I was 12, and into horrible hair metal bands, and popular rap music, while skateboarding with much cooler older guys I heard “Anarchy in the UK” playing through a boom box and my mind was blown from the intro. From those first riffs I knew something monstrous lay ahead.

The music matched the aggression of skateboarding and matched my fucked up disenfranchised feeling of living in the suburbs. I bought The Sex Pistols tape at the mall (which in my estimation they would be truly repulsed by) and was shocked it was recorded in 1978, the same year I was born. It was so fresh sounding to me and its cruel nasty crashing aggression felt like it coulded have been recorded that day. It has remained timeless and influenced countless bands and artists, a blueprint of punk.

It wasn’t long before I had an army jacket and a Mohawk and an attitude to match. In my opinion, Sid Vicious was the visual and mental embodiment of punk. He was rebellion and anarchy personified, from the music to his lifestyle of dysfunction. Many have uttered the words “I don’t give a fuck,” Sid truly lived it. His music didn’t fit into society and he himself could not functionally be a part of it. Whether it was the drinking, drug abuse, the fighting with crowds, fans, band members, his girlfriend, or undermining The Sex Pistols’ one and only tour; he did what he wanted and did things his way.

Sid Vicious opened my eyes and ears to punk, which later opened me up to other forms of aggressive music like hip-hop, which shared the same do-it-yourself, by any means necessary, attitude. The ideals and harmonic aggression of punk have influenced my life and my paintings and I owe a great deal of that to a man and band that was too combustible and flammable to last…

Damon Johnson is a graffiti artist and painter, whose imagery can be found on T-shirts through his clothing line, Royal Crush: www.royalcrush.com