Black Flag founding guitarist Greg Ginn made headlines earlier this year when he unveiled a new Gen Z lineup featuring three musicians whose collective ages don’t add up to his 71 years. Now, he has revealed that he actually picked new singer Max Zanelly out of the crowd at a Black Flag concert.
The current incarnation of the legendary hardcore band includes Ginn, 22-year-old singer Zanelly; 21-year-old bassist David Rodriguez, 21; and 22-year-old drummer Bryce Weston. In a new conversation with the New York Times — Ginn’s first formal interview in 13 years — the guitarist and his bandmates revealed how the new lineup came together.
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Ginn explained that after singer Mike Vallely quit the band earlier this year, he wanted to start over with musicians who lived near him in Thorndale, Texas. When he put out a call for new musicians, Rodriguez was working at a restaurant at the time, and Weston was teaching drums at a local School of Rock. As Weston recalled, “It was cool being able to go back and tell my students. ‘I’m now the drummer for this band I was teaching you the songs of, like, a year ago.’”
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However, the most interesting story has to be that of the band’s first female vocalist, Zanelly, whom Ginn noticed screaming along to every word at a Black Flag show months before re-starting the band. “She was the only person I could imagine doing it,” explained Ginn.
Zanelly, who was working as a waitress at the time, added, “I was just like, ‘OK, [expletive] it.’ Like, when is an opportunity like this going to come in my life ever again?”
She went on to say, “The first day at practice, I was like, ‘Yo, I’ve never screamed into a mic before.’ I remember driving home from my waitressing job and losing my voice in the car because I would be screaming the Black Flag songs.”
Regarding the young ages of his new bandmates, Ginn pointed out, “Robert Plant was 19 when Led Zeppelin started. On the other hand, there’s a prolonged adolescence with a lot of people into their 20s and 30s. So I know it’s a different time, but I think it’s more dependent on the person.”
And as far as the jokes surrounding the current lineup, Ginn noted, “I mainly listen to people that come to our shows, and I care about what they think. Because there’s always somebody in their mom’s basement on a keyboard that knows how to run the world.”
Black Flag are currently on tour, with dates coming up in Florida and Texas over the next several days. They’ll hit the West Coast for a run of shows in January, and will play the Coachella festival on April 12th and April 19th. Tickets to their upcoming concerts are available here.
See the new lineup of Black Flag recently playing live at The Forge in Joliet, Illinois, below.