← DISGRACELAND
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- [00:05]
Jake Brennan
Double Elvis.
- [00:07]
Kaley Cuoco
You know how it goes. Getting super into something that can lead to watching it, listening to it, reading about it, maybe even picking up something to go with it. That's where prime comes in. Amazon prime isn't just fast free delivery, though to be honest, that's a lifesaver. It's also prime video, Amazon music, and so much more. Whatever the interest, it's on Prime. Lately there's been a dive into new recipes, catching up on lifestyle documentaries, and building the perfect playlist to match. And prime has been part of it all. It's like a one stop shop for any passion, whether it's fashion, food, family, or discovering the next favorite show. So for anyone always exploring something new or rediscovering something meaningful, prime is right there. Whatever you're into, it's on Prime. From streaming to shopping, it's on Prime. Visit Amazon.comprime to get more out of whatever you're into. Amazon.comprime what is up Good looking people?
- [01:04]
Jake Brennan
So apparently attractive people tend to like hot and spicy food. Did you know that? I did not know that, but now I do. You probably knew that because you like spicy food and you're good looking obviously. So you know I'm all about the five Hour Energy to power me through my workday. And, and and and check this out. Five Hour Energy has a new spicy Cinco de Mango flavor. It's sweet like me and spicy like you. Which is to say also that it's hot like you. So you're hot. So your energy shots should be hot too. And these are available only from 5hourenergy.com Life is too short for bland. Spice it up with 5 hour energy spicy Cinco de Mango. 5 hour energy spicy Cinco de Mango is only available online for a limited time. Head to www.fivehourenergy.com to order yours today. Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis. This is a story about the darkness and the light. About serial killers and seriously killer pop hits. It's about high heels and trash bags and leather jackets and sex tapes before we had a name for them. It's about the greatest girl group to ever hit the charts. One of the greatest groups ever. Actually. It is about the Go Gos. And you know what the Gogos did? They made great music. Unlike that music I played for you at the top of the show. That wasn't great music. That was a preset loop from my melotron called Jerry Lee did it first. Not you MK1. I played you that loop because I can't afford the Rights to Centerfold by the J. Giles Band. And why would I play you that specific slice of Wuffa Guffa cheese? Could I afford it? Because that was the number one song in America on March 6, 1982. And that was the day that the Go Go's album Beauty and the Beat also went to number one, marking the first time in the history of pop music that an album written by a group of all women had gone to number one on the charts. On this episode, girls on Serial Killers. A sex tape in the Go Go's. I'm Jake Brennan and this is dis. Young women have been turning up dead in the hills outside Hollywood for the past two years. And when they finally caught the psychopath who was responsible, it turned out that there were actually two men doing the killing. The serial killer capital of the world got a little darker that day. Welcome to Los Angeles, 1978. The Hillside Strangler, or stranglers rather, kidnapped, raped, tortured and murdered 10 women. And held the city, especially its women, in the grip of fear for close to a year. For Angelenos at the time, this somehow did not seem out of the ordinary. In the late 1970s, fear blanketed the city with an oppression as familiar as its notorious smog. Louisiana was dark, figuratively and literally. The Hillside Stranglers were not alone. There was the Freeway Killer, the skid row stabber. Violent Chicano gangs controlled the streets on the east side, quick to kill. Bloods and Crips were transforming South Central into a war zone. Down on the wrong side of Sunset, long haired, freaky people convinced kids to run away from their parents and get religion. Charlie's girls shaved their heads and kept the Canyons culty. Dune buggy assassins ran drugs out of Death Valley. Bikers and what was left of the Black Panthers kept the squares freaked out. Greasers ripped the strip and killing machine muscle cars. And the Scientologists were just getting started down off Hollywood Boulevard on Cherokee, outside the Canterbury Apartments, paramedics were wheeling out the dead body on a gurney. And no one knew how long this resident at the Canterbury had been dead. No one cared. She was a washed up starlet from