Identities of The Residents

As **The Residents** have (ostensibly) operated under a veil of obscurity and anonymity since their early career, much attention and discussion has been focused upon the **true identities** **of the individual members of the group.**

Many rumors have come and gone over the years, some of which have been proliferated by The Residents themselves, with the assistance of their management company The Cryptic Corporation.

## Unsubstantiated rumors

### Early rumors

Perhaps the most well known of the early rumors about the true identities of The Residents was that they were in fact The Beatles, recording experimental music following their break-up and using an assumed identity. This rumor (which is known to have given The Residents "a good laugh") was popular in Australia in the mid-1970s after it was published there by music magazine Ram; the claim was officially debunked by Jay Clem of The Cryptic Corporation in *The Residents Radio Special* in 1977.

The Residents have occasionally been linked to the Canadian progressive rock band Klaatu (who themselves were briefly rumored to be a secret Beatles side-project); when asked about this, Homer Flynn of The Cryptic Corporation simply replied "what part of Louisiana is [Klaatu] from?" Another early rumor suggested that The Residents shared members with the obscure, late 1960s New York experimental rock band Cromagnon (led by Austin Grasmere and Brian Elliott) - this is again false.

A rumor reported in the late 1970s that reclusive author J.D. Salinger performed with The Residents on one of their early records has never been verified. Another rumor that the late American performance artist Andy Kaufman was (or is) a member of the group has also never been confirmed, with Flynn refusing to comment while "on the record".

### The Cryptic Corporation

Since 1976, much of the speculation about the identities of The Residents has been focused upon the four founders of their management company The Cryptic Corporation; Homer Flynn, Hardy Fox, Jay Clem and John Kennedy.

Cryptic has always openly acknowledged the fact that Flynn produces the bulk of the band's artwork, and that Fox, until his retirement from the company in 2016, was their producer, arranger, and co-composer, responsible for engineering the group's recordings and editing them for release. In addition, all four founding Cryptics are listed as collaborators with the early Residents on the 2013 compilation album *The Delta Nudes' Greatest Hiss*.

Despite this, the members of The Cryptic Corporation have consistently denied being part of the core line-up of The Residents, instead acting as their management and spokespeople (first Clem, and later Fox and Flynn), as The Residents themselves typically do not grant interviews.

Since 2016, The Cryptic Corporation has consisted of Homer Flynn, sole remaining founder and current "Captain Doc" of the Corporation, alongside its co-owners Cherry Red Records (often represented by product manager Richard Anderson) and MVD Audio. Flynn has consistently denied being a member of The Residents, once claiming that he is "merely a mouthpiece with no poetry in [his] soul".

#### Gomer Flynn

The 2022 Residents encyclopaedia, Faceless Forever, posits a theory that the Singing Resident is in fact *Gomer Flynn*, Homer's twin brother who went missing in the early 1960s. The Cryptic Corporation deny this rumour.

### The Big Bubble

When *The Big Bubble* was released in 1985, with its album cover unusually featuring a photograph of four unmasked men, some fans questioned whether these four men (or some of them, or any of them) were The Residents.

The Cryptic Corporation promptly denied that the men pictured on the cover of *The Big Bubble* were members of The Residents, explaining that the men were in fact four models who had been hired to portray The Big Bubble, the fictional band represented on the album, consisting of Ramsey, Paul, Alex and Frank.

The four models were, however, personally selected for this purpose by The Residents, after the men had responded to a newspaper advertisement placed by the group.

### The Delta Nudes

In 2013, The Cryptic Corporation released a compilation album titled *The Delta Nudes' Greatest Hiss*, credited to "The Delta Nudes" - a retroactively applied group name for the group's home-made demos dated between 1969 and 1973.

Although the line ups of this supposed group were (perhaps intentionally) undocumented, the compilation's liner notes credit five "members" of The Delta Nudes; R. Rose (a pseudonym first used by The Singing Resident in 2010), C. Bobuck (a pseudonym of Hardy Fox used between 2010 and 2016), B. Tangney, J. Whitaker and P. Lithman.

Tangney was the credited bass player on "Infant Tango" from The Residents' debut album *Meet The Residents*, and was the composer of "Oh God You're A Pie In The Sky" from the long-unreleased 1971 demo tape *The W\*\*\*\*\* B\*\*\* Album*. Whitaker was credited as the pianist on "Spotted Pinto Bean" from *Meet The Residents*, and composer of "Love Theme From a Major Motion Picture" from *The W\*\*\*\*\* B\*\*\* Album*.

