuck Levin's.

All the salesmen came
out, you know.

The guitar guy, the drum guy.

But HR, they wanted
to get him a mike.

He was a little disappointed
at the time.

He didn't get shit, yeah.

So, he went back,
way back in the back,

of Chuck Levin's

and got this red, hollow-body,
B.B. King-looking guitar.

I got them all new equipment.

Got them a brand new van.

I obligated myself to $25,000

which I spent
relatively quickly.

Maybe the second
or third time we played CB's,

my equipment got stolen.

'Cause we're a bunch of idiots
and left the equipment

in the van,
sitting on 12th Street.

One night
when it was really cold,

Bad Brains played a show

and flopped at Nick's house,
like they always did.

And I felt sorry
for the roadie guy

who was trying
to sleep in the van,

'cause it was probably like,
10 degrees out.

And I said, "Oh, okay,
come on and sleep

"at Nick's house,
it's all right."

Four, five hours later
when the sun's up

everybody looks
out Nick's window

and there's this big
empty parking space

where the van used to be.

Brand new van,
brand new equipment,

sitting on 12th Street
at Avenue B.

I had insurance,

so I got them another van,

and I got them new equipment.

God bless you.

We find your peace life
improvable.

God bless you for coming
to the show tonight.

God bless your days.

Coming in and your going out.

God bless your mama
and your papa,

your uncles and your aunts.

God bless your granny
and your grandpas.

God bless your mother and your father
and your brothers and sisters.

God bless your soul.

And God bless
your children's soul.

And God bless I and I soul.

♪ The youth
are getting restless

♪ The youth
are getting restless

♪ The youth
are getting restless

♪ Yeah, yeah

♪ A 16-year-old girl
don't drop out of school

♪ I said
She's tired of being a fool

♪ A 19-year-old man...

I am Dr. Know's mother.

And all of these boys grew up,

like I said, you
know, around me.

They came to my house and
we drove them to practice

and we used to let them
practice in my garage.

See, I remember

when I used to drive y'all
around in my station wagon.

The green station wagon?
The green station wagon.

Yeah.

To go play,

somebody to go practice,

load everything up,
get in the car

here I go,

and I'm still driving
people around.

How are you, sweetie?
I'm doing okay. Are you?

How are you?
You've grown so much.

Am I still growing?

I have to help
my kids a lot. I'm fine.

I feel like I'm still
growing. I see.

♪ The youth are
getting restless

♪ The youth are
getting restless

♪ Oh, yeah ♪

1980 is when we saw Bob Marley.

We had known of Bob a little
but we didn't really know.

I remember
walking into the arena

and just hearing the bass,

that's like a 10,000-seat
place, you know.

It's amazing, and that was it.

In the whole influence
of Rasta and Africanism

and who we were as men,

started to want to take
over as opposed to,

being like lost youths
from D.C.,

kinda on
some rock and roll shit.

And once we came across
Marley and Rasta

and the whole vibe and the
message that went with that,

that's when things started
to change seriously for us.

But not so much our music,

but the message of our music
went from a PMA to a Rasta,

which was the same thing.

Rastas used to be like

how they see like the Taliban
and Muslims are nowadays,

terrorists.

Like, I think that
The New York Times

even had an article out
back in the early '80s

about these new terrorists,
and this Rasta

and how lethal the foot
like to kicking soccer

and lethal will kick your ass

with a lethal foot up the ass

or something, you know.

So, it was in the years before
you started seeing dreadlocks

in a Gap add
or some shit like that.

It used to be a real
underground thing.

A friend of mine who was
in the restaurant business

owned this really groovy house

in the backwoods of Virginia.

So, I got the Bad Brains
to live there.

So we would just sit out there and
just play music all the time.

Twenty-four hours a day. And
it sits back of the woods,

no other houses around...
It's perfect, you know.

We could just play, we literally
played music all the time,

loud, and never had
any complaints,

'cause there were no neighbors.

We are all the same.

You are all together.

It was a great
experience for me.

If it wasn't for that house
on Dranesville Road,

I don't think
I'd be sitting here

in America today playing music,

'cause I learned a lot about
drum, bass and guitar,

and some keyboards from
the original Dr. Know himself.

We had classes,
we had a blackboard

and we would go through stuff,
you know what I mean?

Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti Do
scales and

augmented and diminished
and sharps and flats,

and all that type of stuff
we did.

And we cooked
a lot of beans and rice.

And smoked a lot of weed

and played from 6:00 in the
evening till 6:00 in the morning.

And there was
a haze of marijuana

in the house at all times.

The farmhouse was perfect. They
could grow their marijuana,

they could smoke
their marijuana,

they could play, they wouldn't
bother anybody.

The neighbors
weren't appreciative

of having four black punkers
living on their land.

And I never put that together
until it was too late.

The old local cops
there got wind of

a bunch of black brothers
back here

back in the woods over here.

We were coming home
from the music store,

pull up in the driveway,

all excited, taking out
the gear, you know,

going in the house,
setting it up...

All of a sudden, Babylon just
come in on us, you know.

Kicked the door in,

"On the floor!"

Just so happened
that particular day,

we had the new equipment,

so they think that
we got some kind

of fencing thing going,

we all stole the equipment,

and it's like, "Where's
the guns?" you know.

Rasta gotta have guns
and pounds and pounds of weed.

They ain't finding no guns,

they ain't finding all
these pounds of weed,

and all that. None of
that bullshit, you know?

When it became obvious

that it really was
a black-white thing,

that they wanted
to get rid of 'em.

Then it all went away,
nobody got charged,

nobody went to jail.

