Hector Penalosa is mostly known for bassist of the Zeros, but he has also played/plays in numerous bands including the Avengers, the Dragons, F-Word, Baja Bugs, MCM And The Monster, Zeros 77, and has appeared on a ton of albums including the Zeros catalog, Flying Color, and others including several solo albums. He’s always telling me stories whenever I see him, so I decided to have him over to record some of them for history’s sake. After all, he’s been playing since he was a kid and has 6 decades worth of musical experiences to share! We talked for over 3 and a half hours, covering most of his whole career (there’s a lot to cover here!) We probably could have talked for another 3 hours. I’m splitting this interview into 6 parts, each one being released for the next few Tuesdays.
Part 1 covers learning how to play, the formation of the Zeros, what San Diego and Los Angeles was like in the early days of punk, and playing not only the first punk show in San Diego, but also the first punk show in LA!
Audio is in the youTube link below. Pictures and transcription are below it.
Ted: We’re talking to Hector Penalosa from the Zeros and other bands, a lot of other bands.
Hector: Oh man, I’ve had a lot.
Ted: Why don’t you tell me, how and when did you first get into music?
Hector: When I was probably around seven. My dad was a musician. He was a pianist and he had an incredible record collection. Anything from classical to jazz and everything in between. And when I discovered the records, he didn’t want me to put them on the turntable because he thought I wouldn’t be able to be careful with them. So when he would go to work, I would put them on the turntable and my mom would be really nice about that and “just make sure they’re okay”, you know, and she wouldn’t tell my dad that I would do this. And I was exploring vinyl and one record that really caught my ear was Cy Coleman’s “The Ages of Rock”. It’s basically classical pieces performed with electric instruments, and drums, along with the piano or the harpsichord. And it really caught my ear. I thought it was really interesting, you know, Mozart pieces and what have you.
And the other one was The Supreme’s “Greatest Hits”. That was really something because the songwriting was incredible. Holland/Dozier, you know? “I Hear A Symphony” was my favorite cut on that. It was a double LP, but that song for whatever reason, I had to keep playing it over and over. And “Run Run Run” is a really great song on that record.
So that was sort of my introduction to records and music. We’re talking mid-1960s, ‘67. I did catch a couple of Beatles cartoons on Saturday mornings, but I was watching the cartoons more as a kid watching cartoons, rather being interested on what they were like playing or singing about, you know? And the Beatles did influence me, but not until 1971.
Ted: Yeah, I was going to say, how and when did you get into the Beatles?
Hector: If you recall, you might be a little younger, but when the Beatles broke up in 1970, the whole world was basically mourning that breakup, right? They’re like, “oh no, the Beatles broke up.”
Ted: I was only three.
Hector: But it was like, no matter what radio station you were listening to, they were playing the Beatles. Or if you got on the TV, the news report was “the Beatles are breaking up”, you know? Oh! And another thing I remember when I was five or around six or seven was I went to the movies and we saw “Help!”. My babysitter took me to see “Help!” in San Pedro. And I didn’t really want to go, but she bribed me. She bought me a toy at Thrifty’s, across the street from the movie theater. And I remember sitting in the movie theater, and with all these kids and the movie starts and everybody just went bananas. They’re screaming and it was “Help!” and “Born Free”, the second movie. And then we sat through “Born Free” so we could watch “Help!” again.
Ted: Oh wow. So you liked it?
