Stiv Bators – American punk rock guitarist and vocalist died in Paris on June 4, 1990- 30 years ago yesterday . He was sitting on his motorbike near the curb when a car sideswiped him. Due to years of taking beatings and self-harm he was rather immune to pain. He got up and walked back to his apartment or he was taken to the hospital but left before seeing a doctor, reports vary. Either way he ended up going back to his apartment and went to bed. He died from a traumatic brain injury. Stiv Bators was 40 years old. Bators had said he wanted his ashes spread on Jim Morrison’s grave [in Paris} and his girlfriend Caroline did just that- but later confessed to having snorted some of Stiv’s ashes so she could be ‘closer to him.”

Born Steven John Bator- he later added the s to his last name- in Youngstown, Ohio he grew up in a suburb Girard, Ohio. He was in a number of bands before becoming the driving force of the Cleveland, Ohio -Dead Boys in the mid-70’s. The band became a fixture in NYC at the famous CBGB’s and were featured in a few punk films of the era. They released two albums in the late 70’s before breaking up. In 1981 Bators formed The Lords Of The New Church. He was known as a devotee of Iggy Pop’s. Bators would appear in a bit part in John Waters 1981 cult classic movie- Polyester. The Lords Of The New Church were a notorious live act with Bators as the front man. One night he even hung himself on stage and was pronounced clinically dead for a few minutes. The Lords Of The New Church even got some play on the MTV as I recall. The Lords Of The New Church put out a few albums before Stiv was kicked out of the band. At the time of his death he was kind of in limbo. His act seemed to have gotten old.