the long ago Hollywood era. Certainly her retirement plan did not include this. A run down apartment building inhabited by debased delinquents. Debauchery, an open air drug market. Vice, grime and squalor, filth and fury, American style. Young men and women engaged in all manner of revolt. Their natural post pubescent rebellion turned to nihilism by the extreme violence reflecting down on them under the big black sun that blanketed la. Good morning, midnight America. Do you know where your lost children live? They live here. Runaways, suburban cast offs, spoiled rich kids on the other side of their expiration dates. And all of them moving to the sound of souped up classic cars, surf guitars and subversion. Punk rock west coast style was amalgamating on its own and in its own way. 3,000 miles from New York City, down in the dingy basement of LA's Canterbury Apartments, where a new band was rehearsing the Go Go's, their guitar player, Canterbury resident Jane Wydland, led their sound with an irrepressible energy that belied her city's gloom. Similarly, the signature outfit of Go Go's singer Belinda Carlisle, a literal trash bag clinched with a thrift store belt, could not suppress her natural beauty. The Go Go's were young, raw and fresh off their first show at LA's the Mask, the West coast answer to CBGBs, a tiny subterranean punk rock club beneath a skin flick house where early LA punk bands X, the Bags and the Germs got their start. Belinda Carlisle sat behind the drum kit for the Germs back in the day, before graduating to become frontwoman for the Go Gos. One of Belinda's Germs bandmates was Pat Smear, who would go on to join Nirvana and then the Foo Fighters. Darby Crash fronted the Germs. Darby would go on to become a punk rock casualty, worse, a rock and roll cliche, dead of a heroin overdose at just 22 years old. The Go Go's formed with Jane Wylan and Belinda Carlisle, as well as the excellent musician and songwriter Charlotte Caffey, bassist Margo Oliveirria and Elisabello on drums. In 1978, they were just beginning their journey to not become punk rock casualties or worse, to become rock and roll cliches. Like most punk rock bands worth a damn, the Go Go's aimed for authenticity. For them, that meant balancing the darkness of la and of LA's punk scene with the natural, bouncy, idealized vision of the west coast that the band members had grown up in. Frankie, Annette, Jan Dean and the Brothers Wilson, before Manson taught them how to never learn not to love. Being authentic meant drawing on your own influences, not some prescribed punk rock dictum stating what a young punk band could and couldn't sound like. Guitarist Jane Wildland's tastes spanned beyond the obvious impact of the Ramones and The Buzzcocks to 60s girl groups. Singer Belinda Carlisle was California to her core. Surf music, the grassroots and guitarist Charlotte Cathy grew up obsessed with all kinds of music, the Beatles, Stones, Genesis, Patti Smith and more. And new drummer Gina Schock, who joined in 1979 after coming up through the ranks of the Baltimore trash scene. Behind the kit for the John Waters star Edith Massey and her Edie and the Eggs group, Gina was a throwback to another generation of workhorse drummers steeped in the sounds of John Bonham and Keith Moon. The Go Go's were not simply a group of girls trying punk rock on for size as the latest accessory content to grapple with the obvious influences of the all girl group the Runaways or New York's female fronted Blondie. No, the Go Go's from their inception were as serious minded musically as the serial killers who prowled their shared streets were murderous on stage. The Go Go's killed off stage. They nearly killed their career because the Go Go's were hell bent on staying true to themselves, on being authentic, on not becoming rock and roll cliches. And to do that, they needed to do the one thing every adult, every professional, every male record executive told them they shouldn't do. Write their own songs. Spring is in Full bloom on DraftKings casino. 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Hey Discos, if you want more Disgraceland, be sure to listen every Thursday to our weekly After Party Bonus episode where we dig deeper into the stories we tell in our full weekly episodes. In these After Party Bonus episodes, we dive into your voicemails and texts, emails and DMs and discuss your thoughts on the wild lives and behavior of the artists and entertainers that we're all obsessed with. So leave me a message at 617-906-6638 disgracelandpodmail.com orisgracelandpod on the socials and join the conversation every Thursday in our After Party bonus episode.