Hector: Yeah, I was a little kid. I mean, yeah, I was watching it, but it didn’t really like click anything in me. But I definitely caught the excitement of all the kids in the movie theater. I thought, “Man, they’re really going crazy on this thing.: I mean, I was too young to appreciate the Beatles for who they were until later when they broke up. And I remember when I heard a song on the radio during that year when they broke up, I went “I’ve heard those voices before.” That’s the first thing that I remember. I recognize those voices! You know? And then I hear more then it starts really grabbing my attention. The more I heard those songs on the radio, I finally made the connection. “Oh, that’s that movie I saw!” “That’s the cartoon I used to watch.” And then I was like, “Okay, I get it!” And around that around ‘70, ‘71, my dad and my mom had broken up. And so it was a very like dysfunctional marriage, you know, and I didn’t want to get too caught up in the bummer part of that and end up being depressed because I don’t have parents that can get along. And music became my escape, actually. And really the Beatles music that it was my happy place to go to, you know, and then I was like, “Oh, I want to play these songs. I want to play guitar.” And that’s how I started getting into being a musician. And I became obsessed with it. I guess at that time, I never realized it was a therapy of sorts, for me to be in a positive spot as opposed to be (moaning) “Oh, my parents suck…” You know, I was like, “Yeah, okay, I’m going to do this. And I don’t have to think about that!”, you know, that kind of thing. I didn’t think of it back then, but I realized that it was like that was my escape from that.
Ted: And so the Beatles inspired you to be a musician.
Hector: Oh, yeah, totally. You know, and I just went at it for like two or three years. I didn’t have proper schooling for guitar. My aunt had lent me this $20 guitar that you could buy at the Tijuana border when you crossed into the US. It was a rough start, but I got through the learning curve to the point where I had a little book that had guitar chords on it and showed you how to play these Beatles songs and stuff. So I finally put one and one together. “Oh, that’s how you make a guitar chord!” And I strummed it and it was the A chord. I’ll remember that always. And it was like “chiinnnggg!”, like a choir of angels! Super clean and crisp and very distinct. And I went, “Oh my God! I made it! I broke through the wall!” And I just even got more crazy. I was like, “I got to play more!”, you know, “got to play more! Got to play more!” I just kept at it and kept at it. We didn’t have YouTube. We didn’t have tape recorders that you could just sort of play on. So I would slap the record on my little portable record player and try to play along.
Ted: So you started with actual guitar, not bass.
Hector: Yeah. I started with guitar. Yeah. And I was playing that guitar for about three to four years. I was just strumming and trying to pick out those little George Harrison (sings some guitar riffs) on one string.
Ted: Did you ever have lessons?
Hector: You know, when I had already invested three, three years around there, I found out there was a free guitar lesson class at a Chula Vista Community Center in Hilltop area up there. And so I took the bus out there one day and I took my guitar and I was playing left handed upside down and I never changed the strings…
Ted: I wanted to ask you about that. That’s how you learned.
Hector: Yeah, that’s how I learned.
Ted: Left handed upside down.
Hector: I knew that after having read these music books, you know, that the strings should have been turned around…
Ted: Why didn’t you do that? Or you just didn’t know?
Hector: I didn’t know! I didn’t know anybody. (laughs) You know, they say the bumblebees don’t realize they’re too heavy to fly, but they still go out and fly. So the teacher, he was this young sort of hippie guy kid, and I said, “Hey, you know, I know that I’m supposed to switch the strings around, but this is how I learned how to play upside down and I mean, should I do that?” He goes, “No, you’re just going to get more confused.”He said “Unless you’re going to be a jazz guitarist, I could see you having to do that. But if you’re just going to play basic chords and that kind of stuff, just leave it alone.” And I took his advice. Isn’t that crazy?
Ted: Well, I think it’s totally insane that you play left handed. Well, left handed is fine, but upside down too. So you can’t do Ramones songs with the down strokes. Do you have to do up strokes every time or do you just strum?
Hector: I just strum. And, you know, it’s interesting because once you mix in the drums and the other guitar or the other bass and the singing, you can really even tell that it’s going the wrong strum direction. Okay. It just sort of blends in, you know, it’s kind of weird, you know.
Ted: I always told you that, wow, this really blows my mind the way you play, but you’ve told me it’s not that unusual. Jimi Hendrix?
