Fear (band)


Fear, stylized as FEAR, is an American punk rock band from Los Angeles, formed in 1977. The band is credited for helping to shape the sound and style of Californian hardcore punk. The group gained national prominence after an infamous 1981 performance on Saturday Night Live.
Frontman Lee Ving has been the band's only constant member. Since its formation, the band has gone through various lineup changes, and at one point featured Flea, later a member of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, on bass. The classic Fear lineup existed from 1978 to 1982, and was composed of Ving, guitarist Philo Cramer, bassist Derf Scratch, and drummer Spit Stix. Cramer and Stix later rejoined the band in 2018.
WWW fearleeving.com𝕏 fearleevingFB FEARthebandIG fearleevingofficial

History

1970s

Fear was formed in 1977 by singer/guitarist Lee Ving and bassist Derf Scratch, who recruited guitarist Burt Good and drummer Johnny Backbeat. According to Scratch, the band was named by photographer Bob Seidemann. In 1978, Fear released the single "I Love Livin' in the City". Shortly after this, Good and Backbeat left the band and were replaced by Philo Cramer and Spit Stix.

1980s

Film director Penelope Spheeris met Ving and Stix while they were hanging handbills on telephone poles in Los Angeles on Laurel Canyon Boulevard. After a brief discussion, she asked if they wanted to be in a documentary about the Los Angeles punk scene, The Decline of Western Civilization. In the film, Fear performed a set in which they baited members of the audience with personal attacks, sexist and homophobic slurs, and offbeat humor, inspiring some audience members to come on stage to fight them. At the time, Spheeris was married to Slash Records president Bob Biggs who, later that year, signed a recording deal with Fear.
Actor John Belushi, who became a fan of the band through an episode of L.A.-based New Wave Theatre in 1980, successfully lobbied to get the band a spot as a musical guest on the 1981 Halloween episode of his former show Saturday Night Live. Belushi had originally offered Fear a song on the soundtrack for his final motion picture Neighbors. The film's producers eventually forced Fear off the project, and Belushi got them the infamous SNL gig as compensation. The band's appearance included a group of slamdancers, among them Belushi, Ian MacKaye of Minor Threat and Fugazi, Tesco Vee of the Meatmen, Harley Flanagan and John Joseph of the Cro-Mags, and John Brannon of Negative Approach. The show's director originally wanted to prevent the dancers from participating, so Belushi offered to be in the episode if the dancers were allowed to stay. The end result was the shortening of Fear's appearance on TV. Fear played "I Don't Care About You", "Beef Bologna", "New York's Alright If You Like Saxophones", and started to play "Let's Have a War" when the telecast faded into commercial. They ended "Beef Bologna" by saying, "It's great to be in New Jersey", drawing boos from the live New York audience. The slamdancers left ripe pumpkin remains on the set. Cameras, a piano and other property were damaged. After their SNL appearance, which resulted in $20,000 in damage, some clubs chose not to hire the band. The song originally recorded for the film, also titled "Neighbors", featured vocals from Belushi and Ving, and was eventually released by Ving in 2015.
Fear also appeared in the 1981 rotoscope animated film American Pop, directed by Ralph Bakshi. Ving performed under the name Lee James Jude.
Additionally that year, Josie Cotton released the hit song "Johnny Are You Queer?". The song was based on Fear's song "Fetch Me One More Beer", written by Philo Cramer and John Clancy. Bobby and Larson Paine, who were managing the Go-Go's, re-worked the song with new lyrics and gave it to them, but after a falling out forbade the band from playing it and gave it to Cotton. In several interviews Cotton has suggested that the song's title was lifted from lyrics in the Fear song, though she has also stated that Fear's version of it went "You're a fuckin' queer", which is consistent with Fear's demo of the song.
When Fear found out a variation of their song had become popular, a meeting regarding the publishing rights of the song was arranged between them and the Paines. The two sides decided the winner of a coin toss would get the publishing rights to the song, which the Paines won.
In 1982, Fear released their debut album The Record. After touring in support of the album, Ving fired Scratch, which Scratch later claimed was due to jealousy and Ving taking extra payments without the band's knowledge. Eric Feldman briefly filled in on bass before he was replaced by Flea. Flea left the band and was replaced by Lorenzo Buhne. On July 3, 1983, Fear performed at the "Rock Against Reagan" protest concert at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. along with the Dead Kennedys, MDC, Toxic Reasons, the Crucifucks and others. In the summer of 1983 through early 1984, while Stix was touring Europe with Nina Hagen, Chuck Biscuits was supposed to replace him, but Stix returned and Biscuits never played any shows with Fear. With Ving producing, the band recorded their second album More Beer in 1985 in just two days, according to the band. However, according to a representative from Enigma Records, it took a full year, as quoted in a March 1986 issue of Spin.