Lithman, meanwhile, is none other than the English guitarist later known as Snakefinger, who began working with the group around August 1971, and would frequently appear on Residents releases from 1976 to 1980. He also performed live with the group at their first official live performance in June 1976, and during their 13th Anniversary Show international tour from 1985 to 1987.

### Celebrities

Whilst being a Resident is clearly a full time job, rumours have often persisted that The Residents are some kind of Super-Group of famous musicians working anonymously. The Residents themselves seemed to have fuelled this idea with their 2016 documentary *Theory of Obscurity* with interviewees mentioning several rumours; among them *George Harrisson (1943-2001), Bono, Eddie Van Halen (1955-2020), David Byrne, Bob Seger* and *Barack Obama.* Hardy Fox himself, in a now removed Wikipedia edit, posited a rumour that The Residents were Dutch Indorock band The Residents.

Other rumours addressed and denied by The Cryptic Corporation include ones claiming that the group featured John Lennon (1940-1980), Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, the aforementioned George Harrison, or Sting, Andy Summers, Stewart Copeland, or Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, and Peter Tork.

Other popular, but unaddressed rumours, speculate that they are Frank Zappa (1940-1993), Les Claypool, Gerald Casale, Mark Mothersbaugh Carlo Cadona, Chris Cutler, Fred Frith, Gerri Lawlor and Eric Drew Feldman, or members of the band Cromagnon.

## Confirmed facts

### Anonymity and philosophy

From the beginning, The Residents have always preferred to present a singular and "ill-defined" public image, de-emphasizing the personal identities of the individual members of the group in favor of the "oneness" of their music.

This reticence has extended into complete anonymity and seclusion at various points in their career, in accordance with their mentor N. Senada's Theory of Obscurity, which states that an artist can only produce the purest expression of their art when the expectations and influences of the outside world are not taken into consideration at all. It has even been said that some people who know members of The Residents personally are not aware of their involvement with the group.

The Residents' adherence to Senada's Theory of Obscurity was at its strongest in the group's early years (particularly around the time they recorded their second album *Not Available* in 1974) but was de-emphasized after the group achieved success in the late 1970s and early 1980s, on the basis that "when you are sitting in the middle of... a big record store, it's hard to be very obscure". Nevertheless, The Residents have generally maintained their anonymity, being "pretty well adjusted to their status and likely not to be led astray by the temptations of individuality".

### Noted biographical details and attributes

    As a further means of obfuscation, The Residents (usually via spokesmen from their management company The Cryptic Corporation) have often disseminated false information about themselves, usually for purposes of publicity; they are said to "never admit (anything) and lie all the way to the grave". For this reason, the "facts" which have been stated about the group should usually be taken with a grain of salt, though a number of long-stated facts have also later proven to be truthful (at least in part).

The Residents have regularly been portrayed as a line-up of four Caucasian men, hailing from the southern part of the United States (with most of them meeting in elementary and high school in Shreveport, Louisiana, and at college at Louisiana Tech in nearby Ruston). This line-up was presented as having been unchanged from the group's official foundation in 1974 until at least the mid-1990s. Despite the fact The Residents have most often portrayed as men, members of the group have been said to be "genderless", and are referred to (usually collectively, but sometimes individually) with the pronouns "they/them".

Members of The Residents are said to have lived alongside future founders of The Cryptic Corporation from the late 1960s in a small apartment in San Mateo, California, and then (beginning in 1972) at a much larger warehouse on Sycamore Street in San Francisco, though all are said to have moved into separate lodgings in 1976, when Cryptic moved Ralph Records to its well-known Grove Street headquarters. More recently, The Residents have been said to reside in a "fog-shrouded castle on a hill" in an undisclosed location. Although they are known to have recorded primarily in their homes while living communally in the late 1960s and early-to-mid 1970s, The Residents later began to prefer working in commercial recording studios, while still using home studios for "sketching or... other reasons".

