(Artist Report)

Written by: Jake Beach

Roger Kynard “Roky” Erickson, who died May 31, 2019, at age 71, carved out a singular place in American rock history. The Texas musician, dubbed an “outsider genius” by admirers, helped launch psychedelic rock as the frontman of the 13th Floor Elevators in the mid-1960s, then later formed Roky Erickson and the Aliens as his career took increasingly unconventional turns.

Born in Dallas on July 15, 1947, to Roger and Evelyn Erickson, the future rock pioneer grew up as the eldest of five brothers. His parents gave him the nickname “Roky,” a blend of his first and middle names. The household reflected competing influences: his father, an architect and civil engineer, maintained strict standards and once forcibly cut his son’s hair to prevent him from adopting a Beatles-style look, while his mother nurtured his musical interests.

An amateur artist and opera singer herself, she took guitar lessons specifically so she could pass the skills along to her son. Music consumed Erickson from an early age. He started piano at five, picked up guitar at ten, and by fifteen had written his first compositions, “You’re Gonna Miss Me” and “We Sell Soul.” That same restless creative energy would eventually cost him his diploma.

In 1965, just a month shy of graduation from Austin’s Travis High School, Erickson walked away rather than cut his hair to meet the dress code. He channeled that defiance into music, forming the Spades with neighborhood friends, whose regional hit “We Sell Soul” became a calling card for the young musician. The track later resurfaced as an unlisted bonus on his 1995 album All That May Do My Rhyme and was reworked as “Don’t Fall Down” for the 13th Floor Elevators’ debut. By 1967, Erickson was collaborating with fellow Austin experimentalists, contributing electric organ and harmonica to Red Krayola’s The Parable of Arable Land.

At eighteen, Erickson co-founded the 13th Floor Elevators in late 1965, sharing songwriting duties with bandmate Tommy Hall. Janis Joplin briefly considered joining the lineup before Family Dog promoter Chet Helms encouraged her to head west to San Francisco, setting her on a path to stardom while the Elevators remained a cult phenomenon. The Elevators’ 1966 debut, The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators, announced their arrival with force. “You’re Gonna Miss Me” became the band’s only charting single, dominating Southwest radio and making modest national inroads.

Critic Mark Deming later observed that Erickson’s “primal vocal wailing and feral harmonica work” on that single alone would have secured his status as a garage rock legend. The following year brought Easter Everywhere, widely regarded as the Elevators’ most cohesive work, featuring tracks like “Slip Inside This House” and a haunting version of Bob Dylan’s “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue.” The band’s relationship with their label deteriorated further when International Artists released a faux-live album without consultation, padding studio recordings with artificial crowd noise.

By the time Bull of the Woods arrived in 1969, the group was effectively finished, with Erickson and Hall contributing to only a handful of tracks amid mounting health and legal troubles. The unraveling became public during a 1968 performance at HemisFair in San Antonio, where Erickson spoke incoherently onstage. Diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, he was committed to a Houston psychiatric hospital and subjected to electroconvulsive therapy without consent. 

In 1969, he was arrested in Austin for possession of a single marijuana joint, a charge that carried a potential ten-year sentence. He pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, a decision that led to years of institutionalization at Austin State Hospital and later the maximum-security Rusk State Hospital, where he endured repeated electroshock treatments and heavy medication until 1972. Even in confinement, Erickson continued to write songs and poetry, some of which were smuggled out and self-published in 1972 as Openers.

Several recordings made during this period later appeared on his 1999 collection Never Say Goodbye. Released in 1974, Erickson emerged with a new musical direction, forming Bleib Alien, a name rich with cryptic wordplay suggesting isolation and endurance. The psychedelic textures of the Elevators gave way to a harder-edged sound steeped in horror films, science fiction, and B-movie imagery. His 1978 single “Two Headed Dog (Red Temple Prayer),” produced by Doug Sahm, epitomized this shift and drew inspiration from Soviet dog-head transplant experiments.

The project evolved into Roky Erickson and the Aliens, and by the late 1970s Erickson was active in Austin’s punk and new wave scene. Sessions with producer Stu Cook yielded material released as Roky Erickson and the Aliens in 1980 and The Evil One in 1981, during which Erickson coined the term “horror rock.” Throughout this era he performed with various backing bands, most notably the Explosives, becoming a fixture at Raul’s and the Continental Club. His work appeared on Live at Raul’s, and his mystique reached international audiences with the 1984 Swedish documentary Demon Angel: A Day and Night with Roky Erickson.

In 1990, his influence was formally acknowledged with the tribute album Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye, featuring contributions from R.E.M., ZZ Top, the Jesus and Mary Chain, and many others. Erickson returned with All That May Do My Rhyme in 1995, followed by the publication of Openers II through Henry Rollins’s 2.13.61 Publications. A major turning point came in 2001 when his brother Sumner gained legal custody and established a trust, securing proper medical care and legal support. Erickson’s comeback gained momentum with the 2005 documentary You’re Gonna Miss Me and his first full-length concert in two decades at the Austin City Limits Music Festival.

By 2007 he was performing internationally, appearing at Coachella, London’s Royal Festival Hall, and Finland’s Ruisrock. Collaborations with Mogwai, Okkervil River, and the Black Angels followed, culminating in his 2010 album True Love Cast Out All Evil. In 2015, the original members of the 13th Floor Elevators reunited onstage at Levitation, and in 2018 Erickson performed at San Francisco’s Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival. He died peacefully in Austin on May 31, 2019. Roky Erickson’s life stands as both cautionary tale and triumph, defined by uncompromising artistic vision, profound struggle, and enduring influence.

From psychedelic pioneer to horror rock innovator, his work shaped generations of musicians across genres. His late-career resurgence proved that recovery and redemption remain possible, and his legacy endures as a testament to artistic integrity that neither institutionalization, exploitation, nor obscurity could erase.

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