♪ I luv, I luv I Jah

♪ And I luv, I luv I Jah ♪

That magic summer,

they went away
and they reappeared...

I remember they came
out and they were

all wearing like
button-up shirts,

and they had nice pants on
and they had new equipment,

Gary had a wood grain
kind of natural guitar.

And we're like,
"What's going on?"

In come the Bad Brains, and all
these new people with them.

Here's Julian,
very scary Rasta guy.

Here's these
Rasta women with them.

Ian and myself and the
rest of the normal gang

addressed them as we always
did, "Hey, HR."

"Yes, Henry man."

"Excuse me?"

"All is irie."

Irie?

"Who are you?"

♪ They try to make I
feel ashamed

♪ But I

♪ Luv, I Jah ♪

Just like Henry and
Ian can look at you and say,

"All of a sudden they came
back and it was Jamaican,"

someone in their family can say,

all of a sudden they came
home from high school

and they was Sid Vicious.

Before, when he left,
he was Jimmy Page.

So yeah,
it kept changing for me,

from when I was a teenager.

Ah, Darryl, he's a white boy,
lookit,

he wear leather pants
and you know...

How do you think a dude in
Southeast feels when he see me

and I'm walking down the
street in some leather pants,

and ripped-up shirt?
"That nigga's a white boy."

Right? So now, when I go,
and the white boy sees me,

and he say, "Oh, these
black dudes is cool.

"They're the Bad Brains."

Then the Bad Brains go off
and see Bob Marley,

then they came back,
"Yes I-ah."

"Oh, man, shit, wonder what
happened to them dudes, man,

"they used to be punks
and now they're like Rastas."

There's a line of spirituality
running through your music

and your lyrics.

How important is
Rastafarianism to you?

It's our life, so it is
of the utmost importance.

It turned a lot of people off

but I think it also
gave some people...

It empowered other people.

HR started getting me to grow
dreads and shit.

We had the UFF.
The United Freedom Fighters,

and it was this organization
that HR started and like,

we had meetings and
we were gonna change

the world and the planet
and all that shit.

And after like three or four
spliffs, everybody was like,

"What were we
talking about now?"

Everyone started talking
like Rastas all of a sudden.

When we were stoned
and sittin' on a stoop, going,

"Yes boss, scooch,
yeah, yeah man,

"my shit up, yeah..."

But to me, I loved it
When they played dub,

like it actually
balanced out the whole show,

'cause to just go

and listen to most
hardcore bands,

after about like seven songs,

you're kinda like...
Burnt.

Well, yeah, like,
you're kinda like

your ears get burned out.

But the way that
they were able to play

like three hardcore songs

and then like settle into
like a dub track

kinda like soothed the
audience just long enough,

until they'd hit them again
with more hardcore...

That's one of the main things
that separated the Bad Brains

and made them all that much
more kind of awe-inspiring,

was that, they actually had a
genuine pacing to their show

because they had this whole
reggae and dub element.

When they pressed
up their first single,

it was pressed in New York
and they needed a car

to go pick up
the eight boxes of the 7-inch,

and I went, "Here's my keys."

For 99 cents, I got this

flimsy little, you know, Xeroxed
thing, and I put this thing on.

I thought, it must be
a 33 rpm single,

and I've gone and got it on
45, there's something wrong.

Stopped it, put it on 33...

And then I was like, "Okay, this
sounds a little more right,"

but then the vocal came
and it was totally wrong.

And I probably played it

conservatively 16 to 20 times
that afternoon.

I just couldn't believe it.

It was...

It flew in the face of
everything I ever learned

about being a rock musician,
and in a good way.

Thing about the Brains
that's so phenomenal,

is that we were recorded in 1983

as being the fastest band
on the planet Earth.

And shortly after that we got

on the Guinness Book
of World Records.

It was unlike anything
I'd ever heard before.

And it was faster,

it was more raw,
it was more powerful

than anything I'd ever
listened to before.

Those guys were
such amazing musicians,

Mo Sussman wanted them to
sell out and play pop music.

That's why when the
first single came out,

it was Pay to Cum! and Stay
Close to Me on the other side.

♪ Stay close to me ♪

Mo Sussman wanted
to push them as a pop group.

That's how talented they were.

For people to think, this
is all they could've done,

that's not the truth.

They could have sold out
and played pop music

and sold millions of records.

Their heart was in punk,

and that's why they chose
the punk route.

Because if you look
at that single,

it's like there's two paths
they could have taken.

If they had
taken it one more step,

they could have been much more
important than they are now.

Unless, of course,
they're important

because they did the opposite.

Maybe if they sold out, which
everyone was accusing me

of trying to do
with the Bad Brains,

maybe they wouldn't have
become important.

Banned in D.C. had
nothing to do with me.

Banned in D.C. had to do
with the fact that

club owners wouldn't
let them play

because of HR's 50-to
100-person guest list.

We relocated to New York

and began promoting
our own events.

And we were just gutted.

We couldn't believe they
were gonna move to New York.

Because they were such
a Washington band,

I was like, that was our world.

If we would've stayed here,
what would have happened?

Signed to Dischord
and sold a million records?

You never know.

Everyone knew
there was something going on,

but nobody knew what to do.

And I had tried to do something

with what was going on,
but I was not successful.

To me they embody like the
best parts of music, like...

A philosophy, you know,
ideals, roots music,

you know, and place to
put your aggression.

Hardcore was kind of rising up

out of the ashes
of the old punk movement,

that was sort of fizzling out.

