Memorial For GRUNTRUCK / SKIN YARD Singer Held In Seattle; Photos Available

March 13, 2008

On Saturday, March 8, King Cobra in Seattle hosted a farewell/memorial to one of local music's longtime artistic jesters — Benjamin Scott McMillan, legendary vocalist for GRUNTRUCK and SKIN YARD — who died in his hometown of Seattle, Washington at age 47 after an eight-year battle with diabetes. Throughout the night, Ben's favorite music from SKIN YARD and GRUNTRUCK played. Video footage of past tours and rock mayhem was shown along with photos of Ben at his best. SLIPPAGE and KANDI KODED (both featuring former SKIN YARD and GRUNTRUCK members) performed, as did good friends and past tour buddies COFFIN BREAK.

Check out photos from the event at this location.

Roadrunner Records' Monte Conner (A&R) previously commented on McMillan passing, "GRUNTRUCK's second album, 'Push', is still one of my all-time favorite Roadrunner releases, and it still sounds as great today as it did back in 1992. Songs like the swaggering riff-fest 'Tribe', 'Crazy Love' (a 'Beavis & Butthead' mainstay back in 1993) and the epic 'Above Me' (which really featured Ben's unique voice) are three of the strongest songs Ben and the band ever wrote. 'Push' was quite a trailblazing record for Roadrunner as it was our biggest selling non-metal record to date in 1993. This is not to say that GRUNTRUCK didn't haul a very large amount of ass, but they were one of our first forays into something more mainstream. Let's all crank this ass-kicking MP3 of 'Tribe' while we remember Ben McMillan and the great music he made."

Roadrunner released two albums from Seattle-based GRUNTRUCK: 1991's "Inside Yours" and the 1992 follow-up, "Push". The latter was, up to that point, Roadrunner's highest-selling non-metal album due to the track "Crazy Love" being featured on MTV's "Beavis & Butthead".

GRUNTRUCK's "Crazy Love" video:

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