We first fell in love with Wheatus’ Teenage Dirtbag in 2000. A fun, upbeat song about being a teenager, probably being misunderstood, and having a crush on a girl who doesn’t know you exist when all you wanna do is freaking listen to Iron Maiden with her. We’ve all been there, amiright?!
But there is actually a very dark and disturbing backstory for the song.
Teenage Dirtbag was inspired by an event that happened to Wheatus frontman, Brendan B. Brown. In 2012, Brown told Tone Deaf, where he said, “It came from the summer of 1984 on Long Island when I was 10 years old.”
“That summer in the woods behind my house, there was a Satanic, drug-induced ritual teen homicide that went down; and the kid who did it was called Ricky Kasso, and he was arrested wearing an AC/DC T-shirt.”
“That made all the papers, and the television, obviously; and here I was, 10 years old, walking around with a case full of AC/DC and Iron Maiden and Metallica – and all the parents and the teachers and the cops thought I was some kind of Satan worshipper.”
“So that’s the backdrop for that song,” Brown said.
The more you know.
