GG Allin: epic punk rock dude, part of counterculture or just human trash?

To the reader,

Please make sure that you read my substack post and all the hyperlinks. The hyperlinks are my receipts to backup my piece.

For survivors reading this, the links provide a lot of detail about the brutality of a sexual assault, so please take care of yourself when reading this post or the links. Being blunt about this is essential because men (and some women, let's be honest here) do not understand how serious this topic is.

I have wanted to write a piece about GG Allin for years, and I was planning to do so in February this year. However, I didn't have enough confidence in myself because I knew that any time a girl expressed her opinion about punk music, toxic boys came for blood. 2 days ago, a noise artist named Danny Tantrum made the news for eating his own shit mid concert. It was considered "art" This particular piece talks about the punk scene being divisive about GG Allin. I am sure it is regarding his lyrics and stage antics. Now, GG Allin's name is all over the internet again. I take serious issue with how the media remembers GG Allin and how they choose what to discuss about him.

This is not my first time challenging punk boys or music scene boys about GG Allin. I have always been articulate, factual, and presented receipts. Still, some of you boys don't seem to understand the problem with GG Allin.

Here is a little back story for those who might not know who GG Allin was.

GG Allin was a punk musician who started the band GG Allin and The Murder Junkies from New York, USA. The band had songs and lyrics that pushed many boundaries in society in general. I mean, with songs like "Cunt Sucking Cannibal", and "Shove That Warrant Up Your Ass", it's hard not to see how GG appealed to "the fuck you and the system" that punk rockers held so dear.

GG Allin was well known for stage antics, from shitting on stage, shooting up on stage, self-abuse, smashing bottles on his head, and beating up his audience. GG Allin’s stage presence went completely against EVERYTHING in the punk scene. It was more chaotic than seeing The Sex Pistols on stage, which is why many punkers still revere that dude as an epic punk rocker and part of the counterculture scene because of his songs and stage act.

Now, here is the thing: When I think of counterculture, I think of George Carlin; I don't think of GG Allin. Counterculture technically refers to a group of people who oppose the norms of society, embrace unconventional lifestyles, and seek to challenge the dominant social order of society. We really have to be careful who we categorize as counterculture.

Being a punk, I am familiar with the mosh pits and concert scene rules. You don't go to the front of the stage unless you are ready to get slammed hard in a pit. At the same time, there is an unspoken etiquette to the pit where you don't cause harm intentionally,and you pick up the people that fall down; not everyone follows that etiquette, and you can't get mad. You went into that pit knowing that shit was a possibility to happen.

GG Allin had a reputation for his violent antics on stage as well as to his audience members, so to me… if you went to a GG Allin show, you knew what you getting into back then; no one protected women at a GG show and it was all under a guise of that GG treated men and women equally with assaulting them. That’s my opinion.

The wiki page for GG Allin briefly describes his trial and imprisonment. The problem is, whoever wrote this part, did not do their due diligence to ensure the information was detailed and accurate. This (in my opinion) perpetuates GG Allin as an epic punk rock dude or a person in counterculture.

GG Allin was on Jerry Springer and called himself a "Rock N Roll Terrorist." I mean, are you okay with him bragging about forcing women to suck his cock or have sex with him on stage? But Nikki, you said that you know what you are getting into when you go to a GG show. Well, for the mosh pit, but I mean, sexual assault is sexual assault.

But Nikki! It was all for show; it was all on stage! It was his gimmick! So, let me get this straight, punk rock boys, you are okay with a man sexually assaulting a woman as long as it is just in the performance?

So let me break it down for you, my readers, why GG Allin is human trash.

It's not because he defecated on stage and ate it. It's not because Allin assaulted men and women at his shows. It's because he used that "fuck you, Im punk rock" persona to do as he pleased, and the results were him being criminally charged and served time for brutally assaulting a woman.

