Chavo Pederast

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Ron Reyes (alias Chavo Pederast) was the second singer for California based punk rock group Black Flag.


Reyes, who is of Puerto Rican descent, joined Black Flag after Keith Morris quit to form the Circle Jerks. Black Flag needed a singer to go on a tour to Vancouver, Canada and had asked Reyes to fill in. At the time he was a streetkid who had been following the band since the beginning and already knew all the songs. He was also a member of an early incarnation of Red Cross (later changed to Redd Kross) along with Greg Hetson (later to form Circle Jerks then join Bad Religion).

On May 23, 1980, Reyes quit the band mid-show at the Fleetwood in Los Angeles. (for the remainder of the show, the band invited audience members onstage to take turns singing "Louie Louie"). Reyes was drinking heavily at the time and was tired of the fan violence and escalating police harassment.

"This was at the beginning of the Orange County punk explosion. The surfers cut off their hair and turned into punks. And they were fucking maniacs! Crazier than hell. The Hollywood punk was a totally different animal, into drugs and getting drunk, liking the Sex Pistols. But the surf punks--these guys were _insane_. At the show, they'd start going in circles, punching each other - one big dancefloor brawl. That was invented by the surf punks. Every fucking highschool had hundreds of them. And that crowd liked us, and would come to our shows at the Fleetwood. Well, Ron had met a girl on the road and brought her back to L.A., and at this show she got into the middle of that shit. She got pushed around, and Ron didn't like it so he took off with that girl, went back to Vancouver and left us in the middle of everything." - Robo (drummer) [[1]]


Reyes was coaxed back into Black Flag long enough to record the "Jealous Again" EP (he also appeared on some selections later included on Everything Went Black). He can be seen in the 1980 documentary The Decline of Western Civilization directed by Penelope Spheeris, in which he infamously dedicates the song "Revenge" to the LAPD and jokingly shows off his apartment which is a closet. After the recording sessions, Reyes went back to Vancouver and was replaced by singer Dez Cadena.

He was credited as "Chavo Pederast" on the "Jealous Again" EP after Black Flag toured the West Coast a second time and ran into an angry and very intoxicated Reyes while he was living in Vancouver playing in local bands. Reyes hit Dez Cadena in the head with a brick and later smashed their touring van's windshield. Reyes had also alerted the Canadian border agents to the band's lack of work permits (thus preventing them from playing their final Canadian show of the tour).

"We didn't want to give him credit cause he wanted to tear us down, you know? Fuck that schmuck". - Chuck Dukowski (bass/vocals) [[2]]


Reyes is now a Born Again Christian living in Vancouver.

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Black Flag
Greg Ginn
Vocals: Chavo Pederast | Keith Morris | Dez Cadena | Henry Rollins
Bass: Raymond Pettibon | Spot | Chuck Dukowski | Kira Roessler | C'el Revuelta
Drums: David Horvitz | Brian Migdol | ROBO | Emil Johnson | Chuck Biscuits | Bill Stevenson |Anthony Martinez
Discography
Albums: Damaged | My War | Slip It In | Family Man | Loose Nut | In My Head
Extended plays: Nervous Breakdown | Jealous Again | Six Pack | TV Party | The Process of Weeding Out | Minuteflag | I Can See You
Live: Live '84 | Who's Got the 10½? | Annihilate This Week
Other releases: Everything Went Black | The First Four Years | Wasted...Again | The Complete 1982 Demos Plus More | Spray Paint EP
Related articles
Rollins Band | Dos | State of Alert | Gone | SST Records | Spot | October Faction | Joe Cole