Episode 153 - Jerry A Lang

Third Gear Scratch

The idea to rerelease a remixed version of The Badge, a notoriously anti-cop song, from Jerry A Lang's highly influential punkrock band Poison Idea's 3rd album Feel The Darkness (Vinyl Solutions/American Leather) was not exactly his. In this chat it becomes clear how a current Portland police officer approached him and the idea was hatched. In the mid 80's Jerry A (as he was known) had made his mind up to live his life as he saw fit--make punkrock, tour punkrock, drink, drug, heavy drug, rinse and repeat--until the mid 00's at which point members began to die off for various reasons, the biggest loss being guitarist Tom "Pig Champion" Roberts by heart attack. Jerry has lived a focused and mostly clean existence since then and has channeled his new energy into a recent Covid era solo record From The Fire Into The Water (American Leather). In addtion, he wrote his biography Black Heart Fades Blue (Rare Bird Books) which ended up initally as 3 separate volumes, but now with the repress in sight, Rare Bird is putting all the volumes into one very large, Bible-sized tome for all to enjoy.