Eldon Hoke
Encyclopedia
El Duce redirects here. The Italian dictator Benito Mussolini
was known as "Il Duce."
Eldon Wayne Hoke (March 23, 1958 — April 19, 1997) was an American musician
. Nicknamed El Duce, he was best known as the drummer
and lead singer of the self-described "rape rock" band The Mentors
. He was part of other acts, including The Screamers
before that.
During the 1985 U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation's hearings into the proliferation of "obscene
" lyrics
in popular music, the Rev. Jeff Ling recited the lyrics to the Mentors song, "Golden Shower" to musician Frank Zappa
, who opposed the hearings. The lyrics, which included the line, "Bend up and smell my anal vapor/Your face is my toilet paper" prompted Zappa and others to denounce the hearings as a farce.
In addition to his musical career, Hoke also worked as an extra
in television
, movie
, and music video productions. Hoke had a supporting role, credited as "El Duce" in the science fiction
musical Population: 1.
In the mid-nineties, after the death of Nirvana
frontman Kurt Cobain
, Hoke began making the claim that Cobain's wife, Courtney Love
, had offered to pay Hoke to kill Cobain. Hoke promoted his story in such media outlets as TV's Jerry Springer Show, The National Enquirer
weekly tabloid, and in Nick Broomfield
's documentary film
, Kurt & Courtney
.
His most regular entertainment gig was on the talk show Hot Seat
, where he and his band called their music "rape rock", stated that he could tell women want to be raped "by the look in their eyes", and in general played a wrestling-style villain
for the audience. Hoke's many appearances often culminated in being "forcibly" removed from host Wally George's
soundstage by security personnel.
In another interview, the journalist asks Hoke to "tell me about some chicks you fucked on the road". Hoke replies, "Well, we pick 'em up...and drop 'em off at Jack in the Box. Truck stops are the goods... you get an airhead at a truck stop and you say 'bitch, you gotta get down on the dick! Cunt!'" He then sticks his thumbs in his ears, wiggles his fingers and makes silly noises.
Hoke's final musical performance was given on Friday, April 18, 1997 at Al's Bar in downtown Los Angeles
.
and Ian Halperin
, Hoke showed up at his friend Drew Gallagher's home on April 17, 1997, asking where he could go to get a fake driver's license
. Hoke was incredibly paranoid
and nervous
at this time. When Gallagher asked what he meant, Hoke responded, "People get buried in cornfields, people get lost in swamps". Hoke informed Gallagher of who he was and told him that he had "killed Kurt Cobain
."
While Hoke didn't actually claim to have killed Kurt Cobain, he did say that Cobain's widow, Courtney Love
, attempted to hire him to kill Cobain. Hoke passed a polygraph test saying that Love offered him 50 thousand dollars to kill her husband and make it look like a suicide. Hoke passed on the offer and claimed that his friend Allen took her offer to kill Kurt Cobain. Approximately a week after this incident, Hoke's body was found near a railroad; it was determined he had stumbled in front of a train and was hit.
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
was known as "Il Duce."
Eldon Wayne Hoke (March 23, 1958 — April 19, 1997) was an American musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
. Nicknamed El Duce, he was best known as the drummer
Drummer
A drummer is a musician who is capable of playing drums, which includes but is not limited to a drum kit and accessory based hardware which includes an assortment of pedals and standing support mechanisms, marching percussion and/or any musical instrument that is struck within the context of a...
and lead singer of the self-described "rape rock" band The Mentors
The Mentors
The Mentors are an American heavy metal band noted for its deliberately sexist shock rock lyrics.They formed in 1977 in Seattle, Washington and relocated to Los Angeles, California in 1979, where their irreverent attitude aligned them with the city's punk rock scene. Their music has developed...
. He was part of other acts, including The Screamers
The Screamers
The Screamers were a punk rock group active in the Los Angeles, California area in the late 1970s. The Screamers were pioneers of a genre now known as "synthpunk," and can also be classified as art punk....
before that.
History
Hoke and the Mentors worked to gain attention through farcical demonstrations of political incorrectness. Their guitarist renamed himself "Sickie Wifebeater", and the group often appeared in public wearing black executioner hoods. One reviewer suggested that "their lyrics, which consisted mostly of songs about hitting women, stealing from women, and having anal sex with women, made their anonymity necessary."During the 1985 U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation's hearings into the proliferation of "obscene
Obscenity
An obscenity is any statement or act which strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time, is a profanity, or is otherwise taboo, indecent, abhorrent, or disgusting, or is especially inauspicious...
" lyrics
Lyrics
Lyrics are a set of words that make up a song. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist or lyrist. The meaning of lyrics can either be explicit or implicit. Some lyrics are abstract, almost unintelligible, and, in such cases, their explication emphasizes form, articulation, meter, and symmetry of...
in popular music, the Rev. Jeff Ling recited the lyrics to the Mentors song, "Golden Shower" to musician Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...
, who opposed the hearings. The lyrics, which included the line, "Bend up and smell my anal vapor/Your face is my toilet paper" prompted Zappa and others to denounce the hearings as a farce.
In addition to his musical career, Hoke also worked as an extra
Extra (actor)
A background actor or extra is a performer in a film, television show, stage, musical, opera or ballet production, who appears in a nonspeaking, nonsinging or nondancing capacity, usually in the background...
in television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
, movie
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
, and music video productions. Hoke had a supporting role, credited as "El Duce" in the science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
musical Population: 1.
In the mid-nineties, after the death of Nirvana
Nirvana (band)
Nirvana was an American rock band that was formed by singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington in 1987...
frontman Kurt Cobain
Kurt Cobain
Kurt Donald Cobain was an American singer-songwriter, musician and artist, best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the grunge band Nirvana...
