Cheetah Chrome is one of those startling made-to-out-alive stories you didn’t really expect to see.
The most abrasive and belligerent member of the confrontational Cleveland punk band in the ’70s, he spent the ’80s and half the ’90s unproductive, mired in heroin use.
Then something of a miracle happened. He got clean. Now he lives happily in Nashville with his wife and son, makes music with a number of collaborators, and posts cogent political rants on Facebook.
He’s also written an autobiography that’s one of the best rock and roll books around — no punches pulled, no excuses, no ghostwriter — and he somehow remembers stuff that happened decades ago when he was trashed. Cheetah Chrome: A Dead Boy’s Tale From the Front Lines of Punk Rock is a great read.
But he’s still a punk rocker albeit a sober one. He’s got a new digital Christmas single called “Christmas Sucks,” just the antidote for all that cloying holiday cheer. You can pick it up (along with his solo CD) here. It comes in both clean and explicit versions.