Richard Hell

Its title track was named "One of the 500 Songs That Shaped Rock" by music writers in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame listing and is ranked as one of the all-time Top 10 punk songs by a 2006 poll of original British punk figures, as reported in the Rough Guide to Punk. Since the late 1980s, Hell has devoted himself primarily to writing, publishing two novels and several other books. He was the film critic for BlackBook magazine from 2004 to 2006.

• Name — Richard Hell • Landscape — yes • Birth Name — Richard Lester Meyers • Born — 2 October 1949 • Birthplace — Lexington, Kentucky • Instruments — * Vocals • bass guitar • Genre — * Punk rock • rock and roll • alternative rock • Occupation — * Musician • singer • songwriter • writer • Years Active — 1972–present • Label — * Sire • Red Star • Matador • Rhino • Past Member Of — * Richard Hell and the Voidoids • Neon Boys • Television • The Heartbreakers • Dim Stars • Website — http: www.richardhell.com/

• Illustration — The punk band Richard Hell and the Voidoids in a 1977 press photo. (L-R): Richard Hell, Ivan Julian, Marc Bell (Marky Ramone), and Robert Quine

Richard Lester Meyers was born in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1949. His father was Jewish, and an experimental psychologist researching animal behavior. He died when Hell was seven years old. Hell was then raised by his mother, Carolyn H. Rhodes, who came from Welsh and English ancestry. After her husband's death, she returned to school and became a professor. Hell attended the Sanford School in Delaware for one year, where he became friends with Tom Miller, who later changed his name to Tom Verlaine. They ran away from school together and a short time later were arrested in Alabama for arson and vandalism. Hell never finished high school, instead moving to New York City to make his way as a poet. In New York he met fellow young poet David Giannini, and moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, for several months, where Giannini and Meyers co-founded Genesis:Grasp. They used an AM VariTyper with changeable fonts to publish the magazine. They began publishing books and magazines, but decided to go their separate ways in 1971, after which Hell created and published Dot Books. Before he was 21, his own poems were published in numerous periodicals, ranging from Rolling Stone to the New Directions Annuals. In 1971, along with Verlaine, Hell also published under the pseudonym Theresa Stern, a fictional poet whose photo was actually a combination of both his and Verlaine's faces in drag, superimposed over one another to create a new identity. A book of poems credited to "Stern", Wanna Go Out?, was released by Dot in 1973.

In 1972, Verlaine joined Hell in New York and formed the Neon Boys. In 1974, the band added a second guitarist, Richard Lloyd, and changed their name to Television. Television's performances at CBGB helped kick-start the first wave of punk bands, inspiring a number of different artists including Patti Smith, who wrote the first press review of Television for the SoHo Weekly News in June 1974. She formed a highly successful band of her own, the Patti Smith Group. Television was one of the early bands to play at CBGB because their manager, Terry Ork, persuaded owner Hilly Kristal to book them alongside the Ramones. They also built the club's first stage. Hell started playing his punk rock anthem "Blank Generation" during his time in Television. In early 1975, Hell parted ways with Television after a dispute over creative control. Hell claimed that he and Verlaine had originally divided the songwriting evenly, but that later Verlaine sometimes refused to play Hell's songs. Verlaine remained silent on the subject. Hell left Television the same week that Jerry Nolan and Johnny Thunders quit the New York Dolls. In May 1975, the three of them formed the Heartbreakers (not to be confused with Tom Petty's band, which adopted the same name the following year). After one show, Walter Lure joined the Heartbreakers as a second guitarist. Four Heartbreakers demo tracks, recorded while Hell was still in the band, were later released on that band's L.A.M.F. Definitive Edition reissue. A live album recorded with Hell in 1975 was released as What Goes Around... in 1991.

