What the fuckage

Recently I stumbled across a snippet from an old Joe Nolte interview. Joe said that the Descendents originated in 1977 when his younger brother David became surfing buddies with Frank Navetta and introduced him to punk rock. They both played guitar and decided to start a band. So far so good, this was familiar info I already knew. But then Joe said that regarding them finding a drummer, David told Frank, "I know this dude who recently started playing drums because he wanted to join that new punk band Panic. But they didn't want him, so he's available." That dude was Bill Stevenson. This blew my mind and I couldn't believe I'd never heard it before. I went and dug out my copy of Filmage which has been sitting in a box for probably almost 8 years and watched for a bit. Sure enough, David Nolte is there onscreen saying he met Frank in high school and they decided to start a band. But when he explains how they got Bill, his version was along the lines of, "One day me and Frank were hanging out on the street and I saw this kid going by. I said, 'Hey I know him.' His name was Bill Stevenson. I dunno, he was kinda hyper and I just thought he'd make a good drummer." And then Bill is on screen talking about the early days of the Descendents. No mention of how he came to start playing the drums or anything.

So, I don't think Joe Nolte lied. But it blows me away that they would skim over this amazing factoid in the documentary, their big chance to put the full story of the band out there.