Darby Crash

Jan Paul Beahm (better known by his stage name Darby Crash, formerly Bobby Pyn; September 26, 1958 – December 7, 1980) was an American singer who, along with longtime friend Pat Smear (born Georg Albert Ruthenberg), co-founded the punk rock band the Germs and was best known as their lead vocalist. In 1980, he committed suicide by deliberately overdosing on heroin.

Early life Jan Paul had a troubled childhood. While still a baby, he and his family lived in Venice, Los Angeles. He grew up in Culver City, California, and later, West Los Angeles.

Jan Paul grew up believing that his biological father was a man named Harold "Hal" Beahm, who had left the family early on in his life.

Bobby Lucas, Darby's older half-brother, died from a heroin overdose in 1969 when Darby was 11 years old.

Faith's third husband, Bob Baker, was a Korean War veteran. they had married in 1964 when a very young Jan Paul introduced the idea of them marrying after they began dating. She never married Jan Paul's biological father, and not long after Bob Baker's death, Jan Paul learned that his biological father, whom he never met, was also deceased. Jan Paul did not take the IPS program seriously. As students in the IPS program were given the liberty to form their own classes, Jan Paul and fellow student Georg Ruthenberg, better known as Pat Smear, created a class for themselves called Fruit Eating, in which they would go to a market, eat fruit for an hour, then return to school.

Frequent users of LSD at the time, Jan Paul Beahm and Georg Ruthenberg developed a following of other IPS students who would also use the drug. The two were accused of brainwashing the other students and causing them to behave subversively, which led to the dismissal of the two boys from the school in 1976.

According to his mother, Jan Paul later enrolled at Santa Monica College.

The Germs

Not long after their dismissal from IPS, Jan Paul and Georg Ruthenberg began trying to form a band, inspired by groups like The Runaways and The Stooges. Before they settled on the Germs as a band name, they called themselves Sophistifuck and the Revlon Spam Queens, but they moved to a shorter name, allegedly because they didn't have enough money to put this on a t-shirt.

After putting out a Recycler ad requesting "two untalented girls" who couldn't play their instruments, the two friends were joined by the suitably inexperienced bassist Teresa Marie Ryan, soon to be rechristened Lorna Doom, and drummer Belinda Carlisle, dubbed Dottie Danger, who never played a show with the group due to an extended bout of mononucleosis. Carlisle went on to fame and fortune as lead vocalist of The Go-Go's and as an even more successful solo artist. She was quickly replaced with Becky Barton (aka Donna Rhia), who played three gigs with the group and recorded with them on their debut single, 1977's "Forming."

When the Germs initially formed, the only member who was proficient with an instrument was Ruthenberg, who now called himself Pat Smear. Beahm initially dubbed himself Bobby Pyn, as he is credited as such on the group's first recording, but he soon jettisoned the moniker in favor of the more overtly menacing Darby Crash, a name which he had initially referred to in the lyrics of the song "Circle One."

During an interview in the film, Crash also discusses taking drugs onstage to avoid feeling injuries from fan violence and "creeps out there with grudges." The Germs were well known for their violent, chaotic performances, often exacerbated by Crash's drug abuse, which increased steadily over the group's brief lifespan. Crash committed suicide from an intentional heroin overdose on December 7, 1980, in a house in the Fairfax District section of Los Angeles.

According to SPIN magazine, apocryphal lore has Crash attempting to write "Here Lies Darby Crash" on the wall as he lay dying, but not finishing. In reality, he wrote a short note to Darby Crash Band bassist David "Bosco" Danford that stated "My life, my leather, my love goes to Bosco." His friend Casey Cola Hopkins was with him that night, at her mother's main house. Casey was supposed to have died with him in the coach house (which was a converted garage) that night as part of a supposed death pact, but ended up surviving. Crash is interred at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City.

Since death, his mother received the Germs' album and merchandise royalties, thanks to Darby's deal with Bug Music Publishing that was drafted a few months prior to his death.

In popular culture Crash and the Germs are the subject of the 2007 biopic What We Do Is Secret, which starred Shane West as Crash, Bijou Phillips as Lorna Doom, Rick Gonzalez as Pat Smear, and Noah Segan as Bolles.

American professional wrestler Darby Allin's ring name is derived from Crash's name as well as GG Allin's name.