- [12:38]
Kaley Cuoco
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- [13:09]
Jake Brennan
It sounds ridiculous now, but back in the early 1980s, the idea that a group of women could write their own hit songs was radical. And maybe radical is the wrong word. Heretical is more like was heresy in the late 70s early 80s music industry to believe a group of girls could write hit songs. The Runaways had a male Svengali, Kim Foley behind them, and Blondie's Debbie Harry had a bunch of dudes in her band, the Supremes, The Pointer Sisters, LaBelle. Their hits were all written by others. Same goes for all those Phil Spector produced girl groups of the 60s that the Go Go's loved. There simply was no model for a group of women writing their own hit songs. And you know what that's like when something hasn't been done before. No matter how simple or obvious the task. For the majority of people in the world, that something seems impossible. People who are governed solely by reason, who need to witness physical or historical evidence before they can put their faith into something, generally speaking, are averse to risk. By contrast, the Go Go's because they insisted on writing their own songs. Well, the Go Go's, therefore, in the record industry's eyes, were a risk themselves. And they couldn't get a record deal no matter how many times they packed the whiskey a Go Go on the Sunset Strip. Which was exactly what the Go Go's were about to do. Except they needed a bass player. Kathy Valentine was holed up in her friend's LA darkroom as her friend developed photos. Kathy contemplated the cocaine he was selling and her friend contemplated Kathy, should he get high with this girl. She was young, just 21 and from out of town, Texas, and now here in la. He wanted a free base though. Was she hardcore enough for that? Was she ready? She was a musician, she claimed so perhaps yes. And the smell of chemical fumes overpowered Kathy. That was nothing compared to what was about to happen on the radio in the dark room the news came through with zero passion. John Lennon was dead. Murdered outside his apartment in New York City. Manhattan wasn't about to be outdone by LA's darkness. New York City had its own creeps too. There at the end of 1980, and one of them had just gunned down the coolest beetle. Kathy couldn't help but cry. She didn't care what her friend slash drug dealer thought about that. And her friend no longer cared whether Kathy could handle freebasing. If there was ever a time to freebase, it was now. So that's what they did. And then Kathy Valentine took her cocaine back to her apartment and proceeded to smoke her rock and roll grief away. Until a couple of days later, pulling herself together and heading out to the Whiskey to see X play on Christmas Eve. It was there, in the dingy rock club's bathroom where Kathy met the rest of her life, Charlotte Caffey, the Go Go's guitarist. Charlotte knew Kathy could play. And Charlotte needed a bass player to fill in for Margot. During the Go Go's upcoming four night headlining stint at the Whisky. Charlotte asked Kathy if she'd be interested in the gig as the fill in for the Go Go's bassist. Kathy said yes on the spot. And there was only one problem. Kathy couldn't play bass. Kathy was a guitarist. But that didn't stop her. Kathy didn't reason her way out of her destiny. She had faith in herself as a musician. So she spent the next 48 hours holed up in her apartment snorting lines of cocaine and learning how to play the Go Go's entire set on the bass guitar. When it came time for the shows. Eight shows in four days, two shows per day. Kathy was ready. And she killed it. And by the time the shows were over, the gig was permanently hers. Kathy Valentine had outshined Margo Oliveira and the Go Go's knew a perfect fit when they saw one. Kathy was asked to join the band and of course she did. With the Whiskey shows triumphantly in the rear view. Now the Go Go's could focus on writing hits for for their debut album. But the problem was no record label would sign them due to the Go Go's insistence that they write their own songs. And that was exactly what Charlotte Caffey was busying herself with on New Year's Day. Squirreled away up in her LA apartment. Word of that murdered girl, Jane King being broadcast from the local news. Jane was hanging out at the Mask when the Go Go's played their first show. That is, Jane hung out at The Mask before the Hillside Stranglers got their hands on her, Charlotte ignored the news and