Redd Kross Rules L.A. They started out as Red Cross but had to change it. Redd Kross are always changing. Two beautiful brothers. The younger one is Steven. he was 11 when Red Cross first rocked live as 'The Tourists.' The elder one is known as Jeff. One of my top five guitar heroes.

I first heard the Cross on a compilation from the very early '80s. The track was called "Burn Out," and it was produced by L.A.'s hot punk-core producer, Geza X. It smoked very hard. I super-fantasised about Red Cross. Their music popped up on weird L.A. underground compilations and they out out the all-time killer LP Born Innocent. They were teenage kids growing up in a rock & roll band. A punk rock & roll band. They had good times. They had bad times. They were burnt iut and jaded by music biz sleaze before they even finished high school. We would pray for Redd Kross.

As Steve once quipped: "All kids, be they punx, hippies or fairies, they can all unite beneath the Kross." Redd Kross rocked and rambled through the '80's, and today they are at hardcore peace. Like women, they still rule. Their latest release is called Phaseshifter.

We will start this interview with a query of considerable merit:

Thurston: Did you lose your virginity in a rock & roll way?
Steve: I guess to sort of a groupie. I was 12 years old, in a car.
Thurston: Wow!
Steve: I think it was at a Germs show.
Thurston: And afterwards, did you go into the gig and like...
Steve: Yeah, I went into the gig like I was a new person.
Thurston: Did you guys jam together when you were kids?
Jeff: We took photos first, rock photos, posing with our instruments.
Steve: New wave photos wearing a skinny tie and holding a microphone.
Dave Markey (director of the film 1991: The Year Punk Broke): Did you ever wear a skinny tie on stage?
Jeff: No. I wore it to a show before, but I really cringe when I think abou it.
Dave: Did you ever wear a safety pin?
Jeff: Never. I hated English punk rock.
Dave: You didn't like the Damned?
Jeff: I loved the Damned and X-Ray Spex, but I didn't liked the Clash or the Sex Pistols.
Steve: I liked the Sex Pistols.
Jeff: They were okay, but [for me] it was more like the Ramones and the L.A. scene.
Thurston: So you caught onto punk rock as you saw the ramones n a magazine or something? Did you buy the first Patti Smith album when it came out?
Jeff: Got the first Patti Smith album right when it came out. I don't know how I stumbled upon it.
Thurston: It just looked really cool.
Jeff: Well, I heard "Free Money" on a college radiostation in the mountains once on vacation, and then I guess a couple of years later the Ramones.
Thurston: What about before punk? The Stooges? Jeff: Not so much the Stooges, but the New York Dolls when they came out. These kids that lived next door to us, they were older and really hip and they had Alice Cooper's Pretties for You, Easy Action and T-Rex's Slider.
Thurston: That could have been me living next door to you!
Steve: I was a little kid, seven or eight years old, but it was like being attracted to shiny objects.
Jeff: And I remember one time my friend's mom worked at some high school and she bought these fanzines back for us and they were all like Iggy Pop and Kim Fowley and Iggy getting naked at a party. And I had just read about Iggy and saw Raw Power at a supermarket when I was with my mom.
Thurston: Yeah, wow. I had those same experiences too where you just see little things here and there and the just stand out. Did you ever draw battle lines between the ounk rock thing and the whole dinosaur rock thing like Fleetwood Mac, ELO, Zeppelin?
Jeff: Well, no, not really 'cause all those bands were getting really terrible by the time punk rock was starting, so it was like they kinda died. I saw Led Zeppelin in '77. They were already past their prime, and it was kinda obvious.
Thurston: So being a punk in high school in the late '70s was...
Jeff: A nightmare.
Steve: I was in junior high school. I got beat up by the entire eight grade class when I was in seventh grade.
Jeff: And I was the only punk rocker in a very large high school.
Dave: Did you have coloured hair?
Jeff: I had green hair.
Thurston: Were you going to lots of gigs when you were young?
Steve: Well, we went to rock concerts before we went to clubs. I saw KISS in '75 when I was eight years old. We saw Zeppelin...
Thurston: Wow! Were you freaking out when you were in the audience seeing all these teenagers smoking pot and passing wine?
Jeff: Yeah, pretending to be stoned. I started getting into Aerosmith when Get Your Wings came out, so I had to see Aerosmith, who were opening for ZZ Top, and there were all these big, drunken rednecks puking all over the place. it was amazing, the most hardcore concert I've ever been to.