Lux Interior, founding member and lead singer of The Cramps, died this morning at 4:30am in Glendale, California. According to the official press release he died as a result of a "pre-existing heart condition". The world is a quieter and more boring place today. Lux was born Erick Lee Purkhiser on October 21, 1948 near Akron, Ohio and met his wife, the ravishing Poison Ivy, while on a road trip through California in 1972. Together in 1976 they formed The Cramps and went on to influence and inspire countless musicians and greased up psychobilly sociopaths around the world. Lux was a missing link to the not-so-distant but quickly disappearing Americana of the 20th century. He was an impassioned record collector, a consummate entertainer, a hyper-sexualized ringmaster of primitive kicks, and a brilliant lyricist who spat dirty puns like the Crypt Keeper in a barnyard jack shack. My kids can sing his songs in their sleep. Luckily they don't understand 'em yet. If there's any justice in this world, Lux will return from the grave with a hard-on and a handful of Murray's Superior Hair Dressing Pomade. "You square brains out there better beware!" I'm cramped.
I couldn't find a photo of Lux that did the man justice so you get Stephen Blickenstaff's brilliant 1982 drawing for The Cramps instead.
2 comments:
I had the pleasure of seeing the Cramps on two times and they were amazing & fucking insane both. The first time was with Guitar Wolf(stars of the Zombie movie Wild Zero!) and the second and most recent Lux ended the show with a "wardrobe malfunction" ripping his super tight leather rock & roll pants and exposing lil' Lux(who wasn't so little) to a packed Bogarts in Cincinnati!
I was there too, unless he did that every time he played Bogarts. It was the early 90s but unsure of little else. I got crushed in a mosh pit and my gf carried me to safety.
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