Time is said to be important to The Residents; the group are "aware of their ticking clocks", and believe that they have "more ideas than time to complete them"; nevertheless they believe that "the amount of time it takes to create [a project] is *part* of the project", and are known to have delayed projects that would have taken too much time until later, when "technology makes [them] possible". The group developed a keen interest in emerging home media technologies at the beginning of their career, which has remained consistent in the years since. They were early adopters of videotape, synthesizers, samplers, and computers, as well as producing pioneering works in then-new mediums such as music video and interactive CD-ROM.

Aside from technology, the members of The Residents have been said to love "just about everything else", as they are "very positive people", who think that "life should be treated like a trip to Disneyland (but the weird part you never went to)." Members of the group have long been known to enjoy sharing inside jokes; a small number of these have become known to fans.

### "Randy, Chuck, Bob, Carlos and Rico"

Between 2010 and 2016, The Residents undertook The Randy, Chuck and Bob Trilogy, a meta-fictional mutlimedia project centered on three world tours, Talking Light, The Wonder of Weird, and Shadowland.

For the project the core members of The Residents (now numbering three) each adopted personae; fictionalized versions of their real selves, forming the world's "best Residents cover band". The Singing Resident was Randy Rose, the lead composer/arranger and keyboardist was Charles "Chuck" Bobuck, the guitarist was Lionel Bob, and a fourth, absent Resident, the percussionist Carlos, was said to have recently departed the group to look after his ailing mother in Texas.

Beginning in 2011, the members known as Rose and Bobuck took the opportunity to use the personae to pursue solo projects, beginning with Rose's one-man show Sam's Enchanted Evening between October 2011 and March 2012. In 2012, Bobuck began a prolific series of solo studio recordings he referred to as "contraptions" with the release of the album *Codgers on the Moon*; the liner notes which accompanied the album were noted for their uncharacteristically personal approach, which presaged the release of a pseudo-autobiography, *THIS Is For READERS*, in 2015. Rose also released solo recordings, including a single titled "Bigfoot Beware" in 2016, and a series of demos leaked by Rose to a Tumblr fan blog in 2011.

Over the course of Shadowland, the final tour of the trilogy, the Resident known as Bobuck retired from live performance, and eventually from the group altogether, to be replaced by a new Resident, Rico. The personae were largely retired with the announcement of the 2017 tour In Between Dreams, which featured a new, four-member line-up, referred to as "The REAL Residents". Randy continued to appear in promotional videos as The Residents' former lead singer until 2019, and is expected to feature prominently in the group's upcoming film *Triple Trouble*.

Within the narrative presented by the trilogy of tours (and related projects such as blogs, vlogs, newsletters, and album and single releases), Rose, Bobuck, Bob, Carlos and Rico represent the unmasked, individual members of The Residents. Despite these personae having been mostly retired in 2017 following the conclusion of Shadowland, many fans still use these names when referring to the individual members of the group and wishing to maintain their anonymity.

### "The REAL Residents"

With the announcement of their In Between Dreams tour in 2017, The Residents adopted new personas; singer Tyrone, guitarist Eekie, keyboardist Erkie, and percussionist Cha Cha. This new group of pseudonyms were referred to in publicity materials as "The 'REAL' Residents".

Within the Randy, Chuck and Bob mythos, the four members of "The 'REAL' Residents" act as replacements for Randy, Bob and Rico, hired by The Cryptic Corporation without prior warning to the incumbent trio.

The four-person line-up of The Residents known as Tyrone, Eekie, Erkie and Cha Cha have seemingly reverted to a veneer of anonymity following the conclusion of In Between Dreams, with no particular personae being ascribed to the members of the group for their next tour, the much-delayed Dog Stab!/Faceless Forever.

### Hardy Fox

> ***"The Residents just came through here on tour and they are still mysterious. I am not in The Residents. I have no reason to pretend to be mysterious."***
>
>

> Hardy Fox, 2018
>
>

In his Hacienda Bridge newsletter in October 2017, at the conclusion of his serialized novella *The Stone*, Hardy Fox announced that he was the person hitherto known as Charles Bobuck, and thus, that he was the primary composer, arranger and producer of The Residents' music from their inception until his retirement from the group in 2016.

Following this, Fox began to record under his own name, beginning with a self-titled album in early 2018. His prolific recording activity continued with frequent releases until shortly before his death in October 2018.

### Philip Perkins

American musician Philip Perkins has identified himself as having worked closely with The Residents between 1979 and 1987. Perkins worked with the group as part of their live band (for The Mole Show) and in the studio.

