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Founder Of Slash Records, Bob Biggs, Dies At 74
Bob Biggs was the publisher of Slash magazine, which spawned the record label of the same name. He's seen here in a still from "The Decline of Western Civilization," which was directed by his former wife, Penelope Spheeris.
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The founder of the iconic Slash record label has died. Bob Biggs was an artist who became involved in the 1970s with an L.A. punk rock magazine called Slash. He then founded the record label in 1978 and it became home to such seminal L.A. bands as The Germs, X, The Blasters and Los Lobos.
Biggs would soon branch out of L.A. to add bands such as Violent Femmes, Dream Syndicate and Faith No More.
Louie Pérez of Los Lobos says the band owes everything to Biggs because he was the only one to take a chance on them:
"There was a lot of press going around [about us], but nobody really stepped up because everybody figured, What are going to do with this band, [which] plays rock and roll and traditional Mexican music played like, way too fast? He was the one person who actually knew what to do and that was simply put us in the studio and then send us off on the road."
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Biggs' first wife, journalist Leslie Ward, says Biggs was the first art major at UCLA to also receive a football scholarship there. He was later married to filmmaker Penelope Spheeris. According to Variety, Biggs, who was living in Tehachapi, died from Lewy body dementia. The Whittier native was 74 years old and is survived by his wife, Kim, and their son, Monty.
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