Biggs, L.A. punk-rock entrepreneur, dies at 74

Bob Biggs, who sensed opportunity in the Mohawkfilled mosh pits of the Los Angeles punk movement in the late 1970s and founded Slash Records, which became one of the most successful independent record labels of its era, died Oct. 17 at his ranch in Tehachapi. He was 74.

His wife, Kim ( Truch) Biggs, said the cause was complications of Lewy body dementia.

At Slash Records — originally part of Slash magazine, the underground LA punk scene’s bible — Biggs signed bands, like the Germs, X and Fear, that were dominating the moment. The label later expanded into other kinds of rock with artists like Los Lobos, the Blasters, Violent Femmes and Faith No More. When it entered a distribution deal with Warner Bros. Records, Slash’s sound traveled far past Southern California.

“L.A. was still part of the dream factory, and we didn’t have a Warner Bros. willing to back bands like us,” John Doe, X’s bassist and vocalist, said in a phone interview. “The labels were hoping this annoying punk-rock thing would go away so they could get back to the business of classic rock. Slash was our best alternative.

“Bob wasn’t a music geek,” he added. “He didn’t pore over credits on the backs of LPs and stuff like that. But he wanted to affect the culture through art.”

Indeed, Biggs didn’t seem like a guy destined for punkrock history.

Standing 6-foot-3, he had played football in college. He was passionate about painting. And by his own admission, he didn’t really even love punk music. But he was effortlessly entrepreneurial, and in 1978 he found himself living next door to the Fairfax offices of Slash, whose scrappy staff was chronicling the frenzied, anarchistic speed rock being played nightly at Hollywood clubs like the Whisky a Go Go and the Masque, which was located in the basement of a pornographic movie theater.

W hen the magazine needed money to fund a recording by the Germs, Biggs put up $1,000 to record the EP “Lexicon Devil,” which the magazine sold to readers via mail order. It became Slash Records’ first release, and it also gave Biggs a new job.

In Penelope Spheeris’ 1981 documentary, “The Decline of Western Civilization,” which explores the L.A. punk scene, Biggs gives a tour of Slash’s offices. As wiry staffers with pierced ears inhale cigarettes while editing copy, a writer known as Kickboy Face picks up a phone to listen to a tip. “Yeah, Slash magazine,” he says. “There was a riot at the Hong Kong last night?”

Spheeris asks Biggs why people like punk music. “Nothing else is going on,” he says. “It’s the only form of revolution left.” (Biggs and Spheeris were married at the time; they divorced in 1984.)

In 1979, Biggs took over Slash after its founders, Steve Samiof and Melanie Nissen, left the scene, and he started handling things with a businesslike touch. He stopped publishing the magazine, and Slash Records had its first success the next year with X’s “Los Angeles,” widely regarded as one of the most influential punk records of all time.

Biggs’ talent for signing bands that sold well became the envy of competing labels, and he expanded his roster beyond punk to other genres. He signed the band Violent Femmes, giving them the radio hit “Blister in the Sun,” and he released Los Lobos’ acclaimed debut album, “How Will the Wolf Survive?” The Blasters also joined Slash’s roster, expanding its sound into rockabilly and American roots music.