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Bad Otis Link Part 11: Killer Line-Ups
November 7, 2011 by Jimmy J · 1 Comment
Interview with Greg Link aka Bad Otis Link continued from part 10.
Did Any of Your Tees Provoke Media Attention?
Yeah, tons, especially when Punk was still shocking, not so safe like today. I saw a news show once on some psycho that slaughtered a bunch of people. They were going through the guy’s house showing all of the disturbing junk in his house. I saw a few of my shirts hanging on his walls.
People were pissed all the time, but that’s what we were trying to do back then, it was PUNK rock!!! While I was doing the shirt stuff I was always also publishing and doing art for magazines, books, etc. The one project I did, that really pissed people off, was a set of trading cards on True Serial Killers. I published those in 1989. That caused global outrage and the media went nuts, laws were changed, politicians used them for a reason to get on TV, I got sued by everyone, censored and hassled by the feds. It is a hate crime in Canada to own them. “DOA” was busted at the border for having them in their tour van. I later followed up with a set on True Cannibals, designed by me, Chuck Biscuits, and Rob Zombie. Glenn Danzig also published my ABC book of serial killers in the early ’90s (“The Alphabet of Murder”).
So yeah, I guess, I rubbed some people the wrong way now and then. After the ’92 LA riots hit, it all slowed down. Most of my bands had signed giant merch deals, the shit eaters were back, and I decided it was time to shut it down. I moved to Seattle and started a company with my old friend, Mike Vraney, called “Made by Monks” (Below) and “Something Weird Products” no more punk rock. I was merchandising old smut films and oddball stuff, freaks, vintage drug movies, etc. Chuck followed me a year later and he’s still up there. I moved back to LA in 1998.
Bad Otis Link Part 10: Battle of the Brands
October 27, 2011 by Jimmy J · 2 Comments
Interview with Greg Link aka Bad Otis Link continued from part 9.
Was Screen Stars Your Brand of Choice?
Really, I hated Screen Stars, but they were the budget promo shirt of the time. The only thing worse than a Screen Stars was a Pakistani import that came in bales like hay. Screen Stars were cheap, so we used them if the bands wanted to save money (or in most cases didn’t have any.) Sometimes they were all you could get, too. There were t-shirt shortages in the ’80s. Companies like Disney were hoarding and buying all that the mills could produce.
I could get nice shirts cheaper than Screen Stars, direct from the mills, no labels – so we printed our labels in the shirt. I learned this from Terry at Faden in the 70s. He did it on promo shirts when he was presenting new shirt ideas to bands, record companies etc. I saw Rick Griffen do it too at super tees in the 70s. I thought it was a cool idea. I’m surprised it took till the 90s for others to catch on. I used to hand sign some too, especially for the store stuff. We did some printed labels for the Peppers fan club and for the Goldenvoice crew shirts too. I have some stashed away. It was easier and less expensive to print the labels than have tags made and sewn in like a lot of others were doing. Â They were massive print contractors, running dozens of precision screen printing presses 24/7. they put tags in for OP (Ocean Pacific) Village mews, Levis and all of the others they contract printed and supplied. I got them on and off all through the 80s whenever I could afford to buy them.
I had a lot of artist friends designing at OP – one being Scott Angle, he became art director for OP and Village Mews until he went freelance in the 90s. I would send jobs too big for my shop to them and they would hook me up with shirts in return. Most of those companies folded by the 90s when all of the t-shirt manufacturing left the country. I had to buy minimums of 100 dozen. when I couldn’t afford to buy bulk so I would use whatever I could get, Beltons, Screen Stars etc.  That is also where I got the Gesim french brand used for a lot of the early Chili Peppers stuff. I got a ton of those at a pretty good price because they had tags and they didn’t want to remove them and re-sew. I think when I left the Peppers, Giant used Gold Coast for a while as their first print house. As I recall The Peppers were Giants’ first band to merchandise. Giant is Warner Bros. run by Peter Lubin, or was when I was around.
My favorite 50/50 was the Beltons, much nicer than Screen Stars. Don’t get me wrong, I printed thousands on Screen Stars. I tried to keep nicer stuff in my stores though and would always print extras on nice shirts. I would even buy shirts at department stores even when they had sales, sometime 3 shirts for 5 bucks. JC Penny, Sears. We would also use the cool blank t-shirts that I bought used by the pound. Those we would custom print and do art on for the stores and for screen set ups. They all came out pretty cool.
- Bad Otis dishes more details in Part 11.
Bad Otis Link Part 9: Dead Presidents
October 21, 2011 by Jimmy J · 2 Comments
Interview with Greg Link aka Bad Otis Link continued from part 8.
What Were Your Best Selling Tees?
But in the Punk stuff it kind of went with the general popularity of the time. It wasn’t me selling so much but the bands that toured. Some bands sold great others couldn’t sell a shirt at all. My best selling touring bands were always the “Circle Jerks”, “SNFU”, “The Chemical People”, “Bad Religion”, “Skinny Puppy”, and we broke sales records everywhere with the “Chili Peppers”. I will take a little credit there for sales. The band left me once to save a quarter per shirt. I owned the art at the time and did not let them take it. When they left me sales at shows was at $17.00 per head. The new guy they went with could not design at all, the sales never made it over 80 cents a head and he also got the band involved in a huge lawsuit that they had to pay out on. They came back mid-tour but I really never trusted them after that move.
- The interview continues with part 10.
Bad Otis Link Part 8: Links
October 6, 2011 by Jimmy J · Leave a Comment
Interview with Greg Link aka Bad Otis Link continued from part 7.
Mouse + the Dead, Pushead + Metallica, Bad Otis + ?
I don’t know if that one really applies to me. I did artwork for so many different bands but never always one. I did a lot for the Chili Peppers from the beginning and the ten years that followed. But others did too, so it wasn’t an exclusive thing. I just printed it all. I was the default artist in a sense. The band would put stuff off and at the last minute would just say, “do something”. They knew my designs always sold well, even if they were not 100% happy with them. The bands’ record companies came to me for the same reasons for promo shirts, giveaways, etc.
But the bands would always have ideas too and they had their own art too a lot of times. I would just print and supply them in many cases. I didn’t do art for all of the bands I worked with. It would have been impossible. For some bands, my art fit, for others I hooked up friends. Scott Angle, my old friend, did the “TSOL” burning Statue of Liberty design, “Circle Jerks” Long Horn Tour, and tons of others. I printed a lot of Shawn Keris art, Mad Marc Rude, and others. It was pretty cool working with other artists too.
- The Otis saga continues with part 9.
Bad Otis Link Part 7: Moshing With The Stars
September 27, 2011 by Jimmy J · Leave a Comment
Interview with Greg Link aka Bad Otis Link continued from part 6.
What famous faces were familiar to the scene?
Well, we kind of avoided the celebs. In the early ’80s, punk was not considered cool in the mainstream. I would see Emilio Estevez, David Lee Roth and the like at shows. We would usually poke fun at them though. Danny Bonaduce came to a “DOA” show at the Starwood one night (late 70s.) We kept calling him Danny Partridge, he finally got frustrated with us and left.
I know there was others, Madonna used to come into the LA store but I really wouldn’t have noticed. The celebs didn’t hop on until it got much safer. More at the “Peppers’” shows, later on, the Hollywood kid stars like River Phoenix, Drew Barrymore, and people like that would hang around. A lot of my friends back then have become celebs though as you can imagine. Some are still friends, some have become distant.
- The Bad Otis interview continues with part 8.