ENUFF LSD
‘I eat 23-year-old guitarists for breakfast’
A Metal Sludge exclusive with Alex Kane

LOS ANGELES, Calif., USA — As an early member of Enuff Z’Nuff and the founder of Life, Sex & Death, in addition to a stint as frontman for Euro favs Antiproduct and his current gig with Richie Ramone, guitarist Alex Kane has made a careeer of  being almost famous — and he has the scars to prove it.

Kane sat with Metal Sludge for an interview, and it was fun looking back at how crazy his singer Stanley was in LSD, a band that signed to Warner Bros. but never rose above cult status.

Kane is proud of everything he has done even though he is still reaching for the brass ring.

With that, take it away, Alex.

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METAL SLUDGE: I guess we should start off by talking about Life, Sex & Death.

ALEX KANE: Never heard of ’em!

Well, the way I remember it, once the band got a buzz on the Sunset Strip, things happened very quickly. The next thing you know, you’re signed to Warners and finishing a record.

KANE: That’s right to a degree, but the truth is, we had already been playing for a number of years in Chicago before we had come out to L.A., so we had already established ourselves in the Midwest. So by the time we got to L.A., we had our material together, and we knew each other like brothers for six years at that point. We were pretty much a full-fledged band but new only only to L.A. Within six months of landing, we had a ridiculously large bidding war. We had come to make some noise and get a record deal and to see what would happen next. I know we came across as waste-oid idiots, but we were actually very focused, and we knew what our intentions were.

I loved that song “Fuckin’ Shit Ass.”

KANE: Thank you. I like it, too. The funny thing is, when Warners released it as the first single, they put out a big ad in some industry magazine that read: “‘Fuckin’ Shit Ass’ by Life, Sex & Death”: Here is a list of radio stations that WON’T add it.” And then there was a long list of all these stations because nobody added it.

I can believe that.

KANE: What we thought was obvious and not artistic was actually very artistic. Like doing a painting, you have no objectivity — it’s all subjective. We just weren’t able to distance ourselves because we were the painting. That was when I was 25, and nowadays I find more work now and more touring now than I did back then. I’m much more in-demand. Music has changed, and expectations of what a musician is has changed. I go out now on Wednesdays to play at the Lucky Jam (in Los Angeles) with literally the best players around, all very skilled but from different backgrounds, it’s like an extended family. It’s the only game in town, at least in my mind.

Except for Happenin’ Harry, right?

KANE: (laughs) Harry will always be my friend. We’re both from Chicago, and I’ve known him since we were 14. I love him like a kid brother. I still stand behind him and see him whenever I get the chance, like once or twice a year maybe, but on Wednesdays I’m always available for Lucky Strike. I was just there with Brandon Todd, and he came up to me and said he was a huge LSD fan and that the band had changed his life, like a fan boy. I get that every week, I swear. Same with a bunch of others like Corey Taylor and Marilyn Manson. Whatever, nobody bought the record, I guess, except for all these guys who were in multi-platinum bands!

Now what is your old singer Stanley up to right now? He was such a nut.

KANE: Now? He’s, uh, a really private dude. He’s not doing music. In fact, he has made a very good life for himself, made some good money financially in business. He’s actually extremely intelligent, and of course he as unique as they come. He had always been a guy who thinks outside the box, and he has become very successful and built a good life for himself. He has a few different residences, that sort of thing. The interesting thing is, with all the financial success and the properties and adventures, one thing money can’t buy is the experience of being creative. He and I, we’ve mended some fences, and we’re back to being really good friends. We can call each other at 3 in the morning.

He put on what I guess was an act of being a crazy homeless person, but man, he sure took it far. I remember him jumping into the water fountains at X-Poseur 54 club one night back in the day, but I am sure you have a lot of stories more wild than that one.

KANE: Jesus, yes. It’s a long laundry list. Every single show, literally every one LSD ever played anywhere, at one point in the evening I would always have to stop security from throwing him out before we got a chance to play. His whole motivation was, hey, not all is as it appears, so don’t judge a book by its cover. People would smell him and just look at him, and then he would get on stage and melt some faces. He was a very complex person. I remember at an in-store signing, he would take a shit in the parking lot — and not wipe.

Yeah, that’s Stanley. Tell me more.

KANE: Well, when we first got signed, we met with the label president Lenny Waronker, in his office. He pours us a diet coke or whatever, and then Stanley says he’s a bit hungry, so he starts eating the dirt out of the plant in his office. Stanley, he could be pretty shocking.

He still got chicks, though. I remember his girlfriend was Lori Dubin, who wrote for Rock City News around the same time period as I did.

KANE: Yeah, he would get the super artsy chicks.

Like the kind with piercings, you mean?

KANE: Yes, exactly, or maybe dreadlocks, you know the type, chicks with tattoos. He was actually a really sexy dude in his own right, and he had a couple of girlfriends.

What did the girls say about the stink?