The Bad Brains coming up from D.C.
was just a focal point

for all these kind of
like-minded misfits.

They talked the talk
and they walked the walk.

They're were the most benevolent
scene leaders I've ever seen.

Their entire thing was again
to be one with the audience,

and then they even
immediately became one

with all the bands
they played with.

We used to borrow
their equipment all the time.

Twice they handed us
their instruments,

when their own gig was finished.

I never heard of this
before or since.

They would do a gig.
At the very end,

HR and Dr. Know
would say like,

"Hey, you guys, Even Worse,

"come up, come up!"
"What, what?"

"You guys play now."

They were one of the biggest
musical influences on me. Period.

Growing up around them,

I had a very special
connection to them,

especially because I was like,
nine, ten years old.

I learned how to play a bass
from watching Darryl.

You know, I... Obviously,
I developed my own style

but he was one
of the key ingredients.

We played
one of our first shows,

I think it was about,
like, our third show

and HR is all of a sudden like
in the middle of the crowd,

and HR starts slamming into
all the kids and like moving

and all of a sudden
like the room lit up

and the whole energy in the room

like he definitely set it off.

It was just like, "Wow, like HR's
in the audience at our show!"

It was crazy, and he said, "You
know we got this gig coming up,

"at Max's in a couple of weeks

"if you guys wanna
open up for us."

I first saw
the Bad Brains in 1981.

I got a vibe coming
off the stage

that I'd only felt when
I'd seen Jimi Hendrix

or the Rolling Stones.

The band and the audience

got into a highly refined
state of mind,

almost like a
religious experience.

I'd set up a rehearsal space,

address was 171 Avenue A
between 10th and 11th Street,

an old glass shop.

171 consisted of one long room.

We set up the stage on one end

and back near the entrance,

we had an elevated sound booth,

so that we could do recordings.

We used to charge $10 an hour
for recording, you know.

Just the most
economical recording

you could find in town
at that time.

It was like more,

like off, off, off, off,
off Broadway-type theater.

You know, something like maybe
a world that Adam was more,

uh, familiar with,
as a thespian.

You mean the Yiddish theater?

Yeah, exactly.

The funny thing about 171-A, too,
was it was a bunch of couches

that they had dragged
in off the street.

So there was like 10 like

real dirty, nasty
couches around there.

And I'm sure it was illegal,

I'm sure they didn't have
any kind of license to do it,

like it was Avenue A and
back then, like, you know...

Avenue A was kind of
off the map, you know.

Well, yeah, I mean, look,
most of what happened

on Avenue A
at that time was illegal.

The Bad Brains played the
night of May 2nd, 1981,

and I recorded it.

We kind of fell in love
with each other, you know,

they appreciated
the sound I got.

At that time no major label
would touch that kind of music

and by the beginning of '82
ROIR had issued the tape.

Since they came
from the capital,

they chose a cover
design that featured

the Capitol Building
in Washington, D.C.

I played like my first cassette,

I probably just wore
that thing out

that meant so much to me.

Yeah, that ROIR cassette,
I remember I had a Walkman,

like the early...
Like the first Walkman,

and I would just sit in school

just like sit in the hallway
on the floor

and just like listen to that

like over and over
and over again.

You know, I think that
that record just captures

the way that they sounded live.

The amplifiers
were all distorting,

and the PA was distorting.

Everything was kinda like

combining together
in a certain way.

And I think that, that really
got captured in the four-track.

Ladies and gentlemen,
here we are.

This is the mighty
defender of the truth

and he's up against,
you know who?

The one and only Doom.

What are you gonna do that for,

how dare you?

- I'm just a Doom.
- I'll get you.

No, you won't.

As you know, you've got
to feed the people,

for along with good music,

and good wine and good beer
and good water and good Pepsi,

one must have food.

So, we're going to
feed the masses,

make sure that their stomachs
have something in it

because when
we start shredding...

There's no holding us back.

On Monday, March 1st, 1982,

the Bad Brains, with their
associated roadies,

loaded into a van
that we had rented

from the band called
Joey Miserable and The Worms

and set off for California

and a number of gigs
on the West Coast.

We used to call it
the Slave Ship,

and we were just all in
there with the equipment.

It was four, five,

six, seven of us.

We had to travel
straight across the country

to our first gig
in San Francisco.

Every place we played, we had

a huge response.

We drove across New Mexico
into Texas to Austin

and ended up staying
at the house

of The Big Boys, I believe.

The singer in Big Boys thought
HR was absolutely wonderful.

And HR at that point was
beginning to...

You know, I mean,
he read the Bible a lot.

The Big Boys had showed great
kindness to the Bad Brains,

putting them up in their house.

One of the Big Boys
had procured a bag of herb,

saying, you know, "After you
receive your pay for the gig,

"you can pay us back."

And in fact I stood beside Doc

as he put the money
in an envelope,

and left it on our host
dresser in his room.

I found out later that
somebody had gone

into the room and had taken
that envelope of money

and replaced it

with a note saying, uh,

something to the effect

of "Fire burn all
faggots," you know.

And,

you can draw
your own conclusions

as who could've done that.

We got the bad rap on that
and that was a racial rap.

This story's been told

that we came through like
some renegade Rastas like,

on some homophobic shit.

If it's Led Zeppelin,

"Man, these fucking guys
are assholes, they rot."

When Bad Brains comes in
your house, burns the carpet

with spliff tails
or whatever, spills

Ital stew and HR calls you

a batty boy and takes your weed,
then there's like a whole big...

It's deeper somehow...
That's what I say.

I say it's complicated.

I'm not gonna say... Homophobia,
that's just homophobia.

