Gary Floyd (The Dicks / Sister Double Happiness) has died

Gary Floyd, who fronted legendary Texas punk band The Dicks as well as Sister Double Happiness, died on Tuesday in San Francisco. He had been in ill health for a while and was admitted to a hospital earlier this week after suffering congestive heart failure. He was 71.

Openly gay at a time when few musicians were (the band called themselves a “commie fag band” in an early interview in Maximumrocknroll), Floyd was an outsized presence onstage and off, often in drag, with a confrontational style that was an huge influence on punk for years to come. David Yow (Scratch Acid / Jesus LIzard) told Austin Chronicle back in 2013, “It was like Diana Ross meets Johnny Rotten. Especially early on, he was fat, flamboyant, weird, gross, and scary. I think the first time I saw Gary, his hair was about a quarter-inch long and it was white except for a black rectangle of eight-inch hair in the back that stuck straight out. I thought, ‘Wow, that’s a wild-looking guy.’ Sometimes he’d play in a nurse’s uniform and pull liver out of his underwear. It was inspirational and intriguing.”

Mike Watt wrote in tribute today, “this man was a great inspiration for me, a great inspiration for watt for years… he still will is… love you brother gary.”

The Dicks formed in Austin in 1980 and their debut single “The Dicks Hate the Police” is a classic. Floyd relocated to San Francisco in 1983 and formed a new lineup of the band around the time The Dicks released their debut album, Kill from the Heart, on SST. Their second album, These People, was released in 1985 on Alternative Tentacles. The Dicks broke up in 1986 and Floyd and bandmate Lynn Perko formed bluesy/grungy band Sister Double Happiness who were together for a decade, releasing albums on SST, Reprise and Sub Pop.

“There’s a picture of me that was on the internet a lot, and I have a big old curly blonde wig on and a slip, and I’ve got my tongue sticking out and I’m making some big face,” Floyd told Xtra in 2013. “Skip to about a year ago, and I’m walking down the street in San Francisco and this young punk-rock boy who looks about 20 comes up, and he goes, ‘Gary Floyd?’ ‘Yeah!’ ‘Oh my god, I want to show you something.’ And he pulls his sleeve and he’s got that picture tattooed on his arm. And I think I said something like, ‘You little motherfucker! What are you thinking!’ — I was so shocked. And he was like, ‘Thank you for being a trailblazer for all of us.’”

Thanks, Gary. Rest easy.