I Was a Teenage Punk Rocker - Why Dedication Beats Fanaticism Anyday! Even for Punk Rock or Success in Any Field!



"Do something once or do it everyday." - Andy Warhol

Just like the title says, I was a famous punk rocker... Really.... It's true. I was a famous (sort of) punk rocker.... Woo Hoo! And dedication does matter... Even if it is dedication to something that seems as ridiculous as punk rock...


Early 1980 at Santa Barbara for one of our last gigs

I think that everyone knows that dedication has immense value... It is especially valuable if that dedication is true dedication over the long term and not short-term fanaticism.

I was the lead singer of a famous one-hit-wonder band of the late 1970s. Why were we only "One Hit Wonders?" Because we weren't "dedicated" to what we were doing. We were short-term fanatics. 

By some miracle, or accident of god, even though we were terrible, we sold a sh*t-load of records back then. Bands like the Dead Kennedys or Black Flag were opening bands for our shows. We used to play many shows with bands like the seminal Los Angeles Punk band, Fear. The bassist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Flea, was a bassist for Fear at one time.


Left to right: Furukawa Taro, Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist, Flea, me, George Williams at Tokyo Dome.


Guys like Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedy's and the members of Black Flag, Flea and the Red Hot Chili Peppers are dedicated. That's why they have performed for such a long time. We were fanatics, so we faded quickly into oblivion.

Dedicated people stick with something for a long time. Fanatics are like people who get interested in a new religion one day and they are "on fire" about it for a very short time... Yes. "On fire" is a good description... So "on fire" are they that they also burn out quickly and lose interest. 

The dedicated ones are on a slow, evenly burning flame...

Maybe it's like "falling in love" is comparable to fanaticism; "falling in love" is easy and quick but can end too soon in a sudden fashion. Dedication is like "true love;" "true love" lasts a long time and requires dedication and work to achieve. 

If you do something, anything, try to be dedicated not fanatical.

Back in those days I hung around with lots of kind of famous people. Many of those people who were famous in those days are now dead...



That's me on the left


But the guys in my band (and I) were stupid. A lot of those people from the other bands figured out something that the guys in my band were too dense to realize... What did they realize? Well, it's simple; if you want to be famous and live off of playing music then you have to live it. I mean really live it. You have to dedicate to it. Many people do the talk... Few do the walk. My band wouldn't do the basics. We wouldn't dedicate.

Why didn't we figure out? Well, we didn't figure it out that "Stick-to-it-tiveness" and "dedication" pay off... We wanted the easy way to fame and fortune. It was so easy to make our first hit, that I think it spoiled the hell out of us. We got lazy and didn't work hard. 

What I am getting at is that, "...if you keep to your guns, and do not compromise and work hard, then maybe, perhaps, you can succeed..." If you don't keep at it, then you fail for certain.... 

Is there any business or endeavor in the world that doesn't require dedication and stick-to-it-tiveness?

It's pretty easy when you look at it that way, isn't it? You either do or you don't.

"There is no try. There is only do or not do." - Yoda from Star Wars

May I digress? There is one other reason we didn't succeed; we were conceited jerks. Long ago, I worked with one of the most famous DJs in the entire world, the world famous Rodney on the Roq (Rodney Bingenheimer). He told me, "You have to be nice to everyone because you never know who will become famous or powerful someday." It's true. In show business, you never know who will one day become a famous producer or get married to a powerful person.

It took me years to figure out what he meant. He is absolutely right! Now, I try to be nice to everyone. Even the old cleaning lady who comes to the station to clean up everyday. Who does she come to clean up for? Of course because it is for her job, but she also comes to clean up for us! So we can have a clean environment to work in.

Great ideas and creations do not come from dirt and filth; they come from clean and fresh and healthy ideas and places.

I told the guys in my band, at that time, that "If we just stay together for the time it takes to build a crowd and a solid reputation - maybe 10 to 15 years - even without any hits - we can be famous and live off of playing music all our lives." (Perhaps that's also what Malcolm Gladwell talks about in his book "Outliers" that says "10,000 hours of work are required for success in any field.")

But it was not to be for us...

Alas, we were too hard-headed and selfish too see the truth in dedication. My band spent more time fighting over silly stuff like trying to alter other people's behavior to accommodate our own, rather than playing and practicing hard. 


The Rotters 1977 (L to R) Phester Swollen, Johnny Condom, Nigel Nitro (me), Rip Chord

What a waste! Now we are all businessmen and/or unemployed and live with high-blood pressure, stress and all sorts of diseases and sicknesses that are going to kill us ASAP. 

What a fun life, eh?

Now, please allow me to indulge myself and allow me now to ramble quite a bit....

From late 1977 to Jan. of 1980, my name was Nigel Nitro and I was the lead singer of a punk band called the Rotters. We had a single that sold 600,000 records in Europe; supposedly 1 million records all over the world. (But remember that record labels always inflate their numbers so remove a zero from those and you are probably closer to the real totals! Still not bad.)

It was also the only song by an American band that the Clash played for the BGM of their first American tour. It was also one of the first (and only?) records to be banned nationwide on American FM radio. The song was called, "Sit on my Face, Stevie Nicks." It was a monster hit and why were are called "one-hit wonders."



Thanks to Jp Valentine, Kona Cindy and Enrico Ciccu.

For my dear friends Yuri Tsujimoto, Sharon Kennedy and Tom Swollen

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