Hector: Albert King is definitely one that plays with upside down. Jimi Hendrix did switch his strings around. I know that McCartney can play both ways. I’ve seen him in photos where he would pick up like John Lennon’s guitar. And I would be going, oh, he’s just making an E chord right there, upside down. But when he plays his own guitars, they’re strung for lefty. The same thing. He probably learned on the right hand guitar for a little bit, you know, to the point where he finally realized, oh, maybe I should switch it around. Because that was the other thing: One of the reasons was that when I did want an electric guitar, left handed instruments were considered a custom job and they were very expensive. So if you didn’t have that kind of money, just go get a righty and flip it around. And maybe if you want to switch the strings around, you switch the strings around. But in my case, I would just learn just by flipping it over.
Ted: Now you also told me before that you learned how to play to the New York Dolls album.
Hector: Oh, yeah. That was set out right around the time that I met the Zeros, you know, before they were the Zeros. I mean, Baba. And I met Baba Chenelle, the drummer. That was 1975. And we met in Chula Vista Junior High. And I had been playing guitar up to that point. And Baba and I became friends and he would play his drums. He had them in his parents’ house in the garage and he was learning how to play the drums, I was learning how to play guitar. I already knew chords…
Ted: How old were you at this time?
Hector: We’re talking 15 years old, 15 going on 16. We became best friends. And I would ride my bicycle. I had a 10-speed Schwinn and I would ride from Broadway and H all the way down to National City to Plaza and Harbison, where his parents live, with my little electric guitar strapped to my back. And he had a little amp over there in his garage. So we’d lock ourselves in the garage and try our best to get better. We sounded horrible, but…
Ted: When I was 15, I knew nothing about the New York Dolls. I didn’t have anyone to expose me to them. Now, being all the way over here in California, how did you discover the New York Dolls? I mean, were they that popular?
Hector: Well, I think what made the Zeros, The Zeros, in regards to the musical influences, and I think I’m pretty much on target, it was Alejandro Escovedo. Javier’s older brother. Before they moved to San Diego, they used to live in Huntington Beach. The Escovedos. And Alejandro was at an age at that time that he could go to Hollywood and see bands at the Whisky or Starwood and stuff. And, you know, these were the kind of bands that were playing up there, you know, the Dolls and Iggy Pop and the Stooges. Those kind of bands. And he was bringing back all this information to Javier, you know, and then Javier was absorbing it to the point where it influenced his songwriting. Because, yeah, when I met Baba, Baba was already, you know, friends with Javier. Robert and Baba, are first cousins, Robert Lopez. And Robert was learning how to play guitar. And basically what happened was Javier started dating Robert’s sister Rhoda in Chula High School….
Ted: All the way back then.
Hector: Yeah, and then Javier wanted to start a band, so Rhoda Lopez said to Javier, “Well, my brother’s learning how to play guitar. You guys should do something.” That’s how they came together. And then Baba always wanted to do something with Robert, band-wise, right, with his cousin. So then they eventually got Baba to be the drummer. And by then Baba and I were really, really good friends. And they needed a bass player. And so Baba kept bugging him to have me play, you know, and they’re like, “Oh, you know, you know…” and it’s funny because at one point, like a couple of weeks went by and I said, “Well, did they say anything? What’s going on?” I would talk to him about it on the phone. And he jokingly said, “They said there’s going to be too many Mexicans in the band.” (laughter) And I remember I was like, “That’s silly. That’s funny though.” You know, I kind of caught on to it. It wasn’t like a discrimination thing, but that’s Baba’s humor. And then he would say that. And I know he probably made it up on the spot. (laughter) That’s how he is.
I ended up playing bass because when I met Baba, I was playing guitar. And then I remember when we’d get together with some friends… one time we got together with two other friends from school who were learning how to play guitar. And it was three guitar players and a drummer, right? And everybody wanted to be Jimmy Page at the same time. And it was, and I was like, “This is crazy. There’s no bass player. I’ll be the bass player!” You know, because we need one. And so I decided to get a bass.
