Dead Kennedys explain why they won’t reunite with Jello Biafra

Since D.H. Peligro’s sudden death in 2022, The Dead Kennedys are formed only by two classic members (who also are co-founders of the band). They are the guitarist East Bay Ray and the bassist Klaus Flouride. Recently a rumor saying that they would reunite with the original singer Jello Biafra was released but the vocalist and the band quickly denied the information.

In an new interview with Guitar World magazine, the band explained why they won’t reunite with Jeff.

Dead Kennedys explain why they won’t reunite with Jello Biafra

“It’s not an issue for me or Klaus. It’s Biafra that turns down any offers for us to do something; we don’t have any problem. He got caught with his hands in the till and wants to blame us for getting caught, but he should never have put his hands in there in the first place.”

“We actually wrote as a band, where in effect, due to the chemistry between us, it was a case of two and two equaling five. None of us has had a solo career that was bigger than Dead Kennedys, which, to me, shows the power of a bunch of talented people getting together and creating something that was far greater than the sum of its parts.”

He continued:

“Jello didn’t bring in the songs. I know he’s created the myth that he wrote them all, but the question here is that if he did, why didn’t he ever do anything significant after leaving the band? Iggy left the Stooges and had a career; ditto Lou Reed with the Velvet Underground or Morrissey with the Smiths. Where’s Biafra’s solo career with a bunch of great songs? The songs were written in numerous different ways. [Holiday In] Cambodia started as a jam in the rehearsal studio.

“Other times, I’d have ideas for riffs that I’d put on cassettes and Biafra would find lyrics in his notebook. Klaus was important, too, in that he was the most trained musician in the band, and he was good at putting things together. Very few songs were written by one person,” East Bay Ray said.

Although the band talked about songwriting, they never released another full studio album without Jello Biafra, only EPs and singles. Biafra was part of the band from 1978 to 1986.