The Devil's Music 40: Jeff Drake

The Devil's Music with Pleasant Gehman

Jeff Drake is the singer and guitarist for The Joneses, which he co-founded with skateboard champion Steve Olson in 1981. Their glam punk sound- thrashy, trashy rock’n’roll that owed as much to The Ramones and New York Dolls as it did the Rolling Stones- made them the darlings of the early 1980’s LA underground music scene. They put out a single in 1982 and were featured on the compilation “Hell Comes To Your House Part Two” in 1983, which lead to national touring. Then everything came crashing down when Jeff robbed a bank to feed his heroin habit.

In this episode, hostess Pleasant Gehman and Jeff talk about wild parties and gigs in 1980’s Hollywood, being stranded in Amish Country while on tour and the lesbian drug lord couple who contributed to his downfall. They also chat about Jeff’s career resurrection. The label Projectile Platters is releasing the entire recorded Joneses’ repertoire as a three volume set. Concurrently, his memoir “Guilty: My Life As A Member Of The Joneses, Heroin Addict, Bank Robber And Federal Inmate” is forthcoming from Hozac Press. Jeff’s life- and this episode- is almost too wild to believe...but as the saying goes, “You can’t make this shit up”.

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This show is part of Pantheon Podcasts

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