Culture

Chuck Biscuits Death Turns Out to Be a Hoax

by Jordan Yerman | October 29, 2009 at 09:53 am

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Chuck Biscuits, the drummer for Danzig, Black Flag, Social Distortion, Circle Jerks, and DOA, had reportedly died at age 44 of throat cancer. However, James Greene, whose blog which originally bore Chuck Biscuits' obituary is now running an addition: that Chuck Biscuits is actually alive, and that the original notification of Chuck Biscuits' death, supposedly sent by Chuck's wife, was fake. It was later confirmed that Chuck Biscuits is indeed alive.

As a postscript, James Greene Jr. has just posted on his blog that Biscuits' death was, in fact, a hoax. Apparently, he has heard from Chuck's brother. As for me, until Chuck Biscuits is sitting next to me as I type this, I still won't know for sure.

Further e-mails have been exchanged with Chuck's brother Bob Montgomery; after I confirmed the name of Chuck's wife via two independent sources, Bob wrote:

"Chuck and I have been somewhat estranged for a time, but this seems fishy. I am going to his home to get to the bottom of this, I will let you know one way or the other. If this is a hoax, I will pop Chuck in his beak. I am allowed. He is my little brother."

Chuck Biscuits' Wikipedia page has been edited several times since this morning; at the moment, word of his death is listed under "Equipment", and with different wording from earlier. By the time you click on the link above, though, it could well be different.

Chuck Biscuits, born Charles Montgomery, also performed with acts such as Run DMC and the Subhumans, and was shortlisted to be part of Nirvana before Dave Grohl was hired. I saw Chuck Biscuits perform with Social Distortion in San Francisco several years ago*- he was awesome.

Yet Chuck Biscuits was not completely bound by the shackles of heavy metal/hard rock – the drummer kindly lent his talents to various tracks on Run-D.M.C.’s fourth album, 1988’s Tougher Than Leather. Leather boasted a handful of hits for the famed Hollis Crew, including “Mary, Mary” and “Beats To The Rhyme.”

UPDATE: It's starting to look more and more that Chuck Biscuits death was a hoax. Tim Napalm Stegall posted a Facebook message stating that Otis Link had recently been in touch with Chuck Biscuits.

" Otis Link CHUCK BISCUITS!!!! Not True to me until the dead guy sings!
I cant keep up with the calls and the emails, here is what I know.
Chuck sent me an email last night at 11:55 DEAD MEN DONT EMAIL!
I talked with Bob, chucks brother today, Chucks family has not been notified of a death. Normally they are told if their brother or son is sick or dead.
A rumor started in august about cancer, Chuck was fine then too."