Rock Musician, Actor, Media Personality. Born and raised in Seattle, Washington, Eldon "El Duce" Hoke was the drummer and lead singer of The Mentors, a "Shock Rock" group first formed in 1976. Their faces obscured with black executioner-style hoods, The Mentors were infamous for their songs, which featured obscene, outrageous titles and lyrics, as well as their live gigs, where El Duce, ensconced behind a drum-kit decorated with pornographic photos, would harangue the audience between songs with crude and hilarious diatribes. The Mentors' greatest publicity coup came in 1985, when a representative of the Parents' Music Resource Center, led by Tipper Gore (wife of Al), read lyrics from their song "Golden Shower" to a U.S. Congressional committee convened to investigate obscenity in rock music.
Apart from his musical career, El Duce was also an actor who appeared in several films, and discussed his hugely-controversial band and lifestyle on the Jerry Springer and Wally George TV talk-shows.
Despite his onstage lowlife/pervert persona, most people who knew El Duce maintained that he was an intelligent, affable, warm-hearted man with a wicked sense of humor and a huge appetite for both sex and alcohol. Unfortunately, his drinking led to his demise; while staying with band bass player Steve "Dr. Heathen Scum" Broy in Riverside, he drunkenly wandered onto train tracks in the unincorported community of Pedley, passed out cold, and was run over by an oncoming train.
Today El Duce is remembered as a cultural pioneer who destroyed taboos in rock music regarding onstage speech and behavior, and who set a precedent for today's most outrageous and extreme rock and rap acts.
Apart from his musical career, El Duce was also an actor who appeared in several films, and discussed his hugely-controversial band and lifestyle on the Jerry Springer and Wally George TV talk-shows.
Despite his onstage lowlife/pervert persona, most people who knew El Duce maintained that he was an intelligent, affable, warm-hearted man with a wicked sense of humor and a huge appetite for both sex and alcohol. Unfortunately, his drinking led to his demise; while staying with band bass player Steve "Dr. Heathen Scum" Broy in Riverside, he drunkenly wandered onto train tracks in the unincorported community of Pedley, passed out cold, and was run over by an oncoming train.
Today El Duce is remembered as a cultural pioneer who destroyed taboos in rock music regarding onstage speech and behavior, and who set a precedent for today's most outrageous and extreme rock and rap acts.
Rock Musician, Actor, Media Personality. Born and raised in Seattle, Washington, Eldon "El Duce" Hoke was the drummer and lead singer of The Mentors, a "Shock Rock" group first formed in 1976. Their faces obscured with black executioner-style hoods, The Mentors were infamous for their songs, which featured obscene, outrageous titles and lyrics, as well as their live gigs, where El Duce, ensconced behind a drum-kit decorated with pornographic photos, would harangue the audience between songs with crude and hilarious diatribes. The Mentors' greatest publicity coup came in 1985, when a representative of the Parents' Music Resource Center, led by Tipper Gore (wife of Al), read lyrics from their song "Golden Shower" to a U.S. Congressional committee convened to investigate obscenity in rock music.
Apart from his musical career, El Duce was also an actor who appeared in several films, and discussed his hugely-controversial band and lifestyle on the Jerry Springer and Wally George TV talk-shows.
Despite his onstage lowlife/pervert persona, most people who knew El Duce maintained that he was an intelligent, affable, warm-hearted man with a wicked sense of humor and a huge appetite for both sex and alcohol. Unfortunately, his drinking led to his demise; while staying with band bass player Steve "Dr. Heathen Scum" Broy in Riverside, he drunkenly wandered onto train tracks in the unincorported community of Pedley, passed out cold, and was run over by an oncoming train.
Today El Duce is remembered as a cultural pioneer who destroyed taboos in rock music regarding onstage speech and behavior, and who set a precedent for today's most outrageous and extreme rock and rap acts.
Apart from his musical career, El Duce was also an actor who appeared in several films, and discussed his hugely-controversial band and lifestyle on the Jerry Springer and Wally George TV talk-shows.
Despite his onstage lowlife/pervert persona, most people who knew El Duce maintained that he was an intelligent, affable, warm-hearted man with a wicked sense of humor and a huge appetite for both sex and alcohol. Unfortunately, his drinking led to his demise; while staying with band bass player Steve "Dr. Heathen Scum" Broy in Riverside, he drunkenly wandered onto train tracks in the unincorported community of Pedley, passed out cold, and was run over by an oncoming train.
Today El Duce is remembered as a cultural pioneer who destroyed taboos in rock music regarding onstage speech and behavior, and who set a precedent for today's most outrageous and extreme rock and rap acts.
Gravesite Details
Ashes scattered at Cannon Beach, Oregon.
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