A Band Called Death Page #8

who was then present...

You know, whose presence was

really felt through his music.

BLACKWELL:
I think for me, like,

when I saw the story in The New York Times,

it was pretty mind-blowing

to see it on that scale.

I was just blown away

when that article actually came out.

And there was like a picture, like,

this big of Rough Francis.

I was like, "Oh, my goodness, we're in

The New York Times, like half the page."

I've never heard from so many people.

People's parents were saying they saw this,

and, you know, like I said, my dentist.

KID ROCK:
I had a buddy,

Matt Sweeney, in New York City,

and I think he saw an article

in The Times or something.

So he actually sent me a disk.

And I was checking it out,

and I was like, "Wow."

You know, how did I not know about this?

I was like, "Man, this is bad-ass."

And it's just one of those

great music stories.

It's one of those things that

keeps you going to the record store,

hoping for another great story like that.

It's why you listen to music.

It instantly became a favorite record,

you know?

It was sort of... it literally popped out

of the speakers and it had an energy to it

and a musicianship that

sort of blew my mind.

MICK COLLINS:
When I got to hearing

Politicians In My Eyes,

it was like an immediate, like,

"This is one of the greatest songs

"I have heard in quite some time."

And it really was

quite an electrifying recording.

Ramones got all the glory

for what this is right here.

And this is pretty much the Ramones,

but two years earlier.

There's no doubt on that record,

there's only conviction.

There's only full-hearted conviction.

And that's really what

makes it rock 'n' roll.

MICKEY LEIGH:
When I heard it, I just couldn't

believe that I'd never heard it before.

It was the predecessor

of what punk became.

And that was what also compelled me

to really wanna search them out,

no matter, you know, how long it took me

to find somebody

who had a number for these guys.

BOBBY JR.:
Joey Ramone's brother,

he ended up tracking me down,

and he invited Death and Rough Francis

to come play

Joey Ramone's Annual Birthday Bash.

And I'm like, "Well, Mickey, you know,

Death, they haven't really played any...

"They haven't played live yet.

"I don't even know if

they would be into it."

And then I called my dad.

You know, at first, he didn't really know

if he wanted to go forth with the project,

just because of all the emotional ties

they have with it and, you know,

they always wanted to be really respectful

to my Uncle Dave.

Yeah, we were very reluctant,

because, you know, we didn't wanna...

We just didn't want to do it without David.

It actually took a few weeks

for us to really take this

thing kind of serious,

because we had to answer the question

about who's gonna play the guitar.

BOBBY:
David said,

"I don't leave any children in this world,

"you gotta remember

my songs are my children."

You know, I'm committed to

taking care of those children.

And at the time,

we was working with Bobbie Duncan,

who we had found

to be a guitar player in Lambsbread.

As far as the look, he fits.

I mean... But should we throw

this kind of a load on the dude?

BOBBIE DUNCAN:
Bobby says, like,

"You know,

"Bob, something's happened," you know?

He was, like, you know, he didn't even

seem like he could really, uh,

put it all together, man, but...

'Cause it was just, like,

such a big thing to him.

He says, "Man, I hope you wanna

do it, man," you know, and stuff.

And so I listened to the CD.

And he said, "Not only is the album

awesome, man," he says, "but I'm gonna..."

He says, "I'm gonna try

to do David justice.

"I'm gonna try to live up to the standard

that he put down on that album."

DANNIS:
And when we got together

with Bobbie Duncan, we figured,

"Well, you know Keep On Knocking,

that's kind of an easy tune.

"We could just, you know,

throw that out there first

"and see what happens, you know."

(GUITAR PLAYING)

BOBBY:
We started playing the music.

We stopped. And Bobbie, he says,

"Guys, did I do something wrong?

"If I did something wrong, I'm sorry."

And when we turned back around

to answer Bobbie,

he saw that we both had tears

streaming down our eyes.

(SOBBING) Because he was playing it.

It sounded like Dave.

And I had to get up and

leave out the studio.

Okay, I just took a 10-minute break.

I just, you know, went out there and did

my crying on the side of the studio,

and I said, "I don't know what's going

on here, Lord." I said a prayer.

I said, "I don't know what's going on here,

Lord, but you gotta tell me how to walk.

"You gotta tell me how to walk."

That's when I realized

it was more than just, like, playing guitar

and covering songs, or doing a gig,

you know?

I realized this is a spiritual thing.

This is, you know, a deep thing.

You have to understand, at that session,

at that time...

That was the first time

that we had played that music

since about 1978.

BOBBY:
Y'all ready? Here we go.

Death!

(FREANN OUT PLAYING)

(SINGING)

BOBBY:
We have been working

for the past five months

on rehearsal production for a Death tour.

That's gonna be the first time, uh,

in almost, uh, 35 years

that Death has played a show.

So we're excited about it.

(MEN TALKING INDISTINCTLY)

Man,

I still feel like I'm in a dream.

Hey, fellas, for the whole world to see.

This is our first stop,

for the whole world.

This is our first stop for the whole world.

Love you, man.

Love you, too.

- There you go.

- And that one's for Dave.

I love you, man.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

(KEEP ON KNOCKING PLPOHNG)

(CHEERING)

Good night!

Thank you very much.

DANNIS:
You know, I mean, really,

we are enjoying this wonderful thing.

But, for us,

it's a beautiful thing

and we're having a lot of fun,

but we do carry a tremendous burden

with us, in that, um,

David had predicted all along that this

music would catch on throughout the world.

That's one of the things, I think,

that's really bittersweet with us,

is that he, um,

never got, physically,

the opportunity to see

his prediction come true.

Thought nobody in the world

would hear this one.

David always believed that

the world would hear this music.

DANNIS:
This whole thing is happening,

not because of my faith,

but all this is happening

because of Dave's faith.

Dave is the one who said

all this stuff was gonna happen.

We told him he was dreaming.

But now we're living it, and that's what's

making everything so strange.

You know?

It's like a movie.

And we are the unwitting

stars of the movie.

You know?

And Dave is the director.

(LAUGHS)

Even from his grave, he's

directing the movie.

That's strange.

My mother, Majora Hackney...

She passed away last Tuesday.

And here we are taking

this journey once again.

It's kind of reminiscent of the journey

that I took in 2000,

after David had passed

and we had to go to his funeral.

You know, the one thing that

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