Bob Biggs, Slash Records founder, has died

Bob Biggs, who founded Los Angeles independent label Slash Records, has died after a long illness. The news has been shared by various friends and family on social media. He was 74.

The label grew out of the Slash punk fanzine. Biggs, who was a painter, lived next door to the the magazine’s offices and put up $1000 to fund The Germs‘ Lexicon Devil 7″ and then released the band’s classic debut album, GI, the next year. Biggs kept Slash Records, and the magazine, going after the other founders left and though the publication folded in 1980, the label kept going.

While primarily known for L.A. bands — their roster included Fear, Faith No More, Los Lobos, Dream Syndicate The Blasters, and Rank & File — Slash widened its scope, releasing records by Violent Femmes, Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians, Misfits, BoDeans, Burning Spear, The Chills, and more. Bob ran Slash, which by the mid-’80s was distributed by Warner Brothers in the U.S. and London Records in the UK, until its dissolution in 1996.

Biggs built the burning “X” on the cover of X’s 1980 debut album, Los Angeles, and co-directed Faith No More’s “We Care a Lot Video.” He also painted the baby images Swans used for the artwork for their 2014 album To Be Kind.

Rest in peace, Bob.

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