Dead Kennedys reveal what’s holding back a reunion

Dead Kennedys guitarist East Bay Ray has spoken about what is preventing the band from reuniting with their former frontman, Jello Biafra.

The musician (real name Raymond Pepperell) co-founded the San Francisco punk outfit back in 1978. They announced their split in 1986 before releasing their fourth and final studio album, ‘Bedtime For Democracy’.

In 2001, Dead Kennedys reformed with Ray, bassist Klaus Flouride and drummer D.H. Peligro in the line-up. The latter had replaced original drummer Ted (real name Bruce Slesinger) in 1981.

Former Dr. Know singer Brandon Cruz stepped in for Biafra initially, but was replaced by Jeff Penalty in 2003. The latter departed Dead Kennedys five years later, with current frontman Ronald ‘Skip’ Greer taking over the role.

Following Peligro’s death in 2022, the group have played with both Santi Guardiola and Steve Wilson behind the kit.

During a new conversation with Guitar World, East Bay Ray opened up about a potential reunion for the original Dead Kennedys line-up. The interviewer alluded to his fraught relationship with Biafra, asking if “too much had happened” between them for a comeback.

“It’s not an issue for me or Klaus. It’s Biafra that turns down any offers for us to do something; we don’t have any problem,” the guitarist responded. “He got caught with his hands in the till and wants to blame us for getting caught, but he should never have put his hands in there in the first place.”

It was noted that Dead Kennedys had accused Biafra of withholding royalties in a lawsuit back in 1998. Biafra lost the legal battle two years later, and was required to pay his ex-bandmates outstanding royalties and punitive damages.

Additionally, he was also forced to hand over the rights to a majority of Dead Kennedys’ back catalogue. This allowed the remaining members to reissue past albums, including a 2022 re-release of their debut record ‘Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables’. According to Biafra, this was done “intentionally” behind his back.

Elsewhere in the recent Guitar World interview, Pepperell recalled Dead Kennedys’ “chemistry” and creative process, claiming that they “wrote as a band”.

“None of us has had a solo career that was bigger than Dead Kennedys, which, to me, shows the power of a bunch of talented people getting together and creating something that was far greater than the sum of its parts,” he continued. “Jello didn’t bring in the songs. I know he’s created the myth that he wrote them all, but the question here is that if he did, why didn’t he ever do anything significant after leaving the band?”

He added: “Iggy left the Stooges and had a career; ditto Lou Reed with the Velvet Underground or Morrissey with The Smiths. Where’s Biafra’s solo career with a bunch of great songs?” The guitarist went on to say that “very few songs were written by one person” in the band.

Dead Kennedys recently played a run of live shows in the US. But according to Pepperell, he and Klaus “have decided to wind things down a bit”.

He continued: “We’re reducing the number of shows, and we won’t be doing long tours. We’re not 20 anymore, and we don’t play the kind of music that you can sit down to play [Laughs].”

In 2017, the band turned down an offer from Chicago’s Riot Fest to reunite the original line-up. “Dead Kennedys had a sincere invitation to play a reunion show at Riot Fest in Chicago this fall,” wrote on Facebook at the time. “Jello Biafra turned it down. Klaus Flouride, DH Peligro and I were looking forward to doing it.”

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