ROKY ERICKSON

Legendary rock n roll pioneer Roger Kynard "Roky" Erickson hails from Austin, Texas. He is, in the words of FUZZCLUB, one of "the unknown but GRATE heroes of rock and roll." As singer, songwriter, and guitar player for the legendary Austin, TX band The 13th Floor Elevators, the first rock and roll band to describe their music as "psychedelic", the Elevators unique brand of heavy, hard-rocking electric blues pointed to a new direction for the music of the hippie generation.

Unfortunately, Roky's struggles with drug abuse and mental illness took a serious toll. His 1969 arrest in Texas for possession of a single marijuana cigarette led to his being committed for three years to Rusk State Hospital for the Criminally Insane, where he was reportedly subjected to Thorazine, electroshock therapy, and other experimental treatments. Most agree he was never the same after his release. Roky has had prolific periods of creativity in the intervening years, but unscrupulous managers and record label executives often took advantage of his condition, leaving Roky to live in poverty while others profit from his music.

His brother Sumner was granted legal custody of Roky in 2001, and established a legal trust to aid his brother. As a result, Roky received some of the most effective medical and legal aid of his life, the latter useful in helping sort out the complicated tangle of contracts, which had reduced royalty payments to all but nothing for his recorded works. He also started taking medication to control his schizophrenia

In an unmedicated state, Erickson began a years-long obsession with the mail, often spending hours poring over random junk mail, writing to solicitors and celebrities (dead or living). He was arrested in 1989 on charges of mail theft. Erickson picked up mail from neighbors who had moved and taped it to the walls of his room. He insisted that he never opened any of the mail, and the charges were ultimately dropped.

Roky Erickson returned to the stage in 2005 and did 11 gigs that year. In 2008 he perform songs from the 13th Floor Elevators catalog that had not been performed in decades with fellow Austinites The Black Angels as his backing band. After months of practices and time recording in an Austin studio, they performed a show in Dallas followed by a West Coast tour. The Black Angels played a regular set then backed Roky as his rhythm section playing 13th Floor Elevators songs and classics from Roky's solo albums. On Black Friday (November 26, 2010) a DVD and 180 gram vinyl titled "Night of the Vampire" of the performance at El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles on Halloween night released. He is to this date still active and the dirty sound of his solo carer is largely influenced by the HORROR FILM SCENE, with titles as the afro mentioned Night of the Vampire, Don't Shake Me Lucifer and Two Headed Dog.