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You may be cool, but you will never be John Stabb having your head shaved on stage during Ian Mackaye's Dead Kennedys show. In the background the already shaved Henry Rollins. #punk #punks #punkrock #hardcorepunk #IanMacKaye #johnstabb #henryrollins #history #punkrockhistory https://www.instagram.com/p/CDaaehSo6iV/?igshid=dl67ous1k0cj

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Dante Ferrando of Iron Cross (and John Stabb of Government Issue lying on the car) outside the 9:30 Club. Washington DC, 1982. #punk #punks #punkrock #hardcorepunk #IronCross #danteferrando #johnstabb #governmentissue #history #punkrockhistory https://www.instagram.com/p/CGwHTHgjOAa/?igshid=1rf04m67iu1yx

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Irving plaza 80/81, Dead Kennedy's show.... Brian Gay, Henry Rollins, John Stabb, Ian Mackaye.... Good Times #punk #punks #punkrock #punksnotdead #staypunk #hardcorepunk #henryrollins #briangay #johnstabb #IanMacKaye #straightedge #history #punkhistory #historyofpunk https://www.instagram.com/p/B64qroRI11a/?igshid=s1ek1txkouc7

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John Stabb getting his head shaved by Ian Mackaye onstage during a Dead Kennedys show while Henry Rollins looks on "cool".1982 #punk #punks #punkrock #punksnotdead #staypunk #hardcorepunk #IanMacKaye #johnstabb #henryrollins #history #punkhistory #historyofpunk https://www.instagram.com/p/BwyOsIknLWK/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=16nl5gnlh2el

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John Stabb Government Issue

John Stabb, July 12, 1961 - May 7, 2016. Give Us Stabb or Give Us Death

This interview took place before the 2012 US presidential elections

In the UK when we heard about Obama’s recent Health Care victory, a lot of us thought ‘great job and about time too!’ After you were assaulted in DC you had over ten thousands dollars worth of facial surgery bills to pay off. So how do you feel about “Obamacare”?

Not great, man. Totaling everything out I really had closer to $100,000 in Doctors/Hospital costs. I’m still incredibly grateful to all the caring people in the Punk rock/Hardcore/Rock community who helped me get out of this huge debt. I cannot say that I hate my current Prez but I’m certainly far from thrilled about some of the decisions he has/hasn’t made. It’s going to be the toughest vote I’ve ever done this coming election because the choices are the worst yet

Your intro to punk was through the British bands, who tended to be not as fast as the American ones. Personally I think a lot of your best material is the stuff where you lift off a bit on the accelerator. Why did G.I. start to slow down?

Okay, I was really starting to get into British stuff (Sex Pistols, Clash, Stranglers, Generation X, etc.) but dug American Punk, too – the Ramones, Devo, Talking Heads, etc. By the time I discovered WDC Punk (Black Market Baby, Untouchables, Teen Idles, Bad Brains, etc.), I still liked all that other stuff so it wasn’t about the speed of the songs. It was just that the WDC scene bands playing faster influenced the G.I.’s playing style. We still had a feeling about the Brit-stuff but sounding incredibly fast (via Cali – although Bad Brains went for it in a much tighter fashion before some of those Cali-bands, like the Germs) was what we all wanted to do

To “lift off a bit on the accelerator” as you say, was the thing we all wanted to make our own: harDCore. That said, there were still a unique bunch of groups that didn’t sound like each other. Iron Cross were the ones who stuck to the mid-tempo Brit-thing. G.I. loved thrashing it out but you never want to be predictable. Lots of us in the WDC harDCore scene just got burned out on playing fast all the time

I think we all accomplished what we wanted out of it and had to slow it down in order to create something else. We were all being influenced by so many different things. I was digging 60′s psychedelic sounds (and Tom and Mitch already lived through that in old recordings) during the time that “Boycott Stabb” was released, so I was already burned out on the fast-stuff. Tom [Lyle, bassist-turned-guitarist who joined G.I. in ‘81 and stayed til the end] worships all things Ramones and was getting immersed in all kinds of foreign hardcore music but he was into trying some 60′s influences. That’s how “Joyride” had the Nancy Sinatara song “These Boots are Made for Walking” on it. And this was ’84 when it was released but we were doing those songs live in ’83. It was usually we were already burned-out on the songs by the time the records were released and were into trying newer ideas. I think if you talk to most bands about this, they would say the same thing

The more traditional rock-sounding G.I. album You came out in 1987, when bands like the Cult and G’n'R were huge. Were bands like that influencing your songwriting at that time?