The liner notes to the 2020 reissue of his 1983 album *King Of The World* explain that the album was recorded during a period when he was part of the *Assorted Secrets* line-up of The Residents.

### Others

It is said that the people in the eyeball masks and tuxedos during photo shoots and promotional appearances have often been models hired for the purpose, and not members of The Residents themselves.

Some live tours have featured non-musicians (such as dancers) in costume as Residents, in addition to the members of the performing band (which has varied in number depending on the particular requirements of each tour). Between 1985 and 1991, Mr. Blue and Mr. Green were portrayed onstage by dancers Sarah McLennan and Carol LeMaitre.

## Frequent collaborators

Throughout The Residents' career, the group have understood their own limitations, and have often employed the talents of guest artists to perform where they cannot.

Some of these guest musicians like Snakefinger, Nolan Cook, Molly Harvey and Carla Fabrizio have been credited on Residents releases so frequently that, on top having performed and toured with the group, they are sometimes considered Residents themselves (whose ultimate disguise is that they are credited as guests).

### Live collaborators

Throughout their history as a live performing band, The Residents have regularly had help from other credited performers.

#### Oh Mummy! Oh Daddy! (1976)

* Philip "Snakefinger" Lithman: Guitar
* Don Jackovich: Drums
* Adrian Dekbar: Violin

#### The 13th Anniversary Show (1985 - 1987)

* Philip "Snakefinger" Lithman: Guitar, percussion
* Carol LeMaitre: Dancer
* Sarah McLennan: Dancer

#### Cube-E (1989 - 1990)

* Joshua Raoul Brody
* Mark Salvatore
* R.M. Davis
* Carol LeMaitre: Dancer
* Sarah McLennan: Dancer

#### Ty's Freak Show (1991)

* Carol LeMaitre: Dancer
* Sarah McLennan: Dancer

#### Disfigured Night (1997)

* Molly Harvey: Vocals
* Pavers

#### Wormwood Live (1998 - 1999)

* Molly Harvey: Vocals
* Nolan Cook: Guitar
* Toby Dammit
* Carla Fabrizio
* Gamelan Sekar Jaya (joined onstage for one date in 1998)

#### Icky Flix Live (2001)

* Molly Harvey: Vocals
* Nolan Cook: Guitar
* Carla Fabrizio
* Toby Dammit
* Gamelan Sekar Jaya (joined onstage for one date)

#### Demons Dance Alone (2002 - 2003)

* Molly Harvey: Vocals
* Nolan Cook: Guitar
* Paul Benney: Trumpet
* Eric Drew Feldman: Keyboards
* Toby Dammit
* Carla Fabrizio

#### The Way We Were (2005)

* Molly Harvey: Vocals
* Nolan Cook: Guitar
* Carla Fabrizio

#### The Bunny Boy (2008)

* Nolan Cook: Guitar
* Carla Fabrizio
* Joshua Raoul Brody

#### God In 3 Persons - Live! (2020 - 2022)

* Nolan Cook: Guitar
* Eric Drew Feldman: Keyboards
* Laurie Amat: Vocals (2020)
* Sivan Lioncub: Vocals (2022)
* Joshua Raoul Brody
* David Norfleet
* Greg Stephens
* Caitlin Hicks
* Heloise Rousseau

## See also

* List of aliases used by The Residents
* The Residents' signatures
* Randy Rose
* Charles Bobuck
* Bunny Hartley
* Hardy Fox