, Hoke began making the claim that Cobain's wife, Courtney Love
Courtney Love
Courtney Michelle Love is an American rock musician. Love is the lead vocalist, lyricist, and rhythm guitarist for alternative rock band Hole, which she formed in 1989, and is an actress who has moved from bit parts in Alex Cox films to significant and acclaimed roles in The People vs...
, had offered to pay Hoke to kill Cobain. Hoke promoted his story in such media outlets as TV's Jerry Springer Show, The National Enquirer
The National Enquirer
The National Enquirer is an American supermarket tabloid now published by American Media Inc . Founded in 1926, the tabloid has gone through a variety of changes over the years....
weekly tabloid, and in Nick Broomfield
Nick Broomfield
Nicholas "Nick" Broomfield is an English documentary film-maker. He is the son of Maurice Broomfield, a photographer.Broomfield works with a minimal crew, recording sound himself and using one or two camera operators...
's documentary film
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
, Kurt & Courtney
Kurt & Courtney
Kurt & Courtney is a 1998 documentary film by Nick Broomfield investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of Kurt Cobain, and allegations of Courtney Love's involvement in it...
.
His most regular entertainment gig was on the talk show Hot Seat
Hot Seat (talk show)
Hot Seat is a syndicated, politically-oriented, though often satirical and comedic television talk-show that began in the early 1980s, hosted by conservative commentator Wally George...
, where he and his band called their music "rape rock", stated that he could tell women want to be raped "by the look in their eyes", and in general played a wrestling-style villain
Heel (professional wrestling)
In professional wrestling, a heel is a villain character. In non-wrestling jargon, heels are the "bad guys" in professional wrestling; the term heel coming from the term take to you heels, which means to run away which heel champions tend to do to avoid losing their titles.storylines...
for the audience. Hoke's many appearances often culminated in being "forcibly" removed from host Wally George's
Wally George
Wally George, born George Walter Pearch , was an American conservative radio and television commentator...
soundstage by security personnel.
In another interview, the journalist asks Hoke to "tell me about some chicks you fucked on the road". Hoke replies, "Well, we pick 'em up...and drop 'em off at Jack in the Box. Truck stops are the goods... you get an airhead at a truck stop and you say 'bitch, you gotta get down on the dick! Cunt!'" He then sticks his thumbs in his ears, wiggles his fingers and makes silly noises.
Hoke's final musical performance was given on Friday, April 18, 1997 at Al's Bar in downtown Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
.
Alleged connection to death of Kurt Cobain
According to Max WallaceMax Wallace
-Who Killed Kurt Cobain?:Wallace coauthored the international bestseller Who Killed Kurt Cobain? with Ian Halperin in 1998, .-Love and Death: The Murder of Kurt Cobain:...
and Ian Halperin
Ian Halperin
Ian Halperin is a Canadian investigative journalist and writer from Montreal, Quebec whose 2009 book, Unmasked: The Final Years of Michael Jackson was a #1 best-seller on the New York Times list on July 24, 2009. He is the author or coauthor of nine books including Celine Dion: Behind the...
, Hoke showed up at his friend Drew Gallagher's home on April 17, 1997, asking where he could go to get a fake driver's license
Driver's license
A driver's license/licence , or driving licence is an official document which states that a person may operate a motorized vehicle, such as a motorcycle, car, truck or a bus, on a public roadway. Most U.S...
. Hoke was incredibly paranoid
Paranoia
Paranoia [] is a thought process believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of irrationality and delusion. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy concerning a perceived threat towards oneself...
and nervous
Anxiety
Anxiety is a psychological and physiological state characterized by somatic, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral components. The root meaning of the word anxiety is 'to vex or trouble'; in either presence or absence of psychological stress, anxiety can create feelings of fear, worry, uneasiness,...
at this time. When Gallagher asked what he meant, Hoke responded, "People get buried in cornfields, people get lost in swamps". Hoke informed Gallagher of who he was and told him that he had "killed Kurt Cobain
Kurt Cobain
Kurt Donald Cobain was an American singer-songwriter, musician and artist, best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the grunge band Nirvana...
."
While Hoke didn't actually claim to have killed Kurt Cobain, he did say that Cobain's widow, Courtney Love
Courtney Love
Courtney Michelle Love is an American rock musician. Love is the lead vocalist, lyricist, and rhythm guitarist for alternative rock band Hole, which she formed in 1989, and is an actress who has moved from bit parts in Alex Cox films to significant and acclaimed roles in The People vs...
, attempted to hire him to kill Cobain. Hoke passed a polygraph test saying that Love offered him 50 thousand dollars to kill her husband and make it look like a suicide. Hoke passed on the offer and claimed that his friend Allen took her offer to kill Kurt Cobain. Approximately a week after this incident, Hoke's body was found near a railroad; it was determined he had stumbled in front of a train and was hit.
Videography
- Get Up and Die (1983)
- Mentors Fuck Movie (1987)
- A Piece Of Sinema (1990)
- The Wretched World of The Mentors (1990)
- Mentors Tour De Max '91 (1991)
- El Duce, The Man. The Myth. The Video (1993)
- Mentors - El Duce Vita DVD (2007)
External links
- The Church of El Duce
- The Mentors(OFFICIAL)website
- El Duce at MySpaceMySpaceMyspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
- El Duce at Encyclopaedia MetallumEncyclopaedia MetallumEncyclopaedia Metallum: The Metal Archives is a website which lists bands from various forms of heavy metal music...
- Mentors @ the Metal Archives
- El Duce Discography at DiscogsDiscogsDiscogs, short for discographies, is a website and database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. The Discogs servers, currently hosted under the domain name discogs.com, are owned by Zink Media, Inc., and are...