From the Aug 31 – Sep 6, 2000 issue

Pullout

Prank #5: Intra-Band Vengeance

Vox Pop Defames Their Own

DON BOLLES, of the Germs and Celebrity Skin among others, maintains an admirable backlog of pranks against other bands, including giving the lead singer from Warrant an exploding cigarette onstage, stealing and answering (in a lewd and salacious manner) Mötley Crüe's fan mail, and convincing German bookers that he was Ella Fitzgerald's offspring. But Bolles' karma has come back to haunt him on at least one occasion.

Unhappy with the recordings he had made as part of the band Vox Pop, Bolles put up a fuss and forbade the band from releasing the record. His bandmates ignored him and chose to release it without Bolle's knowledge. They also chose a naughty photo of Bolles for the cover, and promptly distributed several thousand copies to record stores nationwide. Bolles found out about it by reading the gossip column of the L.A. Weekly. "I got razzed about the apparent size of my... unit, such as it was.... Shouldn't have done so much speed that night, I guess! Of course, nobody believes THAT excuse!" Bolles recalls. "I remember my friend, who worked at a fairly conservative L.A. record store, telling me that his coworkers were thrilled to discover that a regular little price tag would do the job, so at least they didn't have to get out the 'Records Are Your Best Entertainment Value' stickers."