Raymond Pettibon was born Raymond Ginn in June 1957 in Tucson, Arizona. Greg Ginn, his older brother, was born three years earlier.
For those unfamiliar with the long-running band - let’s dive into a quick history lesson around the influential hardcore/punk group.
Greg Ginn formed the band, originally named Panic, in 1976. The name was changed in late 1978 to avoid confusion with another band with the same name. It was Pettibon who suggested the name Black Flag after both an insecticide and its similarity to the name Black Sabbath. With that, he designed their iconic “bars” logo which has become a cultural symbol on its own.
Greg formed the band with Keith Morris and Brian Migdol.
Shortly after, they were joined by Chuck Dukowski and began playing shows in the Southern California region. Morris would leave in 1978 to form his own band, Circle Jerks. He was replaced by Ron Reyes, who wouldn’t stick around long but stayed long enough to cut the EP “Jealous Again” and be featured in Penelope Spheeris’ documentary around punk music, “The Decline of the Western Civilization.”
Drummer Migdol would also leave and be replaced by Roberto Valverde, aka 'Robo'. Dez Cadena would join on vocals and the band would begin touring around the United States. It was on these stops, at the time of DC band State of Alert, they met future vocalist Henry Rollins. Cadena wanted to move to second guitar anyway, so the band invited Henry Rollins to join as their fourth and most iconic vocalist.
He would stay with the band until their breakup in 1986. Bassists and drummers would come and go, but it’s worth mentioning the arrival of bassist Kira Roessler and drummer Bill Stevenson, who is most known for his role in the long-running band, The Descendents.
With all of these changes in the lineups and sound, the main constant would always be band leader Greg Ginn and Pettibon’s art.
In late 1982, the band was embroiled in a legal battle with their label, Unicorn Records, a subsidiary of MCA. The previous year, Unicorn poorly distributed their album, “Damaged,” so the band decided to reissue it themselves on Ginn’s own label, SST Records. Unicorn claimed breach of contract. The band contested the proceedings since MCA refused to distribute the album since they deemed it an "anti-parent" album.
These legal issues would tie up the band for two years, so they played shows in order to raise money to cover their mounting legal fees. Black Flag released Everything Went Black in 1982 (which featured pre-Henry Rollins era recordings) originally without their name or logo on the cover in an effort to circumvent their contract, but it would ultimately lead Black Flag's guitarist Greg Ginn and SST's Joe Carducci to do several days in LA County Jail.
This 8.5" x 11" offset lithograph poster features performances over the two-day event by Redd Kross, The Dicks, Saccharine Trust, and more. Original copies of early hardcore/punk flyers are very rare and hard to come by in any good condition, especially since the SST gang was known for wheat-pasting their flyers to telephone poles around the LA area.
After sorting out their legal woes, the band returned to the studio to record “My War,” which was released in March 1984. The initial reaction was polarized due to the band slowing down things on the b-side and moving in more of a metallic direction. This would later greatly influence the grunge movement and is viewed as one of their strongest works, especially by those outside of the hardcore/punk community.
They wouldn’t be quiet for long and they would resume their herculean tour schedule along with a slew of releases, one after another. September 1984 would see the release of “Family Man,” a mostly spoken word with instrumentals on the b-side and the full band featured on only one track.
December 1984 would see the release of the full-length “Slip It In,” as well as live album, “Live 1984.” In May of 1985, they would return again with “Loose Nut” and in September of the same year, EP “The Process of Weeding Out.” October would see the release of their last official full-length album, “In My Head”. The release would be the last album to feature art officially by long-time collaborator Raymond Pettibon. The rumor is that the band cut up his artwork to create the art for the album, which caused him to vow to never work with the band ever again.
The band recorded a live set at Starry Night in Portland, Oregon on August 23, 1985. This was released in March 1986 as “Who’s Got the 10½?,” which Henry Rollins regarded as his favorite Black Flag material. The poster for the event was designed by a young Mike King.
The band would break up in 1986 and Greg Ginn would go on to focus on other projects such as Gone and running SST Records.
The label would release early albums by Dinosaur Jr., Sonic Youth, and Soundgarden, to name a few. Singer Henry Rollins would make a huge impact on pop culture as the frontman of the Rollins Band & eventually as a radio/TV broadcaster and sometimes actor.
In 2003, Greg Ginn reformed the band for a three-night run as a benefit for cat rescues, a passion of Ginn’s. He was joined on vocals by skateboarder Mike Vallely and joined by former guitarist Dez Cadena and drummer Robo. In 2010, Greg joined Ron Reyes for three songs to celebrate Ron’s 50th birthday. This would lead to a full-fledged reunion in 2013.
The reunion would lead to their first album in eighteen years titled, “What The…?”. Instead of art by Pettibon, the band would use artwork by singer Reyes. The effort was maligned by critics and not well regarded by fans of the band. Greg Ginn fired Ron mid-set in Australia which led to Mike Vallely joining as the full-time singer. The band would quietly go on hiatus in 2014. They would return briefly in 2019 before hitting the road in 2022 and into the present.
Where are they now?
Former member, Henry Rollins has played Black Flag covers in the past, but has mostly retired from live performances, outside of speaking engagements. Original singer Keith Morris went on to create a name for himself as the frontman of legendary band Circle Jerks. In more recent years he formed Off!, whose artwork was almost exclusively done by Raymond Pettibon. The other members, including Morris, would form FLAG. The lineup included Dez Cadena, Bill Stevenson, Chuck Dukowski, and guest guitarist Stephen Egerton.
Ginn’s label has been often criticized for not paying his artists royalties, with some former acts saying they have never seen any money from the label. Jim Ruland, the author of “Corporate Rock Sucks: The Rise and Fall of SST Records” reported that Sonic Youth, being tired of not receiving payments, left for Geffen in 1988.
Ruland claims, “the label that had taken on corporate rock transformed from David the underdog into a humorless Goliath hell-bent on making its opponents pay.”
Meat Puppets raised the same “irregularities” and Greg Ginn sued them for libel. Coming from the world of DIY punk rock, it was seen as a bad thing to sign with a major label, but bands on SST and similar small labels were left asking, 'what was the difference between the devil you knew and the multi-conglomerate if both were going to not pay you fairly?' At least the huge label might buy you a house in the process.
There’s plenty more that can be said about Greg Ginn and SST Records but either way, it’s hard to shake the impact Black Flag, SST Records, and the art of Raymond Pettibon has had on the world of punk, hardcore, metal, and on into alternative rock. The aesthetics and work ethic pioneered by Greg and his brother are still seen in the music industry today & the touring networks the crew feverishly carved out during their heyday.
Pettibon still works as a respected artist to this day and his art can be seen in the Museum of Modern Art.