I had a friend in Junior high school at the time, Darren, and he was a trumpet guy and he wanted an electric bass. So we went in halfers. I put in $12.50 that my mom gave me and he put in $12.50 that his mom gave him and we went to the pawnshop on Third Avenue and G Street in Chula Vista and bought a bass out at the pawnshop. And then he would have it one week, and I would have it another week. That went on for a couple of months. And I was like, I really want to keep this thing all the time. And so he wanted a bicycle and I had like a cheap Schwinn stingray copy bicycle thing. So I said “I’ll give you my bicycle for your half of the bass.”
Ted: Do you still have that bass?
Hector: No, that was a long time ago. Like ‘75 or so. And then I took the bass. I went to woodshop in Chula Vista High… it was like shaped like a precision bass and I asked the teacher there (because I wasn’t in the class), I said, “Can you cut this so it looks more symmetrical?” So he did that for me. And then I had an uncle who used to work at Stanley Dodge in the Mile Of Cars, in National City. He was an auto body repair guy. And I took it to him to paint it and goes, “I’m going to teach you how to paint it. You do all the work. I’ll tell you how to do it.” And I learned how to paint from him. And it was really great because I used that for many years for many projects. So then I had somewhat of a left handed bass thing. That’s how I got into bass.
And then when Baba and Javier and Robert were playing, they eventually got a gig in Rosarito. It was a family, a party, somebody related to Javier, like a cousin or something. So we were invited to play for like 20 minutes and then they didn’t have a bass player. So I ended up getting pulled in for that. And that’s how I ended up in the band, you know, down in Rosarito.
Ted: Now they pulled you in for that. Was it like the day of the show or did you rehearse for a little bit?
Hector: Yeah, yeah, we definitely rehearsed. Yeah, maybe two weeks before we did rehearse. And then suddenly there were The Zeros. Robert and Javier had tried to get something going right before Baba and I came in, with two other kids and they were calling themselves the Main Street Brats, but that didn’t last that long. That why we have that song “Main Street Brats”.
Ted: That’s funny because there’s a band in Australia called the Main Street Brats, of course because of The Zeros, so it kind of goes full circle.
Hector: Yeah, that happens a lot. There’s also a band called the Hand Grenade Hearts. Yeah, that’s how the band came together.
Ted: And so you were in high school when this happened.
Hector: At that point, we were… yes. We had just started going to sophomore.
Ted: So were you a big deal in high school?
Hector: No, on the contrary, we were freaks.
Ted: Really?
Hector: Yeah, we were the misfits.
Ted: And you all went to the same high school together?
Hector: Baba was going to Sweetwater in National City. I was going to Chula Vista High. And Robert was, like, I think a year or two ahead of me. Javier had already graduated, I think, at that point. He was always a couple years older than us. You got to remember that, you know, we’re talking late ’76, early 1977. I mean, the most popular music at the time was Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Fleetwood Mac and KISS and ELO. And nobody had heard of the Ramones. There were no Sex Pistols.
Ted: Did you hear about the Ramones? You knew about the New York Dolls.
Hector: Getting back to your question after all this about the New York Dolls… That’s how I discovered New York Dolls was through Baba, because Baba most likely discovered it through Javier or Robert, who discovered it through Javier probably. And that’s how I found out about the Dolls. And I immediately loved the music. I was like, “These guys are awesome”, you know. In regards to the punk rock scene, I will never forget we were at rehearsal one time… Because once we started playing together as a band, we got a rehearsal space off of Sweetwater near the 54 freeway over there. Monthly, you know, we played by the month. It wasn’t a lot of money. We’d meet there and then Robert shows up one day and goes, “I hear there’s this thing called ‘punk rock’ in England.” And we’re like, “What the hell’s that?” Seriously. “What the hell’s that?” And then “It’s like they wear safety pins like a fashion thing.” Safety pins? Like all I could picture was like people wearing diapers. You know, that was back then. Pampers came in around then. I thought, I can’t picture that. And then shortly after that, on day we met at Robert’s house because he lived close to the rehearsal space and he had the Ramones’ first album. He goes “I got the Ramones first album.” You know, and we’re looking at it and going, oh my God, look at these guys, you know, and he slaps it on. And then you listen to “53rd and 3rd” and “Blitzkrieg Bop” and you’re like, oh my God, this is like a whole other thing.
