John D Morton, (pointing) pictured with his band X_X, was at the forefront of punk and has definite opinions about what is and is not punk: “Dave Grohl, a couple of albums back, the back of (the album) said, ‘Recorded entirely in Dave Grohl’s garage.’ If you have a couple of hundred thousand dollars worth of equipment, it’s not garage music.”

By Wayne Bledsoe of the Knoxville News Sentinel

John D Morton, of the legendary band X_X, says his tribulations started early:

Morton says he was in Sunday school in the nursery class drawing. He chose to draw the church.

"They loved it, because I could draw in perspective," says Morton. "I liked it, but there was no action, so I put some flames on it. That did it. Here I'm 4 and I'm already in trouble."

Not much changed after that.

You may not know his name, but Morton is one of the true fathers of punk rock. His band electric eels (the name was lowercase in deference to poet e. e. cummings) formed in 1972 in Cleveland, Ohio, and proffered a style rock that was primitive, aggressive, angry and wouldn't break through nationally until at least 1977. Morton might also be the first person to have made safety pins a punk fashion statement before anyone put "punk" and "music" together. When the eels split, Morton formed X_X (pronounced "ex-blank-ex"), a short-lived venture that became an underground legend. Both bands were confrontational rock and art marked by moments of violence. Morton, whose conceptual art has included a rock band that didn't actually play music and what he's described as revived X_X, in 2014, after the release of a compilation album revived interest in the group's place in history.

"Wait till you hear my story," says Morton in an agitated, but affable tone. "I'm in a motel room in Cleveland, because I was barred from Canada. I'm waiting for a lawyer to call ... just a big (expletive) mess... I was in the process of moving, so I have my espresso machine and my $500 Berg grinder, so I'm having expressos while I wait ... It's just bizarre."

Morton says this current adventure began when he was recently committed to an asylum, because people were worried he was going to kill himself:

"I was posting on Facebook. I had these fake suicide notes that I did in 1975 or something like that," says Morton. "I was on board with my therapist. It was my way of dealing with it. My therapist said I am my artwork, which is nice for a therapist to say."

When the authorities showed up, they found that Morton, who has also been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, had a collapsible police baton, which got him an illegal weapon charge.

"This category that's the same as a slingshot. So I got this criminal charge and then I got two more."

When he was riding his motorcycle to contest the weapons charge after getting out of the psychiatric ward, he was stopped for speeding. That ticket, which he didn't pay, caused his license to be suspended and two months later he was stopped and arrested for driving on a suspended license and resisting arrest. Morton says he suffers from post traumatic stress disorder due to abuse he suffered as a child and it kicks in when he's in stressful situations. Due to his condition, the charge was changed to disturbing the peace.

"So I show up at the Canadian border and they say, 'Oh, you got this disturbing the peace charge and a 20-year-old DWI. You're banned.' I say, 'But it's just disturbing the peace!' They say, 'Oh, yeah. It's just a slap on the wrist, but it's a crime.' So I got turned away from the border and I've been hanging out in motel rooms ever since."

Morton says he regrets some of the violence in his past, but he's now in a world where his art and music is more accepted and his contributions are being recognized.

"You cannot 'try' to be real. The anger in my music is real. I used to punch you in the face."

He says he recently played a house concert in Indianapolis and a young man came up to him afterward.

"He said, 'You're, like, the first adults I've seen who play punk and mean it.' I guess the world has caught up with us in a way. ... And here I am in a motel room in Cleveland waiting to get across the border. It took me my whole life to get here."

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X_X, Obnox, Ex-Gold, The Cancelled

When: 9:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 9

Where: Pilot Light, 106 E. Jackson Ave.

Admission: $10

About Wayne Bledsoe

Wayne Bledsoe is an entertainment writer and music and technology columnist for Go Knoxville and the Knoxville News Sentinel.

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