Eldon Hoke

Eldon Wayne Hoke (March 23, 1958 – April 19, 1997), nicknamed El Duce, was an American musician best known as the drummer and lead singer of the shock rock band the Mentors, as well as other acts, including Chinas Comidas and the Screamers.

Apart from his musical career, Eldon was also an actor who appeared in several films as an extra, and discussed his band and lifestyle on Jerry Springer and Wally George TV talk-shows.

The Mentors' songs were covered by artists including Black Label Society, GWAR, and Koffin Kats, and quoted by Guns N' Roses (in "Cornshucker"), Anthrax (in "I'm the Man") and Dr. Know (in "Fist F*ck").

Early life

Hoke was born in Seattle, Washington to mother Doris Hope and father Walter Hoke. His father designed bombs for the Vietnam War, and he was also abusive towards him and his sister. He attended Roosevelt High School where he formed the Mentors with school friends Eric Carlson and Steve Broy after he was expelled for repeatedly vandalizing the school.

Career

The Mentors

Hoke and the Mentors worked to gain attention through farcical demonstrations of political incorrectness. The band's guitarist, Eric Carlson, renamed himself "Sickie Wifebeater", and the group often appeared in public wearing black executioner hoods.

During the 1985 U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation's hearings into the proliferation of "obscene" lyrics in popular music, the Reverend Jeff Ling recited the lyrics to the Mentors song, "Golden Shower" to musician Frank Zappa, who opposed the hearings. The lyrics, which included the line, "Bend up and smell my anal vapor/Your face is my toilet paper" prompted Zappa and others to denounce the hearings as a farce.

Kurt Cobain death claim

After the body of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain was discovered in the greenhouse of Cobain's Lake Washington home on April 8, 1994, Hoke began making the claim that Cobain's wife, Courtney Love, had offered to pay him to kill Cobain. Hoke promoted his story in such media outlets as TV's Jerry Springer Show, The National Enquirer weekly tabloid, and in Nick Broomfield's documentary film, Kurt & Courtney. In 1996, Hoke passed a lie detector test when claiming that Love had offered him $50,000 to kill Kurt Cobain. In his interview in the Kurt and Courtney film, recorded on April 11, 1997, El Duce again claimed that Love had offered him $50,000 to "whack" Kurt Cobain, and further claimed that he knew who did kill Cobain (giving the name "Allen", some say from the band Kill Allen Wrench), but said he would "let the FBI catch him".

Other appearances In addition to his musical career, Hoke also worked as an extra in television (such talk shows like Hot Seat with Wally George and The Jerry Springer Show, and Tales From The Crypt episode), movies (including the science fiction musical Population: 1, starring his bandmate Tomata Du Plenty; Two Idiots in Hollywood, directed by Stephen Tobolowsky; and Du-beat-e-o, starring Joan Jett), and in music video productions.

In 1998 Backstage Sluts (lately shortened and re-edited as Backstage Pass: Uncensored), directed by Matt Zane, was released — a movie wherein famous rockers (including members of Motörhead, Korn, Limp Bizkit, Sugar Ray and Insane Clown Posse) recount their wildest sexual moments, while actual porn stars acted them out. The film contains a penultimate interview with El Duce from 1997, in which he drunkenly declares his taste in the opposite sex: "I like nasty women. I like... homeless women."

Death On April 19, 1997, one day after his final performance and talking to Brent Alden, and eight days after filming his interview with Nick Broomfield for the Kurt & Courtney documentary, Hoke was found dead on the railroad tracks in Riverside, California. He was "decapitated in the accident — he was hit full on by a freight train doing 60 MPH", according to Steve Broy, the Mentors' bass player. Subsequent tests indicated a high blood alcohol content and thus Hoke's official cause of death was given by the coroner's office as "misadventure". Al Jourgensen (of the industrial metal band Ministry) wrote in his autobiography that El Duce was killed by the train when some fans on the other side of the railroad tracks called his name and, as he attempted to cross to meet them, his toes became stuck in the track. Another story is that he gave a Nazi salute in front of the train as it mowed him down. Due to the timing of his death (eight days after the Kurt and Courtney interview), some have speculated that his death was related to the statements he made that Courtney Love offered him $50,000 to "whack" Cobain, and that someone named "Allen" took the offer.

According to the self-published book Truth Is Funnier Than Fiction by Mentors bass player Steve Broy, the whole story was concocted by Mentors associate Rev. Bud Green in order to sell supermarket tabloids.

Discography

With the Mentors Studio albums

1982 – Trash Bag (a.k.a. "Get Up & Die") (EP) 1985 – You Axed for It! 1986 – Up the Dose 1989 – Sex, Drugs & Rock 'n' Roll (live) 1990 – Rock Bible 1991 – To the Max

Singles

2007 – Shotgun Suicide 2009 – Oblivion Train 2018 – Nuthang

Live albums 1983 – Live at the Whisky / Cathay De Grande 1987 – Live in Frisco 2017 – To the Max "Live"

Compilations 1994 – Houses of the Horny 2023 – "The Rock Bible" Outtakes

Demo tapes 1981 – "The Mentors" Demo 1989 – "Rock Bible" Demo

Featured on

1984 – Various artists – The Sound of Hollywood – Copulation

With Gardy-Loo! Studio albums 1997 – Perverts on Parade

Solo releases 1991 – The Man, the Myth, the Legend 1992 – Booze and Broads 1993 – Musical Pornography 1993 – Slave to thy Master 1995 – Buttfucking Man 1996 – Lock Up Yer Daughters 1997 – Karaoke King I 1997 – Karaoke King II 2010 – God 2011 – El Duce's XXX-Mas 2018 – Symphony [1991 & 1996] 2018 – Three Second Man (single) 2018 – The Man of the House (single) 2018 – Harvest Time in Humboldt County (single) 2018 – El Duce & The Sex Devils – Man, Myth, Live! 2020 – 1985 2021 – Dead Man Rocking (EP)

As featured artist 1987 – Zoetrope – A Life of Crime 1991 – Dr. Heathen Scum II – El Magnifico Musicione 1991 – Insect on Acid – Sex Sex Sex 1996 – Love Sandwich – Hollywood 4-Way 1997 – Sloth – Bring On The Gaffs

Videography 1981 – Get Up & Die 1987 – Fuck Movie 1990 – A Piece of Sinema 1990 – The Wretched World of The Mentors 1991 – Hollywood Head Bash 1991 – Tour De Max '91 1993 – El Duce: The Man. The Myth. The Video 2007 – El Duce Vita 2010 – Perverted Movie 2017 – The Kings of Sleaze (documentary) 2019 – The El Duce Tapes (documentary)

Appearances: 1986 – Quiet Riot – The Wild and the Young (promo video) 1997 – Nine Inch Nails – Closure (documentary) 2011 – Ministry – Fix (documentary)