Yeah, but...
I'm just...

That's the way I look at it.

But people still bitch at
us about the homophobia.

I'm just saying, that's just...
Still today.

Right. I know,
I know, but...

Like you said it's like
a scab, it's real.

That shit stuck with
my shit, it turned...

It turned all the
beautiful things

that you hear them saying about

us being how HR will literally
put his fucking coat down

for you to walk over a puddle,
he was that kind of guy.

It was at a point in
time where a band...

Like, it was like when the Misfits,
when they went to San Francisco,

they beat somebody up
at the show,

they were like vilified for it.

It was in the era where
anybody, if you misstepped,

you just got hell.

And the Bad Brains
thing, it just,

unfortunately, not only did
something bad go down,

that was this
youthful indiscretion,

- let's say it's that.
- Yeah.

But nonetheless, the problem
is you had the amplifiers,

you had people who just picked
up on it and ran with it.

Any cat in rock that goes,

"Fuck those faggots"
or something like that,

they're not gonna get what
the fuck we got for going,

"Batty boy," they're
not getting that,

they just getting,
"You guys..."

For some reason with us
is like a living legacy,

I had to go on the
Internet and tell them,

"Look, I love all people,

"we have learned
to love all people,

"we were young too, we grew."

You know, no one's out
to get anybody, you know,

but then, granted,
HR did get off

into some weird shit
after a while, you know.

HR is in Baltimore still.

He's still in Baltimore.

Waiting for a flight,
he's got a flight at 8:30,

I booked it last night
at 2:00 in the morning.

HR talked about taking a car.

So he's gonna hire a limo.

Kind of a distance.

Three days in a limo.

Come on.

US Air, yeah.

That's what I'm saying.

US Air.

What he's saying now?

He went to the wrong airline.

They were saying, "No
that flight left early today."

Hey, HR, how are you?

It's Anthony.

So, I'm in Buffalo
and Darryl's here

and Doc is here
and Earl is here,

and everybody else
is on their way.

So I'm just checking
in with you.

Call me back
when you get this and...

Just want to make sure
everything's fine

for the flight that
you're getting on,

which is in about
an hour and a half,

so you're probably on
your way to the airport.

Okay, I'll talk to
you soon. Bye.

I'm not sure.

He left early this
morning for where?

So he's... Apparently he
got up this morning and left.

Grant has no idea
how he left. But he left.

Probably in a car.

So he's probably
just doing that.

I mean, I don't know...
It's like,

I'm gonna have to
eat the flights.

That sucks.

Greetings, brothers and sisters.

We're here live in Toronto,
Canada, with the Brains.

And showtime will
be momentarily.

And thank you very much
for your cooperation

and your patience.
I'm HR, aka EHD.

Love I. Rastafari.

Ric Ocasek said he had our
ROIR cassette on his tour bus.

It would fire him up
to go on stage.

So he got a hold of us
when we played in Boston.

I thought it was really cool.

I thought it was strange too,

because I didn't really
like his band that much.

And I was a punker kid like

I hated The Cars.
You know, it was cool

to hate The Cars
if you were into punk.

You know, at that time
I was kind of like a...

I was always looking
for things like that.

A lot of bands that came
through Boston I would

try to get them
to come to the studio

and, you know, do tracks.

You know, like Suicide,

and Romeo Void,

whatever was far away from

kind of like what I was doing.

He was a really nice guy to us

and really brought us to
his studio, recorded our album

and he was sort of like
the rock star coming to

bring us into the
rock star world,

you know, give us good
guitars and shit

and takes us to places, give
us a per diem and all that.

Ric was just
a sweetheart, you know,

very supportive and

he gave me a guitar.

That was our first time going
into a real proper studio.

And we went
in there for three days,

and recorded the whole
album in three days.

You don't have to dis
my man Ric Ocasek

because The Cars are
great in their own right,

but I remember feeling a little
disappointed when they like had

Ric Ocasek producing a Bad Brains
record and I was thinking like,

"Why are they having Ric Ocasek
produce a Bad Brains record?

"Like, they just made

"the most incredible
sounding thing

"at 171-A,

"like why would they want to
go into this like fancy studio

"and make this other thing?"

There weren't too many kids
in the hardcore scene that...

Then, that weren't
influenced by Rock for Light.

You had to have that record.

You had to know that record.
If you didn't know that record

your other punk rock friends might be a
little suspicious. You know, like...

I know every drum lick
off of that record

and I have since I was 14.

I knew every single one of
their songs front to back.

And from listening to Earl.

Earl didn't flail
around like a lot of

the spazzy, fucking white
punk rock drummers like me.

Earl was like Bernard Purdie
or something, you know.

He just had this thing, right.

He just seemed like

it was nothing.
Like whatever.

He was just killing it.
Who gives a shit?

I still use a lot of the tricks

that I learned from Earl,
still to this day.

I listen to Nevermind
and there's little

fills here and there
that I took from Earl.

Listen to How Low Can A Punk Get

from that Rat Music
for Rat People compilation.

And listen to the intro of
Smells Like Teen Spirit.

They're not exactly the same
but it's close.

And that's where I
learned how to do it.

So they're a huge
influence on the whole band.

London, England.

This is one of the most
famous clubs in the world

where we'll be
performing tonight.

I mean, we're talking about
a place where

brothers and sisters
came to see...

James Brown, Deep Funk,

and Madonna.

A'ight, a'ight, a'ight.
Respect.

Good to see you all.

What's going on, Don?

Bad Brains tonight.

That's about it for me.
That's enough from me.

