Interview: Leonard Graves Phillips

The Dickies have shown incredible staying power since they came into the punk rock music world in 1977. By now they are are one of the longest-running punk rock bands that ever was.

The Dickies’ first release was a 1978 single featuring a hyper-speed cover Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid”, and other early singles included covers of the children’s TV show theme song “Banana Splits (Tra La La Song)” and The Moody Blues’ “Nights in White Satin”.

In addition to their masterful punk rock interpretations of others’ material, The Dickies also wrote loads of smokin’ originals, often with twistedly amusing lyrics and themes. Their classic albums are usually considered to be The Incredible Shrinking Dickies and the follow-up Dawn of The Dickies, both released in 1979, but that’s not the end of their story, with various additional releases by the band over the years.

This interview with Dickies singer Leonard Graves Phillips was done by email, with answers received on 2/14/16. It was for a preview article for the 2/27/16 concert by The Dickies at The Garage in Ventura. This ended being a short interview, but size doesn’t matter, right? (Greg Papazian photo)