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Lux Interior: October 21, 1946 - February 4, 2009

10:09 AM GMT 05/02/2009

Lux Interior: October 21, 1946 - February 4, 2009

Lux Interior, the gloriously untamed frontman of garage punk psychoids The Cramps, passed way yesterday in Glendale Memorial Hospital in Glendale, California, as the result of a pre-existing heart condition.

The Cramps, who formed in 1973, were instrumental in popularising the forgotten weirdness of early moonshine rockabilly, garage punk and lascivious ’50s R&B. Interior (born Erick Lee Purkhiser), along with his fellow Cramp, and partner for 37 years, Poison Ivy, became de-facto curators of bizarro American pop culture, from sci-fi movies to Tiki culture and it was this unholy mix of rock’n’roll energy and backwoods American lunacy that The Cramps injected into the American music scene during their time served on the downtown New York punk scene of CBGB and Max’s Kansas City in the mid ’70s.

The Cramps released 14 albums over the course of their career, from the dribbling rockabilly sexuality of 1980’s Songs The Lord Taught Us to 2004's How To Make a Monster but the best way to experience The Cramps was always as a live “event”, where Ivy’s echo-fuzz guitar and mind-altering devil-girl hip thrusts were but the backdrop to the psychotic stage show that was Lux Interior, bucking and writhing near-naked but for tiny briefs and a pair of ladies high heels, on a stage covered in knickers and broken glass, microphone half way down his throat, wailing, hiccupping and howling his way through Billy Burnette’s Tear It Up like he was some pre-verted Southern Baptist preacher on a cocktail of Elvis drugs.

The night I went to see The Cramps play Liverpool Royal Court in 1983 was one of the most exciting and terrifying evenings of my life. When a sweaty and bloody Lux Interior launched himself into the audience it was the first and last time I’ve ever seen the audience run, in confusion and fear, resulting in the singer smashing with a crunch on the Royal Court’s foul, oily floor. He was so bruised and concussed he sang the next three songs on his back, before rising to freak and twitch and howl across the stage once more.

I was so traumatised by the experience that I never told my mum and dad where I’d been; I felt almost as if I’d been involved in a crime. The last time I saw them play London Lux was still at it, biting Ivy’s leather boots, writhing in a stage soup of sweat and broken bottles and, finally, falling off the back of the stage like Lee J Cobb In Anthony Mann’s Man Of the West.

That’s how I’ll remember him.

Andrew Male

Posted by Ross_Bennett at 10:09 AM GMT 05/02/2009

Related MOJO content:

Lux Interior , The Cramps

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  • SHIT!!!!!!

    Posted by Coachmaddog at 12:52 PM GMT 05/02/2009 Report Abuse

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  • In the mid-80s The Cramps were pretty big round our way - Sidcup, Eltham and Bexleyheath, of all places - with Smell Of Female being the coveted disc du jour. Exactly what was it about this eerie, dirty soundtrack from the swamp that fired up the kids from the Kentish 'burbs!? Apart from the rather retro-saucy pictures of Poison Ivy on the cover...

    Years later, I still have A Date With Elvis - the accompaniment to my psychobilly summer before I moved on to Pink Floyd (eh?) - on constant rotation. Alarming, alluring, sexy and cool; a B-movie distillation of rock 'n' roll that struck a chord with me then as now - the foundation for my music collection in years to come. The Cramps were absolute rock 'n' roll for kids who hadn't experienced the 'real thing'. And for those who didn't get it, Lux stated in his charming manner that "Rock 'n' roll is so great that everyone in the world should think it's the greatest thing that's happening. If they don't, they`re turds."


    Posted by Jo Public at 3:19 PM GMT 05/02/2009 Report Abuse

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  • No way, I can't beleive it, I thought Lux Interior, Poison Ivy and the Cramps would go on for ever! I first saw them in the mid-eighties in a tiny club in Munich. Dark, sweaty, beery and threatening and that was just the club!! I know I came away that night feeling revived, murderous and enlightened all at the same time. He will be missed, condolances to his family. Long live the Cramps!!

    Posted by Crapitoutjim at 2:18 PM GMT 06/02/2009 Report Abuse

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  • He was truly one of the greats, and The Cramps were just awesome in senses of the word. The fact that Coldplay walks the earth with their turgid music and this man and his band are no more is just a crime.

    Posted by The Rude One at 11:24 PM GMT 06/02/2009 Report Abuse

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  • He was truly one of the greats, and The Cramps were just awesome in senses of the word. The fact that Coldplay walks the earth with their turgid music and this man and his band are no more is just a crime.

    Posted by The Rude One at 11:24 PM GMT 06/02/2009 Report Abuse

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  • He was truly one of the greats, and The Cramps were just awesome in senses of the word. The fact that Coldplay walks the earth with their turgid music and this man and his band are no more is just a crime.

    Posted by The Rude One at 11:25 PM GMT 06/02/2009 Report Abuse

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  • He was truly one of the greats, and The Cramps were just awesome in senses of the word. The fact that Coldplay walks the earth with their turgid music and this man and his band are no more is just a crime.

    Posted by TheRudeOne at 11:25 PM GMT 06/02/2009 Report Abuse

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  • Human Fly. Garbage Man. Rock On the Moon. TV Set. Bend Over I'll Drive. Cartoon Dionysus.

    Posted by dlt at 6:11 AM GMT 07/02/2009 Report Abuse

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  • So far 2009 isn't looking so good, and it is only February ! First of all the mighty
    Ron Asheton's unforseen departure, now Lux
    Interior has crossed over to meet Elvis,Gene
    Ricky and Eddie....