In early 1976, Hell quit the Heartbreakers and started Richard Hell and the Voidoids with Robert Quine, Ivan Julian and Marc Bell. The band released two albums, though the second, Destiny Street, retained only Quine from the original group, with Naux (Juan Maciel) on guitar and Fred Maher on drums. Hell's best known songs with the Voidoids included "Blank Generation", "Love Comes in Spurts", "The Kid With the Replaceable Head" and "Time". In 2009, the guitar tracks on Destiny Street were re-recorded and released as Destiny Street Repaired, with guitarists Julian, Marc Ribot and Bill Frisell playing to the original rhythm tracks. Also in 2009, Hell gave his blessing to the public access program Pancake Mountain to create an animated music video for "The Kid with the Replaceable Head". It was the Voidoids' first and only official music video. The cut used for the animation appears on Hell's 2005 retrospective album, Spurts, The Richard Hell Story.

Hell's only other album release was as part of the band Dim Stars, for which he came out of retirement for a month in the early 1990s. Dim Stars featured guitarist Thurston Moore and drummer Steve Shelley from Sonic Youth, Gumball's guitarist Don Fleming, and Quine. They formed only to record a 1991 EP and a 1992 album, both titled Dim Stars, and played one show in public, a WFMU benefit at The Ritz in Manhattan. Hell played bass, sang lead vocals and wrote the lyrics for the album. Hell also guested on the 1993 Roller Coaster album by Shotgun Rationale, and co-wrote and sang lead vocals on the song "Never Mind" by the Heads, a 1996 collaborative effort between three former members of Talking Heads.

In 1986, to commemorate the publication of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain one hundred years before, Hell and Legs McNeil spent several days on the Mississippi River in inflatable rubber rafts, starting in Hannibal, Missouri and ending in Hamburg, Illinois. They co-wrote an article in the November 1986 issue of Spin magazine recounting their experiences.

In 1968, Hell dated Patty Mucha (then Patty Oldenburg), the estranged wife of sculptor Claes Oldenburg, when he was nineteen and she was thirty-four. Their relationship lasted two years. Hell dated Nancy Spungen in 1976 for a few months before she moved to England. Hell's relationship with Lizzy Mercier Descloux began during her first trip to New York City. She inspired his song "Another World" from the album Blank Generation, and his first novel, Go Now. Hell also contributed to her artist's book, Desiderata, and co-translated the Rimbaud poem "The Drunken Boat" with her. Hell was married to Scandal's Patty Smyth for two years during 1985–86, and they had a daughter. He was married to museum curator Sheelagh Bevan from 2002 to 2016. In January 2020, it was mentioned on Hell's website that he was in a relationship with novelist Katherine Faw.

• L.A.M.F. Definitive Edition (2012, Jungle Records)

• What Goes Around... (1991, Bomp! Records) • Live at Mothers (1991) • Yonkers Demo 1976 (2019)

• Blank Generation (1977, Sire Records) • Destiny Street (1982, Red Star Records)

• Destiny Street Repaired (2009, Insound) • Destiny Street Remixed (2021, Omnivore Records)

• Funhunt: Live at CBGB's and Max's 1978 and 1979 (1990, ROIR) • Gone to Hell (2008, Vinyl Japan)

• R.I.P. (1984, ROIR) • Across the Years box set (1991, Soyo Records) • Time (2002, Matador Records) • Spurts: The Richard Hell Story (2005, Sire Records/Rhino Records)

• Another World (1976, Ork/Stiff Records) • 3 New Songs (1992, Overground Records) • Go Now (1995, CodeX/Tim-Kerr Records)

• Dim Stars (1992, Caroline Records)

• Dim Stars (1991, Ecstatic Peace!)

• Final Reward (1978) • Blank Generation (1980) • Smithereens (1982) • Geek Maggot Bingo (1983) • Desperately Seeking Susan (1985) • No Picnic (1987) • What About Me (1993) • Blind Light (1998)

Richard Hell was recorded at birth as Richard Lester Meyers. He also worked under the name Richard Hell. The authorities additionally record the heading Richard Lester Meyers. His recorded language was English. His recorded confession was atheism. He married Patty Smyth. Recorded as singer, songwriter, composer, writer and actor.