Get the latest gossip

‘My bandmates looked like escaped prisoners’: farewell to queer punk icon Gary Floyd

In the final interview before his death last week, the frontman of the Dicks remembered how ‘defying anybody’ led to some of the best US punk of the 80s – and mayonnaise-filled condoms

Having moved from the small Texan town of Palestine as a young man, his politics and irrepressible attitude were shaped while working as a janitor at a psychiatric hospital in Houston – employment he’d been assigned as a conscientious objector to the Vietnam war. Formed in 1980, they released the classic Dicks Hate the Police EP (the title track later covered by grunge mainstays Mudhoney), and live performances might involve drag, chocolate frosting clawed from panties and mayonnaise-filled condoms hurled into the audience. Hinduism and Buddhism help him navigate a world that seems somehow worse than in his piss-and-vinegar punk years, and he certainly seemed happy – San Francisco residents became familiar with the sight of Floyd piloting his Rascal mobility scooter as he doled out pet treats to local dogs.

Get the Android app