Talk about longevity. In March of 1996, we had Dash Rip Rock on the cover of OffBeat, accompanied by the question “Still crazy after all these years?”

Cover Photo by Raymond Pumilia

In the article, Keith Spera gives a recap of the 12 year old band (this was 18 years ago!) which was riding high on their newly released hit single “Let’s Go (Smoke Some Pot)” from their album Get You Some of Me.

Spera recounts in the article, appropriately titled “Still Smokin’,” how the band initiated drummer Kyle Melancon, who had only recently joined the band. Frontman Bill Davis and road manager Rich Siegel called Melancon in his hotel room to frantically inform him that then bass player Hoaky Hickel had landed himself in jail and was in need of bail money.

Then this happened:

As the rattled drummer is about to volunteer the use of his credit card to help spring his buddy, the door to his room bursts open and Hoaky charges in—”drunk out of his mind, with his pants around his knees, totally naked,” remembers Melancon. The bare-assed Hoaky tackles Melancon, then jumps around the room, tossing fried jalapenos from a fast food joint.

As it turned out, the only truth in Davis and Siegel’s story was the part about Hoaky being drunk. “It was really funny,” says Melancon of the incident. “It’s always something [like that]—it’s endless.”

Here’s to the endless hijinks of Dash Rip Rock, the old “I need bail money” prank, and fried jalapenos tossed around a hotel room by a naked bass player.

I think the answer to the question on the cover is a definitive “yes.”