Catching Kid Congo Powers—former member of The Gun Club, The Cramps, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds—just before kicking off the US/West Coast Tour, he granted SLUG a look into the life and happenings of a lifelong rock n’ roller. Power’s long music career kicked off when punk rock came along. Already a record collector and, in his words, a “music fanatic,” he met Jeffery Lee Pierce (The Gun Club) at record swap meets. After his involvement in The Gun Club, he joined The Cramps, where he got his name. Powers says, “Lux was looking at a candle he had and it was a candle that said, ‘When you light this candle, Congo powers will be revealed to you.’ And so he was like, ‘There’s your name: Congo Powers. So that was it. Then I threw the Kid on because I liked it. It was a bit like Kid Thomas, who had this big jelly roll hairdo. But also I thought it sounded like a boxer or a pirate…”