cut up some cocaine. She had a job to do. Writing songs was work like anything else. The drugs, though, were not helping. And neither was the television. Charlotte did another line anyway. And then she changed the channel. Yes, exactly what she needed. The annual New Year's Day Twilight Zone television marathon. Charlotte let herself get sucked in on the TV. The black leather jackets episode 3 aliens disguised as greasers. Pompadours. Motorcycles. Black leather. Denim beyond cool. Walking down the street with an eerie but irrepressible beat, Charlotte stared into the black and white haze of the television and eventually passed out. When she woke up, she had it. The beat. Just like the dudes in the black leather jackets from back in the day. Back then. They did the pony, they did the Watuzzi. It put them all in a trance. Charlotte was looking for a beat based song. And here it was, courtesy of cocaine and Rod Serling to see the people walking down the street fall in line Just watching all their feet they don't know where they want to go but they're walking in time they got the beat. Charlotte pulled from her deep well of musical influences and brought some light to the darkness surrounding her. The darkness from her growing drug addiction. From the eerie television show, from the local news, from the danger on the streets outside her apartment. Charlotte laid down a perfect west coast guitar riff over an imagined Heavy Tom beat. It wasn't punk, but it wasn't pink either. It was nasty Link Ray notes hammered over a sexually charged Dennis Wilson day at the beach. It was LA's dark streets waking up to the light of another perfect day. It was We Got the Beat. A perfect pop song. We Got the Beat was emblematic of who the Go Go's were and where they had the potential to go as a group. As was the romantic bop Jane Wildling created with her tune Our Lips Are Sealed. These were not the songs of a modest punk rock band. Because the Go Go's were not a modest punk rock band. To pretend so would be inauthentic at the expense of their LA punk rock credibility. The Go Go's did what came naturally to them. They wrote the only songs they knew how. Songs that were potentially giant smash pop hits born of punk rock but far from being punk rock. Nobody, it seemed though, saw that potential. Nobody believed that five women could write their own hits even when those hits were blaring back into their faces. Nobody in America would believe it, that is. But across the pond, Miles Copeland, Brother of the Police's drummer, Stuart Copeland, manager of his brother's band and head of IRS Records. He did see the potential in the Go Gos. From the strength of We Got the Beat and Our Lips Are Sealed. That potential should have been obvious to anyone with ears. Not to mention the fact that the Go Go's look great on stage. They had a style that was totally their own, a mix of thrift store chic, punk rock nihilism and old Hollywood glam. And I mean, come on. Belinda Carlisle was their frontwoman. She was an incredibly charismatic singer who was impossible to take your eyes off of. No wonder Miles Copeland signed them to his record label. He knew the Go Go's couldn't miss. All they had to do now was put their incredible songs on tape and make a record. But doing that meant that the Go Go's would have to leave LA's darkness behind and eventually move past their own darkness. We'll be right back after this. Word, word, word.
- [22:20]
Kaley Cuoco
This episode is brought to you by ebay. We all have that piece. The one that's so you. You've basically become known for it. And if you don't yet fashionistas, you'll find it on ebay. That Miu Miu red leather bomber, the Cousteau Barcelona cowboy top, or that Patagonia fleece in the 2017 colorway. All these finds are all on ebay, along with millions of more main character pieces backed by authenticity guaranteed. Ebay is the place for pre loved and vintage fashion Ebay Things People Love hey there travelers. Kaley Cuoco here. Sorry to interrupt your music great artist BT Dubs, but wouldn't you rather be there to hear it live? With Priceline, you can get out of your dreams and into your dream concert. They've got millions of travel deals to get you to that festival, gig, rave, sound bath or sonic experience you've been dreaming of. Download the Priceline app today and you can save up to 60% off hotels and up to 50% off flights. So don't just dream about that trip. Book it with Priceline.
- [23:17]
Jake Brennan
Go to your happy price. Priceline.
