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 2009. 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. T ...

from 1976 until his death in 2009 at age 62.

Early life

Born in

Akron, Ohio Akron () is a city in Summit County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Ohio, fifth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 190,469 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Akron metr ...

, he grew up in its nearby suburb of Stow and graduated from Stow High School.

Career

He met his partner Kristy Wallace, better known as Poison Ivy, in

Sacramento Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the seat of Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers in Northern California's Sacramento Valley, Sacramento's 2020 p ...

in 1972, when he and a friend picked her up while 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 (or punkabilly) is a rock music fusion genre that fuses elements of rockabilly and punk rock. It has been defined as "loud frantic rockabilly music", it has also been said that it "takes the traditional country rock, countrified rock ...

, 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 singer-songwriter. Most of his music contains themes of sorrow, moral tribulation, and redemption, especially songs from the later stages of his career. ...

's song, " One Piece at a Time", and

gothabilly Gothabilly (sometimes hellbilly) is music genre influenced by rockabilly and the 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 bl ...

. 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'' is an American daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper in the U.S. and the large ...

'' In 2002 Lux Interior voiced a character on the ''

SpongeBob SquarePants ''SpongeBob SquarePants'' is an American animated television series, animated comedy television series created by marine science educator and animator Stephen Hillenburg for Nickelodeon. It first aired as a sneak peek after the 1999 Kids' C ...

'' episode "Party Pooper Pants" – the lead singer of an all-bird rock band called the Bird Brains, performing "Underwater Sun", written and composed by Stephen Hillenburg and Peter Strauss.

Tom Kenny Thomas James Kenny (born July 13, 1962) is an American actor and comedian. He has been voicing SpongeBob SquarePants (character), the titular character in ''SpongeBob SquarePants'' and associated media since its debut in 1999. Kenny has voice ...

, who voices SpongeBob, attended his memorial ceremony in 2009. Interior was also a painter (mainly in his college years) and

visual artist The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics (art), ceramics, photography, video, image, filmmaking, design, crafts, and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual a ...

. 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 U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. The cause of death was

aortic dissection Aortic dissection (AD) occurs when an injury to the innermost layer of the aorta allows blood to flow between the layers of the aortic wall, forcing the layers apart. In most cases, this is associated with a sudden onset of agonizing ches ...

. 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. 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

* * * * {{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