John Rowan, drummer for 90s Chicago rock band Urge Overkill, who performed under the name Blackie Onassis, has died.
A spokesperson for the band confirmed his death to The Times. The cause of death has not been disclosed.
Onassis backed Urge Overkill during the 1990s era of alternative rock’s rise, playing on the band’s version of Neil Diamond’s “”.Girl, you’re about to become a womanwere featured in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction in 1994, and continued their streak until their last major label album, 1995’s Exit the Dragon.
Originally from Chicago’s South Side, Rowan joined Arge Overkill, a Chicago band led by guitarists Nash Kato and Eddie “King” Lawther in 1991. With Rowan’s arrival, Arge Overkill has moved from being a scourge of neo-hardcore punk practitioners to being a purveyor of classy modified punk. Arena rock plays crunchy riffs with knowing winks while wearing medallions emblazoned with the “UO” logo. Despite his late arrival to the band, Onassis often sums up Urge Overkill’s appeal better than the founding members, as when he described UO’s mission in Spin magazine in 1992: Was. , Playboy life when America was fun. The Golden Age of Las Vegas, Neil Diamond, Moonlight Dancing and Anton La Vey! ”
John Rowan (left) and Arge Overkill, 1993.
(Bob Berg/Getty Images)
By the time Rowan joined Urge Overkill, Kato and Lowther had already made two albums for the independent label Touch and Go. Adopting the name Blackie Onassis – he later said, I love being Blackie Onassis. It’s like living in a musical wonderland.”–the drummer soon became a central figure in Urge Overkill’s own mythology. Their 1991 album The Supersonic Storybook, which brought them attention outside of Chicago, included the song “Today Is Blackie’s Birthday,” Not only was it a tribute to the new drummer, but it was also a testament to his honed sense of ironic humor.
In a bank building in Humboldt Park, where they aptly nicknamed “The Bank” – all three members lived there at some point in the early 1990s – Arge Overkill They posed themselves in sleazy ’70s women’s and men’s style with their tongues entwined. He alienated old colleagues like recording engineer and producer Steve Albini. However, the makeover began to attract favorable attention to the group. From Arge’s kiss-off to Chicago punk scene’s ‘Goodbye to Guyville’, they befriended Liz Phair, who would later bear the name of her 1993 debut song ‘Guyville’s Exile’, spin magazine’s “Supersonic Storybook” to positive reviews. : “This band sounds like MC5 fronted by Neil Diamond,” said the magazine. In no time, Urge Overkill gained new fans such as Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain and The Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde.
Nirvana had Urge Overkill as a support act on their 1991 Nevermind Tour, which led to UO signing with Geffen Records in 1992. The group hired the Butcher Brothers, a hip-hop production unit that has worked on hits for Cypress Hill and Chris Kross. Produced the 1993 major label debut “Saturation”. A glittering celebration of classic rock tropes, “Saturation” scored an alternative his-rock hit with “Sister Havana,” taking UO to the pinnacle of mainstream success they’ve been coveted. Tarantino, the director of Pulp Fiction, recreated a memorable scene in which Uma Thurman’s character accidentally overdoses on heroin in Arge Overkill’s Neil Diamond’s Girl You’ll Be A The group finally scored a breakthrough hit when they set it to a cover of “Woman Soon”.
It was around this time that heroin began to play a major role in Rowan’s personal life, an open secret in the alternative rock community. In her 2017 autobiography, Hit So Hard: A Memoir, Hole drummer Patti Schemell wrote that finding heroin in Chicago was “like the Urge Overkill drummer who had regular sex on the street. “It was as easy as ordering a few bags from Blackie Onassis.” Allusions to Onassis’ addiction also surfaced on Urge Overkill’s 1995 dark and sprawling album Exit the Dragon. In the melancholy “The Mistake,” Onassis sang:
Shortly after the release of Exit the Dragon, Rowan was arrested for possession of heroin. Although the charges were later dropped, Arge Overkill fell into a downward spiral that led to Lowther’s departure from the band in 1996. Kato tried to keep the group alive for a while, but ended up releasing a solo album, Debutante, in 2000 instead. “Debutante” has his six co-songwriting credits by Blackie Onassis.
After “Debutante” Rowan practically disappeared from sight. Kato and Lowther reformed Arge Overkill in 2004 without him. In a 2004 interview with Chicago Reader, the pair hinted that their bandmates had missed a video shoot and concert, and had their passports revoked the night before their trip to England. At that point, Rowan was living in Los Angeles, but he was out of touch with Arge Overkill.
Roser told readers: [Onassis’s] telephone number. he has mine Please say so. You can call me if he wants. I have been using the same number for ten years. ”
When promoting Urge Overkill’s second comeback album, Oui, in 2022, King said Rowan was “really the third wheel.”
This article will be updated.
