Jack Terricloth

Jack Terricloth, (June 11, 1970 – May 13, 2021) lead vocalist for Brooklyn NY cabaret-punk band The World/Inferno Friendship Society.

Quotes

Live

• What better place than this? What better choice than us?

Hallowmas Live at North Six

• People often ask me, "Jack, you're old. How do you manage to get out of the house and be so outraged and hop up and down so very often?" And of course, I respond, "Could you lend me ten bucks so I can buy some drugs?"

• My older friends say, "I was in a punk band once, and we used to be pretty outraged. We would get pretty angry, we'd get a stomp going or something, we would rally against Reagan, or other elected officials. But now I am an older man, and I have some responsibilities, so I really cannot be excited. I appreciate Kurt Cobain, and I'm excited about all those bands that seem very angry, but—why would you keep doing this after all these years?" And I say, "Because I still hate you and I'm trying to prove to you that you're wrong." Because, really, if you're bored and you're listless, you just need to get yourself an enemy.
  • Introducing "I Wouldn't Want to Live in a World Without Grudges"

• There's a shop on the next corner, North Six, between Wythe and Berry? I'd like you all to go smash it up. Now, if anyone asks you who told you to do this, I want you to keep mum. It was Franz.
  • Introducing "Let's Steal Everything"

• I know we live in troubled times, my friends, I know things which once stood up suddenly don't stand up anymore. I know that innocent people shopping or buying gas are often shot down, shot down for no reason. And it makes a nation nervous. Now, personally, I like the nation to be nervous. And in these nervous times, sometimes people come up to me, and they say, "Perhaps, Jack, you should tone down your rhetoric a bit. Perhaps, the stuff you say in between songs might be construed as, well, not very patriotic. Well, actually, Jack, you might get yourself in some big trouble." And I say to myself, "Oh! Trouble is my business, friend." In these uncertain times, it's not a good idea to give up on your values, and change your mind about the things you hold dear. It's not. I want to talk about someone who fell pretty damn hard, and this song is called "I Shot President Reagan, and I'm Gonna Do It Again and Again and Again and Again!"
  • Introducing "Secret Service Freedom Fighting U.S.A."

Interviews

• What do you think makes a good rock front man? Shamelessness, I’d imagine. [1]

• It was great the way we changed the mind of the nation and fascism was defeated and all the troops were home by Christmas.
  • On World/Inferno's contribution to the second Rock Against Bush compilation. [2]

• It is every singer's ambition, whether they acknowledge it or not, to croon. [3]

• Interviewer says "Yeah, and I watched that but I actually was kind of like, terrified by the intensity of your fans and I was wondering if the intensity of your fans ever kind of scares you? I hear that they have a bunch of rules for what dances to do during certain songs…I was like ‘Oh God’."

Jack Responds "They don’t frighten me, no. I know I’m afraid of knives, I’m afraid of needles, I’m afraid of snakes, I am not afraid of teenagers." [4]

• Everything's going to be okay, even though it's all terribly wrong. [5]

• Punk's an attitude. Punk's not three-chord rock. If you want to listen to three chord rock, there's southern rock. [6]

• Interviewer says "How do you become a member of the World/Inferno Friendship Society?"

Jack Responds "It's a long story. You just have to be at the right place at the right time, you have to have a broken heart and ambition to be more then you think you can be. And then you meet people that have the same dreams, and you get in the bus." [7]

• Interviewer says "Maybe you can give us some chores that have to be done like Hercules had to do ten of them so maybe we could do ten of them"

Jack Responds " Ok i can do ten 1. You have to learn to play an instrument 2. You have to be willing to F***-up your life 3. You have to have a broken heart 4. Then you have to break someones heart (Gina Rodriguez (Moist Gina),the bass player, chimes in "or have had broken a heart) 5. Then you have to be politically not be astute, I know even in English that was weird 6. OK, you have to want to change the world 7. You have to want to lose money 8. You have to want to make people smile 9. You have to be able to laugh and cry at the same time 10. And number ten you have to be able to be, when you whisper you absolutely as sincere as when you scream. Ten Steps" [8]

What Would Jack Do?

• You should live your life with an emphasis on accruing experiences and becoming cooler.

• What's the most important thing in the world? Walking the walk.

• All you have to do is put all other concerns aside and your fondest desire will come true. Unfortunately, 'all other concerns' includes your health, financial well-being, interpersonal relationships, and often any inkling of why you had this desire in the first place. Good luck!

• Trouble is a great deal of fun, and crimes committed without malice are usually forgiven among peers.

• Is it better to look classy or act classy? Act. But one follows the other.

• Money should never be the reason you ever do or don't do anything. I haven't paid rent in 3 months.

• Have you noticed that bank tellers are almost always very attractive? Is it because they're on display back there behind the glass so close and yet so far? Or is it like bartenders they have so much of what we want?

• If I am not doing something illicit, I feel absolutely naked.

• Where do you hear the songs? In the space between wake and passing out, the hiss down the left of the dial, the faces of the kids when we pull up to the show, in answering machine hang up messages, in glasses colliding, transmissions whining, where the music doesn't belong—where it lives. Everywhere, it's all I hear.

• My favorite wine is usually whatever is right in front of me.