We don't have a King's X thread yet? That's strange but also not. Here's a Facebook post I made about them when I took my son to see them about five years ago.
I go a long way back with King's X. I can't say I grew up on them but most of my adult life has had an epiphany of some sort with the group.
Back when I read almost everything from almost every music magazine I could get my hands on, I read in either Rolling Stone or SPIN about this upstart group from Houston who was supporting Robert Plant on the heels of a debut album Out of the Silent Planet (album).
The band was made up of "two hippies and a black dude with a mohawk," and I was intrigued. It didn't hurt that the label that released it, Megaforce Records, was renowned for it's metallic output. So I immediately picked up a vinyl copy and I was immediately hooked on the band's mix of crunchy guitar, soulful harmonized vocals and Beatlesque melodies.
When I was doing my fanzine, the band played The Bayou: DC's Killer Joint and I arranged to interview the band. It was the first soundcheck I ever watched. I loved the opening band Galactic Cowboys so much that I interviewed them after they played and then I interviewed King's X.
They put up with my early attempt at an interview nicely and after we walked to their van, I remember them talking about how they hated being tagged a Christian band because of the rules they would have to follow.
Either Ty Tabor or Jerry Gaskill joked around "I want to say to them, fuck you, how's that for being Christian!"
They were the first band I really got to hang out with for an extended period of time and they were so nice and unassuming to me when I was a dumb kid.
A few years later they played what might be the best show I ever saw a band do, and that's rarified air since I have seen literally over a thousand concerts at this point.
It was at the LIMELIGHT NYC, the famed church in NYC. A nascent Alice in Chains supported. They were very good but King's X was in a zone.
Despite a few things against them - the show was during the CMJ Music Marathon which meant even more industry people peppered the crowd than even the standard New York show, and Doug claimed to be a little under the weather.
Didn't matter. Front and center, I saw this band simply take the whole room on a spiritual journey with them. It was phenomenal.
I remember scribbling on a piece of paper "You are amazing" and holding it up for Doug Pinnick who looked at it and smiled at me appreciatively.
At some point I interviewed the band in the Atlantic Records offices for Livewire Magazine. I improved as an interviewer by then, but Doug was so forthcoming it even frightened me a little bit. He talked about how he was dealing with depression and how he got out of his darkest moment and it was an extraordinary interview and made me root for him even more from that day on.
Another great King's X moment was when they played the Woodstock '94. I was a cynical attendee - I remember asking bands in the press conference tent how much money they made at the event, which got me looks but when someone asked headliner Aerosmith why they didn't play the hasily-assembled Richie Havens event down the road and they all mashed thumb and forefinger together in the international "money" symbol.
But my cynicism melted away as I stood in the crowd of 300,000 people and watch King's X once again rise to the occasion. It was special and I was so proud of them.
Michael Mazur, their publicist at the time, got me backstage after the set and I was hanging out with them and any hopes of being jaded again were gone as I got to be a fortunate interloper in their success.
And now, I got to take my son Matt to see them. He just turned 13 and it was his first concert as a teenager. He attended shows with me before, but he fell asleep at most of them (he even fell asleep at a Slayer show which I didn't think was possible. It's a good thing he did because after we left, someone vomited on the seat he once laid in.)
But this one he was into the show from the start. The band played a lot of the earlier songs whose youTube videos and playing CDs in the car on the way to the show Matt had already heard, so he knew a decent amount of the show but he enjoyed even the unfamiliar stuff.
Matt had a great time and despite him dancing his ass off to Public Enemy at the 2009 Roots Picnic, it was his best show yet and probably the one that will stick with him the longest.
After the show the band were kind enough to autograph a poster for him. We're gonna frame it and put it on his wall and he's already talking about borrowing my CDs to listen to.
Some 25+ years after I first heard about King's X, they still managed to give me a special epiphany. I will always admire this group and root for them - they have given me ample personal reasons to do so. And I thank them for being a special band in my life.
http://scontent.fphl2-4.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/11225220_10155769647635597_1154214361043727090_n.jpg?_nc_cat=106&_nc_sid=da1649&_nc_ohc=cFkMF9XefvMAX-ZIk6-&_nc_ht=scontent.fphl2-4.fna&oh=f09b2a6bc76419a880ad9cf893bee1df&oe=5F32FA23
one year passes...
seven months pass...
one year passes...