Remembering Joe "Christ" Linhart - 6/18/57 to 6/21/09

Word has come that Joe "Christ" Linhart has passed away at his home in Manila. No details yet on the cause of death...
(Since this was written, it has been learned that "Joe died in his sleep from a heart attack at his home in Atlanta. It was 3 days after his birthday, on Father's Day.....and he was home from Manila for an extended visit." Thanks Sebastien)

His son Alan has started a Facebook group in his memory at:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=89554566698&ref=mf

In the group description he writes:
"Father, grandfather, artist, musician, filmmaker, shit stirrer and so much more. This is a group for friends and family of Joe to connect and share stories and photos of him. Stories can be whatever they are, no worries if they are offensive or what not, he would have liked it that way and to have people remember the true him. Please post any and all photos any of you have of him to this group so we all have something to look back on and remember his legacy. I miss you dad!!!!!!

I do not have full info for all his friends, so any of you that can, please invite anyone who knows him or was touched by his life to join the group by using the 'invite others to join' link below his photo..."




I first met Joe when he booked The Nervebreakers at Bleu's Grotto (a great old dark bar with paper-mache stalactites hanging from the ceiling) in Tulsa in 1980...
I remember his hospitality when we stayed overnight at his house afterwards...
Back then he was known as Joe Danger...

He joined a cool little punk combo called Los Reactors in Tulsa with Tommy Waggoner.
Here's a description from their Myspace page:
http://www.myspace.com/losreactors

"Los Reactors, based in Tulsa, OK, were formed in 1979 and remained together until 1983. During that time, two seven-inch vinyl records were released by the band:


Dead In The Suburbs 3-song ep (b/w Culture Shock and Pregnant Girls) - 1981 - Cynykyl Records
Be A Zombie b/w Laboratory Baby - 1982 - Cynykyl Records

During the late 1990s, various Los Reactors songs were included in compilations, notably the Killed By Death series. In 2001, Rave Up Records based in Italy released a 12-inch vinyl album with all of the material from the singles, plus an additional bunch of live recordings. This led to a CD release of the LP material by way of Ripoff Records in 2004. In 2005, Los Reactors re-grouped to play a couple of reunion shows in New York City and Tulsa, with more shows planned for the future.

Here's a video of Los Reactors performing live on a Tulsa variety TV show in 1982. The song is Wonderful Life."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ai2N8Us105c





I moved away from Dallas (down to Austin) in 1984, when I returned in 1986, Joe had moved to big D & had a band called The Healing Faith & had adopted a Jeffery Lee Pierce look & persona. They opened the show at the Twilite Room on March 15, 1986 for a Nervebreakers' re-union gig playing before Johnny Thunders.





From Joe's personal Myspace page at:

http://www.myspace.com/joe_christ

Here is a list of his bands:
LOS REACTORS (1980 - 1983)
G SPOT (1983 - 1985)
JOE CHRIST and The HEALING FAITH (1985 - 1987)
BIGGER THAN GOD (1989 - 1996).


Here is a list of his films:
THAT's JUST WRONG! (2005).
Other movies (all shorts) are: MY STRUGGLE (2000)
AMY STRANGLED A SMALL CHILD (1998)
IS IT SNUFF? YOU DECIDE! (1997)
SEX BLOOD and MUTILATION (1995)
ACID IS GROOVY KILL THE PIGS (1993)
CRIPPLED (1992)
SPEED FREAKS WITH GUNS (1991)
COMMUNION IN ROOM 410 (1988).

He & his movies have been written about in the following books:
That's Blaxploitation! by Darius James (St Martin's, 1995)
Slimetime by Steven Puchalski (Headpress, 1996)
Killer Art by Lynn Powers (Pontalba Press, 1999)
His movie Speed Freaks With Guns was novelized by Nancy A Collins in her short story collection Nameless Sins (Gauntlet Press, 1995)

On his YouTube page, you can see trailers for some of his films & videos he shot:

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheRealJoeChrist


He seemed to be a nice man who reveled in his in his own weirdness. Of course, there are alot of stories around about him cutting off his penis after a 3-day speed run. I'll let someone else speculate about those tales and just say he apparently found contentment living in The Philippines in his later years. RIP Joe...