Parole Chat GG Allin

I think the, um, overall length of every gig was probably about 15 or 20 minutes. I don't... the last show we did in Houston, we played about 40 minutes, because the undercover cops were there. So it was really kind of weird. When we came out, we had to actually wear something, because they were gonna arrest me. So it's the only show on the tour that I wore, like, underwear. Usually I'm all naked. Tomorrow night's gonna be fuckin' great, man. We're doing... [?] is calling me in the morning, and it's been in the papers here, and shit. But every show we did was in the newspaper. All the press people were there, and, uh... I'm sure after the show we got a lot of press too, so...

I thought the tour was over. When I was in the hospital, I said, "this is it", y'know, "we can't go beyond this point". Then I'm like, "fuck it, we've got to go on", y'know, "we can't stop it now, we've only played two gigs!" So I got out, and we just fuckin' did it. We did Frisco, and then eventually I started feeling a little bit better, started drinkin' a lot more, and started getting fuckin' back into the swing. And then we went down to Texas, and the first Texas show was fuckin' amazing. There were, like, two or three people in there videotaping the show. So I went out and took all the video cameras and, like, threw them up against the wall, destroyed 'em.

When I was... one guy was videotaping; we didn't want anybody videotaping us at all. So I went out when he was videotaping and I grabbed his camera, threw it right up in the air. Then I saw another guy videotaping, way in the back of the room. I could see this little red fuckin' light from the stage. And I jumped into the crowd. Went right through the crowd, went up and took his fuckin' camera and bashed it up against the wall. And then at the end of the show everybody was outside, like, throwing rocks at the van. They broke our window, and fuckin'... yeah, they were really pissed off.

My art is more street art, it's more... real life... you know. And you know, 'cause to me, art is like, very vital and violent. I mean, to me, if you see a dead person laying on the side of the road that's gotten hit by a car, to me that's art. And art is very real to me; it's not something that really needs to be acceptable. And to me, art has no limits, so I don't impose any limits upon myself. I believe that pain and violence are art. And I sort of take my whole life and... if you want to call that art, then that's how I put my art out. Use real situations for art. Real blood, and real violence, and real sexuality, and defecation, urination, masturbation. I mean, to me that's all art. But my art, real art, has to be challenging. And it must go beyond all normal expectations of anything. There has to be no limit till the absolute end.

But I don't want to be put in that same category as Finley and them, either.

I'm really not too pleased, because I don't know how people really take that. I don't want them to think, "okay, he does his thing and then it's over when he leaves the stage", because it's not. I mean, my performance art goes on 24 hours a day. So, when you place somebody in that category, people can sort of look at you differently. So I never really liked to be called a performance artist, but people seem to like to label me that. People don't want to admit that it's real, so they have to put a label on it. Y'know, "we can't really say that this guy is really like this, so we'll put a 'performance art' and then people can sort of take it as they want."

INTERVIEWER: Why do you do what you do?

I think that it's important because it builds character to push yourself to those limits.

And what it does is, if you go into every situation as if you were walking into death, then you fear nothing and you accelerate life more. You go into things that most people wouldn't go into, because they would be afraid of it. But, see, every day... I don't think about what tomorrow is gonna be. I think about today as the last day, so I'm gonna do whatever I can today. And I think the important thing is, if you set yourself with no limits except death, then you fear nothing. And then you will go anywhere and do anything. It will build endurance, it will build character, it will build strength, and you will be able to go into any situation and handle it. And I don't let anything get me down. I don't get into relationships. I don't get into situations like most people do that will dig a hole and bury themselves.

I keep myself very mobile and ready to go, and face the next danger when it happens. That's... uh, I mean, that's just the way I look at life, and... y'know, it works for me.

I think that too many people are worried about death. And they're worried about... y'know, everybody's afraid of this and afraid of that. And who gives a fuck? I mean, you're gonna end up worrying, and who gives a shit? Just... you know, if something's dangerous, fuck it. You confront it. You win or lose. It's a battle, and you're either... y'know, it's like going to war. Either you're gonna win the war, or you're gonna lose the war and you're gonna go out fighting. But if you go out fighting, at least it was exciting, wasn't it?

I mean, I'd rather go out fighting and have it exciting, than, than, uh... just die of stagnation. I'd rather die violently.

It just seems like it'd be more fun to get shot than to, like, have a heart attack. I mean, it might hurt, but at least you are experiencing some sort of sensation.