Darby Crash (born
Jan Paul Beahm) (September 26, 1958 – December 7, 1980) was an
American punk rock vocalist and songwriter who, along with long-time friend
Pat Smear (born Georg Ruthenberg), co-founded
Germs. He committed suicide by way of an intentional
heroin overdose. In the years since his suicide at the age of 22, Germs have attained legendary status among punk rock fans and musicians alike, as well as from the wider
alternative rock and underground music community in general. Crash has come to be revered as a unique and talented songwriter; his myriad literary, musical and philosophical influences, which varied from
Frederich Nietzsche and
David Bowie to
Charles Manson and
Adolf Hitler, resulted in lyrics that were unusually wordy and impressionistic in the realm of punk rock at the time, immediately setting Crash and his band apart from most other Los Angeles punk groups that sprang up in the late 1970s.