Often likened to Syd Barrett, Roky Erickson attained cult-hero standing through equal measures of his recorded work and his calamitous private circumstances; amid tales of profound mental turmoil and storied substance excesses, the reach of his garage-rooted psychedelia tended to be overlooked.
Roger Kynard Erickson entered the world on July 15, 1947, in Dallas, Texas, and started piano lessons at five; by twelve he had added guitar to his skills. Son of an architect and an aspiring opera singer, he left high school early to pursue music professionally. In 1965 he wrote his signature piece, “You’re Gonna Miss Me,” first committing it to tape with the Spades. That performance and his soaring, piercing tenor drew notice from the psychedelia-tinged 13th Floor Elevators, whose lyricist and jug player Tommy Hall recruited him. The Elevators promptly recorded their own rendition of “You’re Gonna Miss Me,” sending the single to number 56 on the pop charts in 1966.
The hit secured the 13th Floor Elevators a contract with International Artists, yet mounting visibility also attracted scrutiny from local police, who objected to the band’s open advocacy and use of marijuana and LSD. Repeated harassment ensued, culminating in Erickson’s 1969 arrest for possessing a single joint; to evade prison he entered an insanity plea, resulting in a three-and-a-half-year commitment to Texas’ Hospital for the Criminally Insane. There he received a schizophrenia diagnosis and underwent repeated electroshock treatments along with Thorazine and additional psychoactive medications.
Although freed in 1973, Erickson had changed irrevocably; he resumed performing with the Aliens, issuing horror-themed tracks such as “Red Temple Prayer (Two-Headed Dog),” “Don’t Shake Me Lucifer,” and “I Walked with a Zombie,” none of which achieved commercial traction. A loyal cult audience persisted, yet unscrupulous managers exploited his vulnerability through exploitative publishing agreements that spawned numerous unauthorized releases yielding him no income. In 1982 he executed a legal affidavit asserting that a Martian resided within his body and withdrew from music as the decade progressed.
During the 1990s Erickson subsisted on a $200 monthly Social Security payment; after an arrest on mail-theft charges that were ultimately dismissed, he was again institutionalized. In 1990, however, R.E.M., ZZ Top, John Wesley Harding, and the Jesus and Mary Chain covered his material for Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye: A Tribute to Roky Erickson, exposing his songs to an unprecedented audience. He returned to the stage in 1993 at the Austin Music Awards, then entered the studio months later alongside Charlie Sexton and the Butthole Surfers’ Paul Leary. In 1995 King Coffey issued All That May Do My Rhyme on Trance Syndicate, followed four years later by Never Say Goodbye, a set of private recordings and unreleased compositions; Coffey has stated that Erickson identified him as the first person ever to deliver a royalty payment.
In 2001 Roky’s brother Sumner Erickson, a classical musician, assumed custody and arranged consistent medical, dental, and psychiatric care, establishing a charitable trust and enlisting attorneys to untangle the contractual obstacles blocking royalty collection. A healthier, clearer-minded Erickson began occasional Austin appearances, including a March 2005 panel on the 13th Floor Elevators at South by Southwest; he also performed briefly with a reunited Explosives lineup, while the documentary You’re Gonna Miss Me screened at the concurrent film festival.
That activity accompanied the release of I Have Always Been Here Before: The Roky Erickson Anthology, a two-disc retrospective. Halloween, documenting 1979–1981 Explosives shows, appeared in early 2008. The Will Sheff-produced True Love Cast Out All Evil, his first studio album in roughly fourteen years, arrived on Anti- in 2010. Erickson maintained a steady touring schedule and joined a one-night 13th Floor Elevators reunion at the 2015 Levitation Festival in Austin (formerly Austin Psych Fest), performing with Tommy Hall, John Ike Walton, Ronnie Leatherman, his son Jegar Erickson, and guitarist Fred Mitchim. Roky Erickson died on May 31, 2019, at age 71.