Bad Brains, man.

There's no one else that
you can really hold up

and say, "Yes,

"this is an example
of the punk thing

"having an effect
on some brothers."

You know, people that
weren't prepared to be

defined by their color.

Bad Brains are the
Sex Pistols of America.

I mean what the Pistols
did for the UK scene,

Bad Brains undoubtedly did
for the American scene.

Ask the Chili Peppers.
Ask the Beastie Boys.

Ask Black Flag.

Ask Fugazi, man,
and countless others.

It's undeniable. I mean,
a really incredible band.

And really individual.

The best is yet to come.

I haven't had anything to
smoke since yesterday.

I guess I better
get another key.

I have no idea how to get
ahold of the bus driver.

You know how to get
back to the hotel?

Do you have anything
written down?

So the bus driver's
not at the bus.

I don't have the bus
driver's number.

I guess it's probably
in my itinerary.

I know, but he also locked...
There's also a physical lock.

Key lock that he actually set.

'Cause the door won't open.

Hi, boys and girls.
Hi, everybody.

Oh, thank you so much for your
patience and cooperation.

We'll have the show starting
as soon as possible here now

in the Netherlands.

This guy's a joke, all right?

This guy's a joke, okay?

I'm telling you now.
I'm not you.

You can't come to me
doing that shit.

Fuck that, man.

They throwing shit on the stage.

They suck.

We got hooked up with this
cat Ron Saint Germain,

supposed to be, like,
work with Hendrix.

Very technical dude
in the studio.

He really just wanted to capture

the band as the band.

Ron had the idea of going
to Long View.

It's a great magical situation

to come away from the city

and go to Springfield,
Massachusetts,

in the middle of
real cow country.

Doc and Darryl,
and Earl, for that matter,

were so inspired,
they were always shooting

what I call shooting
from the hip, you know.

Not unlike Hendrix who also
played from the heart

and from the hip.

So we'd do five or six takes.

I couldn't run HR through that.

Because vocally, it's such
a demanding album that

there would have been
no voice whatsoever.

And he tells me
Sunday afternoon, he says,

"Well, Ron, I kinda gotta go

"in a couple of hours," and
I said, "What do you mean?"

He says, "Yeah, I gotta
go to D.C." I said,

"What for?"
And he says, "Well,

"I gotta go to jail."

Right before
we went to record this,

HR got busted in D.C.
with a bunch of pot.

He ended up getting some time,

like six months
or something like that.

So we were kind of pinched.

We had enough time,
we had two hours so...

I basically just said,
"Run down,

"give me two takes
on each song."

I finished the recording with HR

and then he had to go serve
three or four months.

And I had the one song which

wasn't finished, Sacred Love.

They just didn't have the vocal

on that particular song.

And Ron was just like,
I saw he was like

brainstorming. It's like, "What we
gonna do? How we gonna do this?"

You know, he was like, "Well, you know
Johnny Cash did a record in jail."

Took almost
two months to arrange

for HR to get to a
payphone in the D.C. jail.

He'd gotten to be
one of the guys who gets

to sweep up and he got to
be near the payphone

when nobody else was around.

Ron had him unscrew
the mouthpiece

and hold it up like a microphone

and hold the headset part
so he wouldn't get feedback.

Early on in
the session I can hear

he's kind of messing around
with something.

And I said, "HR,
what are you doing, man?"

He says,

"I'm getting high."

The story is,

he used to always
carry his Bible with him.

He used to always open
his Bible and then he'd clean

his herb on the title page.

So over the years
this title page

is black with resin.

He ripped that page out,
rolled it up and sparked it.

So he's smoking the Bible.

♪ Sacred love

♪ Sacred love

♪ Sacred love

♪ Sacred love ♪

And he did a couple,
two, three takes

and that was it.
It was tremendous.

All the guys down one of the
tiers could hear him singing,

so it was pretty amazing

he was able to get away with it.

♪ I'm in here,
you're out there

♪ We know what's right

♪ No crying, no lying

♪ Our hearts declared ♪

We're basically on
the west side of New York.

First punk show
I've ever seen on a boat.

Seeing one of the legends of

American hardcore,
the Bad Brains.

Really looking forward to it.
These guys are our guys, man.

I didn't ever listen
to punk rock music

until I went to my dad's show.

And I was like,
"Oh, my God, this is amazing."

And then I got really into it.

And I was like, this is
the best band ever.

It's like a whole experience,
like, going there.

I explain it to
some of my friends, like,

"Dude, you see the
Bad Brains perform,

"and you're just like
blown away."

It's so special, I get look and hear
all the people like, "Amazing,"

around me and I just have
that little gem inside

like, "That's my dad."

Proud feeling. It's good.

Now, I did talk with, um,

his friend.

The other president.
What's his name?

Charlton Heston.
Remember Charlton Heston?

You know, the one who did the movie
Ben Hur, you know, the Bible,

and those other movies.
Anyway, his daughter

assured me that Paris
and the others,

remember Paris Hilton,

they're gonna keep up
the good work, okay?

So I'll see you later,
all right.

All right, God bless you.

Thank you for coming
to the show. Rastafari.

What just happened?

I honestly hope that HR consistently
finds inner peace, you know.

You know, he's touched
with that thing,

he's touched with
that extraordinary...

"Genius" is an overused word,

but he is really one of a kind.

I mean, he is of a kind like
Thelonious Monk, even though

people will holler and scream

but something so
implacably original

that he is that thing.

HR wanted to start a new
band called the Zion Train.

This was a band that was
gonna do pure reggae.

