Lux Interior, lead singer for The Cramps, has died from a heart condition
He was 60.
Yeah - that came across my transom as well. Bummer - I was never a big psychobilly guy, but that LA scene had some great bands…
I wonder if they’ll nail his bones up on the wall with ‘This is the bloody gears of a rockin’ machine’ under them?
My sympathies to Poison Ivy, who was with him for over 30 years.
A few Cramps moments stick out. One was Lux humping the stage monitor and singing a real low note into the mic to make montitor vibrate. The other was Lux wearing vinyl pants and high heels on stage. He strips the sweaty pants off and is now only wearing a vinyl jockstrap and high heels. He holds the pants over his head and squeezes the sweat out of them and into his mouth! Coooool.
I do believe they were the last band I slammed-danced to!
Vaya con Dios!
Lux, the world is not as weird without you.
You will be missed.
Aw, shit. The Most Exalted Potentate of Love has left us. What a bummer.
The Cramps played Cleveland so often I thought they were local.
The first time I heard their version of Charlie Feathers’ “I can’t hardly stand it,” it was one of those revelatory, clouds-parting moments.
I had no idea he was 60. I’m 45, and just figured he was not too much older than me. Loved the Cramps when I was in high school.
Man, that sucks. I credit the Cramps with my ongoing love affair with psychobilly and surf music–I was in Tower Records lo these many moons ago and they played a track off of Psychedelic Jungle and I up and bought that (vinyl!) record on the spot–never looked back. Gonna miss ya, Lux old buddy…
I only saw them one time. It was in San Diego in the mid-80’s. Nine Inch Nails opened as I recall. They were great. So much energy. He did a cover of Surfin’ Bird as the encore and then collapsed on stage. One of the stage hands put a coat over him and walked him off stage ala James Brown.
KEXP, Seattle has been playing The Cramps all day. Not a steady diet of course, but liberally added to the mix.
(Good station, BTW. They have streaming audio at the website.)
Another rock & roll legend has gone to the great jam in the sky.
And another band band I can add to my “will never get to see live” list.
There is no way I can’t play Human Fly on the jukebox at the bar tonight.
Man, I was not expecting that at all. In one record, they taught me what there was to love about Rockabilly, Surf, television, Mars and Zombies. After that, they just started to occupy large parts of my record collection. I had no idea he was 60. I also had no idea that they started in 72. I can’t imagine seeing them at a time when the closest point of reference might have been Black Sabbath.
I also just realized that the first song I actually learned how to play “right” was T.V. Set. Damn. I am gonna go cry some more. Bye Lux.
The Cramps at Napa State Hospital:
I’ve got a copy of that whole gig somewhere around here.
On The Tube in the UK in 1986:
The gig on that tour at the Barrowlands in Glasgow was one of my first.
G’night Lux, you zombie freak. Best wishes to Ivy.
Sorry to hear this…The Cramps have been a bellweather band in my youth; in Chapel Hill they greatly influenced us; compatriots Dexter Romweber and Southern Culture on The Skids took Lux’s lessons to heart. In Memphis, Alex Chilton recorded their first LP at Sam Phillips’ studio, and that coincided with the Memphis psychobilly of Tav Falco’s Panther Burns. Lots of crossover there, too, throw in Friend Hasil Adkins who influenced all of em and got gigs outside W. Va because of it… Damn, sorry ya went so early, Lux, but you had some good glory.
This seems to be the best page up now.
Holy crap! For some reason this seems more of a blindside than usual. If anyone was some sort of immortal/undead god, you’d figure it would be Lux.
I went through a major Cramps phase in my twenties and I am still fond of Songs the Lord Taught Us and Psychedelic Jungle. Less so the more sex-soaked later stuff, like Date with Elvis and beyond. Still, a great, great band. And a ( presumably happily twisted ) 37 year marriage to his musical partner in crime - how rare is that in rock and roll? What a shame :(.
They were a great band.
Still, dying fifty years and a day after Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and the Big Bopper, kind of makes you wonder…
What shitty news. RIP Lux - thanks for introducing us to so much obscure music and film over all these years.
Damn. I used to love the Cramps.
Maybe now he’ll be able to find his mind.