Late last month, the news broke that Dead Boys vocalist Jake Hout (who joined in 2017) was leaving the band after accusing their label Cleopatra Records of using a “fakeass robot A.I.” version of the late original vocalist Stiv Bators‘ voice on their upcoming album. Now, sole remaining original member Cheetah Chrome has told his side of the story in an interview with Punk News.
“First [Jake] recorded the vocals and then he saw the contract and saw ‘A.I.’ and had a knee jerk reaction,” Cheetah said. “So, we did find one song called ‘You Don’t Really Love Me,’ he continued. “It’s Stiv’s last full song that sounds like a performance. It sounds like it’s a record. After that there’s nothing. We used A.I. to restore Stiv’s vocals. We didn’t cut or paste or edit it. We only used A.I. to restore it and put it in the mix so you can hear it. A.I. was the only way to pull out the recordings. we tried Pro Tools and everything else and it didn’t work. We actually used Kirk Winio, who was a friend of Stiv’s to do it. We wouldn’t let anyone else touch it, out of respect to Stiv. He was my brother.”
“We couldn’t tell Jake because he is a loose cannon,” Cheetah added. “Keeping secrets is not his forte. It was supposed to be a surprise for Record Store Day. Brian [of Cleopatra Records] had an idea. Try restoring it and if I like it, they would put it on a record. But, I didn’t even hear it because Brian didn’t even like it, so it didn’t come out. Cool, I dodged a bullet.”
About A.I., Cheetah also added, “I don’t just say no to something because I don’t understand it. We did a lot of research and the time to stop A.I. was back in 1990! Nobody should have ever bought a cellphone. It’s been a component in society for like 30 years! You can adapt and use it in legitimate ways. I don’t want to just fake someone’s performance.”
And about Jake, he added, “I don’t want to bash Jake. But, I’m pretty pissed off at Jake. If he quit drinking, I consider bringing him back. But I don’t want him back in the condition he is in. […] I [last] spoke to him in a dressing room in San Francisco and it almost got physical- that was last Saturday night.”
And about the new album that Cheetah has coming out with Blondie‘s Clem Burke on drums and Sex Pistols‘ Glen Matlock on bass, he said, “I’m not happy that we are calling it a Dead Boys record. Cleopatra can call it Dead Boys or Cheetah Chrome- that’s their authority under the contract. To me, this is not a Dead Boys record. It’s a Cheetah Chrome, Clem Burke, Glen Matlock record.” He also added that there’s another Dead Boys album in progress (“that’s the first Dead Boys record in 40 years if you ask me”), and that he hasn’t yet pursued a replacement for Jake.
Read more at Punk News.