Absolutely not. By the time G.I. recorded our “S/T” record, I was so wrapped up in the edgy-pop sounds that the Damned were making circa “Strawberries” and fancied myself Stabb Vanian – Ha! When “You” came out, I was already done with that influence but that’s my all-time favorite release of ours. Apparently, my vocal style comes off sounding like Ian Astbury but I always thought singing in a lower range was like Dave Vanian

In fact, that’s what I was going for. And of course, emulating in my (rather thrift store) stage-wardrobe because I didn’t have the tailor that Sir Vanian had. I hated Guns “N” Roses at the time but drummer Peter Moffett was really into them. I seriously don’t think that they influenced his playing but Peter started out playing in short-lived Rock group, Dove. If anything, perhaps his Metal-influences such as Slayer inspired some of his speed-drumming. I will say that I don’t hate G’n'R musically but I do hate Axl’s vocals so I don’t listen to them. And I hope to never be compared to that idiot vocally or stage-wise

Ed: I don’t know why he’s rated so highly as a rock vocalist, and it was a shame for an otherwise good group of musicians – and guys – to have had him at the front

Why did you and Tom vow never to bring back Government Issue again?

When Government Isuue ended, we just felt it was done. We all moved on to other bands. James Robbins and Peter Moffett eventually ended up together in Burning Airlines but J. has spoken about how Peter was to be the drummer for Jawbox after Zach left the group. Instead, they ended up to be Burning Airlines

There was always a monumental tension between Tom and I for at least 8 years of our time spent in G.I. because we were young & immature so it was a huge weight off of both of us to finally call it a day. And we both vowed never to do it again

I’ve always said it’s like taking 10 steps backwards for me to do G.I. again. Despite all the rage of so many old 80′s Punk/hardcore groups doing these Reunion tours or whatever, we never felt comfortable doing one. More power to the other bands for doing it with all of or at least a few choice members but that’s not what we want to do. When I had my face thoroughly rearranged by some thug teens, many benefits took place. And our old friend/drummer from 76% Uncertain, William Knapp set up a gig to help me. He was able to get Tom, and Brian Baker to do it, too. We called ourselves Government Re-Issue and played a sloppy but fun set of songs in a WDC club. Tom was kind of bummed about how sloppy we ended up being but none of us had the opportunity to rehearse the short set of G.I. songs together because of long distance reasons. By the time, we all (J., Peter, Tom and I) decided to do the big reunion to help out our friend Steven McPherson (Brace) in his even more monumental ear tumour operation costs, we wanted it to be the Government Issue people remembered

When the show sold out within the 2 months it was announced, I was really pretty nervous. Could I remember all those old songs? Would they? Would I have a freaking seizure upon the stage trying to keep up with them? Ha! And I knew we had better be AMAZING or we shouldn’t do it all! That was a lot of pressure to put upon yourself so we needed to get cracking. And I guess we did pretty well but, being my own worst critic, I could’ve been better. There were plenty of towel breaks for your humble narrator, I tell you what!

Will G.I. ever do another reunion? If the cause is something we feel strongly about, maybe in some formation we will do another gig. I can really never say it won’t happen because it’s taken place in 2 different line-ups. I just will say that G.I. is not likely to ever be a touring band

A lot of hardcore bands became disgusted by some of the dimwits who began coming to their shows. Is that something GI had to put up with too?

Which variety of dimwits do you want to hear about? Let me whip out my long “Why Government Issue were disgusted by some of the dimwits” scroll. Ha! For some strange reason, the National Front Skinhead aka Hitler Youth started to attach themselves to G.I. towards what became our last big tour. And that was anything but a party for us

The 2 worst incidents took place in Memphis, TN and Las Vegas. We managed to escape both of these ugly visits from the Educated Cabbages without harm but danger was in the air. During mid-set, we were greeted by one of them giving us a “Sieg Heil” sign. None of us had ever dealt with that and it was shocking to all of us. We stopped playing, confronted the idiots from the stage at our Southern fiasco to let them know in very many words that G.I. wanted nothing to do with their (as I called it) “Free Hate”. We told them to collect their money back at the too and leave because none of us supported their shit. The thinking fans were fed up with the Nazi bullying and 1 particularly worked-up audience member stood up to them only to get beaten up by the gang of thugs. That’s when the redneck bouncer was throwing these baldies with bad intentions out the door. A little bit late, don’t you think? We accepted a police escort out of there because the skins were waiting for us up the street

In Vegas, we were out in the middle of the desert miles from anywhere playing an illegal gig with a generator by a Reservoir. Huge dudes in full-Stromtrooper outfits goose-stepping and (again!) giving us the Nazi hand-sign in front of us while we played. This one we were more concerned about getting out with our lives and needed the gas fare to the next gig desperately so G.I. were whores for the night. I still feel like that way because it was a horrible night. I don’t think you could ask for a worse gig. Well, there was one other that involved another band’s ignorance that led to a full-scale riot in San Diego but that’s enough with all that negative nonsense

The more art rock Weatherhead was your next band. Why did that band never release anything?

