Erick Lee Purkhiser (October 21, 1946 – February 4, 2009), better known by the stage name Lux Interior, was an American singer and a founding member of the American rock band
the Cramps
The Cramps were an American rock band formed in 1976 and active until 2006. Their lineup rotated frequently during their existence, with the husband-and-wife duo of singer Lux Interior and guitarist Poison Ivy the only ever-present members. ...
from 1972
until his death in 2009 at age 62.
Early life
Born in
Akron, Ohio
Akron () is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Summit County. It is located on the western edge of the Glaciated Allegheny Plateau, about south of downtown Cleveland. As of the 2020 Census, the city ...
, he grew up in its nearby suburb of
Stow and graduated from
Stow High School.
Career
He met his wife
Kristy Wallace
Kristy Wallace (born 3 January 1996) is an Australian basketball player for the Indiana Fever of the WNBA and for the Melbourne Boomers of the Women's National Basketball League (WNBL). She played college basketball for the Baylor Lady Bear ...
, better known as Poison Ivy, a.k.a. Ivy Rorschach, in
Sacramento
)
, image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg
, mapsize = 250x200px
, map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...
in 1972, when he and a friend picked her up when she was hitchhiking.
The couple founded the band after they moved from California to Ohio in 1973, and then to New York in 1975, where they soon became part of the flourishing punk scene.
Style
Lux Interior's name came "from an old car commercial", after he previously flirted with the names Vip Vop and Raven Beauty, while his wife's name change was inspired by "a vision she received in a dream".
The couple called their musical style
psychobilly
Psychobilly is a rock music fusion genre that fuses elements of rockabilly and punk rock. It's been defined as "loud frantic rockabilly music", it has also been said that it "takes the traditional countrified rock style known as rockabilly, ram ...
, a word that appears in the lyrics of
Johnny Cash
John R. Cash (born J. R. Cash; February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003) was an American country singer-songwriter. Much of Cash's music contained themes of sorrow, moral tribulation, and redemption, especially in the later stages of his c ...
's song, "
One Piece at a Time
"One Piece at a Time" is a country novelty song written by Wayne Kemp and recorded by Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Three in 1976. It was the last song performed by Cash to reach No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart and the last of ...
", and
gothabilly
Gothabilly (sometimes hellbilly) is music genre influenced by rockabilly and goth subculture. The name is a portmanteau word that combines ''gothic'' and ''rockabilly'', first used by the Cramps in the late 1970s to describe their somber blend o ...
.
The band later said that they were just using the phrases as "carny terms to drum up business."
Interior was known for a frenetic and provocative stage show that included high heels, near-nudity and sexually suggestive movements. His speciality was the microphone
blow job, where he could get the entire head of an
SM-58 microphone into his mouth. The Cramps gave their last show in November 2006.
When asked why he continued to play live well into middle age, he told the ''
LA Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
''
In 2002 Lux Interior performed the voice of a character on ''
SpongeBob SquarePants
''SpongeBob SquarePants'' (or simply ''SpongeBob'') is an American Animated series, animated Television comedy, comedy Television show, television series created by marine science educator and animator Stephen Hillenburg for Nickelodeon. It ...
'' – the lead singer of an all-bird rock band called the Bird Brains.
, who voices SpongeBob, attended his memorial ceremony in 2009.
Interior was also a painter (mainly in his college years) and
visual artist. In particular he was a
3D camera collector and enthusiast who used his collection to create artworks and collages.
Death
Lux Interior died at 4:30 a.m. on February 4, 2009, at Glendale Memorial Hospital in
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
. The cause of death was
aortic dissection. He was survived by his wife Ivy and two brothers, Michael Purkhiser
and Ronald "Skip" Purkhiser, as well as a son from a previous marriage named Mischa Shane Graef. The memorial service for Lux was held on February 21 at the Windmill Chapel of the
Self-Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine. Lux's brother Michael also provided insight into his relationship with Lux in a newspaper article.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Interior, Lux
1946 births
2009 deaths
Psychobilly musicians
Gothabilly musicians
Singers from Ohio
The Cramps members
Musicians from Akron, Ohio
20th-century American singers
Deaths from aortic dissection