



Lee Ving, the leader of the notorious L.A. hardcore band Fear, recently appeared on Harper Simon’s forthrightly-titled online talk show Talk Show for a lengthy and often amusing interview. Ving made himself an infamous figure in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s by baiting audiences with utterly brazen homophobia and misogyny, both on Fear’s lyrics and its onstage banter. Their albums The Record and More Beer remain classics because of and despite those problematics, since depending on your particular bent, Ving was and is either a steadfast champion of fully speaking one’s mind come what may, or an immature prick who took a smug delight in senseless punching down. It should probably come as no surprise that Ving himself is of the former opinion:





Here, Ving recounts the incident that was easily the high water mark of Fear’s career—the gloriously chaotic Saturday Night Live appearance that made them the horrifying face of punk to much of Middle America. The band’s power to tweak the meek was surely a thing to behold.





If you’re down for the entire 40 minute interview, you can watch it on The Lip’s YouTube channel. Meanwhile, let’s have a look at that SNL appearance.





Previously on Dangerous Minds

Fear frontman Lee Ving sings show tune on TV’s ‘Fame’