The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (349 page)

Dominic Mallary

(Boston, Massachusetts, 22 August 1984)

Last Lights

That same day, an onstage punk-rock stunt went horribly wrong for Last Lights singer and guitarist Dominic Owen Mallary, a gifted language, literature and publishing major at Emerson College in Boston.

Mallary’s band – a hardcore unit known for its demonic live performances – were nurturing a strong following and had been signed to independent label Think Fast! earlier in the week. On this night, Last Lights opened for local favourites Four Year Strong at Boston University Central. However, this was to prove to be the band’s final gig. Part of Mallary’s onstage shtick had been to wrap the microphone cord around his neck (a la Stiv Bators (
June 1990
)), but on this occasion, the singer was a little over-zealous. Following the gig, Last Lights drummer Patrick Murphy described the front man as ‘faint and unable to feel his legs’. When he arrived at the hospital, Mallary went into a seizure and lost consciousness. Unable to breathe unaided, he was placed on life support but shortly thereafter was declared brain-dead.

Dominic Mallary had been a longtime fan of Californian schlock-metal artist Andrew WK and had stated that his one wish would be to have the star play at his funeral. Touched by his story, WK – who had met the Last Lights singer at one of his own shows – attended Mallary’s funeral and played classical piano throughout the wake.

Tuesday 9

Steven Isham

(Pocatello, Idaho, 30 November 1952)

Autograph

(Various acts)

Among the first of the eighties ‘hair metal’ acts to crack the charts, Autograph began as a solo project in 1983 for Los Angeles guitarist Steve Plunkett (ex-Silver Condor) who was then joined by lead guitarist Steve Lynch, bassist Randy Rand and drummer Keni Richards. Last in was Idaho-born keyboardist Steven Isham, drafted to give the nascent rockers a more ‘eighties’ feel.

This band impressed several musicians who’d heard their demos, including ebullient singer David Lee Roth of the then-enormous Van Halen. Roth’s invitation to Autograph to open for his band on tour pretty much secured their success. The group’s debut album
Sign In Please
(RCA, 1984) took its time to make the Billboard 200 but proceeded to place in the Top Forty and earn a gold disc for the band. Their predicted rise seemed to be cemented by the fairly generic, though FM and MTV-friendly, hit ‘Turn Up the Radio’.

Autograph’s failure to build on this promising start can be chalked up to a number of reasons. First, the band rushed its follow-up album – the poorly performing
That’s the Stuff
(1985) – and then over-compensated for it on the almost entirely overlooked
Loud and Clear
(1987). Second, they were now experiencing stiff competition from an assortment of rivals including Bon Jovi and Motley Crue. Third, and most significantly, their label was in serious decline. When General Electric swallowed up RCA, Isham – also a keen songwriter – left Autograph in 1988 to pursue other musical interests. This even included touring with former Motley Crue front man Vince Neil.

Steven Isham had undergone treatment for liver cancer for some months by the time of his death at home in North Hills, California.

Saturday 13

Jay Huguely

(Quick Sand, Kentucky, 21 September 1940)

Cledus Maggard & The Citizen’s Band

Kentucky-born Jay Huguely was among the first to seize upon the vogue for CB radio and successfully exploited its brief hold on America’s attention in the mid-1970s.

A former actor/director-turned-salesman at South Carolina’s Leslie Advertising Agency, Huguely was approached by his bosses to come up with a campaign promoting the nascent phenomenon, with which he was not at all acquainted.

Thus Huguely penned ‘The White Knight’, a 1976 US Country chart-topper and a national pop hit for his group Cledus Maggard & The Citizen’s Band. The tale concerned a highway patrolman duping CB-using truckers into thinking he was one of their own, then coaxing the song’s narrator into break-ing the speed limit before pulling him over. (Given that he was some 40 mph over, it was perhaps hard to feel a great deal of sympathy for the character.)

Although regarded mainly as a novelty, the record’s success was all the more remarkable given that the company for whom he’d originally drafted the idea turned it down pointblank. ‘The White Knight’’s massive impact then prompted a somewhat hurriedly recorded album on Mercury, which nevertheless climbed well into the Billboard Country 200: Huguely/Maggard thus ended the year with a flurry of unexpected awards for his work, and another of his songs, ‘My Turn’, was picked for recording by the young Reba McEntire.

Despite this national acceptance, Huguely was unable to find further successful outlets for his Cledus Maggard persona. He thus returned to his stage and screen work, going on to become one of the main writers and producers on
Magnum PI,
one of the era’s top-rated TV shows. Jay Huguely passed away at his home in California, after a short illness. He was sixty-eight.

Monday 15

John Byrne

(Dublin, Ireland, 16 November 1947)

The Count Five

(Various acts)

Although he made perhaps a more culturally significant contribution, John ‘Sean’ Byrne – the driving force behind San Jose garagerockers The Count Five – will also be remembered as an example of the one-hit-wonder phenomenon. Originally playing as The Squires, school pals John ‘Mouse’ Michalski (lead guitar) and Roy Chaney (bass) formed the band with singer Kenn Ellner in 1964. The Count Five (or sometimes ‘The Count V’) properly came into focus with the eventual addition of drummer Craig ‘Butch’ Atkinson and vocalist/rhythm guitarist Byrne. The Irishman – formerly of Dublin band The Scorpions – was new in town, having arrived in San Jose after the death of his mother. With Byrne in situ, The Count Five set about winning a local Battle of the Bands (in doing so, beating a young Stevie Nicks), which succeeded in getting them noticed. Byrne’s dark looks helped heighten their image, and they often took to the stage in either Beatle jackets or Dracula-style capes. The front man had real talent, however, and penned the blueprint for ‘Psychotic Reaction’ (Double Shot, 1966) – which was not only The Count Five’s biggest hit but also a cornerstone of US psychedelic pop. With a sound that borrowed something from that of The Rolling Stones and The Yardbirds, it was anticipated that the group might emulate a little of their British counterparts’ success; however this Top Five hit (and Los Angeles number one) was to be the group’s only foray into the Hot 100.

Eartha Kitt: Purr if you wanna go faster!

Without a follow-up, The Count Five quickly disappeared from view, and most of the still-teenage members chose to continue their studies (necessary in 1969 in order to defer the draft). Byrne later suggested that The Count Five had turned down a million dollars’ worth of bookings to return to school. In the late 1980s, however, they reemerged following a school reunion, with a pared-down version of the band extant during the 1990s. John Byrne died from kidney and liver failure at his San Jose home: Atkinson had preceded him in death by ten years.

Golden Oldies #84

Eartha Kitt

(Eartha Mae Keith - Orangeburg County, South Carolina, 17 January 1927)