Birthdate: May 16, 1967
Birthplace: Hollywood, CA
Residence: Beverly Hills, CA
Sex: M
Height: 5'-10"
Weight: 177 lb.
A gifted artist type but too egotistical for his own good, Peter lives a colorful life. In his youth, he had aspirations of a career in print journalism, and he helped found the successful pop culture magazine Pellon in 1979. But the music bug eventually bit him, and with Duke, Kano, Standard, Bobo, and Spottydog formed the Hot Rods, a band which seamlessly combined heavy metal and punk influences with Top 40 playability.
The Hot Rods burst onto the music scene in 1982, their innate talents taking them straight from garage band status to playing major stadiums and signing a lengthy contract with Capitol Records. They led a media frenzy that genuinely eclipsed even that of the Beatles, with the chart numbers to prove it. Their very first single, "Homosexual," a song recorded in the days when gay-bashing remained politically correct, spent a then-record twelve weeks at number one. Subsequent smashes include "Mean Max," "Chesterfield," "Focus," "Stoplight," "Let Me Out," and "Incoherent Mumble."
With success comes lampooning, and Peter knew the band had finally made it when he learned that Alvin and the Chimpunks had covered "Mean Max" on their TV show - without the Hot Rods' permission. The Hot Rods sued their bitter rivals and won a billion-dollar judgement against the Chipmunks, whose defense suffered a lethal blow when Simon testified, "we do not need permission to record any song. We remade those songs in order to appeal to the little kiddies who watch us." For Peter and his band-mates, justice against this scourge of popular music proved especially gratifying. Plagiarism and copyright violation was one thing; corrupting the public and soiling the Hot Rods' reputation was another.
The only person Peter hates more than Alvin is Garfield, for obvious reasons. The situation worsened in September 1987, when Bobo suffered a near-fatal bout with food poisoning after eating a contaminated gummy Garfield. After discovering this was not an isolated incident, Peter went to the FDA, which refused to take any action.
Seizing matters into his own hands, Peter declared all-out war against Garfield and launched a series of escalating protests, culminating in his attempt at physically blocking a freight train from leaving Albany Station with a cargo of gummy Garfields. Peter brazenly sat on the tracks in the direct path of the train, daring it to hit him.
It did.
As the cameras rolled, the train severed Peter's left - and guitar-playing - arm. While he had his missing appendage surgically reattached, recovery proved slow, and it basically stymied the progress of the Hot Rods as a group. The band members began exploring solo careers while Peter regained his strength and concentrated on producing. Peter maintains he did nothing wrong in fighting for a cause he dearly believes in, while the band - and its fans - consider his act a suicidal demonstration of selfishness.
The band finally returned to prominence in mid-1991 with "Dare to Disarm," which one reviewed dubbed "the most mean-spirited album in the history of rock and roll." In it, the Hot Rods spew hatred upon many antagonistic subjects, including the homeless, the Chipmunks, slackers, President Bush, Saddam Hussein, and of course, Garfield. The biggest hit single, "Sinking Lips," viciously slams Milli Vanilli and their fraudulent "singing" style. This song became the final straw that triggered despised lip-syncher Rob Pilatus' suicide attempt; unfortunately, someone talked him off the ledge and got his stomach pumped.
The follow-up album, "Plug This!," blasts the ongoing trend of various recording artists appearing on "MTV Unplugged" and making millions off the acoustic recordings. The album begins with sounds of the band smashing acoustic guitars. One song, "Cheers in Heaven," skewers Eric Clapton in particular and chastizes his whining over his son's death (then turning it into a Grammy-winning hit record); Peter sneers, "only stupid kids/55 floors in the air/would run and fall out/of the window and die there."
Impervious to criticism over these often offensive songs, Peter says he'll return to writing lighter music more regularly "when the world decides it's time to make me happy again."