Update I: The Tuesday Teaser!
Going forward every Tuesday I’ll be posting a preview of the week's feature article that will be published on Thursday. Hopefully this will stoke your curiosity, give you some quality journalism to look forward to and remind you to keep an eye on your inbox later this week when the full feature is published. Sound good? Great!
Update II: Name Upgrade!
From now on this digital publication will be known as -
1,000% MAGAZINE
If you know me personally you’ll recognize this variation of my favorite promotional phrase and official trademark of my indie music label Ghostwood Country Club - “1,000% Rock N’ Roll!”
I love collecting magazines and outdated periodicals, as the overloaded shelves of my library can attest. With your continued generous support this online rag may one day grow into an actual printed tangible magazine to rival Andy Warhol’s Interview or that other once-glorious now-garbage corporate propaganda mag named after that band that’s not The Beatles… Tell your friends and subscribe!
Having announced those housekeeping details, Welcome Back! Thanks for reading and now on with the show…
Xtra special credit and thanX to Tomme for curating the website Johnny Thunders Rocks. All images in this article are sourced via his incredible collection and credited to the photographers as listed.
Too Fast To Live, Too Young To Die…
April 23rd, 2024 marks 33 years to the day that musician Johnny Thunders was murdered in New Orleans.
The day prior he had arrived in town fresh off an international flight from Germany and checked in at St. Peter’s Guest House in the French Quarter. In his possession was a significant amount of methadone he had legally obtained in England to treat his long term problem with opiate addiction. He was also carrying at least $10,000 in cash, his fee for recording with the punk band Die Toten Hosen in Germany during the days before flying to America.
When his body was discovered on April 23rd the hotel staff reported that his room showed signs of a struggle taking place. The methadone and cash were all gone, along with his passport, guitar, luggage and belongings. None of this evidence was enough to motivate local authorities to conduct a more thorough and proper investigation. Repeated pleas from his family and friends for the case to be reopened were met with silence in the ongoing years.
The events of that night and the decades of rumors since are disturbing enough to have inspired the 2019 horror film Room 37. It was poorly reviewed and ill-received by fans but is noted here for context. Johnny Thunders’ final scene was dark and scary enough to rank second only to the demise of archetypal bluesman Robert Johnson. Legend has it that Johnson actually sold his soul to the devil at a metaphorical and physical crossroads in the rural South in exchange for gaining astonishing mastery of the guitar. He was 27 years old when he died in 1938 after drinking from a poison liquor bottle offered to him by the jealous partner of a potential lover.
But this feature is not about True Crime. This is about True Grit.
For those of you unfamiliar with the career of Johnny Thunders, the excellent 2014 documentary Looking For Johnny is highly recommended. Before you buy or rent it, check out the trailer for a solid overview:
Johnny Thunders was a man of extremes. He once told fellow musician and friend Nikki Sudden: “Many people love me, many people hate me - there’s nobody in between. That’s the way I prefer it…”
His music with the New York Dolls, The Heartbreakers and his solo career was critically acclaimed. Some of his live appearances were critically trashed. His records never hit the top of the charts or made him enough income to live in luxury, yet they motivated and continue to inspire generation after generation of guitarists and Rock musicians, from Motley Crue (approx. 80 million albums sold worldwide) and Guns N' Roses (approx. 86 million albums sold worldwide) to current Hard Rock upstarts like New York City’s Sunrisers.
Johnny Thunders had trauma, tragedy, talent and style. He had natural charm and aggressive mood swings.
He had glorious highs and awful lows, but most of all -
JOHNNY THUNDERS HAD HEART…
*To Be Continued…
Check your inbox on Thursday, April 25th. ThanX for reading! Rock ON***