September. 1986. when at a Surfers gig he dropped acid. flipped out and ended up in hospital for the first time. Another time. Johnston was invited to New York by Sonic Youth to play at the legendary venue (‘BGBs. where he flipped out again. got into a light with Pete Shelley and was pursued around Manhattan all night by Thurston Moore. Later still. a now seriously ill Johnston believed an elderly woman to he
possessed by the devil and broke into her
apartment and chased her around until the distraught 68-year-old leapt out of a second storey window. That incident lead to Johnston being institutionalised.
The film covers these disturbing events in unflinching detail. and although it also looks back to Johnston‘s childhood. examines the development of his music and art and looks forward to his much happier life today. the period of mental illness remains the centrepiece of The Devil and Daniel Johnston. I ask Johnston what he recalls of being ill.
‘It was a long time.’ he says. ‘Iiive years for me in the hospital. And I couldn‘t get out. It was just when my career got started and I began releasing albums. and then — bam! — I got in trouble and ended up in the mental hospitals for five years. and I couldn’t get out of the system.
‘When I did get out. I got a record deal and got on Atlantic Records and got produced by my friend Paul Leary from the Butthole Surfers. And that was Fun [Johnston’s I994 album]. and I had a college radio hit with “Rock‘n‘Roll/li(iA".' It was a triumph to finally get out of the hospitals and start making records again.‘ he says.
The deal with Atlantic didn't stick. bttt Johnston has continued to make music — and he hasn’t been back in hospital since the early ‘)()s (though even from within the walls of a West Virginia hospital he produced a one-hour radio
special promoting his gospel album. 1990. for
New York/New Jersey‘s WI‘ML’ and phoned the show in). In l‘)‘)‘). Johnston began playing with a
‘I USED TO PRACTISE ON A PIANO WHEN
I WAS A KID, PRETENDING | WAS MAKING HORROR MOVIE MUSIC'
band. the Nightmares. with whom he is still recording and performing today (a third Danny and the Nightmares album is imminent). and in the years since he has also worked with Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse. And when Johnston‘s not making music (which he does every day). he‘s producing drawings inspired by comic book superhero artist Jack Kirby which sell like hot cakes all over America and Iiurope.
‘I‘ve always been making music.‘ says Johnston. ’| used to practise on the piano when I
was a little kid. pretending l was making horror
movie music: duh. duh. duh. just pounding. Then. in junior high I started writing songs. but it wasn't until I got into the Beatles in high school
Film
that I started taking songwriting more seriously. Something clicked with the Beatles. the simplicity about it. Then it was with Songs of Pain [first album. l98] ] that I got more confident and really started going full throttle.
'Making a living at it is fun.‘ Johnston says. ‘Ilaving all my friends come over. recording. putting together an album. doing shows. It keeps me going. gives me something to do. When I was in elementary school. I would go to church and see all the older men with families who worked in the steel mill. I realised. "Hey. I got to do something. got to escape the working class." I wanted to be some kind of artist. so I could earn a living and escape working in a factory. That was my idea of hell.’
These days. Johnston‘s in heaven. Although he's had to cancel his planned trip to and gig in Iidinburgh due to health issues since we met (according to his official fansite www.rejectedunknown.com). in London back in June Johnston told me he was thrilled that his parents were building him a house of his own next door to theirs with money that his father (also his manager) had been saving from his record sales. ‘lt‘s like the greatest thing that ever happened to me in my life.’ he says.
‘I‘m not a millionaire but as my bank savings go.‘ he says in satisfied assessment of his life thus far. 'l‘m a thousandaire. I‘d like to be rich some day. Wouldn’t everyone“? But earning $200 in cash a week. that makes me happy.‘
Cameo, 623 8030, 26 Aug and 27 Aug, 7pm, £7.95 (£5.20).
()5) Aug 8 Sop 7005) THE LIST FESTIVAL MAGAZINE 91