- [23:22]
Kaley Cuoco
This episode is brought to you by Amazon Prime.
- [23:25]
Jake Brennan
From streaming to shopping, prime helps you get more out of your passions. So whether you're a fan of true crime or prefer a nail biting novel from time to time, with services like Prime Video, Amazon Music and fast free delivery, prime makes it easy to get.
- [23:40]
Kaley Cuoco
More out of whatever you're into or getting into.
- [23:43]
Jake Brennan
Visit Amazon.comprime to learn more. Destroying a hotel room for a rock and roll band is A rite of passage. It doesn't matter if that band is a bunch of dudes or the Go Go's. The difference with the Go Go's was that after they destroyed their hotel room, they'd clean it up. It wasn't because they were women and inherently nicer than their male counterparts. No, I think it had more to do with the fact that they were at their core, punk rock. Kids and punks, a lot of them anyway, despite their nihilistic tendencies, actually have a conscientious. But I'm betting that deep down, Jane, Belinda, Kathy, Charlotte and Gina. I'm betting they couldn't help but think about the poor minimum wage worker whose job it was to clean up after their rock and roll circus left town. And that's why they cleaned up after themselves. By 1981, the Go Go's were entitled to their rock and roll trappings. Their debut album, the excellently titled Beauty and the Beat, was racing up the charts on the backs of the group's two masterful singles, We Got the Beat and Our Lips Are Sealed. The Go Go's were on tour supporting the Police, who at the time were a much bigger band. This was a stadium tour. The Police were capable of packing stadiums with or without the Go Go's supporting them. The gig for the Go Go's was about promoting their record. And it was working. One night in Atlanta, while the girls and the Go Go's picked at a deli tray backstage, Sting burst into their dressing room with two bottles of champagne to celebrate the fact that the Go Go's had just passed the Police on the charts. Things were about to change for the little punk rock band from Los Angeles. It wasn't just the shine. The Go Go's took off the Police by opening for them every night. The Go Go's, like the Police and like Duran Duran and Blondie, were being played on MTV constantly. The Go Go's, despite their disdain for the inauthentic video making process, were naturals on camera. That modern west coast vision of a tough but hot thrift store girl group was novel. Kids on the other side of the television set ate it up. I know because I was one of them all of a sudden. The Go Go's were to early 80s mall culture what the Beach Boys had been to 60s surf culture. The Go Gos had transcended punk, transcended even rock and roll. And they were now something bigger. The Go Gos represented a modern take on what the Blasters, Dave Alvin called American music. The Go Go's projected something Different. A new neon 80s Americana. Back in Los Angeles, in those dingy clubs that the Blasters were filling alongside the Go Go's other contemporaries, the makers of Beauty and the Beat were falling out of favor as their fame cemented itself into national prominence. It didn't matter that the Go Gos had helped build the LA punk scene. It didn't matter that Jane and Belinda were such a core part of LA punk that they literally played and lived alongside members of the Germs and the Bags in both the notorious Canterbury Apartments and the infamous flop house known as Disgraceland. Hold up. It's time to address the tiny elephant in the room. Disgraceland. The name of the flophouse Belinda Carlisle once lived in in Los Angeles, a dingy dive on Las Palmas where reportedly everyone who was anyone in the LA punk scene lived or partied at one point in the early 80s, including, of course, the Go Go's frontwoman. Now, did I know about the LA punk scene's Disgraceland when I named this podcast? Yes, I did. Did I get shit from angry punk rockers from that scene when they heard about my podcast? Yes, I did. Did I care or do I now? No, I do not. These same LA punks stole the name Disgraceland from Jerry Lee Lewis, just like I did. Should I have given the LA Disgraceland Punks credit when I took the name, as some of them have suggested in angry Facebook messages? Also, no. In all my research of the LA punk scene, I've never once heard or read anyone mention the original Disgraceland, which was Jerry Lee Lewis home in Nesbitt, Mississippi. I've been clear about where I got that name from the very beginning. Go back and listen to episode one of Disgraceland and you'll hear what I'm talking about. Am I concerned what old