Miller - Juggalo: the Insane Clown Posse and the world they made

BOOKS BY STEVE MILLER

Author, Murder in Grosse Pointe Park: Privilege, Adultery, and the Killing of Jane Bashara

PENGUIN/BERKLEY, DECEMBER 2015

Author, Detroit Rock City: The Uncensored History of Rock n Roll in Americas Loudest City

DA CAPO, JUNE 2013

Author, Nobodys Women: The Crimes and Victims of Anthony Sowell, the Cleveland Serial Killer

PENGUIN/BERKLEY, OCTOBER 2012

Editor, Commando: The Autobiography of Johnny Ramone

ABRAMS, APRIL 2012

Author, Girl, Wanted: The Chase for Sarah Pender

PENGUIN/BERKLEY, JUNE 2011

Executive Editor, Touch and Go: The Complete Hardcore Punk Zine 79-83

BAZILLION POINTS, JUNE 2010

Author, A Slaying in the Suburbs: The Tara Grant Murder

PENGUIN/BERKLEY, JANUARY 2009

Copyright 2016 by Steve Miller

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Printed in the United States of America.

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Editorial production by Lori Hobkirk at the Book Factory

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Cataloging-in-Publication data for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

LCCN: 2016010174

ISBN: 978-0-306-82378-7 (e-book)

Published by Da Capo Press, an imprint of Perseus Books, a division of PBG Publishing, LLC, a subsidiary of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

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Table of Contents

CONTENTS

T here was in 1997 a moment when a good friend whose musical taste I respected greatly played for me The Great Milenko. He and I grew up together, trading obscure music tips from Atomic Rooster to Cockney Rebel while buying the Stooges LPs from the cutout bins. It was like that before Internet: you learned about good music from your trusted friends. One errant referral could sink ones credibility, and youd be listening to your Jobriath LPs by yourself.

The first spin of Milenko was enlightening, a heady carnival ride with big production, wiseass insolence, and a Detroit-rock aesthetic. The photos on the CD sleeve delivered a graphic mesh of glam and Stephen King imagerytwo open-mouthed dreadlocked clowns shouting into the camera. It was a welcome addition to the musical family.

What I did not know at the time was that Insane Clown Posse, the creators of Milenko, were greatly reviled by people who considered themselves serious music fans. The only thing I knew is that it sounded good to me, possessed of the fuck you that made rock n roll the resistance it needed to be from the start and continued through the years.

I dove into punk rock as a genre fully. I kept meeting people who were as into music as I was. They could tell you the history of the Velvet Underground, saw the New York Dolls more than once, and owned at least one Magma LP.

I was floundering in January 1979, taking a class at the local community college, although I couldnt tell you what it was about. College was hardly the place I wanted to end up, but someone told me they gave you money to attend. Sign me up. I got a $3,000 student loan. I bought a cheap Cutlass and a Gibson Melody Maker and dropped all my classes except this one.

A guy in the class had classic rock hair, a whisper of facial fuzz, and a notebook with a sticker that said, The Controllers. The name got me interested, so we started talking about music. His pals from a little country town called Vermontville had formed a band and moved to Los Angeles a couple of years before. A week later he brought me in what turned out to be a great seven-inch, Neutron Bomb by the Killer Queers.

Los Angeles is where all the punk rock in the US is, he told me. One day he proclaimed that punk rock is great because it turns everyone into their dadswords I have repeated numerous times over the years. This was one smart guy.

Insane Clown Posse has more punk rock in them than any of the sold-out fare hitting charts today. The connection for me came quickly: I realized that everyone, indeed, turned into their dads as soon as you brought up Insane Clown Posse.

N ot long after the introduction to Milenko, the Insane Clown Posse trucks pulled up to Trees, a nightclub and institution in the Deep Ellum section of Dallas. Along with the regular gear, the crew started to offload some crates packed with two-liter bottles of Faygo, a cut-rate soda popular in the Midwest.

So whats with the Faygo? the Trees manager, Kris, asked Shaggy, as they stood at the side of the stage.

Oh, we just like to throw a little around at our shows, Shaggy told him.

The next day my pal Kris, the manager, called me. We had this band from Detroit in last night, Insane Clown Posse, and everyones pissed off about it, he told me. He knew I was from Michigan and enjoyed a good caper. They threw Faygo all over the place. It got into the monitors and even some of the fronts.

Okay, I said. Thats fucked up. But funny.

That same week I scored a promo copy of The Amazing Jeckel Brothers, ICPs follow-up to Milenko, from a promo pile of music at the Dallas Morning News, where I was a metro reporter. No one missed it.

A few years later I was in Miami on a sunny summer afternoon, temps around 87 and 95 percent humidity. I was walking near the University Metro stop near the University of Miami, and three Juggalostwo guys, one girlcame walking out from the stop and through the parking lot in full makeup. It was like seeing a walking cartoon, this blaze of bright white and black clown paint in the glaring sunlight.

Im no fashion maven, but I thought it was a pretty cool thing to be sporting that look in a major city in bright daylight. I knew what they were and why, but no one else did, and people were freaking, staring, laughing, pointing.

They did this and endured the ridicule and made the statement because they believed in a music that made them feel part of something. Isnt that what rebellious music was at some point? A call to bring people together. The fifties greasers, sixties hippies, the seventies punks and underground ravers all came together with like-minded enjoyment of sounds and the culture around them.