And have a dancing
chorus of girls.

Horn section.

It might have worked.

There was the
whole Zion Train phase.

We'd go see the shows,

and appreciate what
they're doing but was

not what we particularly
wanted to see.

We went to CB's
when they came out,

we were all psyched to see them and
they just played a whole set of reggae.

It was just like...

What did I smoke this joint for?

Nothing.

When HR came to say

we was going to be
called Zion Train,

I wasn't really feeling that.

And I was thinking 'cause
I loved my Bad Brains in the

unit that we had
and I wasn't really into it.

We're all brothers, you know.

We all grew up and went
to junior high school

and high school together
and all that, you know.

It's a family, so you know you
get tired of your brothers.

So you gotta
take a little break.

You know?

The band broke up
soon after that.

Human Rights are HR's band.

He did that
immediately when he left.

And the band got back
together in '85, '86

and broke up again
sometime in '87.

HR needed a drummer.

If Bad Brains wasn't
going to happen,

Earl was gonna go with HR
and play drums there.

I was a fan of the band so...

And I wanted to be in the band,
to be in my favorite band,

but to be in the band with someone
other than HR didn't seem right,

but kids were...
They were into it, anyway.

The Brains is not one person.

The Brains is the
works of a father.

"Darryl," I said,
"Let's try out some

"other singers, 'cause we gotta
do what we gotta do, you know."

Chuck Mosley from
Faith No More sang

for maybe a year or
something, you know.

We did some short tours.

We ended up
getting this guy, Taj

and they ended up calling it
the Bad Brains and using Taj

and playing a couple
of those tunes

and we did some short tours
with him singing.

Quickness was recorded with... When
the band was kind of broken up.

Taj was supposed to sing on it.

And it just never came together.

And right at that point
it always would happen.

I mean HR would
probably hear on the...

Grapevine,

that we were recording a record.

So he checked in, like,

"I hear that you're working
on a new record."

And Darryl brought
him a cassette,

the tracks that we'd recorded
that had no vocals.

HR sat in this
hotel room for two days

and after two days,

he was like,
"Okay, I'm ready."

He'd written all the lyrics
that became Quickness.

They got the band back
together and they toured again

and I think he lasted
maybe a month again

before he decided to go off and

he didn't tour the band again.

It's gotten to be a habit.

So now he's quit the band
three times,

it's gotten to be
a pattern with HR.

This chick was at our
audition and said, "I know

"the dude that's supposed
to sing for y'all."

I was at about 21 at this time.

I get a phone call
and it's Darryl.

"No, you can't be serious."

He said, "Yeah, this
is Darryl Jenifer.

"What's going on, man?
So I heard you sing, you know.

"I'd like you to come on up
to Woodstock and jam with us."

Turns out he knew a lot of
our songs the first day.

Soon as we hit off to play

any of our covers
he knew them right away.

And when we heard him
we were really excited.

He was perfect.
In the beginning,

there was so much excitement
for the whole thing.

We went out on the road
for like three years.

And we spread Rastafari
message all over the Earth.

Israel's so easy to work with.

So easy to be with
and travel with.

Everything about him was just,
it was just magic that way.

He was not HR, but he
did a credible job.

But, you know, it's like, who
can replace Mick Jagger?

Who can replace John Lennon?

By March '94,

I got a call from Yauch,

saying that we should
get back together.

He was in LA, saw HR.

You know, he's being like
a friend. "Come on, man,

"you guys, what's
you guys' problems?"

I'm saying HR's
getting on my nerves.

He saying, "I'll deal with
the fussy problems."

I said "Yo, if you see HR,
and he wanna do it,

"a lot of things go down like that.
It's cool, tell him to call me."

So next thing you know,
my phone rings,

he's like, "Oh, hi
Darryl, this is HR,

"everything's smooth
out here, I'm okay.

"I met this guy at a show

"that want to make
a record with us.

"His name is Guy Oseary,
you should call him."

Turns out it's
Maverick, it's Madonna,

and they want to sign us,
they want to sign us fast.

It feel like something... Like
they'd better get it poppin', quick.

And the deal was a great deal.

It was so
in the band's interest.

I mean, they'd really
come around on

almost every single point.

I mean, they went into
motion like a...

Like a, like a President,
like a White House

or something, shit was like,
contracts, lawyers...

Everything just appeared like...

You know what I mean, it was
just like an operating table.

We signed the deal and
we got a little money and

we got put up
in Beverly Hills and

we made the record.

One of my favorite records
at that time was

the debut Weezer album

which Ric Ocasek produced.

And of course he
produced my favorite

Bad Brains album, which
was Rock for Life.

And I thought, you know,

just let me call this guy

and maybe see
if he'll produce it.

HR never came to a rehearsal.

I was taking him
to his first rehearsal

after they already rehearsed
for a week

and when we got
to the rehearsal area

there was a graveyard
across the street from it.

He wouldn't even go near
the rehearsal hall.

I had to take him
all the way back home.

He wouldn't even
like set foot in it

because it was across the
street from a graveyard.

He said, "I don't wanna,
I don't wanna rehearse,

"you know, by the dead."

But when he came in the
studio to do the stuff,

he nailed it every time.

He was doing like
seven-part harmonies.

You know like, right
on top of each other.

Perfect every time.

When we gave them their
advance for the album,

I got a phone call from
a car dealership

and the guy wanted
to talk to me.

He's with HR
at a car dealership.

So I pick up and I said,

"Hi," and he goes, "Oh, I just
want to verify, this guy really is

"a musician and he really is,
you know, has the money."