Ted: Now, did that influence you at all? Or you were more New York Dolls in terms of…
Hector: No, we were definitely more Iggy Pop, Stooges, New York Dolls. We also liked like the Seeds, you know, Count Five, all those sort of lesser known Hollywood bands that didn’t really make it big, but they were cool. And then, but when we heard the Ramoes, of course, we were like, okay, this is where it’s going… So yeah, we definitely got inspired by that. And then, but we had nowhere to play in San Diego, there was nothing. You had to be a cover band and look like Lynyrd Skynrd or any of those bands at the time, you know.
Ted: Well, I want to get back to the New York Dolls thing for a second. At the Zeros ‘77 show awhile back, he says, “we were always called the Mexican Ramones, but that’s not true. We were the Mexican New York Dolls”.
Hector: I totally agree.
Ted: I think everyone should agree. I mean, because it’s true and basically from what you just said, who came up with that term? Mexican Ramones and how did that stick? It’s like it seemed to snowball or something…
Hector: Like a barnacle on the side of a boat. That’s for damn sure. But basically, Tomata du Plenty, who was the singer for the Screamers, he was being interviewed by Slash magazine in Hollywood by Claude Bessy, aka Kickboy who was one of the founders of Slash magazine. And he asked him, “What do you think of The Zeros?” I guess it’s the first thing that came to his mind. “They’re like the Mexican Ramones.” I mean, we’re the farthest thing from sounding like the Ramones. And it just stuck.
Ted: Yeah, I heard that for decades.
Hector: Yeah. And if you sit down and play their record and play our record, you’re like, they don’t sound like that. Or vice versa. I always said, “Actually, no, the Ramones were the American Zeros” just to get back at people. (laughs)
Ted: You mentioned about playing gigs and there were no gigs to play. There was no punk rock scene or anything.
Hector: Not in San Diego. Nothing. No.
Ted: But you The Zeros did play the first, I think, punk show in San Diego? At the Adams Avenue Theater?
Hector: Yeah. Yeah. That was almost 79, wasn’t it? Or like ‘78 somewhere in there.
Ted: I heard 1977.
Hector: Oh, maybe it was. Yeah. Maybe it was 1977. Yeah.
Ted: How did that come about? I mean, did you have a manager or somebody was just setting up…?
Hector: We didn’t have any managers.
Ted: …it was the Dils.
Hector: It was the Dils who were the only other San Diego band, but they were from North County. They were from Carlsbad. And it was us, the Dils, I think the Hitmakers with Ron Silva. I’m not sure. I think that was it. I think it was just three bands.
Ted: And that was the first punk rock show in San Diego?
Hector: Yeah. Adams Ave Street Theater.
Ted: How did that do? Were there a lot of people there? Do you remember it?
Hector: Yeah. All my uncles and aunts and grandparents were there. (laughs) You know, we had a lot of family show up. It was great. But it was so new, you know, everything was so new. Like the whole punk rock thing was so new. San Diego was definitely quite a few years behind, catching up because in ‘77, that’s why we had to go to LA to play. We couldn’t do anything here for a band like us. And Javier used to go to the Capitol Records building, Park and Lock Records swap meet. They had it once a month. And by then we had already recorded a demo in Bonita. A five song demo, two of the songs are on the first single, which is “Don’t Push Me Around” and “Wimp”. And he took this cassette up there. And I believe he ran into Peter Case or Paul Collins. I don’t recall, but it was one of the two guys from the Nerves. And they were the ones who put the very first punk rock show in LA, which was at this tiny, tiny little theater called the Orpheum. You had to access it through an alleyway that was parallel to Sunset Boulevard right across from Tower Records when he used to be there.
Ted: Oh, so Viper Room?