school LA punks will think of the name thing when they listen to this particular episode? I am a little. I love some of those bands, X, the Blasters, and of course the Go Gos. And I have nothing but respect for the scene and its contribution to music history. So with that said, back to our story. Falling out of favor with hometown scenesters was the cost of doing business for the Go Go's in the early 80s. They didn't sign to a record label and change their sound. They signed a record deal, an independent record deal, mind you, with IRS Records and recorded with Blondie's producer, Richard Goddard, and proceeded to put down on tape the same sound they'd been tooling together since their early days in the basement of the Canterbury Apartments. Their sound had evolved, which is what happens when any group of great musicians and songwriters continue to ply their trade. It's just that the Go Go's were so damn good at their trade that their sound evolved into massive pop hits. To create anything different would have been inauthentic, which is the one thing in punk rock that you absolutely cannot be. So the Go Gos, in staying true to themselves in staying punk, alienated the punks. They also garnered a Grammy nomination in 1982 for Best New Artist and word spread quick. The Go Go's had sold out. They were all Grammys and glitz, which of course was total bullshit. Along with the thrift store dresses and self styled hair and makeup the girls brought to the Grammys for an award they ultimately lost to Sheena Easton, the Go Go's brought along their demons as well. For Charlotte, this meant masking an intense heroin habit that threatened to break up the band. For Jane, Belinda, Kathy and Gina, they had their own drug and alcohol demons to deal with. But for the entire band, there was nothing that threatened their current status at the top of the pop mountain as much as the rumor. Were the Go Go's kind of bubble gummy? Yes. Were they beautiful? Yes. Were they super happy, funtime west coast vibes kind of music? Yes. Were they also dark, depraved sexual deviants? Perhaps this is what made the rumor so delicious. The contrast. That same dichotomy that had been at the heart of the Go Go since their inception. Like Los Angeles, they appeared to be one thing and they were that thing. But they were also the opposite. By day, Los angeles shined bright forever 72 and sunny. @ night, serial killers prowled the streets and left bodies up in the hills. During the day, the Gogos, sunny vision of west coast teen culture blanketed the airwaves. At night, the Gogos conducted drug fueled orgies with male groupies that would have made Led Zeppelin blush. Or so when the rumor at first you hear whispers in the hallway at School. You're 17. You've heard some shit before. After all, you've got a job at Bergersen's Burgers. And not just a job. You're a manager. A single successful guy. If you're lucky, Maura McAuliffe will let you get under her shirt this fall when you take her out to the spa in your cruising vessel. But back to the whispers. At first they're just a random collection of words dancing with the sounds of slamming lockers and sneakers squeaking on the high school linoleum floors. Orgy Blowjob, Spanish fly. You've heard all these words before, of course, and they're no surprise. But the frequency you're hearing them now is a little more intense. And now there are more Party Tate sex tape. And then Belinda Carlisle. Yeah, man. Jacking off. Wait, what? From the Go Go's. There's a sex tape? A sex tape of the Go Go's? What? It's all over school. It's all anyone in your 11th grade class can talk about. And not just the dudes, the girls, too. And you thought Pat Benatar was the freak? Turns out it's Belinda and the fucking Go Gos. What are they actually doing on what is quickly becoming known as the Go Go's skin flick or the party tape? Is it the entire band having sex together? No, there's male roadies involved. That's the word. Okay, okay, okay. What else? Well, it's not the whole band. It's just Belinda and Kathy. Okay, Belinda and Kathy. No Jane, that sucks. But you can take it. Belinda Carlisle is likely the hottest singer you've ever seen. And Kathy Valentine looks like she'll hurt you, but in a seriously sexy way. So you're all in on the party tape? You have to know more. And the rumors won't quit. They're all over the halls and the cafeteria and the locker room that day. You're not actually convinced, though, that anyone you're talking to has actually seen this tape? Word is some senior named Harry has an older brother in college whose friend's girlfriend works at a cutting house over