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Crazy to the 'bone >> Fishbone's Norwood Fisher comes face to face with madness by RUPERT BOTTENBERG
Not that the kook in question, former guitarist Kendall Rey Jones, should be held responsible. "Kendall was out of his mind," says Fisher, "so I don't even blame him for all that shit. It was just like that's not the guy I've known since I was 11. It was another person. It was some other motherfucker speaking through his body." What messed up Fisher's headspace wasn't Jones' insanity... that isn't contagious. It was the authorities' involvement, which turned a fight to help a friend into a courtroom circus, complete with charges of attempted kidnapping for Fisher. Now, the guys in Fishbone should know about lunacy. This is the band that, back in '79, first formulated the ska/punk/funk/metal freakout to which No Doubt, the Bosstones, Living Colour and hundreds more owe such a debt. Live, they act completely insane. Only in Jones' case, it wasn't an act. "He went berserk, man. He went bug wild. Chasing the devil through the walls of his apartment. Tearing shit up, him and his brother. I know they baptized his brother's wife in his waterbed. He was seeing the devil in everything. To him, his whole life had been in service to Satan, in some subliminal fashion." The circumstances that pushed Jones over included the death of his mother, a cancelled marriage, a drinking problem and, most importantly, a religious zealot of a father. "He was talking to his father for like 40 hours a week... as he was going nuts. As we were making the album, he went bonkers. He didn't eat or sleep for a week, and that's when shit got the worst." L.A. health authorities suggested that Fisher apprehend Jones for hospitalization. But then the Jones clan rolled over on him, and he found himself the one facing incarceration. A manipulative district attorney saw a chance to make a name for himself... at Fisher's expense. "The way that they elect district attorneys in some states of the U.S. is like a popularity contest. People vote for the name that they saw in print the most. So for him, it was just election-year politics. I'll get my name in Rolling Stone, I'll be in Spin... you know what I mean?" The judge saw the case as good dinner-party conversation material, and insisted on carrying the whole thing through, despite how thin the case was. "You know what got us the full acquittal in the courtroom, though? Kendall got on the stand, and under examination and cross-examination, he went bug wild!" Fisher walked, but he's still licking his wounds from the ordeal. So what's the word on Jones these days? "I hear he's at least doing shit that he used to do," says Fisher. "Smoking weed, drinking, making music. But people who know him say he's fucked up. He's not the same person we used to know." Fishbone go nuts at Foufounes Électriques on Monday, April 27, 8pm, with Van Allen Belt. $15.65+taxes
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William Burroughs once advised his readers to "never extend a helping hand to the mentally ill. You'll only end up as crazy as they are." John Norwood Fisher, bassist of Fishbone, found this out the hard way in '93, around the time they recorded Give a Monkey a Brain and He'll Swear He's the Center of the Universe.