Weatherhead was what I would always describe as: Imagine Wire vs Robyn Hitchcock in a glass-blowing contest. That’s what we sound like. Sadly, the only material released from Weatherhead was on a DSI Records cassette-release only called “John Stabb: thetotalexperience”. There were a few tracks from our original 1989 demo w/ 3 ex-GI. members: Steve Hansgen (2nd guitar), Mitch Parker (bass) and Sean Saley (drums). Reverend Frank Love played lead guitar. And there were a few live recordings, as well. Many years ago my good friend/housemate/musician-Karl Hill wanted to put out all the Weatherhead recordings on his label Post/fact Records but there were studio-mixing conflicts between a few members. I wish we could just work the kinks out but it hasn’t happned yet. I think the world really needs to hear the song that my friend Ian (MacKaye) says “irriatates the fuck out of him”, the one & only “Mr. Niceman”. I’m extremely proud of that band and everything we accomplished in it. Weatherhead actually went through at least one more ex-G.I., John Lenny Leanord on second guitar before we broke up. And don’t ask me how it happened but Weatherhead was actually voted as “Best new band of 1989″ over Nirvana in Flipside Magazine Readers Poll

Could you talk a little bit about the St Valentine’s Day Massacre gig?

Okay. This would be with the original “Legless Bull” G.I.’s line-up (John Barry-guitar, Brian Gay-bass, and Marc Alberstadt-drums). John Barry was able to get us a gig at his All-boys Catholic School, St. Anselms Abbey in WDC. And to top it off it was their Valentines Day Dance! G.I. were ready to make their mark on all the innocent, nicely dressed Catholic Boys and Girls that evening. This was also one of very first gigs and we were all full of that harDCore anger that we needed to let out through our loud, menacing noise! Brian Gay and I took down a few of the giant red colored construction paper Valentine hearts to give them our special punk touch. This was around the time period where the hostage situation was big in the news. I wrote “BE MY BONDAGE VALENTINE” on mine with a black magic marker and Brian chose “BE MY HOSTAGE VALENTINE” on his. We safety pinned them to our jackets and it was obvious we were bumming some people out inside the gym. There was some horrible Funky- Soul group who played first and our group of Punk friends weren’t having that shite. Next up was G.I. and we tore into our 10 song set and our friends slammed into all the kids. It was only a few songs in that the power was cut on my vocals. How dare they cut the power on my cheap Sears microphone!? I yelled at the rest of the group to “Keep Playing!” but then the power was turned off on the bass and guitar. I was furious and yelled at Marc to keep drumming. Now all of my band except a very confused drummer were fuming at how we were being treated. Marc’s pounding was quickly stopped by a couple of rather large Wrestling Team members when they took his sticks from his hands. Poor innocent drummer boy thought he was going to get his butt kicked all over that gymnasium but that didn’t happen. This drunken kid DJ-ing the dance spoke these words into the microphone on stage “Nobody wants to hear your Punk Rock shit here” and that’s all it took for me to go apeshit! I ran over to the stage (as the bands were made to play on the floor below) to punch this prick in the stomach and bam! I landed my blow. But due to nearsightedness, I got in my angry punch directly to his crotch area. Of course the dude hunched over a bit but wasn’t completely out of the picture. When he went back to his DJ area, I tossed an empty cassette case straight at his head where that nailed him hard enough. This huge scratching noise took place when the kid (who I already hit in the balls!) crashed down on the turntable. And that’s where one of the Priests came up to me and said “I think it’s time for you all to leave”. I think we’d done our damage so we picked up our gear and walked out proudly but still bloody pissed off. What a great gig!

And the Kippenhok Squat, Amersfoot, Holland, from 1986. What are some of your memories of that show? That looked like it was pretty cool

That party-type gig was in the basement of this old, large, Gothic House where earlier we saw these Farmer-Metal-kids wearing gauntlets and chain mail wrestling/jousting. I didn’t notice any Dragons that needed to be slayed but it was late afternoon so maybe later in the evening. Playing with Sedition, SCA, and Larm was fun but I remember a drunken young man complementing me with “You were better than I thought you’d be. I thought you’d be average hardcore shit”. So nice to make new fans – ha!