in Burbank. And that the owner's ex boss has a kid whose girlfriend is friends with a dude over in the Valley whose cousin writes for a horror movie magazine. And that guy supposedly saw a copy at a party that some publicist from West Hollywood threw over the weekend. But wait, are Belinda and Kathy from the Go Go's actually having sex on tape with their roadies? Worse. They're supposedly forcing them to have sex. Really? No, not really. When this news gets back to you, by the end of the day, your pervy ass is bummed, but not totally bombed. Because the party tape might not be a full on Go Go's orgy, but it is Kathy and Belinda coercing some dude into masturbation. And they're wasted pills, supposedly. And Kathy wants to make an art film and Belinda seems to just want the roadie dude to get hard and get off. And Belinda Carlisle wanting that and voicing her desire nearly makes your head pop off your shoulders and roll down the hall into six period study hall. If you can't get sex, then the perfect thing for you to do is to jack up. There was no sex tape. Just some grainy footage of Belinda Carlisle and Kathy Valentine wasted on pills and booze trying to talk some dude who was too high on lewds and jerking off into a hard on. It didn't work, but the rumor was the rumor. And to say it was an embarrassment for the the girls in the Go Gos would have been an understatement. They'd done what all the experts said could not be done. They'd succeeded as women who wrote their own songs. And now they have the number one record in America. That's right. Beauty and the Beat had gone to number one. And it stayed at number one for six weeks. It was the first number one record by a group of girls who wrote their own material ever. And it still is. And this was a remarkable achievement. And there the Gogos were in their moment of shining glory with all their darkness on full display for the rest of the world to see. Little did anyone know that the darkness on that so called party tape was just the tip of the iceberg. Opium is a dark, sticky substance. Picture a tar like wad of gum that smells flowery but pungent. It's highly addictive. It's the main addictive substance in heroin, in oxy, you know, in the bad drugs that destroy lives and bands. And it was this dark, sticky substance that the girls and the Go Go's were currently shoving up their asses in the backyard of some fan's house in Washington state. Imagine that you're 18, 19 years old. You score tickets to see the Go Go's at your local coliseum. They got the number one record in the country at the moment. And somehow you and your handsome friends get the Go Go's to come back to your place for a party afterward. And now Jane, Kathy and the rest of the girls are in your backyard squatting alongside you and your friends with their pants around their ankles, shoving sticky opium up their buttholes to get high with you. Life is weird, man. But this behavior wasn't all that weird for the Go Gos. Drugs had been a part of the band since before they'd written the songs for their hit record. And all of them dabbled in the hard stuff. But Charlotte had a serious heroin addiction. One that had been growing in secret since back before the Go Go's recorded Beauty and the Beat. As the band embarked on recording and touring in support of their follow up album, Vacation, Charlotte's Heroin addiction had become almost all consuming. Personally, this was of course, disastrous. Professionally, this was the type of addiction that could kill a band, given that Charlotte was the group's main songwriter. Yet this band would not die. The band members pushed on through their demons. Their second album was not quite the follow up smash that a monster hit like Beauty and the Beat demanded. But it did well enough, largely on the strength of the Kathy Valentine penned title track, Vacation, which Jane and Charlotte contributed to. But by the time the Go Go's third album, Talk show, hit the shelves, the wheels were coming off. Gina had developed a hole in her heart that required surgery, and the band sent Gina off with a drug binge in Palm Springs. The five of them holed up in a hotel room like vampires, doing every drug they could get their hands on, but keeping the cocaine away from Gina's ailing heart, of course. And when they weren't high, they were paranoid and jealous. Money. What to do with all of it? Who got how much for writing which songs, in which parts? Money was a constant source of tension in the band. Charlotte was the main songwriter, but Jane Wydland and Kathy Valentine contributed nearly as much to those songs. And Melinda Carlisle and