Cheetah Chrome (born Eugene Richard O’Connor, February 18, 1955, Cleveland, Ohio) is an American musician who achieved fame as a guitarist for Rocket From the Tombs and the punk rock band The Dead Boys.^[1]
After the Dead Boys broke up, Cheetah Chrome played around New York City (mostly at Max’s Kansas City) doing shows with the Stilettos, as well as his own band Cheetah Chrome and the Casualties. He recorded a single for ORK Records, “Still Wanna Die/Take Me Home”, recorded by Atlantic Records co-founder Herb Abramson. Shortly thereafter, he played on Ronnie Spector’s debut solo album Siren. In 1980, he played guitar for Nico at New York’s Squat Theatre as well as Max’s Kansas City. He appeared on several recordings during the 1980s, most notably his own “Cheetah Chrome and the Ghetto Dogs” (Get Hip), Jeff Dahl’s “I Kill Me” (Sympathy for the Record Industry), and Todd Tamanend Clark‘s “Into The Vision” (TMI). He also rejoined the Dead Boys for the ill-fated reunions of the late 1980s.
In the 1990s, Chrome moved to Nashville, Tennessee and recorded a live album Alive in Detroit(DUI) at Lili’s in Hamtramck, Michigan. In the 2002, he played guitar on several track for False Alarm’s Fuck ‘Em All We’ve All Ready (Now) Won!. He also played with The Replacements Bob Stinson in the band Shotgun Rationale.
In 2003, after the release of The Day the Earth Met the Rocket from the Tombs, he reformed Rocket From The Tombs with David Thomas, Craig Bell, with Steve Mehlman (Pere Ubu) on drums and Richard Lloyd (Television) replacing the late Peter Laughner. [1] The reincarnation of the group toured in 2003 and 2006. In summer 2003 it entered the studio to record some of the band’s old material for the first time. The recordings were released as Rocket Redux (SmogVeil). Chrome did a US West coast tour in April 2004 (backed by Sweet Justice) as well as a 10 date Midwest/East coast tour as guitarist in Texas Terri’s band in July. At the end of July he headlined “Festimal” in Cedeira, Spain. In 2005, the members of RFTT flew to Germany to headline one night (The Buzzcocks headlined the other) of the International Punk Kongress in Kassel; then, in 2006, they reconvened in Cleveland to write material for a new record. This material became the single “I Sell Soul/Romeo and Juliet”, released in 2010, and the full-length album Barfly, released in 2011. In 2007 Chrome played periodic solo shows, including headlining the Road To Ruins festival in Rome, Italy (backed by Unnatural Axe).
In May 2008, on the way home from the “Joey Ramone Birthday Bash”, Chrome had a chance meeting at LaGuardia Airport with the members of Joan Jett‘s band The Blackhearts, including drummer Thommy Price, with whom he had played on Ronnie Spector’s Siren. This led to several NYC area shows with The Blackhearts as his band, including a live performance on WFMU in NJ. In 2009, after repeated suggestions that he write a book from a friend who worked at Voyageur Press in Minneapolis, MN, Chrome relented and submitted a sample chapter to them in Spring 2009. He signed a book deal with Voyageur and began writing his autobiography.