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Keith Morris
Morris performing with the Circle Jerks in 2006.
Background information
Born	(1955-09-18) September 18, 1955 (age 63) Hermosa Beach, California, United States
Genres	Hardcore punk
Occupation(s)	Singer, songwriter
Instruments	Vocals, Drums
Years active	1976–Present
Labels	SST, Frontier, Allegiance, Combat, Mercury
Associated acts	Black Flag, Circle Jerks, Bug Lamp, Midget Handjob, Off!
Website	CircleJerks.net

Keith Morris (born September 18, 1955) is an American singer and songwriter known for his role as frontman of the hardcore punk bands Black Flag, Circle Jerks, and Off!. Born and raised in Hermosa Beach, California, he formed Black Flag at the age of 21 with guitarist Greg Ginn and performed on the band's 1979 debut EP Nervous Breakdown. Shortly after leaving Black Flag in 1979, he formed the Circle Jerks with guitarist Greg Hetson; the band released seven albums between 1980 and 1995 and are currently on hiatus. In 2009 Morris formed the supergroup Off! with guitarist Dimitri Coats, bassist Steven Shane McDonald, and drummer Mario Rubalcaba. Morris has also appeared as a guest vocalist on several albums by other artists.

Biography

Early life

Morris was born September 18, 1955 and grew up in Hermosa Beach, California.^[1] His father, Jerry, had been a budding jazz drummer in his youth and practiced with visiting jazz groups at the Lighthouse Café. Jerry later opened a bait shop in the 1970s and struck up a friendship with jazz record producer Ozzie Cadena (both men's sons, Keith and Dez, later became singers in Black Flag).^[2] Keith attended Mira Costa High School, where brothers Greg and Raymond Ginn were also students, and graduated in 1973.^[1][3] He then studied fine art and painting at the Pasadena Arts Center while working at his father's bait shop.^[4] One of his co-workers at the shop was Bill Stevenson, a Mira Costa student eight years Morris' junior who would also go on to be a member of Black Flag.^[5]

Morris and his friends spent their spare time hanging out by the Strand under Hermosa Beach pier, where they took drugs: "I'd get off work, and we'd get up to trouble," he later recalled, "smoking angel dust, snorting elephant tranquilizers. Just real goofy, 'why-would-you-want-to-do-that?' kinda stuff, the kind of thing you get up to when you're young, and into experimenting. If it was a good experience, then cool; if not, well, then it was just a real hard lesson learned."^[6] His early musical tastes included various rock acts such as Bob Seger, Foreigner, Montrose, Styx, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Queen, Ten Years After, Status Quo, Uriah Heep, UFO, the Scorpions, Aerosmith, Ted Nugent, and the MC5, "any kind of fist-pumping, 'flick-your-bic' rock. I was into anything that was loud".^[7] He became a freely opinionated and passionate fan of heavy rock and protopunk, and took a job working at local record store Rubicon Records.^[8]

Black Flag

In 1976, Morris co-founded Black Flag (then-known as Panic) along with guitarist Greg Ginn. Their work ethic proved too challenging for some early members; Ginn and Morris had an especially hard time finding a reliable bass guitarist, and often rehearsed without a bassist, a factor that contributed to the development of Ginn's distinctive, often low-pitched guitar sound. Ginn's brother Raymond Pettibon and SST house record producer-to-be Spot filled in sometimes at rehearsals.

After a number of line-up changes, Morris recorded vocals for the first Black Flag EP Nervous Breakdown. He left the band in 1979, citing, among other reasons, creative differences with Ginn, and his own "freaking out on cocaine and speed."

Circle Jerks

After leaving Black Flag in 1979, Morris founded the Circle Jerks, along with former Redd Kross guitarist Greg Hetson. Cited as one of the most important hardcore punk groups, the Circle Jerks were active until 1990, when Hetson left the band to continue playing guitar and release a number of albums with Bad Religion. However, the Circle Jerks reunited in 1994, released their last studio album to date in 1995, and performed on and off until 2010, when they entered another hiatus.

Off!

As of 2010, Morris has been performing and touring with his latest project Off!, which he founded with Dimitri Coats from Burning Brides, Steven Shane McDonald from Redd Kross, and Mario Rubalcaba from Earthless/Rocket From The Crypt/Hot Snakes. Morris stated in a March 2011 interview that Off! was asked to open future dates for the Red Hot Chili Peppers and they said they would even though it might anger some of their younger punk fans.^[9] Morris has known the band for over 30 years and Chili Peppers singer, Anthony Kiedis, wore an Off! hat at every show on the band's entire I'm with You World Tour including some of their music videos.^[10]

FLAG

In 2013, Keith Morris, Chuck Dukowski, Dez Cadena, Bill Stevenson and Descendents member Stephen Egerton, created FLAG as an offshoot of Black Flag. As of now, they are only touring. No plans of an album have been announced.^[11]

Other works

Morris filled in for Red Hot Chili Peppers singer, Anthony Kiedis during one of the band's shows in the mid-80s. When Kiedis, who was off scoring drugs, failed to show up for the performance, the band asked Morris to fill in on vocals. Morris, who didn't know any of the lyrics, yelled and made up lyrics to the band's songs to get through the performance.^[12][13]

After the Circle Jerks' first break-up in 1990, Morris led the bands Bug Lamp^[14] and Midget Handjob.^[15] He also provided backing vocals on "Operation Rescue", from Bad Religion's album Against the Grain (1990).

Morris also narrated Chris Fuller's 2007 Gotham Award-nominated independent film Loren Cass.

Morris appeared as the DJ for the West Coast Punk Rock station Channel X in the video game Grand Theft Auto V released on September 17, 2013

Personal life

In 1999, Morris was diagnosed with adult onset diabetes. Many of his friends held benefit concerts to help cover his large medical bills. He has also been sober since 1989.

Discography

With Black Flag

• 
  Nervous Breakdown (1979)


• Selections from Everything Went Black (1982)

With Circle Jerks

• 
  Group Sex (1980)


• 
  Wild in the Streets (1982)


• 
  Golden Shower of Hits (1983)


• 
  Wonderful (1985)


• 
  VI (1987)


• 
  Gig (1992)


• 
  Oddities, Abnormalities and Curiosities (1995)

With Bug Lamp

• "Howling at the Moon (Sha-La-La)" on Gabba Gabba Hey: A Tribute to the Ramones (1991)


• "El Dorado" on Roadside Prophets soundtrack (1992)


• "The Ballad of Dwight Fry" on Welcome to Our Nightmare: A Tribute to Alice Cooper (1993)

With Midget Handjob

• 
  Midnight Snack Break at the Poodle Factory (2000)

With Off!

• 
  First Four EPs (2010)


• 
  Off! (2012)


• 
  Wasted Years (2014)

Guest appearances

References

Footnotes

Bibliography