You were at the New Mercury Readings this year reading from the book you are writing. How is that going?

It’s going well but I’ve been plugging away on it for the last umpteen years and plan to be finished with it at the end of 2012. I have done a few readings years ago but I always feel it’s not up to par and rewrite chapters. Until then, I shall keep doing readings off and on to keep it fresh in people’s minds. The tentative title is “Hear The Scream”. I love reading and getting in front of people to get a reaction

John, I read that you describe yourself as “very critical.” With that in mind, I’d like to ask for your opinion on three things, the first two of which are government issues

Shoot, brother!

Haha. OK – Occupy Wall Street

A very controversial subject, indeed. I’m all for peaceful protesting when someone is deeply concerned about something in this world. I’m against the violence and abuse that people in power assume necessary to place upon the people in their peaceful protests. Cops, and Military guards spraying, gassing and beating anyone who’s simply protesting in an orderly fashion is completely fucked up! I’ve taken part in a few protests in the past and have never had this happen to me but I know others who have been maced in the face and beaten. All because they felt strongly about something

When I saw all the spraying mace in people’s faces footage online, it really pissed me off. I wrote online and posted on message boards to anyone who took part in the protests anywhere that they should go prepared with helmets, gas masks & their own mace. Even if you got beaten & arrested after getting them first (when the cops were about to spray you!), you should feel justified that you got them first. I am opposed to a violent protest but if I was there and saw this shit go down, I’d go off on those fucking bastards! And I wanted to see someone fight back

But, of course, this would show the general public (those who think protesters are all violent people!) that protesters are violent

Evil shit is going down across this entire world and the Wall Street fiasco is only part of it. I do also wish that a percentage of the protesters would try to speak to people on the streets sincerely about what they are doing this all for instead of just loitering in areas they’re camping out in. All the tents lined up across the sidewalks across the land isn’t going to make a huge difference. But speaking out and going to the people will

Mitt Romney

That Mormon scene is downright creepy so I don’t wish to live in Mr. Romney’s Neighborhood. The guy is obviously all about the money and that’s all he really knows. He’s got no former experience to be remotely qualified for being our next President. True, I’m not happy with a lot of decisions Obama has made, especially being able to take someone off the streets to lock up because the Government thinks they may be guilty of being terrorist. That’s just Big Brother territory. At the moment, I’m supporting the alternate extreme candidate, Vermin Supreme because he promises to put a pony in every home. Vermin is shaking people up and making them think about the whole Presidential elections. I think the dude is brilliant. Romney is nothing but a charlatan, a huckster and a money-grubbing scumbag. I guess he’s perfect for some folks

I think that there’s a huge percentage of the American voters that are just plain suckers and may end up falling for the fella who most resembles a Soap-Opera actor. I sure didn’t want McCain and Palin to win the last one so if it comes down to Romney and his Boy Wonder Ryan, I’m choosing Obama and Biden again. All in all, the choices suck

Vermin Supreme? I like that name

OK. Third: how about the “punk revival” of the 90s: bands like Green Day, Blink 182 and NOFX

I sure don’t see/hear any “punk revival” in any of these groups. Green Day may have began as a Descendants-like band and I wasn’t crazy about them. But by the time they did “Dookie” (how does a record with the juvenile term for poop get to be so huge? Kids wanted to be radical and rude again, I guess) it was what Stan Lee of The Dickies described best in a Musician magazine piece about punk and I’m paraphrasing a bit. He said “If someone told me years ago that someone would be taking my music and putting a fake English accent over it and make a fortune, I’d tell them they were crazy”. But that’s exactly what Green Day did. And most of their fans have probably never even heard of The Dickies. That’s pretty f’n sad. Green Day are fine musicians but they outright stole someone else’s songs. And when they slowed things down a bit, it sounds just like Social Distortion. They steal so blatantly that it’s that obvious. And when they hit, so did Blink 182. More juvenile nonsense but this time from guys who belong in a Frat-house with the rest of the “Let’s outdo the dudes in Animal House!”-jocks and date-Rape boneheads. If you run around naked in videos with midgets and Pornstars, they will buy. They’re nothing but a third rate Descendants, if that. Next? NOFX are more of the same

I remember when G.I. and Ignition played with them inside a school gym in Nebraska during the late-80′s. We were bringing the P.A. and our gear while the little shits were not bothering to politely let us come through because they were too caught up in playing their basketball game. I hated them then because they were obnoxious brats in a punk band. And then they did their set. Stupid juvenile crap. But there’s a huge market for that shit. I’ve always preferred my music to have a brain and to have something you can think about. I have no time to waste on that noise

Thanks John

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