Inevitably, as time marches on, one starts to realize their memory of certain events may or may not have happened the way they recall, or maybe not at all.
Case in point: I attended Petaluma High School in the late ’80s, and our school colors are purple and white. Embedded among many misremembered or rumored events from that time, one distinct memory is of Skitzo front person/guitarist Lance Ozanix vomiting said school colors at the end of a lunchtime performance.
Luckily, as a journalist, I sometimes get the chance to check in on such questions. And on the occasion of Skitzo’s 45th anniversary as a band, I was able to confirm this memory with Ozanix himself. “Yes, when Skitzo was young and trying to make our name around California in the ’80s, we would play high schools and puke their school team colors. It was fun for a while. We outgrew playing high schools and went on a U.S. tour in 1988, and that tour was an eye-opener,” he notes.
To clarify, Ozanix wasn’t sick, at least not physically. And early on, a big “attraction” for the thrash-metal band was his ability to regurgitate on cue, and in the booking agent or venue’s color of choice. And while yes, that’s gross and weird, as P.T. Barnum famously said, “There’s no such thing as bad publicity.”
Ozanix says, “That’s an odd thing. In the ’80s, I did it so people would remember the band name—people would go to our show and run and hide away when I was puking. Then a cultural shift happened. In the ’90s, people started to want to be a part of the show, people getting puked on, men and women.” He recounts a tale perhaps a little too gross for our gentle readers in which a new mother requested Ozanix “baptize” her baby; he refused. “There were lines almost crossed,” he points out.
Novelty aside, 45 years and 21 albums for a band is no small feat. And indeed, Ozanix’s “gift” got the band some sweet ’80s and ’90s fame, including guesting on The Howard Stern Show, several appearances on The Jerry Springer Show, as well as in Ripley’s Believe It or Not, where he was featured for selling his vomit paintings for $5,000 each. He also lost a case on “Judge Judy” where an audience member, and Judy herself, felt his vomitus was a form of assault. Some people just don’t recognize art, it seems.
But for all of the messiness involved in four and a half decades of Skitzo, which includes more than 20 members, encompassing the current lineup of Ozanix on guitar and vocals, Liz Say on drums, and “Nasty” Nate Clark on bass and vocals, Ozanix has always loved music.
After providing details of a fairly traumatic, sordid childhood, one that would make for a compelling book, one positive Ozanix notes is, “The only thing that has not abandoned me was music. Music has a soul, and it sticks to me through thick and thin.”
Continuing this theme of self-reflection, he says, “Forty-five years went by fast, like a roll-away train, and sometimes I felt like the driver, but other times it felt like someone else was driving it. But here we are. In June, I woke up on my birthday as a 60-year-old man, and I’m still doing this. I love it. Every time on stage, I step into a time machine; time stands still. It’s an adrenaline rush. My aches and pains go away, my spirit comes alive, and we rock.”
And one too can rock and celebrate on Saturday, Nov. 15 at Petaluma’s Phoenix Theatre as Skitzo celebrates 45 years of thrash-metal, which will include several former Skitzo members joining the band onstage throughout the night. The show is all-ages, and tickets are $15 in advance, $20 at the door.
For more information, head to skitzo3.bandcamp.com.
