From Rock Star to Art Star: David Yow

It’s hard to keep a band going strong when hospital bills are almost as high as touring revenues. Yet for 30 years, frontman David Yow repeatedly dove from stages and clambered across crowds – suffering cuts, bruises, and worse. Most recently, he collapsed a lung while overexerting himself at a show by his former band Qui. And that’s nothing compared to his shows in the ‘90s with the Jesus Lizard, one of the most exciting and volatile live alt-punk bands of the era.

During one concert at New York’s legendary CBGB, a creepy-looking, lumberjack-sized dude with mental-hospital-eyes scrambled onstage, grabbed the singer in a fireman’s hold, and leapt back into the crowd. When slammed against the ground, Yow lost consciousness for what seemed like five minutes while the rest of the band vamped on a syncopated, surging rhythm. Tension enveloped the room and the level of concern rose to the point where it looked like it was time to end the show and call 911. Then Yow came to, staggered back to the stage, and finished the show. Another time in Zurich, he wasn’t so resilient.

“I jumped into the audience and they parted and I got knocked out,” says Yow. “The other guys kept playing for a little while but [bassist] David Simms said he stopped when he saw my eyes were open but I wasn’t moving and the puddle of blood under my head was getting bigger. They took me to the hospital. I speak a little bit of German, so when they were taking me out on the gurney to the ambulance I kept repeating, ‘nichts ist falsch, nichts ist falsch,’ which means ‘nothing’s wrong.’ The tour manager said I kept telling the medical technician he had a lovely moustache.”

Here, in the latest installment of “From Rock Star to Art Star,” Yow tells more tales of his rock ‘n’ roll adventures from the courtyard studio where he now works on the drawings, paintings, and collages seen here.