Roy Garrett

"Roy Garrett born Roy Samber in Newark, New Jersey arrived in New York City hungry to explore the sex and porn scenes he’d seen advertised in the Village Voice’s classified section. He danced in Times Square theaters The Gaiety, Ramrod, and Big Top before moving into adult film. From 1979 through 1983 Garret starred in ten films, five of them for Joe Gage, including his lead role in 'Heatstroke'. Throughout this period of self-discovery, he wrote the suite of 48 poems that became ‘Hot Rod to Hell’. In 1982 he recorded and self-released the poems on cassette with haunting, atmospheric score by Man Parrish, who also did several soundtracks for Gage. The project was produced for the stage by Manhattan illustrator Robert W. Richards who calls 'Hot Rod', "a searing voyage through the labyrinths of modern male sexuality; its geography ranging from porn theaters to back room bars to the intimacy of shared beds. Only a man born at exactly the moment in gay history that Garrett was could have lived through and conceived this work.” Roy Garrett tells his stories of sex, violence, truth, and illusion, as visceral and personal a record as any of that moment in gay history pre-AIDS. Joe Gage, describes 'Hot Rod' as, “…sweet danger. This is a perceptive look at the underside of love. It is funny, scary, surprisingly moving and best of all, extremely acute in observing the specifics of the human condition.” By April 1992, Garrett would succumb to AIDS-related illness, aged just 37. All poems have been carefully remastered for vinyl by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. The records come housed in a jacket designed by Gwenael Rattke and includes an 44-page full color magazine with all 48 ‘Hot Rod’ poems plus 44 previously unpublished poems from Garrett’s archive. All proceeds from ‘Hot Rod’ will be donated to Housing Works, a New York City based non-profit fighting the twin crises of AIDS and homelessness."