"Yeah, we just paid him
an advance, he's got some,

"some money,
he's on this record label."

And he said, "Okay
cool, thank you."

And I said, "Whoa! Wait."
I go...

"Out of curiosity,
what's he buying?"

And he said, I think
it was a 1980 limo.

A limousine?

So um,

I said, "Can you put
him on the phone?"

He puts HR on the phone,

I go, "HR!
You're buying a 1980 limo?"

And he said, "Yeah."

I said, "Really?"
He goes, "It's beautiful."

And I said "Really?
Who's gonna drive you?"

He said, "Scotty."

Scotty is a guy who
works at my company

who drove him to
the car dealership.

The guy who works
for us, with us,

who's not even...
Just did me the favor

to take him to the dealership.

Now he thinks he's gonna drive
him in a limo everywhere.

HR's behavior started to
become increasingly bizarre.

And all these things
that went down

and the particulars
involved in this

particular advent of our
careers is very entertaining.

There's no way I can get
into the different particulars

but it's some of
the most entertaining

particulars that you will ever
hear about a rock band.

Bad Brains going to LA

on Maverick Records.

I remember, one day
he walked in with a dead fish

in a bra.

And cooked the fish
in the Maverick kitchen

and left it there,
after he cooked it.

And then just left.

When we were at Maverick,
we actually got him a...

He got him one meeting with a,

you know, a doctor to the stars.

But you know, he's...
He's not cooperative.

No one had ever warned me

about anything.

No one ever warned me that

HR had

probably schizophrenia,
I mean, I don't know that

if it's medical or, I mean, I'm
not sure, but to me it's...

No one had warned be that
there is this other

character there somewhere.

We were lucky enough
that the Beastie Boys

put the Bad Brains
on their tour.

Opening night,

the tour, I was there
with a colleague

and we were waiting
for them to go on

and we were basically
high-fiving each other.

Like, how amazing is this? We're
on the Beastie Boys tour.

This is going to be
you know, incredible,

and we really felt blessed
to be part of this.

And five minutes of waiting turns
into 10 minutes of waiting.

Turns into 30 minutes of waiting

and then we knew
something was wrong.

HR would not come off the bus.

Well, he said that the

authorities and the general
didn't address him

in the correct fashion
and the order of...

I'm not even sure what
he was talking about.

As I was walking him off
the bus, he basically

started attacking
people on the bus.

He attacked his brother
and Anthony.

And I didn't have to
go to the hospital

or anything like that.

They just kinda taped me up.

Yeah, yeah, it was, yeah,

it was pretty intense,
it was a brilliant attack.

He was like punching and
I couldn't really punch him

because I didn't want
to hurt him.

Because I wanted
him to go on stage.

So, I can't... I'm not gonna
bloody his nose.

He's gotta go on the stage.

Well, it was... You know,
it's hard to even describe it,

it happened so fast,
like, we were really excited,

being huge Bad Brains fans,
to have them

on our shows, all of a sudden
and next thing we hear is like

Bad Brains aren't gonna
make the next state.

"Oh, why not?"
"Oh, HR had some problems."

Basically, they said, "You
can't come back to Toronto,"

he was expelled

'cause they found
some weed on him.

That's what got him in the most
trouble, not even the fight.

And I saw him in a plane,
he looked just happy-go-lucky.

And it was so funny,
man, 'cause...

People is... They didn't
know, was I losing my mind?

I wasn't talking to them,
then who was I talking to,

the man in the mirror?

But see they crawl inside the walls
and then hide in the cracks.

The snakes and
spiders, you know,

and iguanas,
and I hear 'em in there,

moving around
and getting, you know,

information and...

Like I said, I'm grateful
those days are over with.

Hi, everybody.

West Side.
East Side...

All right.

Rastafari.

CBGB's was shutting down

and everybody in the band
knew it was happening

and they knew that
we really had to play.

And we had to go and play shows

at CB's, I mean,
it was necessary.

Bad Brains'll
fill the place so easily

and we'd done that
before many times,

three nights in row.

I was actually in it for myself,

a real honor to be asked to

play there three nights.

This advent of our career is,

it's still like
a little stressful,

a little, uh...

Unpredictable.

He had a helmet,
which kind of upset me

and I thought it like, "What
the fuck is this guy on?"

We had seen
the helmet at rehearsal,

so it's like you know, you
wanna wear it, that's cool.

But just don't wear it
the whole night.

'Cause the wireless mike

in the helmet

was messing up the sound
and it was feedback and...

There was feedback so that we couldn't
even hear the amps and stuff.

At CB's when he put
the motorcycle helmet on

and he had the fucking
headset underneath

and then the thing,
and he's singing

from the inside the fucking
motorcycle helmet,

I mean, we were
fuckin' dying, man.

The band was still
the band, you know,

those are my great friends since
I'm a little boy and then,

there's this guy
on stage that's not

who he used to be...

Sometimes, it's scary HR might
be acting a certain way,

like HR has got
a lot of ways he can be.

There are times
when what HR does

seems irrational to everybody.

But it has to do with
something that's going on,

some kind of dynamic that's
going on within his psyche

and his psyche is very important

to his creativity,
and to this band's...

Amazing strength.

I know I'm not the son of God.

I'm not Lucifer,
I'm not a demon,

I'm not the devil,
I don't hate you.

Our objective, what we
would like to do

is entertain,
we're live here now

in a... On planet Earth.

Bad Brains!
Bad Brains!

Bad Brains! Bad Brains!

Bad Brains! Bad Brains!

Bad Brains! Bad Brains!
Bad Brains!

