‘SNL’ bad boys Lee Ving and Fear lead old-school punk revival in Minneapolis

Lee Ving still blames it on John Belushi.

As is colorfully recounted in the new documentary “Ladies & Gentlemen … 50 Years of SNL Music,” Ving’s punk band Fear created a scene in NBC’s Studio 8H in 1981 that was too chaotic even for “Saturday Night Live’s” unflappable producers.

Slam dancing. Stage diving. Sexually suggestive lyrics involving sandwich meat. A panicked-looking studio audience.

“The people running the show thought we were pulling one over on them,” the frontman for the Los Angeles punk band recalled. “But it was all John’s doing.”

Forty-four years later, Ving is still grateful Belushi did what he did.

Belushi’s support is one of the big reasons Fear broke out of the L.A. underground and is still able to perform in cities like Minneapolis, where Ving and the band play their first Minnesota show in about two decades Friday at the Uptown VFW.

Talking by phone two weeks ago from his home in Century City, Calif., Ving turned out to be exactly how “SNL” host Donald Pleasence described the band in that notorious 1981 episode: “Actually, very nice people.”

The 74-year-old punk legend talked excitedly about his band returning to the road and appreciates the increased interest in them following the Questlove-helmed “SNL” music documentary.

“We want to keep all the crops watered and all the fans tended to and not leave any metropolitan area untouched,” he said.

The current lineup of the band includes one other player from the 1981 era, drummer Spit Stix (Tim Leitch). However, Stix had a scheduling conflict this week. The band posted on social media last weekend that Shane Hawkins, the 18-year-old son of late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins, will be filling in for him in Minnesota and Michigan.

They have a new Fear album to promote, “The Last Time,” but Ving promised, “We’re playing the greatest hits, don’t worry.

“The quality factor is really high,” he said. “We’re still tearing it up everywhere we go.”

Fear certainly had a reputation of tearing up rooms following that “SNL” appearance.

Ving spoke lovingly of Belushi when asked for the back story of the newly revisited TV gig, which came two years after the “Animal House” star had left “SNL” for movies and a year before his death.

“John used to come to our gigs whenever he was in [L.A.], and people would freak out that he was there, but he would be hanging out just like anyone,” Ving remembered.

“He agreed to go back on the show and do some cameos just to get us on as the musical guest. It wound up being the last time he was on the show, too, so from that standpoint alone I think it’s a historic episode.”

Belushi even arranged to have what Ving said was “every skinhead punk they could find in Washington, D.C.” bused up to New York to create the mosh pit that so scared the studio audience. Members of Minor Threat and Negative Approach were among those bused to the show.

“You didn’t see punk rock on TV before that, and to this day, people around the world know us from that one TV appearance,” Ving said. “We owe John for that.”

There are, however, a lot of other random footnotes to Fear’s original 1977-1982 heyday run.

Future Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea was briefly a member of the band in the early ‘80s. Hard rock bands including Guns N’ Roses, Soundgarden and A Perfect Circle have recorded cover versions of some of Fear’s best-known songs, including “I Don’t Care About You,” “I Love Livin’ in the City” and “Let’s Have a War.”

There’s an unusual array of other TV and movie appearances in Fear’s history, too. Dave Grohl prominently featured Ving in his “Sound City” documentary. Ving had bit acting roles in the ‘80s movies “Flashdance” and “Clue” (the latter humorously as the corpse).

Fear also was one of the main bands spotlighted in future “Wayne’s World” director Penelope Spheeris’ groundbreaking 1981 documentary “The Decline of Western Civilization,” which captured the L.A. punk scene in all its grime and glory. As with Belushi, Ving sang Spheeris’ praise for boosting the band’s profile.

“I thought it was an authentic documentation of the scene and what it was all about,” he said. “And it became quite a major pop culture phenomenon.”

What the punk rock scene “was all about” back in 1981, however, doesn’t exactly jibe with today’s standards of political correctness. Some of Fear’s songs from back then might be deemed at best dimwitted today, and at worst offensive and derogatory, from the drunken tomfoolery of “More Beer” to the underlying sexism of “Beef Bologna.”

While pointing to his own self-growth since those wilder days, Ving defended Fear’s songs for being valuable in the moment.

“The punk rock thing was intended to be negative and offensive,” he said. “We were pushing the boundaries of what society would allow. That was the whole point. I think it worked, and I don’t regret that.”

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Fear is one of three old-school punk bands coming to the Twin Cities on tour this spring. The other two:

Subhumans: Not to be confused with the Canadian band of the same name, the U.K. lineup is still led by singer Dick Lucas with newer members but a lot of the same old anarcho-punk themes. (April 4, Uptown VFW, Mpls., $22)

Gang of Four: Following guitarist Andy Gill’s death in 2020, singer Jon King and drummer Hugo Burnham are celebrating the 45th anniversary of their “Entertainment!” album with a new lineup featuring Belly’s Gail Greenwood on bass and Indiana punk revivalist Ted Leo as guitarist/co-vocalist. (May 10, Fine Line, Mpls., $30).

With: Bad Idea, Menstrual Tramps.

When: 8 p.m. Fri.

Where: Uptown VFW, 2916 Lyndale Av. S., Mpls.

Tickets: $40, uptownvfw.org.