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<\/a><\/p>\n\n If you don\u2019t know Kidd, you may know of him. He\u2019s the guy that Montrosians often see tooling around on a scooter, on some days sporting a spiked mohawk, the color of which changes from time to time. Kidd is an OG punk with the credentials to prove it. His band, The Hates (Kidd, drummer Colin Wooten and bassist Chi Chi Rodriguez), has been showing Houston music fans what punk rock is all about since the 1978, and they are still rocking hard almost 50 years later. I mean, \u201cOi!\u201d (Did I say that right?)<\/p>\n
Sitting at Brasil on a rainy summer afternoon, Kidd is, in terms of personality, exactly the opposite of what a casual observer might expect. Yes, there\u2019s the hair, and yes, there\u2019s black leather, but there is also a twinkle in his eye and obvious enthusiasm as he discusses music, guitars and amps. Despite what some might consider a threatening visage, Kidd is unfailingly gracious and modest.<\/p>\n
Kidd epitomizes the \u201cyou\u2019re only as old as you feel\u201d attitude. To him, age is just a number, and he doesn\u2019t really spend much time considering the prospect of growing older. \u201cMentally, I never think of it that way,\u201d he says. \u201cI think the only reality that kind of kicks me is that I\u2019m not a young, spry teenager.\u201d A series of health issues in recent years has, to a degree, limited his opportunity to work on new recordings and prepare them for release. \u201cBack in October, I had to have shoulder surgery. I\u2019ve had several surgeries, so I kept having to sit back and recuperate. And getting cancer. [He\u2019s in good shape now.] It kind of puts a hold on what we\u2019re doing.\u201d
If there was a silver lining to the situation, it is that time was provided for Kidd \u2013 with the help of Wooten \u2013 to sort through the band\u2019s voluminous archives, which include audio tapes, video recordings, flyers, posters, and merch. Consequently, recordings that never saw the light of day or were only released on an extremely limited basis will now be readily available. Case in point: Forbidden Existence, a Hates album from 1999 which includes a bunch of originals and some fun covers dropped just a couple of weeks ago.<\/p>\n
Kidd was not hatched as a hard-core punk rocker, though. It was a bit of a journey. While Kidd\u2019s parents were not musicians, his mother did provide him with a musical leg up during his formative years. While his father was in the army, his mother worked at PX\u2019s (retail stores located on U.S. military installations) and was able to bring records home.\u00a0 With that kind of access to music, Kidd went through stages, listening to old-school rock and roll from the \u201850s, moving on to the mind-expanding music of the \u201860s, and later spending some time as a progressive rock devotee. He reached a point, though, when he wanted to play music himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cI asked my mother for a guitar, and she got me an acoustic guitar, and then I said, \u2018I want an electric guitar.\u2019 So she got me a Sears Silvertone guitar and amplifier.\u201d Kidd and his mother moved to Houston, where he soon began to search out opportunities to hear live music. \u201cI thought it was really nice, at the age I was \u2013 16 or 17 \u2013 that she was letting me go to shows. I would go down to Old Market Square, and I loved to just hang around, looking at the Houston Blacklight and Poster Company. And then across the street, they had a place called Of Our Own, and it was like a hippie supermarket, but the only [live music] they had there was folk bands.\u201d
After years as a music obsessive, Kidd was becoming dissatisfied, looking for something different. \u201cFriends were saying, \u2018Hey, you\u2019ve got to go see this band,\u2019 and I said, \u2018I think I\u2019ve have enough.\u2019 We went to Liberty Hall to see a southern rock band, and they had Confederate flags up, and I said, \u2018You\u2019re kidding. You actually think I\u2019m going to sit here and watch a band with Confederate flags?’ And then the Ramones came.”<\/p>\n