Bad Brains! Bad Brains!
Bad Brains!

Bad Brains! Bad Brains!
Bad Brains!

Oh, I think he was
sabotaging shit a lot.

And that's what a lot
of people seem to think too.

I mean, I've seen him like

almost laughing
at the crowd like...

And if you don't wanna
do it, then don't do it.

Don't charge the fans 20 bucks
to get in to come to your show.

Stay the fuck home.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Now, you wanna hear
some more music?

Yes!
That's good.

Oh, I'm boring now.
Oh, okay.

Oh, I'm a sissy
and a faggot, okay.

Anything else you want
to remind us about

before we play the next song?

Well, okay, thank you.

I felt like

he was disrespecting

the audience.

In Chicago, I thought
he was kind of slacking it

or half-assing it, or
being a prick to the fans.

All right.

Aren't we having a divine time?

You don't wanna do it?

It's no good.

Point the cameras
in there, this is it,

this is it, I can't believe
it, all these years.

Finally get away from this shit.

Gave it my all, man.

You're a saboteur, kid.

I can't believe... You a sell-out,
too, you a sell-out-ass nigga.

I been wanting
to tell you this forever.

You a sell-out, man,
I'm telling you.

Judas.

I got song for you called
Black Judas, that's you.

So good luck with
your life, man.

Don't be calling my house
and shit, talking about

this and that and that and this

'cause I've see you coming
to sabotage shit.

Play with you
amateur-ass niggas,

and leave the pros
alone, all right.

'Cause the pros will have...
Don't give a fuck about you,

the pros hold that shit down.

I don't care about your little

runaway crackhead
smiles and shit, man.

You're a sell-out,
I'm telling you that.

Now, I hope I never have to
see your ass again.

After tonight, you're done.

You don't have to make
the people feel bad,

you don't have to make

the youth then
feel bad, no more.

He's a sell-out, man.

Come on, man.

Fuck man, he's a sell-out.

He even sell you out.
He's a sell-out, man.

Fucking Judas, man.

Bye, Judas.

Trying to sabotage much work.

We put in and nigga can't
even act like

he don't want to play and this...
Gonna sabotage shit?

That's what I told him.

I can see if you say, "You
don't wanna play? Don't play."

Shouldn't come on stage
like no pussy.

People there spending money
and wanna see some energy

and have a good time. Trying
to fuckin' overcompensate

by shaking people's
hands and shit like,

"Oh, I'm into it, yeah."

Shit is no joke, man,
when it comes to this shit.

I take this shit serious,
30 years, my whole life.

You know what I'm sayin'?
My whole life.

You looking at
a motherfucker 47 years old.

I've been doing this shit
since I was fucking 17, 18,

I couldn't even sign
a fucking contract

to play in a fucking band.

I don't want him puttin' me or none
of the others through this shit.

No, of course not. Fuck that
shit, we gonna make good music.

We gonna get Israel to come
back and blow shit up.

All them motherfuckers be leaving
here, tripped the fuck out.

Judas.

Sunfrost.

There's several.
You want potting soil.

There's a lot of
different varieties.

They range from

2.99 to 5.99.

$43.09.

I used to always shop here.

'Cause this is the place to be.

As you can see.

When did I start working here?

Um, I'm guessing around
1990 or even...

Even '89.

There's Gary and I right there.

Dos amigos.

Gary is in the absolute center

of that picture next to me.

Right, I saw that.

Gary's been instrumental in

bringing the forefront
of the food consciousness

because of his own
knowledge and awareness.

Gary is such an important
part of our life, that...

He's the only person
that we can trust

with our business
and when we go away,

he's the man.

Since he's been gone,
back on tour,

we haven't had a vacation,

'cause we don't have that
trust with anyone but Gary.

No pun intended, but people
that are in the know

are beside themselves,
when they find out

or figure out or learn that

he's here and or who he is.

Cool thing about golf,

it teach you about
a lot of things.

Teach you about yourself.

No, bad swing.

Goin' in the pond.

See, I...

Look where I hit it,
almost out of bounds.

A guy the other day, like I
was at another golf course,

and his niece and them were
there and they were like,

"Oh, that's Darryl from
the Bad Brains."

And uh,

they didn't want to ask
me, you know...

They think out here
on a golf course,

that you don't want
to be bothered.

It's no big deal, you know,

this is kind of confusing,
I'm confusing to begin with

to be the dread out here.

Then when you finally realize,
I'm on some rock shit,

they just probably say, "Man, that Darryl
Jenifer is all over the fucking place."

So look like I've missed this
one behind the green.

What I'm gonna do is,

try to use my short game skills.

See, if I can chip it
in down there.

Me and Doc would
try to like bring other people

into the picture,
but Bad Brains chemistry

is the original members.

The music that we made
with other cats is good, too.

You know, it's not that
that shit sucks,

it's that's it's...
It's not Bad Brains,

it should have been
called other things.

Bad Brains is

a group of dudes
from D.C., Maryland,

that were blessed
with the notion

to try to be different and
be inventive with their music

and actually went as far

as to put positive message
into the style of music

and also went on to

cleave and understand
other musics

that was positive like reggae

and also bring that to
the same stage

at the same time,
at the same night.

And the Bad Brains is
like what Bob Marley

was being prophetic about.

In one of his songs, he said
the Punky Reggae Party.

It's a punky reggae party

and that's what
the Bad Brains is.

Oh, yes, we're excited about
all our developments.

But as always,

what we like to encourage
people to remember,

is it's not what

a person can do

in violence but
it's what they can do

in love.

Next question, please, sir?