Gina Schock lent considerable style and attitude to the music. So the question of authorship was no easy matter to settle, especially under the haze of drugs. And the fierce fight over songwriting credits and royalties caused Jane to quit while on tour in support of their third album, Drugs Excess. Squabbling over their large S, the Go Go's had become the one thing their punk rock instincts had driven them not to become cliches. The only thing left for them to do was to overdose and die. And in Rio de Janeiro, at the Rock and rio Festival in 1985, Charlotte Caffey was doing her best to make that happen. On the bill with the Go Go's were AC DC, Ozzy Osbourne, Rod Stewart, Queen, the B52s and other major acts. The show drew a crowd that was estimated at nearly half a million people. And back at the hotel where the artists were staying, the party was on. Rock stars, roadies, groupies, dealers, hangers on all poolside and in and out of hotel rooms getting high. Cocaine was everywhere. The Girl from Ipanema blasted on repeat. Beautiful bronze bikini clad women in droves. Charlotte bounced between Rod Stewart's and Ozzy Osbourne's hotel rooms. Rod was between pissed off at her for some reason she couldn't figure out, and the B52s were avoiding eye contact with her. Ozzy Osbourne was in no mind to deal with her and her own band was nowhere to be found. Charlotte drank more, Charlotte did more drugs. Charlotte's manager thought that now was a good time to bring up rehab. Charlotte blocked out her manager, smoked more, snorted more, shot more heroin, shot more tequila. Shot after shot after shot on stage in front of the biggest assemblage of people she'd ever seen. Charlotte sweated through the motions. After the set, back to the hotel for more drugs and more drink. To this day, no one knows what exactly happened, but whatever Charlotte did that night resulted in none other than Ozzy Osbourne kicking her out of his hotel room. How fucked up do you have to be to have Ozzy Osbourne think you're too fucked up to hang out with? Really fucked up is the correct answer. It was one of many last straws for the Go Go's. Charlotte wasn't going to be a rock and roll casualty. She wasn't going to be a punk rock cliche. Charlotte Caffey checked herself into rehab and soon after, she followed Jane Wildland and quit the Go Gos. Sobriety in a rock and roll band is a hard road and frankly, not one that Charlotte needed to travel. Why live in the dark when there's so much light? The Go Go's did what they said couldn't be done. They succeeded at the highest levels of the music industry as women who wrote their own songs. In 2021, they were inducted into the Rock and Roll hall of Fame. Getting there and surviving their excesses nearly killed them. But in the end, the band avoided becoming a rock and roll cliche and in doing so, avoided disgrace. I'm Jake Brennan and this is Disgrace. All right, thanks for hanging with me and the Go Gos. In this episode. Apple podcast listeners make sure you have auto downloads turned on so you never miss any episodes. Guys, this week's question of the week is which girl group is the greatest girl group and why? Is it the Go Go's? Is it the Runaways? Is it? I don't know. You tell me. I've been doing too much talking. 617906 Leave me a voicemail, send me a text with your answer and you might hear yourself on the After Party bonus episode coming up right after this. Leave a review for Disgraceland on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and win some free merch. Alright, I gotta return some videotapes. Here comes some credits. Disgraceland was created by yours truly and is produced in partnership with Double Elvis. Credits for this episode can be found on the show notes page@gracelandpod.com if you're listening as a Disgraceland All Accent member, thank you for supporting the show. We really appreciate it. And if not, you can become a member right now by going to Disgracelandpod.com Membership members can listen to every episode of Disgraceland ad free. Plus you'll get one brand new exclusive episode every month, weekly unscripted bonus episodes, special audio collections, and early access to merchandise and events. Visit disgracelandpod.com for details, rate and review the show and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and Facebook Disgracelandpod and on YouTube@YouTube.com Disgracelandpod Rocka Rolla He's a bad, bad man. If you're a lineman in charge of keeping the lights on, Granger understands that you go to great lengths sometimes heights, to ensure the power is always flowing. 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