1990s

Live...For the Record, a live album of a 1985 performance for Spin Radio, was released in 1991. Shortly afterwards, bassist Will "Sluggo" MacGregor was hired. After 1991–93 North American tours, Fear disbanded. Cramer and Stix left the band, citing disputes with Ving over finances. For the next two years, Ving performed in Austin, Texas as Lee Ving's Army. This eventually became the new Fear lineup, including Ving backed by LVA members Sean Cruse, Scott Thunes and Andrew Jaimez. In 1995, Fear released the Have Another Beer with Fear album, followed by American Beer, which featured Ving and Jaimez along with new members Richard Presley and Mando Lopez. The album included new recordings of several previously unreleased older Fear songs, as well as some new compositions. Presley and Lopez then began playing with Kim Deal and Kelley Deal in the Breeders.

2000–present

Fear performed in the annual Warped Tour in 2008. Former bassist Scratch died from liver disease on July 28, 2010. He was 58 years old.
Fear played the South by Southwest festival in 2012. A re-recording of 1982's The Record was released in late 2012, under the title of The Fear Record. In 2018, the band reunited with Cramer and Stix, and added former AFI bassist Geoff Kresge and Henchmen guitarist Eric Razo to the lineup. In the spring of 2022, Fear announced that they had regained the master rights of The Record from Warner Music and announced a 40th anniversary deluxe edition of the album.
Fear went on tour throughout 2023. On October 31, 2023 Fear released the album For Right and Order. It was their first new studio album in 11 years. The lineup consisted of Ving, Stix, Kresge, and Razo, in addition to songwriting contributions from Cramer.
On October 31, 2025 Fear released their first official music video for their most recent album, The Last Time. The video was shot, edited and directed by notable special makeup effects artist and indie filmmaker, Jim Ojala.

Band members

Current
Former
Drums
  • Johnny Backbeat – drums
  • Andrew Jaimez – drums
Bass
Guitar
  • Burt Good – lead guitar
  • Sean Cruse – lead guitar
  • Richard Presley – lead guitar
  • Derol Caraco – lead guitar
  • Lawrence Arrieta – lead guitar
  • Dave Stark – lead guitar, backing vocals
  • Frank Meyer – rhythm guitar

