People Who Go To Twelve

If Rock and Roll is ultimately youth music, the punk sub-genre is just about the youthiest. Simple, rageful and out of control. How do punks grow old and stay valid? Let me tell you.

This Week’s GT12 honoree has spent the last twenty-some years growing with punk, finding and mining the common-cause between alienated mohawked kids, washed out sharecroppers and Hammett-type grifters, goons and molls. The width of his world is tens of hundreds of times wider than even Joey Ramone’s or Joe Strummer’s. He has negotiated the self-destructive impulses that fuel and destroy so many artists, especially his peers. He has survived hubris. His wisdom rocks as hard as his rebellion. He has found the way to swing. He has written the greatest (maybe only) Punk Honky Tonk Song. He has duet-ed with Bruce and toured with a pedal steel player. His newest album is hands-down his best. He has made me consider getting a tattoo. His is the only band that I see every time they come to town. They have the best logo. He is one of the five coolest men alive. He is Mike Ness. After 20 years in Punk, He Goes To Twelve absolutely, Cats and Kittens, absolutely.