Anyone familiar with this guy? A pioneer of psychedelic rock. He was a founding member of the 13th Floor Elevators and a gifted musician. They claim he had taken over 300 LSD trips by the age of 25. He became famous, and infamous, for his epic drug use and mental health issues. Roky was born in Austin, Texas in the late 40's. He started playing guitar at the age of 12 and formed a garage band called "The Spades", it was during that time he wrote the song "You're Gonna Miss Me" which later became the Elevator's biggest hit. The success from the song afforded the band the opportunity to leave Austin and play at such venues as the Fillmore in San Franciso in the mid 60's. They were eventually invited to perform on Dick Clark's American Bandstand program. When asked by ol' Dick which one of them was the head of the band, Roky replied, "We're all heads." Roky was almost sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for possession of one joint in 1969. Due to his mental state he was able to plead insanity and was sent to the Rusk State Hospital, where he spent several years and was forced to endure sessions of electroshock therapy and other barbaric attempts to make him "healthy". He wrote over 100 songs while in their custody and sank deeper into his illness, though he was tagged as "cured" in '72 and released. Soon after he formed a new band called Blieb Alien, "blieb" being an anagram of bible and the German word for "remain", and declared himself a space alien-- not a human being. It's a sad story, really. He went many years without performing and was in a pretty bad way. His overprotective mother took care of him for many years without providing medication or other medical necessities and he became noticeably worse. His brother has apparently been taking care of him the last few years and he's made big improvements in getting Roky back into a better state of health. He's started touring again and seems to be in better humor now. There's a really great documentary called "You're Gonna Miss Me" that I highly recommend if you're interested in learning more about him. There are some awesome interviews on youtube, too. Listen to one and you'll instantly recognize that Roky is not of this world. Thanks for being an alien, Roky. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dhJWvQNb5Q"]YouTube- Roky Erickson[/ame] [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYh5oMDlWwQ"]YouTube- 13th Floor Elevators - Your Gonna Miss Me[/ame] [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGniTDbIvSg"]YouTube- roky erickson - Blowin' in the Wind (Bob Dylan)[/ame]
No love for the father of Psychedelic rock in a marijuana forum? I've lost all faith in humanity. Next time I'll just post some 50 cent videos.
Hey dude I never heard of him but I hope he's healthy and doing well I wonder what it would be like to have done more than 300 acid trips by age 25 It sucks that one joint got his life fucked