The name Terry Trash is notorious in these parts. A fixture in Tucson’s music community for over 30 years, our punk rock hero obtained infamy when he was hit by a train, losing both his right arm and leg. He is lucky to be here but it is us, the music community, who are truly blessed with his influential and very much alive place in local music. Terry’s band, Texas Trash and the Trainwrecks have been getting people drunk and rowdy with their classic mix of punk and rockabilly for 12 years. The group’s staying power speaks for their relentlessness quest for fun and for their country spiked hypnosis over the fans. The Trainwrecks refuse to let a fast moving train and a recent revamp of their band tie them down to the tracks, like some damsel dreading the conductor’s next move.



The narrow confides of Che’s lounge was packed upon my arrival Saturday night. Fighting a battle with the thirsty crowd to the bar, I caught a glimpse of the unmistakable Terry Trash, adorned in a black fur coat which I assume was stripped off some wild desert beast the band beat down with a broken beer bottle. With each sip of whiskey, I watched the man get greeted with a steady flow of adorations from friends. Despite the almost mythical quality surrounding him, there was something so inviting and approachable about the smile lying on his tattooed face. It was all too clear that he is one of Tucson’s dearest friends.

The small space the band occupied quickly filled up with friends and spectators, anxious to raise their glasses up into a rock and roll filled air. Often breaking to thank Che’s for their long standing hospitality, Terry spread his tough as nails vocals to both sides of the audience, as well as curious walkers by, gazing in through the window. The whole band achieved a fine tuned, solid partnership with Terry’s vocals in both talent and attitude. The guitar’s clear rifts came from Veteran of the band, Matt Marcus. “I’ve been in since July 2010. It was Trash's birthday. He mentioned that he was starting up the band again and was about to audition a guitar player. When he told me Ken was going to be the bass player, I said "Fuck that guy- I'M playing guitar!" Ken and I kind of took over at that point, reworking the existing music and writing a bunch of new tunes. Terry comes up with the lyrics with input from me, Ken, and others. Chris and Suzy have contributed arrangement ideas, so it's a group effort.” Playing bass this evening was Chris Saxton, filling in for Ken Andree who is temporarily relocated to Austin, Tx for family reasons.


Keeping the aggressive beat was the lovely Suzie Homewrecker. Though she is a recent addition to the Trainwrecks, the drummer is no stranger to Terry or live music. The two worked together back in 87 in the band World of Hurt. “We worked together way back then. I moved to Hollywood and he stayed here where he helped the music scene blossom and I helped the Hollywood scene blossom but then I moved back home. The scene is way bigger here then it was when I left.” It was in the “action packed” Hollywood that Suzie earned the name home wrecker. “I used get drunk and kick holes in peoples walls and break windows. That’s how I got the home wrecker. But I don’t do that anymore. I grew up.” With due pride, she told me it wasn’t until she got clean and sober, that she stopped her wrecking. “I’ve been sober for 10 years. Love right? Love will solve all the worlds problems.”


Suzy just re-entered Tucson’s scene about a year ago and already she has four projects along with The Trainwrecks. She is currently playing in a country cover band, filling in for blues band, Solstice, playing bass in Psychotic Nerve, and filling in for horror inspired band, Full Story at Midnight. At any early age, Suzy discovered she needed to play the drums. “I was like 11 years old and I got the Kiss, Hotter than Hell record and I wanted to be that pussycat. I wanted to be that cat drummer dude. Peter Criss.”

Terry attributes the band’s recent revamp to a parting of the ways without a shred of hard feelings. “Members broke away. Members went different ways. It all started with us voting Steve off the island. He’s hard to work with. Great drummer. Awesome dude. We just grew apart. He’s a great guy and he took us to places we would have never went before. “ In regards to the previous bassist, he says, “My original bass player went to The Besmirchers. He’s doing a very fine job. He was all like distributed about telling me he wanted to quit the band. I was like, go dude, go on man. Expand yourself.”

Though Terry says we, “give him too much credit,” the fact that he’s shooting for the “Tucson sound” is something for us all to take pride in. “Tucson has a Specific sound. No one sounds like Tucson. La don’t sound like Tucson, that’s for damn sure. I’m shooting for that. Shooting for Tucson sound. I want a desert sound.” It is the random nature of our desert that has captured Terry’s heart and rooted him deeply into his home where he plans to stay, with his wife by his side.
The band wishes to record in the future and try to play two shows each month, striving to create great shows at small venues, without overplaying. “I like playing a big arena with tons of people but then again your kinda separated so playing a small bar is cool, everyone is right there around you. You can smell their body odor. Its so personal,” Suzie notes. Terry adds, “People are close to the front. They feel my sweat.”

Chances are, if you have a conversation with Terry or see the Trainwrecks high energy set, your going to want to bash that damn train with a big stick for hurting such a sweet man. I know I do. “It was just a scratch, The heaviest thing I ever lifted was the eyebrows of Tucson..” The man is truly unstoppable, genuinely funny, and a testament to the power of positive thinking. Texas Trash and the Trainwrecks music whips around our favorite bars like a dust devil, picking up friends and free booze in its path. I leave you with some of the most sound advice I have ever gotten, straight from Texas Trash himself. “Don’t squat with your spurs on. Take care of your feet your gonna need um.”