Timeline



ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:20
PlotArea = left:100 bottom:60 top:0 right:20
Alignbars = justify
DateFormat = mm/dd/yyyy
Period = from:01/01/1977 till:01/28/2026
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy
Colors =
id:vocals value:red legend:Vocals,_rhythm_guitar
id:guitars value:green legend:Lead_guitar
id:bass value:blue legend:Bass
id:drums value:orange legend:Drums
id:lines1 value:black legend:Studio_albums
Legend = orientation:horizontal position:bottom
ScaleMajor = increment:5 start:1977
ScaleMinor = increment:1 start:1977
LineData =
at:05/16/1982 color:black layer:back
at:01/01/1985 color:black layer:back
at:10/17/1995 color:black layer:back
at:09/05/2000 color:black layer:back
at:11/06/2012 color:black layer:back
at:12/01/2023 color:black layer:back
at:11/06/2024
BarData =
bar:Ving text:"Lee Ving"
bar:Good text:"Burt Good"
bar:Cramer text:"Philo Cramer"
bar:Cruse text:"Sean Cruse"
bar:Presely text:"Richard Presley"
bar:Caraco text:"Derol Caraco"
bar:Arrieta text:"Lawrence Arrieta"
bar:Stark text:"Dave Stark"
bar:Razo text:"Eric Razo"
bar:Meyer text:"Frank Meyer"
bar:Scratch text:"Derf Scratch"
bar:Flea text:"Flea"
bar:Buhne text:"Lorenzo Buhne"
bar:MacGregor text:"Will MacGregor"
bar:Thunes text:"Scott Thunes"
bar:LeMieux text:"Kelly LeMieux"
bar:Lopez text:"Mando Lopez"
bar:Bolle text:"Sam Bolle"
bar:Lerma text:"Paul Lerma"
bar:Kresge text:"Geoff Kresge"
bar:Cook text:"Amos Cook"
bar:Backbeat text:"Johnny Backbeat"
bar:Stix text:"Spit Stix"
bar:Jaimez text:"Andrew Jaimez"
PlotData=
width:11 textcolor:black align:left anchor:from shift:
bar:Ving from:start till:end color:vocals
bar:Scratch from:01/01/1977 till:01/01/1983 color:bass
bar:Flea from:01/01/1983 till:01/01/1984 color:bass
bar:Buhne from:01/01/1984 till:01/01/1988 color:bass
bar:MacGregor from:01/01/1988 till:01/01/1993 color:bass
bar:Thunes from:01/01/1993 till:01/01/1995 color:bass
bar:LeMieux from:01/01/1995 till:01/01/1997 color:bass
bar:Lopez from:01/01/1997 till:01/01/2008 color:bass
bar:Bolle from:01/01/2008 till:01/01/2009 color:bass
bar:Lerma from:01/01/2010 till:01/01/2018 color:bass
bar:Kresge from:01/01/2018 till:12/31/2023 color:bass
bar:Cook from:01/01/2024 till:end color:bass
bar:Good from:01/01/1977 till:01/01/1978 color:guitars
bar:Cramer from:01/01/1978 till:01/01/1993 color:guitars
bar:Cramer from:01/01/2018 till:end color:guitars
bar:Cruse from:01/01/1993 till:01/01/1999 color:guitars
bar:Presely from:01/01/1999 till:01/01/2005 color:guitars
bar:Caraco from:01/01/2005 till:01/01/2009 color:guitars
bar:Arrieta from:01/01/2010 till:01/01/2011 color:guitars
bar:Stark from:01/01/2011 till:01/01/2018 color:guitars
bar:Razo from:01/01/2018 till:end color:guitars
bar:Meyer from:01/01/2024 till:08/20/2025 color:guitars
bar:Backbeat from:01/01/1977 till:01/01/1978 color:drums
bar:Stix from:01/01/1978 till:01/01/1993 color:drums
bar:Stix from:01/01/2018 till:end color:drums
bar:Jaimez from:01/01/1993 till:01/01/2018 color:drums


Discography

Studio albumsThe Record More Beer Have Another Beer with Fear American Beer The Fear Record
  • For Right and Order
  • The Last Time
Singles and EPs
  • "I Love Livin' in the City" 7-inch single Fuck Christmas 7 single : It was recorded during the sessions that produced their debut The Record, but was not released until months later. The single's A-side was later added as a bonus track to the CD reissue of The Record. It is also present on cassette copies of the album. " Christmas" is identical to "Fuck Christmas" but with censored profanity, done as a way to promote the single on radio. Punk band Bad Religion covered the song at KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas in 1993 and 1994
  • "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" 7-inch single
  • Paradise Studios Sessions Vol. 1 7-inch EP
  • Paradise Studios Sessions Vol. 2 7-inch EP
  • Paradise Studios Sessions Vol. 3 7-inch EP
  • "Neighbors" 7-inch single with John Belushi
  • "Fuel To The Fire / People Person" 7 inch single
  • "Nice Boys " EP
  • "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man b/w Brainwash" 7 inch single
  • Trash " Single
  • "A Hard Days Night" streaming single
Live albumsLive...for the Record
Soundtrack compilation appearancesThe Decline of Western Civilization Get Crazy (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) Repo Man (Music from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Influence

Fear's influence is illustrated by the bands who have paid tribute by covering its songs.