The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (280 page)

John Fred was the son of Detroit Tigers baseball legend Fred Gourrier, and a fair player himself, teaching the sport at high-school level before his death from kidney failure. Passing away three weeks before his birthday, the singer never
quite
had the chance to record that parody of ‘When I’m 64’.

See also
Ronnie Goodson (
November 1980). Playboys bassist Harold Cowart died in June 2010.

Tuesday 19

Bryan Ottoson

(Hennepin County, Minnesota, 1978)

American Head Charge

It’s perhaps no coincidence that American Head Charge began life at a rehab clinic, where ‘inmates’ H C Banks III (Chad Hanks, bass) and Martin Cock (Cameron Heacock, guitar/vocals) discovered a mutual love of intense industrial metal. Their first major-label album,
The War of Art,
emerged in 2001, after which the ‘band’ needed to expand in order to play that year’s Ozzfest. Finally settling on members Bryan Ottoson (guitar), Justin Fouler (keys) and Chris Emery (drums), American Head Charge then set off on a rampage through the US, the band fast becoming as synonymous with its violent on- and offstage antics as their music. In their time, AHC have been known to fire shotguns and scrap with their fans during gigs.

Despite the band’s aggressive substance abuse, the death of the distinctively coiffured guitarist Ottoson while touring their latest album,
The Feeding
(2005), was accidental – and the result of a surfeit of prescribed medication. AHC were set to open for fellow ‘nihilist clowns’ Mudvayne at North Charleston’s Plex Club when the accident occurred. Knowing him to be a heavy sleeper, Ottoson’s bandmates had left him in his bunk ahead of the performance. When his lifeless body was later discovered, the authorities also removed from his bunk a bottle of pills prescribed for the guitarist’s severe strep throat. It was empty.

Golden 0ldies#25

Hasil ‘The Haze’ Adkins

(Boone County, West Virginia, 29 April 1937)

He didn’t sell many records, nor was he even especially well known outside rockabilly circles, but guitarist Hasil Adkins earns his place in
The Encyclopedia
for sheer exuberance - and a good line in songs about decapitation. An act best enjoyed live, ‘The Haze’ wowed fifties rock ‘n’ roll fans with numbers such as ‘We Got a Date’ - one of some
7,000
songs the man claimed to have written. In this, Adkins talks of meeting his girl and, you guessed it, cutting off her head. Crass, perhaps -distasteful, definitely: hence the interest of eighties psychobillies The Cramps, who covered his ‘She Said’. But whatever his lyrical subject matter, Adkins was also well thought of at New York label Norton, who were still putting out his musings in 1999.

Just ahead of his death three days before what would have been his sixty-eighth birthday, Hasil Adkins was run down outside his home by a demented driver who claimed at least one other victim. Despite this, it still remains uncertain whether The Haze’s death on 26 April was as a direct result of the injuries he sustained.

MAY

Tuesday 10

David Wayne

(David Wayne Carnell - Renton, Washington, 1 January 1958)

Metal Church

(Reverend)

Formed in 1980 as Shrapnel, Metal Church was the somewhat generic dark-metal brainchild of guitarist Kurdt Vanderhoof, whose San Francisco apartment apparently inspired the band’s name. The group – who veered towards the satanic without ever immersing themselves completely in it – returned to the guitarist’s home town of Washington, where they were completed by Craig Wells (guitar), Duke Erickson (bass), Kirk Arrington (drums – preferred for some reason to Lars Ulrich, who instead joined Metallica and experienced sales of which MC could only dream) and rasping vocalist David Wayne, who replaced the incumbent Mick Murphy in 1983. The first pair of albums,
Metal Church
(1984) and
The Dark
(1986), surprised many by becoming commercial successes, containing the live favourites ‘Metal Church’ (naturally), ‘Gods Of Wrath’ and ‘Watch the Children Pray’. Unhappy with his band’s next project, Wayne left The Church in 1989 to set up his own spin-off act, Reverend (in keeping with the crypto-religious theme). Vanderhoof had also flown the nest by this time, though both were to make an ‘emotional’ return ten years later for the comeback album,
Masterpeace
(1999). David Wayne was recording with his final, self-named band when his car was involved in a headon collision early in 2005. He was to die from his injuries some months later at his Tacoma home.

Monday 23

Mike ‘Yaz’ Jastremski

(California, 16 March 1963)

Heathen

(Pigs)

Metal’s run of bad luck continued, however, with the death of Mike Jastremski, a former member of San Francisco thrashers Heathen. The wayward bassist joined the band – David Godfrey (vocals), Lee Altus ex-Angel Witch, guitar), and Darren Minter (drums), plus a host of musicians who came and went – for their acclaimed Ronnie Montrose-produced debut,
Breaking the Silence
(1987), though he had left temporarily to form his own band, Pigs, before Heathen issued their follow-up album in 1996. The far-from-prolific Bay Area group retained popularity despite constant upheavals in their line-up – and the death in 1992 of replacement bassist Randy Laire. Heathen finally welcomed Jastremski back in 2001 for a tour and recording, which eventually produced the comeback/remasters album
Recovered
(2004).

It soon became apparent that Jastremski was far from ‘recovered’, however. A lifelong drinker and drug abuser, he was expelled from the band a second time just ahead of the album’s release. The following year, his erstwhile Heathen colleagues learned of the bassist’s death from a heart attack in a clinic while undergoing detox.

JUNE

Friday 17

Karl Mueller

(Minnesota, 27 July 1963)

Soul Asylum

Rising from the ashes of Minneapolis rockers Loud Fast Rules, Soul Asylum enjoyed brief but notable success as one of the first acts to emerge from the post-grunge
mêlée.
The former, though, had been founded by easygoing bassist Karl Mueller, guitarist Dan Murphy and drummer/guitarist Dave Pirner back in 1981, new percussionist Grant Young joining for the earliest Soul Asylum release in 1984. The group signed first with A&M (who issued two albums up to 1990), before a deal with Columbia prevented what might have been an early split. Thus rejuvenated, the group issued
Grave Dancer’s Union
(1992), a double-platinum set of earnest rock songs, including the hit ‘Runaway Train’ – a tune that, thanks to the highly effective use of its promo, became an international anthem for missing youngsters. In Britain, the band sold steadily, placing five singles in the Top Forty before 1996 (including the twice-released ‘Somebody to Shove’), though follow-up collections,
Let Your Dim Light Shine
(1995) and
Candy from a Stranger
(1998), suffered as a result of the genre falling out of fashion.