Gories 'Never Considered' Mainstream Success

When the Gories broke up in 1993, they had little reason to think about their legacy. Although they'd released three albums, toured Europe and attracted the attention of a major label, the Detroit garage rockers had never sold very many records or built any kind of live following. Then, history had its say.

"So a few years go by, and people are still digging the records and asking about the band," singer and guitarist Dan Kroha tells Spinner. "We could see there's still interest in the band, because people are still asking about the records. It was gradual as time went on. Interest in the band never really died down."

Primitive even by garage standards, the Gories made loud, guileless rock 'n' roll, building its songs from simple guitar -- supplied by Kroha and co-frontman Mick Collins -- and the thudding, cymbal-less percussion of drummer Peggy O'Neill. The band influenced a generation of rockers, paving the way for the much-hyped garage boom of the early '00s.

"I knew we had something really special back when we were doing it," Kroha says. "I knew it would be just a matter of time before people caught up with it. It was my dream it would be influential. I didn't care if we didn't have success at that time."

Kroha says he's "happy with the way things happened," and that he doesn't really regret not signing with a major. Last summer, on their first tour in 16 years, the Gories did two weeks in Europe, and this year, they played three dates in Canada and three in the greater New York City area. The offers are likely to continue, and although Kroha, Collins and O'Neill are generally busy with other projects, they'll always have the Gories to come back to.

Still, it's tempting to think of what might have been. Asked whether mainstream success would have changed the Gories, Kroha says he isn't sure.

"Musically, probably not," he says. "Friendship-wise, possibly. I don't know. It's hard to say. Maybe if we had gotten fairly popular at the time, then people wouldn't have been as interested as time went on. I don't know. That's an interesting thought that I never considered."