If you’re familiar at all with hardcore punk act SNFU you’re probably also aware that their front man, Mr. Chi Pig, is a pretty eccentric fellow. But even we didn’t realize just how crazy this dude’s life has been until we decided to do this story. Check below for 10 things you probably didn’t know about Mr. Chi Pig.
1. Kendall Stephen Chinn aka Ken Chinn aka Mr. Chi Pig was born in Edmonton, Canada on October 19, 1962 as one of 12 siblings, him being the second oldest.
2. Ken says that his love of punk rock began when he and his family were watching the news and the Sex Pistols came on after first arriving in America. Seeing Sid Vicious and Johnny Rotten influenced him to get into the scene and inspired him to come up with a persona like them. That’s when he came up with “Mr. Chi Pig.”
3. His father was sent to prison when Chinn was 12 and his stepfather was an “alcoholic on the weekends.” His mother suffered from schizophrenia which would later rub off on Chi Pig who began hearing voices in his head that would tell him to either do good or bad things. All of these issues would have a heavy impact on his writing.
4. When SNFU started, most of the band members were not very proficient at their instruments, even Chi Pig confessed that his singing voice sucked.
5. During a tour supporting their release “If You Swear, You’ll Catch No Fish”, Chinn was head banging on stage when he accidentally head butted a “young kid” attempting to climb onto the stage. Chi cracked his skull and associates this event as the dividing line of his mental well-being. After that, Chi began separating himself from the other band members until he was eventually kicked out of the band.
6. During one of SNFU’s separation periods, Chi moved to Vancouver where he officially came out as a gay man.
7. It was also at this point that Chinn became heavily addicted to crystal meth which led to his diminished mental and physical health as well as to the loss of his teeth.
8. After SNFU’s break up in 2005, Chinn became reckless and found himself living on the streets. His drug use escalated, he lost a lot of weight and he became incredibly depressed and suicidal. The situation became so dire that he finally agreed to start taking meds and entered a mental health improvement establishment where he stabilized his condition and still spends much of his time.
9. Chi Pig has constantly shown his love for making music. Even during the times that SNFU has been broken up, Chi either started or played in other bands including his first band, Live Sex Shows in 1981 in addition to The Wongs in 1990 and Slave Co. in 2002.
10. Ken Chinn occasionally performs solo acoustic sets under the moniker “DNFU” (“Distortion’s No Fucking Use”).