## External links and references

1. ↑ Noud Jansen, "50 Years of The Residents", Humo, December 27th 2021
2. ↑ "Such a rumor exists, Sid, because Ram Magazine in Australia published a story... supporting the argument that The Residents are in fact The Beatles... It's absolutely untrue, Sid." Jay Clem, "Interview" (Part 1), *The Residents Radio Special*, 1977
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Homer Flynn, Music In(Tr)action Forum appearance, Compuserve, March 12th 1996
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Matt Groening, "The True Story of The Residents", *The Official W.E.I.R.D. Book of The Residents*, 1979
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Hardy Fox, Club Wired live chat appearance, HotWired, June 20th 1995
6. ↑ The Residents Radio Special 1977
7. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AalTSAWvmT0&t=81s&pp=ygUXVGhlIFJlc2lkZW50cyBtb2xlIHNob3c%3D
8. ↑ https://youtu.be/KComrA0Nlbs?list=PLzArvRO4RQowDan-DZGDgaOQgjSeqRsBj
9. ↑ https://queencitysoundsandart.wordpress.com/2018/04/12/the-residents-bring-their-weird-and-wonderful-multi-media-show-to-denver/
10. ↑ The Residents - Wikipedia.Org
11. ↑ "The thing with The Residents is that they're ill-defined, and actually everything about them is ill-defined. Sort of a controlled chaos situation, I suppose. But it's also a very creative chaos. Companies wonder what The Residents will do with their products." Hardy Fox, interviewed by Roman Sokal, "The Residents: It's Not What Happened And How It Was Done, Because It Just Is", *Tape Op* no. 45, January-February 2005
12. ↑ "At the time, it was a naïve thing to do when they started. But the group was important, and they wanted one image for the group. They didn't want four faces for the group. They wanted one image that would represent the group. [...] It's removing that personal identity and emphasizing the music and the music's oneness, not that it's made up of four different people, but that it's just the music." Hardy Fox, JJJ Interview, 1982
13. ↑ "Bobuck History" at Hacienda Bridge
14. ↑ Hardy Fox, AOL chat appearance, March 1995
15. ↑ Homer Flynn, *The Residents Show - Wave Special*, 1985
16. ↑ "If you wanted to publish names and pictures I doubt that at this point it would corrupt their quality as a group, but it would have when they were younger. They're pretty well adjusted to their status and likely not to be led astray by the temptations of individuality." Hardy Fox, interviewed by Roman Sokal, "The Residents: It's Not What Happened And How It Was Done, Because It Just Is", *Tape Op* no. 45, January-February 2005
17. ↑ "The Residents Unmasked!" promo photo, 1979
18. ↑ Jim Knipfel, "Somethin' Devilish: The Untold (And Finally True) Pre-History of The Residents 1963-1971)"
19. ↑ Homer Flynn interviewed by Steven Cerio, Seconds #43, 1997
20. ↑ "Fifty Years Of Weird & Wacky Wonderfulness", Musique Machine, March 23rd 2022
21. ↑ The Residents, "WHAT IS REAL?", The Residents' News Machine, August 13th 2021
22. ↑ "A lot of times they'll prefer working in a professional situation. The home studio might be just for sketching or it could be for completely other reasons. *[...]* The Residents don't just record at home... never did. *[...]* But they prefer the time freedom of working off the clock." Hardy Fox, interviewed by Roman Sokal, "The Residents: It's Not What Happened And How It Was Done, Because It Just Is", *Tape Op* no. 45, January-February 2005
23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 "You may think you have a really great idea, but if the time allotment for it exceeds the quality of the idea, then it's not a good idea. You just thought it was a good idea! But it might be a good idea for another time because technology makes it possible. Time is really important to The Residents." Hardy Fox, interviewed by Roman Sokal, "The Residents: It's Not What Happened And How It Was Done, Because It Just Is", *Tape Op* no. 45, January-February 2005
24. ↑ "They're aware of their ticking clocks. They have a certain amount of time to do what has to be done. And they do believe that they have more ideas than time to complete them. Therefore, you can't spend too much time fussing over an idea." Hardy Fox, interviewed by Roman Sokal, "The Residents: It's Not What Happened And How It Was Done, Because It Just Is", *Tape Op* no. 45, January-February 2005
25. ↑ "The Residents believe the amount of time it takes to create is *part* of the project. They consider the amount of time that something is worth having put into it." Hardy Fox, interviewed by Roman Sokal, "The Residents: It's Not What Happened And How It Was Done, Because It Just Is", *Tape Op* no. 45, January-February 2005
26. ↑ The Cryptic Corporation, *A Nickle If Your Dick's This Big* liner notes, 2019
27. ↑ Randy Rose, "NotDead!", Randy Rose's official YouTube channel, March 12th 2017
28. ↑ "Leaving The Residents & New Paths", Musique Machine, May 16th 2018
29. ↑ Philip Perkins at Bay Improviser
30. ↑ *The Snakey Wake* credits, 1988
31. ↑ *King Of The World* by Philip Perkins at Discogs
32. ↑ *Theory of Obscurity: A Film About The Residents*, 2016
33. ↑ Best Bets: Alonzo King LINES Ballet celebrates 40 years, The Residents put on multimedia concerts, more - Local News Matters (2022)