‘I’m getting over hating myself’: how to front a punk band with cerebral palsy – The Guardian

People often assume that the lead singer of Culture Abuse is wasted. In fact he has cerebral palsy. They think Im fucked up no matter what, says David Kelling, so Ill just act like Im partying to make people more comfortable.

Kellings disability affects his movement on the right side of his body he walks with a limp and often finds it hard to get on and off stage. His five-piece band signed to Epitaph in June and have been in Europe since they supported Green Day in Hyde Park in July, at the personal request of lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong; this weekend they play the Reading and Leeds festivals.

We meet as they begin their UK tour they are relying on friends for places to crash between shows. Lining up pints of Guinness, Kelling explains that cerebral palsy, a condition that reduces muscle strength and motor skills, affects everything in his life. People stare at him on the street, he learned to play the guitar with his fingers because he cant hold a pick, and almost every venue he plays at has stairs that are difficult for him to navigate.

The bands latest album, Peach, released last year, was about various issues in the band members lives. Our rent kept going up, one of our friends died, theres a drought in California, and my mum has a terminal heart condition. But our fans kept saying how positive it was, says Kelling, smiling. Originally from San Francisco but now living in LA, he says it feels weird to be in Europe, writing cute love songs when the US is in political turmoil, but believes that as a band they offer hope. Last weeks tweet proclaiming fuck Donald Trump and fuck racism lays out their political stall.

So Busted, the bands latest single, is seemingly about the pain of liking someone who doesnt like you back, but Kelling, who says hes still getting over hating myself, explains its also about his insecurities.

He wrote it when he started seeing his girlfriend. She is the most beautiful woman I have ever seen, but I still question why she is with me, [because] Ive never seen the kid with the disability get the girl, he says. Id keep asking: Are you sure? Is it just because the bands doing good?

Kelling says he is happy to be an ambassador for disability. There are female musicians, there are black musicians almost everyone can find someone who is like them. But disabled people have no role models at all. There could be more, there should be more.

While there are campaigns for gender-neutral public bathrooms, Kelling argues that theres no equivalent for disabled facilities. Five flights of stairs to get to a venue how does someone in a wheelchair get up them? And who is talking about that? he asks. It never stopped me going to gigs when I was younger, but sometimes Id trip and fall and feel like I didnt want to be there anymore.

Kelling writes all the bands music, which he has previously described as the Clash and the Ramones mixed with some Nirvana, but says it took him until the age of 30 to be confident to go public with it. He now wants to fight the media narrative of a normal human, then you have a disabled person and show parents that their kid can be a hero too.

He is confident that he will be the only disabled frontman to perform at Reading and Leeds this weekend. I was always afraid of singing, he says. But I feel like a freak anyway, so I may as well get up on stage in a dirty T-shirt, spit all over myself and just embrace it.

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'I'm getting over hating myself': how to front a punk band with cerebral palsy - The Guardian