KANE: Oh, there were complaints. The first tour we ever did, still with no album out yet, we toured the USA, the four of us and two crew guys in a station wagon with no budget, just two hotel rooms — all of us crowded into one of the rooms, and Stanley by himself in the other because of the smell. Finally, I was like, I am rooming with Stanley cause I want my own bed. I lasted for two nights, then I couldn’t stand it anymore. There was more abhorrent behavior on our first real headline tour. Welcome to the venue, there is Stanley sitting outside the front door, jerking off on himself.

Jesus, was he ever arrested?

KANE: For some reason, I would always get there and save him from being arrested because Stanley had no filter. You look at him, look at his clothes with cum stains all over his pants, he was like cop bait. It was an interesting time. We had a tour manager, and he and Stanley had this almost like homo-erotic relationship. Not sexual but very touchy feely. I remember once, the tour manager was on the toilet watching Stanley take a bath, the two of them in the bathroom. It was bizarre, blue velvet stuff.

I guess it was Katherine Turman, the journalist, who kind of outed Stanley publicly as far as putting on an act, almost like pro wrestling. I got to know the guy pretty well myself, and finally after seeing him in rags all the time, I was like: “Dude, don’t you get paid? What do you do with the checks?” He was totally in character. He was like, “I just put ’em in a drawer.”

KANE: Here is the thing: Being in LSD was never about making money. By now, I’ve signed three deals with major labels, and if I have made more than $20,000, it would be a miracle. With the way recouping works, everyone’s hand is in your pocket.

The band did not last long.

KANE: No, once we came out here, we were broken up in two years because of egos and stupidity. We didn’t appreciate the relationships between brothers, and so we self-destructed as a band. I guess we were always meant to self-destruct, to be a shooting star and not a band that lasts for 15 years. Just a note to all my brother musicians: We do have the world by the balls. Yes, a musician’s life is frustrating, but there is nothing better than finding your sense of fulfillment and expressing yourself creatively.

And backstage blowjobs aren’t a bad perk, either.

KANE: Oh yeah, Gerry, you got that right. Not just one but two girls at the same time, and both their ages don’t add up to your own age. That’s definitely a perk.

You were actually in Enuff Z’Nuff, too, the guitarist before Derek Frigo.

KANE: Not saying this with ego, but I took a lot of pride in being in Enuff Z’Nuff with Chip and Donnie Vie. There were a lot of really good bands in Chicago, and Enuff Z’Nuff was one of them. They’re still doing albums and still doing tours, and it works. I respect the living shit out of what they do. I learned a lot about recording with those guys, but we were way too fucking high. We’re still buddies, though. Donnie and I, through subsequent years, we were very close, but by now that has all gone by the wayside.

I liked being around Donnie. I thought he was a great guy, or at least he made a great first impression.

KANE: Donnie Vie, he was likable to everyone except himself. An incredibly talented guy with unbelievable songs, stuff with a lot of depth and interesting chord changes. Songs like “In The Groove,” that was one of the tunes I contributed to even though I was never given credit, along with “Baby Loves You.” At the time, I was annoyed, but that was a long time ago. I was like 20 at the time, but they still should have given me credit, but it was what it was. With Enuff Z’Nuff, I learned what NOT to do, such as the drug culture that was involved. As for Derek Frigo, he was such a natural talent that he could pull off “Eruption” and just crush it when he was only 14. He was just so talented, and he was one of my friends. I miss him, and I lament how he died. It’s hard to believe. I mean, me and him, we used to freebase cocaine together in Chicago when I lived there, and he just kept on going with it. I would be like, looking in the mirror and going, “I don’t want to pay for this shit,” but he was just in too deep. You have to put the work first, then the party second. To this day, when I play on stage, I am stone-cold sober, and that’s why I have been able to do this for 30 years. I show up on time, I know how the songs go, and I eat 23-year-old guitarists for breakfast; you can’t do that if you’re intoxicated.

And then you did this alternative-style project, Antiproduct, which I thought was just a little two weird for me, Alex.

KANE: I’m actually immensely proud of Antiproduct. It was like Slayer with Abba melodies and came out of the nu metal thing. I was the frontman, I wrote everything, produced it, played it all. We were the only indie band in history to play Ozzfest on the main stage, and we won some Kerrang! awards. Antiproduct literally first started fan-funding. Back then, it was still considered begging. I view music in the sense that there is no good or bad, all gray area. I see people the same way — unlike Donald Trump.

And you also play with Richie Ramone. I suppose that’s the biggest act you’ve been associated with, right?

KANE: Yeah, we always get a respectable draw whenever we play, depending on where, like in South America there are thousands of people.

I figure you can fill House of Blues in just about any city.

KANE:  Oh yeah. I just love playing music. I respect it, and it will be with me for the rest of my life. Real fans, especially in Europe, they’ll never abandon you. You can make a living in this business if you stay true to your art. People and fans will always be there for you and welcome you back.

Alex Kane @  Facebook 

Gerry Gittelson can be reached at gerryg123@hotmail.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbF3yCB6WXQ