At 66, Circle Jerks singer Keith Morris knows he's eligible to join AARP and take advantage of all those fabulous senior citizen discounts.
And yet, he's still got some fight left in him.
"My balls itch, and my ass burns," he laughs during a recent phone interview from his Los Angeles home. "My toenails don't grow out properly, and my teeth are falling apart in my mouth without me doing anything to make that happen."
The punk band's tour celebrating the 40th anniversary of its sophomore album, Wild in the Streets, lands at Red Flag this week, where Morris will resume his role as the gang's ringleader. Originally slated to take place in 2020 to mark the 40th anniversary of the Circle Jerks' debut album Group Sex, the tour has been rebooked twice because of COVID-19.
"The Circle Jerks have had six members of our touring entourage come down with it," says Morris. "I'm the only one who hasn't gotten it, and I want to keep it that way."
Two years ago, the Circle Jerks reissued Group Sex as a deluxe package, and the band has now given Wild in the Streets the same treatment. Morris says he's been happy with the approach taken by Trust Records, which is handling the reissue.
"Their whole plan was, 'We know how you guys got screwed over by all these companies, and your royalties amounted to being able to buy somebody a birthday cake for their birthday or to be able to take your girlfriend to Victoria's Secret,'" he says.
A new music video for the album's snotty title track, which finds Morris alternating between high-pitched screams and rapidfire spoken word, accompanies the album's reissue. Atiba Jefferson directed the visual, and it includes vintage live footage and appearances by skaters such as Tony Hawk, Lance Mountain, Christian Hosoi, Eric Koston, Kevin "Spanky" Long, Steve Olson, Victoria Ruesga, Sal Barbier, Rowan Zorilla, Sean Malto, Anaiah Lei, Lizzie Armanto, Dashawn Jordan and Max Perlich, who rolled down Hollywood's Walk of Fame and showed off their tremendous skating skills.
"We're incredibly lucky and fortunate to know the people we know," says Morris. "All of the senior skaters in that video have been fans since the very beginning. One of our bibles would have been Thrasher magazine. They used to make these lists of what to include on your skating compilation tape, and we would be included along with Black Flag, Adolescents, Bad Brains and Dead Kennedys. These are some of my favorite bands and some of my favorite people. I love them all, and I'm giving them props. We met on a Saturday morning in front of the Henry Fonda Theatre, and everybody started skating. It was a lot of fun."
A twenty-page, full-color booklet created for this release includes historic photographs, club fliers and an 8,200-word essay by veteran Los Angeles journalist Chris Morris, who conducted new interviews with founding band members Keith Morris, Greg Hetson and Lucky Lehrer.
"[Chris Morris] did one of our first interviews for a paper that was the equivalent of the LA Weekly," says Morris. "He also wrote a book about Bob Dylan and Los Lobos, artists I loved. We called him in to do it. He's a fan of the band, and he talked to all of the pertinent people. He did a really great job. "
In addition to Morris, Circle Jerks' current live lineup features guitarist Greg Hetson (Bad Religion, Redd Kross), bassist Zander Schloss (the Weirdos, Joe Strummer) and drummer Joey C. (the Bronx, QOTSA, Danzig, BL'AST!, Wasted Youth).
"Joey C. is the best thing that's happened to us," says Morris. "If we didn't have him playing with us, we wouldn't have the oomph and the muscle we would normally have. I keep harping on this. Like I said, we're senior citizens. When you're a senior citizen, you lose a few steps. Your body only allows you to do so much. When you're younger, you can get away with all of it. I don't need to get into biology and the human form and all that kind of stuff. We have lost five and half or six steps."
That said, Morris says the band is completely thrilled about the anniversary tour and cognizant of the fact that it might be the band's last trek through North America.
"We all committed to this tour and have been rehearsing and rehearsing like we're a real band and a fulltime band, he says. "When we broke up [in 1995], one of our members happened to be a full-time member of Bad Religion. Right now, I'm pointing the finger at Greg [Hetson]. The Circle Jerks became a part time. We had a bass player giving guitar lessons and a vocalist bussing tables and mixing drinks and having [other] jobs, so that's why things didn't work out then. I won't say this is the last tour, but I'm the guy that holds the flare. I'm the guy who has a zillion other things going on, and maybe if I have time somewhere down the line, I would do it again. But it's pretty much that this could be it."