Hector: No, it was, it was actually not on the main street. It was in an alleyway in the back. Yeah, the Viper Room was a block farther down what east of Tower Records. No, it was just tiny little hole in the wall. And they got the Weirdos, the Germs first gig. And then they liked our cassette, our songs. And so they got us on the bill. But then the Nerves dropped out and they were going to cancel the gig. And it was Cliff Roman, the rhythm guitar player for the Weirdos, who saved the gig. He says “We’re going to make it happen. Still. We’ll take it over.” And the crazy part was the Damned were in town. Oh, wow. They had been touring that around that time with Television. And Television kicked them off their tour in LA. And they got stranded in LA. And they were hanging out at Bomp Records because everybody would go to Bomp Records, you know. And the Weirdos were on Bomp at that moment. And they took in the Damned to let them stay in… I don’t know which one of the Weirdo guys did… but let them stay in their apartment for a couple days or whatever. And the day of the gig that we played, the Germs opened up. We came on second. I think the Zippers were on the bill. They were on Bomp. They were more poppy. And then the Weirdos headlined. And for their encore, the Captain got on stage with them and played guitar. And that was the first time I heard of The Damned, you know. But it was just so crazy, you know, that they were there.
Ted: and you just saw them last week?
Hector: Well, not only that, but last summer, you know, the Avengers toured with the Damned for two weeks straight. I was playing bass on that tour. It was amazing. But, and that’s how I found out why they were in LA. It was last summer on that tour. The Captain got friendly with us, you know, Captain Sensible, and start hanging out on our dressing room. Because I didn’t want to bother them. I mean, it wasn’t like I was a fanboy. I don’t like to bother people like that. They probably don’t like it anyway (laughs). And I remember I was like, as soon as they were later, they’ll come around, you know, and once they realized that we’re not threatening, we’re not bugging them, they’ll be comfortable with us. And they did, they got comfortable with us. And that’s when I asked the Captain, “Do you remember that back in 1977 in Hollywood when you got up on stage with the Weirdos?” and he’s like, “Oh, yeah”, then he told me that whole story, how they got kicked off the Television tour, man. It’s crazy.
Ted: What do you remember about the Germs?
Hector: That they were terrible. (laughs) Yeah. And the first gig and they admitted that they didn’t know how to play. And you know, Darby was doing the whole Iggy Pop, smearing himself with peanut butter and rolling around on the floor, making a mess. And, and I remember I was like, “Well, you know, they’re not exactly the Beatles.” (laughter) And then they got off stage and we played. And, you know, we were like so shy back then. We were like really shy. We’re kids from Chula Vista were crying out loud, you know, in the middle of all this craziness and we’re like, oh my gosh, we’re really, really like… you know, our eyes will like this all night (holds his eyes wide open). Cause everybody’s dressed in punk and everything. And that was really like our real first exposure to the fashion like that, up close. And I remember I even told Jackie Ramirez who went with us, who was friends with Javier and Robert and Rhoda. And she was a photographer and she came with us and I said, “My God, it looks like it’s Halloween like right in the springtime here.” And she goes, “Well, that’s the fashion, you know.” I said, “ I finally get to see it!” You didn’t have access to those kind of images on the… we didn’t have… Circus Magazine wasn’t posting anything about punk, or Rolling Stone, or any of those magazines were doing any of that. We just heard a couple of times here and there that it existed. And suddenly we were right in the middle of it. And we’re like, “oh, wow, this is really cool.”
Ted: So I heard two stories. One, you played all over San Diego all the time and another where you never played San Diego and basically was mostly playing up in LA. I’m guessing it was mostly LA.
Hector: Yeah, we never played San Diego. There really was nothing, no venues for that kind of music or even for an original band. Even if it wasn’t a band like us, it would have been an original band that was playing whatever melodic, Beatle influenced music or whatever… there really wasn’t anything available. Unless you were like a big name and you were playing the Sports Arena. I don’t know if Humphreys was still in existence back then, but unless you’re touring through town… But one thing I was I came to realize was that San Diego suffered a lot because of its proximity to LA. Everybody goes to LA to play. Everybody was moving to Hollywood to make it. Jake E Lee, who was the guitar player for Ozzy, right? He was from Imperial Beach, but he had to move over there to make it. Yeah, you know, and that happened with a lot of bands, a lot of musicians, you know. If they took themselves seriously, they’d get out of town.
