Episode 243: Rozz Williams

ery High Frequencies presents an evening with the late great Deathrocker Rozz Williams and his various bands, projects and collaborations. Prolific in between bouts of crippling heroin addiction, Rozz went through a lot of musicians but certainly left a lasting impact on them all. 

We will be checking out his bands, Daucus Karota, Shadow Project, and of course his groundbreaking LA outfit Christian Death. Rozz was only in his teens when he recorded 1982’s classic death rock album, Only Theatre Of Pain. Highly influential but doomed for self destruction, Rozz created an entirely new group of musicians for the next Christian Death album, 1984’s Catastrophe Ballet. More mature both lyrically and musically the album largely abandoned punk influences and adapted what would be marketed as Goth. 

Like Andrew Eldrith, Rozz rejected the Goth classification, instead preferring the term Deathrock to describe his early work. Other Rozz fronted bands were inspired by his love of artists and bands such as David Bowie, Lou Reed, Alice Cooper and Roxy Music. He recorded many covers and in typical VHF fashion we will be blasting a few! 

Rozz will have been gone from this mortal realm for twenty seven years on April Fool’s Day. We’re celebrating his unique talent, not his sad suicide. Like many great artists his life was short but his artistic  contributions are still amazing. Listen to VHF-243 (Rozz Williams) and you’ll realize why he’s so fondly remembered.