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Leather, leather everywhere
Remembering The Village People’s Glenn Hughes - RIP




By Greg Goodsell, Bakotopia.com Contributor

“Have you have been an un-American?
Just you and your idol singing falsetto ’bout
Leather, leather everywhere, and
Not a myth from the ghetto.”
- David Bowie, “Young Americans”

Today, we will turn our prayers and meditation towards the symmetrical perfection of Village People biker front man Glenn Hughes’s wide handlebar mustache.

As any other brave soul who has attempted to grow the same facial hair adornment will tell you, it’s a lot harder than it looks. The sides of the mustache always crop out unevenly, and it takes a highly practiced hand to get the sides just right. It’s more difficult still to get the right thickness and length going, and not every man can wear it and have it coming out looking good.

What of Hughes, who embodied the darker, more threatening side to this novelty disco group’s sunny side of masculine archetypes? Details have remained vague. A graduate of the prestigious Catholic boys’ institution Chaminade High School, Hughes changed his major three times before dropping out of college and took a job as a toll collector at the Brooklyn-Battery tunnel. Answering an ad for “macho singers with mustaches,” Hughes auditioned with the song “Where Do I Go?” from the musical “Hair” (“It was the only song I knew”).

Within three short hours Hughes was hired on the spot to fill in the biker role in a lineup that included a cowboy, an Indian, a construction worker, a G.I. and a policeman. The rest, they say, is history.


Vintage Glenn Hughes mask, owned by the author

The Village People titillated audiences with sly songs that traded on double entendres among gay and straight audiences. Whatever his orientation, Hughes (several unreliable Internet sources list him as either gay or straight) was a real-life biker who enjoyed tearing up the tri-state area in his Harley Davidson motorcycle.

While casted for his looks, Hughes had a modicum of musical talent as well. His distinctive bass voice is included in all official musical releases of the band, something no other member of the group can claim.

In the enjoyably wretched Village People 1982 bio-pic “Can't Stop the Music,” Hughes appears at a musical audition in his full leather attire. He lisps up a storm in comic indignation, and then climbs atop a grand piano and sings a sterling acapella version of “Danny Boy,” taking a sip from a soda can for dramatic effect. This one moment of truth and beauty in an otherwise cacophonous motion picture must be seen once to be believed.

With the waning of disco, the Village People were disastrously rushed into New Romantic clothes in a bid for the “new wave” dance market. As late night chat show host Tom Snyder made a snide comment on the group’s dwindling popular status, Hughes memorably gave Snyder the finger on live TV.


The Village People

With the “disco sucks” movement in full swing, Hughes, along with fellow Village Person David Hodo, attended a giant record burning event at Shea Stadium. Led by East Coast deejay Steve Dahl, rabid rock fans were to set fire to a mass of accursed vinyl recordings in anticipation of George Orwell’s “two minute hate” from 1984. Hughes and Hodo were recognized in the crowd, and in lieu of being tarred and feathered, cheerfully signed autographs to fans.

The Village People would disband, and Hughes would return to collecting tolls, until fans anxious to relive fun times dragged them out of retirement. Hughes would rejoin the group for world tours and state fairs until a frequent prop in his act -- an ever-lit cigarette - would spell his downfall.

Diagnosed with lung cancer, Hughes retired from Village People and was replaced by Eric Anzalone, whose previous biggest claim to fame was as an actor inside a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles costume. Hughes would enjoy success as a cabaret act and pose for an Altoids print ad (“Curiously Macho”) until his death on March 4, 2001.

Punk rock attempted to use artistic expression in order to wield subversive and ironic societal comment. Hughes, with his threatening, sadomasochistic attire and image was a popular fixture on Saturday morning children's TV shows, invited to the White House and was welcomed with open arms by Middle America who had no idea what his figure was all about.

Way to go, Glenn!

Story also printed in Bakotopia magazine, issue 30, 6-12-08