I am not steeped in all that angst. I'm never going to be Sid Vicious.
I can't think of another artist who has a fan base as diverse, in that the ladies in their 70s at the 4-H club have the same collection of Johnny Cash records as the punk on the street in Amsterdam.
I like the bad-boy types. Generally the guy I'm attracted to is the guy in the club with all the tattoos and nail polish. He's usually the lead singer in a punk band and plays guitar. But my serious boyfriends are relatively clean-cut, nice guys. So it's strange.
Growing up, my mates and I would have rather been Sid Vicious or members of the Royal Family.
When I was signed, that was before the punk thing even happened.
By the time I was 19, punk had occurred. It had a completely different cultural dynamic to it which rejected everything and started again from the year zero.
Punk was over in two years. That was the only damn good thing about it.
Punk and all that was just an image that ripped people off. Johnny Rotten's a wanker, and that's all there is to it.
I started going to Madame Louise's, the lesbian club where all the punk bands used to go - the Sex Pistols, the Clash. I remember seeing Billy Idol walk in there; he was gorgeous.
To avoid being mistaken for a sellout, I chose my friends carefully. The more politically active black students. The foreign students. The Chicanos. The Marxist professors and structural feminists and punk-rock performance poets.
When I started out, everyone seemed to be adopting these names... Johnny Rotten, Sid Vicious. I wasn't really Rotten or Vicious or Nasty, so I wanted something a bit more funny - yet something that seemed real rock 'n' roll... something that acknowledged my ambition.
PUNK IS: the personal expression of uniqueness that comes from the experiences of growing up in touch with our human ability to reason and ask questions.
I never met Johnny Rotten, and I didn't want to meet Johnny Rotten.
On a scale of one to ten, how punk am I? Apple. I don't use your scale.
I was talking to somebody about the L.A. hardcore scene, and they were saying that it was hard for them to picture punk rock at the beach. Like, the aesthetic didn't mix or something - black forms in the sand.
Books are up against TV and movies and video games and a multimedia society that is so busy that people don't have contemplative time any more. I worry deeply about this. In fact, I worry about everything all the time. I used to be a punk. All I wanted to do was tear everything down, and that was so much easier.
Portland is a place where you can find a community as a feminist, a vegan or a fat activist. Artists, musicians, knitters, and filmmakers can all meet like-minded souls. It's proved the perfect place for me and all my punk friends.
I'm the first to admit that we were totally dependent on a particular place and time... for us, seeing Minor Threat at the CBGB hardcore matinee was just as necessary a force in our lives as the Treacherous Three at Club Negril or the Funky Four + One More at the Rock Lounge.
When we played Paris, the English punks would come over, and they got to know the French punks. There was some nice scenes in the back alleys.
I frequently find myself praying for punk, for something to come along and upset everybody and ignite a few fires and behave disreputably.
I always said the world is a better place because of Joey Ramone.
Punk was never about one particular clean-cut imagery... it's about many, many individuals coming very loosely together.
Punk was such an exciting time because there were no rules. You could go and knock on Sun Ra's door - and he was in the phonebook, under Ra!
Punk is just like any other sub culture or music. Straight rock music has those elements. I grew up in a place where the punk rock kids fed the homeless in the town square.
I wanted to be in a punk band before I had even heard any punk music.
