Sad...

D.H. Peligro, longtime drummer of legendary SF punk band the Dead Kennedys, dies at 63

Amanda Bartlett

D.H. Peligro, a musician best known as the longtime drummer of the legendary San Francisco punk band the Dead Kennedys, died at his Los Angeles home Friday after police said he sustained head trauma due to an accidental fall, according to an Instagram statement shared by the band. He was 63 years old. 

“Arrangements are pending and will be announced in the coming days,” the statement read. “We ask that you respect the family’s privacy during this difficult time. Thank you for your thoughts and words of comfort.”

Born in St. Louis, Missouri on July 9, 1959, Peligro (Darren Henley) started drumming early on in his childhood and moved to San Francisco when he was about 15 years old. 

“By the time I got there, I had eight dollars in my pocket,” he told music writer Mark Prindle in a 2004 interview for his website, Mark’s Music Reviews. “I crossed the Bay Bridge, got in there and boom. That’s where I lived in a van on Shipley St. near Folsom between 5th and 6th.” While there, he met the members of S.S.I., the first band he would play in.

Peligro said that at the time, he was influenced by a number of pioneering punk and ska bands from San Francisco and Los Angeles, including the Offs, the Dils, the Plugz, X, and the Go-Gos, and frequently attended shows at the Deaf Club, a famed punk venue on Valencia Street in the late ‘70s. He likened S.S.I.’s rhythm guitarist Paul to Joe Strummer from the Clash and described the sound of the first band he played in as “very fast,” with “politically astute” lyrics. Jello Biafra, the frontman of the Dead Kennedys, took notice of Peligro at S.S.I.’s live shows, but it was guitarist Raymond John Pepperell (East Bay Ray) who invited him to audition for the Dead Kennedys after original drummer Bruce “Ted” Slesinger quit to pursue a career as an architect. 

“I ran into East Bay Ray down at the Mabuhay Garbage-Gardens… We used to call it the Mabuhay Garbage after a while,” Peligro said to Prindle of the North Beach club. “And he asked me if I'd come down and audition. I thought immediately, ‘Well, you know what? I'm not gonna get the gig. I'm Black, and nobody wants a Black drummer in their band, even though it is punk rock.’ …  That's definitely what I thought. Because I'd seen all these other bands, and I played a lot of rock before that, but I think I was one of the first Black rock drummers. Or that's how it seemed to me."

For the audition, Peligro said he played “Insight,” which was later released on the Dead Kennedys’ 1987 compilation album “Give me Convenience or Give Me Death.” The band told him he was in — and by Peligro's own account, he beat out 15 other drummers who had also tried out for the gig. Peligro subsequently joined them in the studio to record the single “Too Drunk to Fuck” before performing on their 1981 EP “In God We Trust” and 1982’s “Plastic Surgery Disasters,” as well as “Frankenchrist” in 1985 and “Bedtime for Democracy” in 1986, which was released the year the band broke up.

After that, he briefly played with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, writing a few songs on their fourth studio album, “Mother’s Milk.” The Dead Kennedys reunited in 2001 sans Biafra for multiple tours and the releases of live studio albums including “Live at the Deaf Club” and “Mutiny on the Bay.”

Later in life, Peligro played guitar and sang in his own band, Peligro, in addition to performing with Nailbomb and Jungle Studs. Prior to his death, it was announced that he would star in the Los Angeles punk band OFF!’s 2023 sci-fi comedy “Free LSD,” as BrooklynVegan first reported. 

“My dear friend, my brother I miss you so much,” Flea wrote in a tribute to Peligro on Instagram. “I’m devastated today, a river of tears, but all my life I will treasure every second. The first time I saw you play with the DK’s in ‘81 you blew my mind. … You are the truest rocker, and a crucial part of rhcp history.”

East Bay Ray also reshared the band’s original statement on Twitter with a brief addition: “I am sad.” 

Dave Lombardo, a drummer and co-founding member of the iconic thrash metal outfit Slayer, wrote that Peligro’s frenzied, hardcore style in the Dead Kennedys’ early albums influenced how he played in his own band. 

“Sending my deepest sympathies to his family, bandmates and all those affected by this tragic, untimely loss,” he tweeted. “Rest peacefully.”

Lol Tolhurst, a founding member and former drummer for the Cure, shared a photo of Peligro, who he called “a lovely man and an awesome drummer.”  

And Jon Wurster, the drummer of the 1990s DIY rock band Superchunk, shared a video of the Dead Kennedys playing in San Francisco circa 1984 on Twitter.

"D.H. Peligro has left the building," Wurster wrote. "One of the absolute greats."