The Daily Swarm

Brooklynvegan:

I can now say with 99,99% confidence that legendary drummer Chuck Biscuits is in fact alive and well! So what the hell happened yesterday? How did the rumor that he died of throat cancer start? Why did everyone believe it? Well, before the chain reaction of irresponsible blog posts and news stories (guilty), it all began with one James Greene Jr. James, according to the Boston Herald (one of the sources I read before posting myself) (and whose story credits Blabbermouth), is “a freelance music writer from Brooklyn, New York”.

Though I didn’t completely realize it at the time of my own hasty posting, James’s Chuck Biscuits obituary was THE source of it all. Before I re-posted his words I had read about Chuck’s death – in addition to at the sources mentioned above, in the BrooklynVegan comments, and was told about it via an IM, and saw that someone had updated Wikipedia with his death info (reliable, I know), and noticed via Google that Punk News had even put a ”-2009” after his name and date of birth. By the end of the day, at least 50 websites had reported that Chuck was dead.

At first glance James’s blog post seemed super legit too. First of all, who would make something up about Chuck Biscuits? (Lars Ulrich maybe, but Chuck Biscuits????). It was a well thought out obituary which even sourced Chuck’s family members (a “mass email” even), and (ironically) the post was tagged “Shit That Can’t Be Real Yet Somehow Is”!
JG2 Land:

[UPDATE #3: CHUCK BISCUITS ALIVE? An e-mail I just received at 6:34 PM EST:

“Dear James Greene,
This note is on behalf of Bob Montgomery, who ask me (his wife) to let you know that CHUCK IS ALIVE. Bob is on his way to see him now and will send you a follow up email in the near future. Thank you for taking the time to reply to Bob’s email this morning.

Sincerely,

Tabitha Montgomery”

Case closed? Not until I figure out who the hell was e-mailing me for six months pretending to be Chuck and his wife. A “full disclosure” post regarding my side of this whole mess is coming shortly.]

[UPDATE #2: Further e-mails have been exchanged with Chuck’s brother Bob Montgomery; after I confirmed the name of Chuck’s wife via two independent sources, Bob wrote:

“Chuck and I have been somewhat estranged for a time, but this seems fishy. I am going to his home to get to the bottom of this, I will let you know one way or the other. If this is a hoax, I will pop Chuck in his beak. I am allowed. He is my little brother.”

The investigation continues. At this point, I don’t know whom to believe.]

[UPDATE: Rumors are beginning to swirl that this is some kind of elaborate hoax. If so, I can assure you I am NOT in on it. I have previously chronicled my contact with Chuck/person(s) claiming to be Chuck(?) and never had any reason to disbelieve their claims.

Since this post went viral, however, several people (including former Danzig bassist Eerie Von and Chuck’s brother Bob Montgomery) have openly questioned his death. All I can tell you is I’ve been communicating with two people since May I was always 99.999% sure were THE Chuck Biscuits and his wife from e-mail addresses bearing their names. They never asked me to wire money to a Nigerian prince or adopt their child, so I took it all at face value.

Chuck’s wife is allegedly the one who has been sending out mass e-mails about Chuck’s condition to family and friends; I didn’t use her name below because I didn’t know if she’d be comfortable with that and it didn’t seem like a good time to bring it up, considering her husband was dying. I’m still not going to use her name on the same grounds.

Although I can’t imagine why a former member of Danzig would want to fake his own death via the Internet, I know plenty of people who severely dislike me and would take any chance they could to play on my gullibility to make me look as stupid as possible (i.e. e-mail me for six months pretending to be a dying drummer I admire). If this is all a big fat lie, I’m sorry, but I promise I was duped just as hard as you.]

Earlier: R.I.P. Chuck Biscuits, Drummer With Danzig, Black Flag, Social D

Legendary hard rock drummer Chuck Biscuits, whose lengthy résumé included stints in such flagship underground acts as Black Flag and Social Distortion, died Saturday after a prolonged battle with throat cancer. He was 44… Chuck Biscuits was probably best known to the general populous for his work with Danzig. Beginning in 1988, Chuck played on that group’s first four albums, which are often hailed as Danzig’s best (thanks in no small part to Chuck’s powerful drumming style)....Yet Chuck Biscuits was not completely bound by the shackles of heavy metal/hard rock – the drummer kindly lent his talents to various tracks on Run-D.M.C.’s fourth album, 1988’s Tougher Than Leather. Leather boasted a handful of hits for the famed Hollis Crew, including “Mary, Mary” and “Beats To The Rhyme.”...Biscuits left [Black] after five months of touring and began bouncing around from band to band, clocking time with classic punk acts such as the Circle Jerks, Fear, and the Weirdos.