In 2004, a relatively unknown punk band named the North Side Kings opened for Glenn Danzig at Tuba City in Arizona. By the end of the night, Danzig was punched out cold and the North Side Kings didn’t end up playing for the local kids. So what happened?
North Side Kings Performance Is Awry From the Beginning
When North Side Kings showed up to a venue in Tuba City to play their gig that night, things went awry right from the start. The original plan was for two stages to be set up with continuous music.
When the members of North Side King started walking around the venue, they noticed only one stage was present. After talking to the promoter, they learned that Danzig kiboshed the idea of there being two stages.
Glenn Danzig Takes the Stage 2 Hours Early
The band was also informed that Danzig would take to the stage at 10pm, 2 hours earlier than his original stage time because Danzig wanted to leave by midnight, back home for Los Angeles.
Complicating matters, there were a total of 11 bands on the bill that day so with only one stage, there was no way for all the bands to play their sets in just 5 hours.
North Side Kings started to feel like they wouldn’t be able to play their show because of Danzig’s actions. Danzig would make an announcement during his set that some of the bands would play after he left the stage, so the Kings seemed happy with that arrangement. However, following Danzig’s performance, his crew started tearing the stage down.
Danny Marianino Confronts Danzig
The members of the Kings were pissed, feeling as if they had been ripped off. The Kings’ frontman Danny Marianino was furious and wanted to confront Danzig and find out why they couldn’t play.
The Kings also had a friend with them that night named Dan Stone who had been filming them for a few years. The band’s label Thorp Records arranged for a DVD to be made capturing the band’s live performances and backstage antics.
According to Tom Reardon, one of Marianino’s bandmates, Danny had no intention of punching Danzig, however Danzig told Marianino, “Eff you, mother effer,” and pushed him. Marianino retaliated with a punch to Danzig’s face, knocking him out cold.
“…He looked dazed as pandemonium ensued in the hallway…” – Tom Reardon
Reardon recalled that moment, “The next thing I knew, I could see Glenn ‘Mother’ Danzig, on his hands and knees looking 10 shades paler than usual with a little trickle of blood coming out of his mouth. He looked dazed as pandemonium ensued in the hallway that served as a backstage area.”
Lucky for the Kings, the security at the venue sided with Danny, believing he acted in self defense. The band didn’t realize they had footage of the entire altercation until hours later.
Marianino was briefly interviewed by the police following the incident and declined to press charges against Danzig. The band would end up splitting from the venue about an hour after the incident went down.
Here’s an interview with Marianino talking about what happened immediately following the incident, prior to the video showing up online.
“…I don’t lay my hands on anybody until I need to protect myself.” – Danny Marianino
Interviewer: “You can talk all day about the video and people can say whatever they want but he did push you first.”
Marianino: “Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I don’t lay my hands on anybody until I need to protect myself.”
Interviewer: “So then afterward, the video’s posted, you get years of the most incredible hate mail I’ve ever read in this book, Don’t Ever Punch a Rockstar. It’s just unbelievable. The hate.”
Marianino: “Well the video wouldn’t have come out in the first place if he didn’t put up a statement that morning, earlier, was already out on the internet that I stabbed him. And the original video that came out, you’ll notice there’s no sharp object in Danny’s hand because we’re trying to clarify.”
North Side Kings Inundated With Death Threats
Following the incident, the news broke and the video surfaced on numerous websites. The Kings were inundated with death threats and hate mail. Some of the band’s accusers claimed they filmed the whole thing on purpose to promote their band.
Ironically, the band’s last gig was opening for the Misfits, minus Danzig in Scottsdale, Arizona. According to Reardon, the Misfits bassist Jerry Only was cool to them and even laughed about Danzig being punched.
Reardon looked back 10 years later at the incident, writing in the Phoenix Sun Times, “You know, maybe the best thing in all this for me was getting to see all the crap he said in interviews about the “punch” and know he was lying his ass off. It’s truly pathetic. All he would have had to do was say something like, ‘You know, things happened and tempers flared and I got punched.’ That would have ended all the bs that came from those 10 seconds of infamy…”
“…Those were his guys with the camera. No one knows that. Well, back then they did. It was a setup.” – Glenn Danzig
In a rare interview, Glen Danzig ranted to LA Weekly in 2012. He was asked about the incident and he would say, “That was him trying to get me on camera punching him so he could sue me or some stuff. I forget what it was. When everyone was breaking it up, he coldcocked me. What are you going to do? Those were his guys with the camera. No one knows that. Well, back then they did. It was a setup.”
When asked if the punch hurt, Danzig reportedly laughed and simply told the reporter no.
Marianino had the last laugh in 2012 when he released a book called Don’t Ever Punch a Rockstar which featured a collection of hate mail he received following the incident.
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