“To be honest, I just don’t think the world was ready for us,” says Handsome Dick Manitoba, frontman of the legendary New York-based punk band the Dictators. ¿
The Dictators released three albums during their 1970s glory years, all of them classics, all of them flops. Let loose on the world in the days before indie labels existed, in the days before punk rock even existed, the Dictators never had a hit, and broke up for the first time in 1979.
They’ve been together off and on ever since, having decided after some debate to carry on without founding member Andy Shernoff, whom Manitoba, 60, is loath to refer to by name (the band now calls themselves Dictators NYC, to clearly delineate between the old and the new lineups). Things were once so bad that the band couldn’t even agree on whether or not they had broken up (they had). They’re now doing so well that, by Manitoba’s reckoning, they’ll play more shows this year than at any time in their history, and are currently working on new material.
In advance of the Dictators NYC Saturday night Empty Bottle date, Manitoba, who owns the venerable downtown Manhattan dive bar Manitoba’s and hosts a program on Little Steven Van Zandt’s Sirius station, got on the phone to talk about punk rock, drugs, and the trouble with Kiss. Excerpts from that conversation follow:
On the unreasonable Top 40 sales expectations placed on the Dictators early in their career
At the time, we were signed to a big deal, (and shared management with) Blue Oyster Cult. … They spent a lot of money, and you don’t get in the van and make fifty dollars a night when you’re on that level. … It was mixing together two worlds that shouldn’t have been mixed together, but at the time, we don’t know that. You can look back in history and say that’s not fair.
On the early days of punk rock
Punk rock was really unknown. The Ramones got booed off the stage when they opened for Black Sabbath, and eventually they got in the van and said (the heck with) it. I wish we’d had the chutzpah to do the same thing, but we didn’t. … Now all these years later, at least a portion of the world is ready for us, and we can go out and make a living.
On perfecting the character known as Handsome Dick Manitoba after the band’s first breakup
I know guys who were in bands and the bands broke up, and they don’t know what to do with their life because they had a taste, and now it’s gone. I’m much more secure than that. I have a much broader life. … I didn’t stay in my house and wait for people to knock on the door. I went out of my house, and I was constantly Handsome Dick Manitoba to the world. I was out there. I took this embryo of the four years the Dictators were originally together, and I ran with it. … I still have my charisma. Handsome Dick Manitoba has a value.
On replacing the band’s early lead singer
When we started out, the guy singing the songs, people weren’t reacting to him. He didn’t have that thing that draws people in. He was cerebral and closed and shut down emotionally. I was the opposite … I jump in the audience: “I’m with you, my people.” Unlike bands like Kiss, who stand on the stage and they’re above you (like) rock stars. The evolution was, I’m the crazy drunk roadie, let him do a song.
On internal animosities
The Dictators in their original incarnation, that’s in a box. It’s locked up. I will never be mad about that, because it’s some of the most fun I ever had in my life. I traveled, I got high — at the time I had some pretty bad drug problems — I saw the world. What went on emotionally … it got more and more volatile until it broke apart.
On his battles with drug addiction
I’ll make this short, because drug stories and coming back (from addiction) are getting boring, but I was a stone cold drug addict. You can beat the devil at his own game and come back and enjoy your life. I crashed and burned, and in 1983, the phoenix rose from the ashes.
On whether or not the Dictators ever actually broke up
Andy — oops, I mentioned his name — he said we never broke up, but for all intents and purposes … we had broken up, we just didn’t want to make it official. Then it dawned on us that there was no more band, this was (silly). We went to Spain one year, did reunion shows, made a lot of money. The promoter wanted us to come back, and this one man said no. … Bless him. Let him be happy. I wish him all the happiness in his life. Just stay away from me.
Twitter @chitribent
When: 9 p.m. May 17
Where: Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western Ave.
Tickets: $25; 773-276-3600 or emptybottle.com
