Sky Saxon with his leopard skin suit jacket and silver glitter creepers

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BP-O  About 1981, '82 I met Mr. Sebastian in London. At that time he was the only man in Britain who was doing any kind of piercing and tattooing. He did it very, very secretly, only by recommendation from somebody he knew. It was a very secret practice only 20 years ago. They were going to charge him with conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm. The case was known as the "Spanner Case," which is what the police called the squad that was set up, specially. The squad was set up to enforce the idea that any form of piercing or tattooing was illegal. It was illegal to knowingly cause a wound and a wound is defined as the skin being broken. If you tattoo or pierce someone, you are breaking their skin, which is grievous bodily harm, which is one step below manslaughter. So, it was a serious offense. They wanted to set a legal precedent, so they could victimize anybody who was different. They took him to court in the Old Bailey, which is where they put on trial murderers and spies. This is only 14, 15 years ago.

BB When you are walking around the streets now and see a piercing and tattooing parlor on every corner and Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson coming out of windows, you must feel responsible?

BP-O I didn't until Lady Jaye and I were walking down St. Marks Place one day and she turned to me and said I blame you for this.

One of my favorite stories is the one he tells about Julie London. He said that they originally signed her because of what a 'good looking dame' she was. I don't think they had even heard her sing anything. They just thought that the record would sell for the cover. One of the amazing things about that song, aside from how great her voice is, is the stripped down production. Everyone really responded to the different sound that added all that sultriness to her track and voice. The real reason for that was because they had spent all of their money on the cover and didn't have any money left for the musicians.