Ted: Did you ever play with the Germs again after they got better?
Hector: I think we did a few more gigs here and there. We played with a lot of bands. I mean, we did a three day punk thing at the Whisky that Kim Fowley put together. And there was like the Deadbeats, the Germs, anybody that was in a punk band, you know, any punk band that was going on, Alley Cats, I think. And that was kind of a big deal. Because that happened right after that Orpheum thing. That was almost like indoctrination of sort for LA like, oh, here we are, take it or leave it!
Ted: So did you ever play with the Runaways?
Hector: No, but I did see them at The Whisky, when we were there. Yeah, that was really cool. And I saw AC/DC at the Whisky!
Ted: That was going to be our next question! How was that?
Hector: Well, that was a crazy night. We were in LA. I think we were playing the next night at the Whisky and I think it was a Saturday we were playing. We got there on a Friday and we were like, “oh, let’s go hang out the Whisky” You know, we’re hanging out or whatever. And then suddenly this band comes on and they’re just rocking out. I didn’t know who they were. I had no clue. Nothing. We just went there to hang out. I didn’t even look at the marquee, probably. And then, you know, I’m watching them and yeah, and I see Angus, you know, little schoolboy outfit and then there’s Bon Scott with no shirt on and then Angus gets on his shoulders. I’m watching going “Wow, these guys are pretty wild!”, you know, and then I just kind of forgot about it. And I honestly thought, that’s probably some band from Orange County or something. (laughter) I really thought that. And then about a month later, I was in, was it Licorice or Peaches record store? There was a record store practically right across from the Whisky… we were back in town and we’re killing time at the record store and I’m sorting through the A section and BOOM! There’s that guy with the school uniform on the cover. I think it was “Powerage.” And I’m going, holy shit, that was AC/DC who I saw. But so new. Everything was so new. And then later on, years later, I came to appreciate that because I became a big fan of theirs. Especially the whole Bon Scott era, even though they’re still good after that. They’re great. You know, “Hell’s Bells” and all that stuff. I love that band.
Ted: What do you remember about seeing the Runaways?
Hector: They were tight and they were great. They were really good, you know.
Ted: They were about the same ages you, right?
Hector: Yeah, yeah. They were a little, yeah, maybe a few years older, but yeah, and they look great on stage and there’s a lot of people there. You know, all the girls look really cool with their instruments, especially Joan Jett, obviously. She got really into the whole punk scene and that was cool that she was more open-minded about that. Because a lot of those bands like were not really accepting.
Ted: It was like it had to be one or the other.
Hector: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because I think the punk scene became a threat because it was new and people were really getting into it. But I got a really funny story about David Lee Roth because one time we were there at the Whisky like maybe to do sound check or something. And Baba and I were hanging out at the entrance at the doorway out there, like on a sidewalk. And the Whisky, as you know, it’s on a corner there on the block. And then you can look down towards the east to the corner and you can see a gas station and the record store across the street and what have you going down towards Tower Records farther down. And Baba and I are standing around and then this guy walks around the corner like that and stands right there on the corner. And I’m like to Baba, “Oh man, look at that guy. Is he some kind of f–?” And he was wearing like a silvery, lame pants with the tassels and a weird matching vest and his hair is all blonde and flowy. And then the guy heard us, right? And he started walking towards the place. (laughter) And Baba and I just ran into the club and disappeared into the club. And then we’re like, Jesus, man, you know, and the same thing happened! Later on… I’m looking at a record store. And who do I see on the Van Halen record cover? It was that guy on the corner! David Lee Roth! Oh my God. From what I recall, they weren’t too crazy about the punk scene, but whatever. (laughs)
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