GG Allin was charged with no contest to beating and burning a 25-year-old woman (she was in the hospital for 12 days). You either had to be an avid reader of Maximum Rock n Roll zine back in the day or a super Google search person to find all the information in regards to GG Allin's criminal charges. The link I am providing you, I have archived through internet archives; however, I didn't know how to attach tags to make it easier to find.

This oocities link details GG Allin's statement about the event, the victim's statement, and the judge's conclusion. That link has a lot of information, but if you have the attention of a goldfish; here is what I feel is the most important excerpt from that link.

begin quote "A rock musician was ordered Friday to spend 18 months to four years in prison for severely burning and cutting an Ann Arbor woman after she invited him into her apartment.

Although Kevin M. Allin pleaded no contest in November to the felonious assault charge, he claimed Friday in Washtenaw Circuit Court that the woman's burn injury "was an accident." His court-appointed attorney, Assistant Public Defender R. William Schooley, said "the entire case is bizarre... deviant." Judge William F. Ager Jr., who sentenced Allin, remarked that, "I understand there are lifestyles which this court does not understand." Allin, 33, was charged with injuring the young woman so seriously by burning one of her legs with a cigarette lighter and cutting her that she required 12 days of hospitalization for skin grafts and other treatment.

Allin, from New Hampshire, claims to lead "the most violent rock and roll band in the country." He has described beating himself unconscious and knocking out his own teeth while on stage. He said Friday he feels "somewhat blackmailed." This is his first felony conviction.

He was originally charged with assaulting the Ann Arbor woman with intent to commit great bodily harm after she invited him and members of his band into her North Fourth Avenue apartment. Prosecutors dropped that charge when Allin agreed to plead no contest to the lesser charge of felonious assault. Immediately before Allin was sentenced, Public Defender Schooley said the woman made several untrue allegations when she testified on the day of his no-contest plea and in a probation agent's report on the case. Schooley said the medical reports do not support the woman's contention that Allin burned her in the back of her throat, dripped candle wax into her leg burn, and forced her to drink a glassful of cigarette butts in an unidentified liquid. The woman made a victim-impact statement on Dec. 8 in Ager's courtroom, as allowed by state law. She said, "I am very, very sad. I feel very deep sorrow that humans can be so cruel..."

Judge Ager noted that his sentence for Allin is "slightly above" the minimum prison term of 12 months suggested in state guidelines. The judge said he is not punishing Allin for his lifestyle, but because he pleaded no contest to a charge that he is responsible for "burns that required hospitalization and skin grafting on her left leg, cuts on both cheeks, and half moon cuts around both breasts." End quote

I am sure some people will say, "Well, this is only one woman, and he served his time, so…" This isn't robbing someone or stealing a car. GG Allin brutalized a woman, and to be fair, we should all know by now, that it is never just one woman. One woman was brave enough to come forward and be retraumatized again through a court process in the hopes of getting justice. I mean do I really need to talk about Bill Cosby, or others to prove my point?

We will never end sexual violence towards women if we don't give safe spaces for these frank conversations to happen and ensure accountability. I firmly believe in accountability and consequences, and many confuse consequences with "cancelling" a person.

Do I think that sometimes people bandwagon and outrage over the dumbest stuff and think there should be severe consequences for it? Yes, yes, I do.

This is not one of those times.

Don't get it twisted. I am not out here to cancel GG Allin fans but to educate you. I am not saying that you have to throw out your GG Allin albums and never listen to the dude again. Still, I want to remind you that you are either an ally to women who are brutalized by acknowledging that, yes, a man can be human trash and create art or be in sports, etc .. at the same time. We have more access to information now than ever before, and I am here to remind every music writer and fan- we all need to be better educated on topics as well as understanding that some sources are not the greatest sources (case in point - the vice article and the wiki page)

This piece is dedicated to all sexual assault survivors, regardless of age, gender, lifestyle, or religion, who may not feel comfortable telling their story, I see you, and I stand in solidarity with you.