In Conversation: Mike Judge
Twenty-nine years after our first interview, I decided to pick up on our original conversation to find out what’s changed—and what hasn’t—and maybe cringe at our younger selves along the way.
Finding Mike Judge in 1994 was not easy. I asked every “youth crew” member I knew—including his Judge bandmate, Porcell—and everyone gave some version of the same answer: “I think he’s a biker now?” But when it came to specifics, no one knew. Finally, I asked Mark Ryan from Supertouch. I knew Mark and Mike grew up together in New Jersey, that they wandered into the New York City hardcore scene as friends and teenagers in the early ‘80s. I knew their history was deeper than most. And when Mark gave me the smile of a well-kept secret, I knew he knew.
As I recall it, Mike declined my request at first. But Mark assured him that I was a good guy—and a good friend—and he even offered to come along, which he did. So with that endorsement, and under th…