Wheatus lead singer Brendan B Brown has lifted the lid on the inspiration behind the band's massive hit 'Teenage Dirtbag', over 20 years after the song first topped the UK charts.
The song reportedly took four years to write, and was inspired by a gruesome murder that took place in the woods behind Brendan's house in his hometown of Northport, New York.
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The murder was used as more fuel for the 'Satanic Panic' of the 1980s, and caused people to demonize AC/DC, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and other bands that helped define Heavy Metal- but it also helped Brendan to write a song of defiance and to lash out at the narrow-minded people he grew up with.
"The narrative of Teenage Dirtbag is entirely fictionalised and only touches on some of the characters I grew up with, but my own upbringing would make for a much darker, less popular song," Brendan told the Cambridge Independent.
"There was a murder in my town when I was 10 and it turned out to be teenagers who were doing enormous amounts of drugs, lots of PCP and acid, anything they could get their hands on.
"There was lots of petty crime and drugs and these kids got involved in some kind of Satan thing and they lured their friend Gary to the woods and stabbed him to death in the name of the devil.
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The murderer, Ricky Kasso, was later revealed to have been wearing an AC/DC t-shirt, which prompted a huge panic in the local community about the supposed links between rock music and Satanism.
"It happened a block behind my childhood home in the woods. Woods where I had ridden my bike and had gone to catch frogs and snakes. It was my childhood playground that this happened in"
Although indirect, the murder had a big effect on the young Brown. "That made all the papers, and the television, obviously; and here I was, 10 years old, walking around with a case full of AC/DC and Iron Maiden and Metallica - and all the parents and the teachers and the cops thought I was some kind of Satan worshipper," he said. "So that's the backdrop for that song."
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"So when I sing: 'I'm just a teenage dirtbag', I'm effectively saying: 'Yeah, f- you if you don't like it. Just because I like AC/DC doesn't mean I'm a devil worshipper, and you're an idiot,'" he said. "That's where it comes from."
Although the band have never managed to match Teenage Dirtbag's success, the song itself leaves behind an impressive legacy.
The Official Charts Company reports the track reached No. 2 in the U.K., staying on the chart for 39 weeks, with the songs' parent album, Wheatus, peaking at No. 7 on the chart and staying there for 34 weeks.
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The band have toured relentlessly ever since, with Brendan claiming that they've had over 30 members in the lineup since then.
Featured Image Credit: AlarmyTopics: Music, US Entertainment