    The Cramps made some great records,but Lux was a awesome front man. I saw the band several times, however their performance at Hammersmith in 1984 was one of the most demented I have ever seen. The one memory that I shall always retain was the moment Lux put his hands down the front of his pants, and pulled out a bottle of wine !

    "Drug Train", "Under The Wires", "Lonesome Train", "Garbageman" are up there with any of the finest rock music of the last thirty years, and that is the best tribute Lux has left to those who like their sounds to be untamed, funny and memorable.

    Posted by Rob J at 9:48 AM GMT 07/02/2009 Report Abuse

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  • The very least Lux Interior deserves is a Cramps Jukebox CD and the full Mojo Dylan/
    Beatles treatment.

    Posted by Ian Graham at 9:42 AM GMT 09/02/2009 Report Abuse

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  • I played Goo Goo Muck last night in his memory !
    R.I.P.

    Posted by Can Khan Oral at 6:11 PM GMT 09/02/2009 Report Abuse

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  • Billy Burnette? Check it out!

    Posted by The Hook at 10:57 PM GMT 10/02/2009 Report Abuse

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  • I Have been so sad at the news of lux inteior ever since I found out. The Cramps were one of the most beautiful bands i had ever seen perform. I had been to many of their shows and always looked forward on seeing them when they came around to perform. Now I have nothing to look forward to:(
    We're gonna miss ya Lux. The One and Only True King of Rock n Roll.

    I hope MoJo does something in one of their issues in honor Of Lux Interior and the Cramps. That would be comforting to all fans of the Cramps. Thanks so much

    Posted by CoolCat George at 6:21 AM GMT 12/02/2009 Report Abuse

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  • i am very shocked about this news that lux has gone i just can't believe it one of our greats has gone forever but not forgotten been a fan of the cramps for many years R.I.P lux kick up a storm in hell zombie 1969 big fan.

    Posted by Ian Stephens at 10:59 AM GMT 14/02/2009 Report Abuse

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  • Back to rock critic school history 101 Mr Male, Tear It Up was originally done by Johnny Burnette & his Rock'n'Roll Trio, not Billy Burnette (who is Johnny's son and replaced Lindsay Buckingham briefly in Fleetwood Mac, he also had a top ten US hit called "No More Draggin' The Line" in the 80's). The Johnny Burnette Trio first LP issued on Coral was one of the most influential discs ever, it's where the Yardbirds and Fleetwood Mac got their versions of Train Kept A Rollin' from (it was originally a jump blues by Tiny Bradshaw, Burnette's guitarist Paul Burlison came up with the guitar riff, it's the first white record to feature a fuzz-tone sounding guitar thanks to a loose amp tube, or as you call ' em valve).

    Posted by James Marshall at 4:34 PM GMT 15/02/2009 Report Abuse

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  • RE: The Rude One
    My thoughts exactly. Lux was one of the greats. He was not some pastiche of rock and roll, but the absolute, complete real deal. I was expecting the announcement of a new Cramps record on page 9 of this weeks NME whilst flicking through it in Tesco's (I didn't notice the sentence on the front cover). The last thing I expected was to be confronted with the tragic news about Lux's death. Disbelief turned to grief and tears came soon after.
    To me, The Cramps were the last great true rock and roll band on this planet. Even though I didn't know the man personally, I will miss him terribly.
    My thoughts are with Ivy.

    Posted by Anonymous at 7:51 PM GMT 15/02/2009 Report Abuse

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  • I can't help but thinking how much Poison Ivy is suffering after such an intensive relationship. All my love to her.
    And Lux on next Mojo's cover!

    Posted by Bilbao at 12:37 PM GMT 23/02/2009 Report Abuse

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  • So, Lux Interior was really human ? Till now, I thought The Cramps were from another planet. They were actually. The firt time I saw The Cramps was in the streets of Rouen, Normandy, in 1981 when "Psychedelic Jungle" was just out.I was a kid and well impressed by the sight of Brian Gregory. The Cramps were my first GIG in Paris, exactly the 6th June 1984, 40 years after D-Day, for "Smell of Female". That night, the french riot police charged us and there was that massive fight in the streets between all the tribes of the rock jungle and the skinheads and then against the cops. I would never be the same again. Thank you Lux, you've opened my ears to the best music the world will ever have. You were a legend alive. The legend will live on !

    Posted by Djaibee Ashe at 9:06 PM GMT 06/03/2009 Report Abuse

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  • mojo needs a lux interior issue,dedicated to all things psycobilly,if Morresy can get on the cover ,then another ramones issue (flog a dead horse i bit more,even for a big ramones fan)lets pay some dues mojo you know they can,t be matched ,forget white stripes,forget kings of leon,black keys ect...the cramps are eternal rock gods.

    Posted by azaroth at 11:44 PM GMT 11/06/2011 Report Abuse

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  • mojo needs a lux interior issue,dedicated to all things psycobilly,if Morresy can get on the cover ,then another ramones issue (flog a dead horse i bit more,even for a big ramones fan)lets pay some dues mojo you know they can,t be matched ,forget white stripes,forget kings of leon,black keys ect...the cramps are eternal rock gods.

    Posted by azaroth at 11:44 PM GMT 11/06/2011 Report Abuse

    Reply to this post

  • mojo needs a lux interior issue,dedicated to all things psycobilly,if Morresy can get on the cover ,then another ramones issue (flog a dead horse i bit more,even for a big ramones fan)lets pay some dues mojo you know they can,t be matched ,forget white stripes,forget kings of leon,black keys ect...the cramps are eternal rock gods.

    Posted by azaroth at 11:46 PM GMT 11/06/2011 Report Abuse

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