Darby Crash (born Jan Paul Beahm) (September 26, 1958 – December 7, 1980) was an Americanpunk rock vocalist and songwriter who, along with long-time friend Pat Smear (born Georg Ruthenberg), co-founded Germs. He committed suicide by way of an intentionalheroin overdose. In the years since his suicide at the age of 22, Germs have attained legendary status among punk rock fans and musicians alike, as well as from the wider alternative rock and underground music community in general. Crash has come to be revered as a unique and talented songwriter; his myriad literary, musical and philosophical influences, which varied from Frederich Nietzsche and David Bowie to Charles Manson and Adolf Hitler, resulted in lyrics that were unusually wordy and impressionistic in the realm of punk rock at the time, immediately setting Crash and his band apart from most other Los Angeles punk groups that sprang up in the late 1970s.

Early life