Cadillac Tramps band won’t be part of dust heap of history

In the late 1980s and into the 1990s, the Cadillac Tramps had the Orange County rockabilly and punk scene in its grasp.

The band, which was taken under the wings of the popular Grammy-winning grunge group Pearl Jam, toured all over the United States and parts of Canada. It sold out venues like the Hollywood Palace, now known as the Avalon, and was able to attract diverse concert crowds.

But then, it all seemed to mysteriously fade away.

Brian Coakley, Tramps guitarist, and his wife, Jamie Sims Coakley, decided it wasn’t right for the band’s story to vanish. The Long Beach pair are currently working on a documentary recounting the band’s story, from its formation in Costa Mesa in 1987 to its arguable fall.

Brian Coakley said the band doesn’t deserve to be forgotten in an oversaturated, ever-changing market.

“The Cadillac Tramps had made our mark on the Orange County music scene, and we had done some stuff that was special in my mind,” he said, noting that the band still plays shows but not as many as it used to. “I got sick of seeing all these documentaries on the Orange County music scene with no mention of us. We were in this between time, before grunge and after punk.”

The Coakleys were motivated even further about four years ago when singer Mike “Gabby” Gaborno’s health began deteriorating.

The Cadillac Tramps’ Brian Coakley walks the stage while playing the 2001 Hootenanny Festival in Irvine.

(Don Leach / Daily Pilot)

The health problems came in a “sequence of events,” Brian Coakley said, from diabetes to kidney failure, hepatitis C, cirrhosis and, finally, a recent diagnosis of liver cancer.

“His cancer is very advanced,” Jamie Coakley said. “It’s inoperable at this state. What they’re trying to do is give him aggressive radiation and therapy to try and shrink the tumor. But the recent prognosis was, ‘If we give you the surgery to remove the cancer, there’s a 1-in-5 chance of surviving this surgery and a 40% chance of surviving for two weeks after that. Or, if you don’t do the surgery, you have six to nine months to live.’ That’s where we’re at now.”

A benefit concert for Gaborno, to help with medical expenses and general support, is planned for Tuesday at The Coach House in San Juan Capistrano. Jonny “Two Bags” Wickersham, Hellbound Eddie and Johnny Ray Bartel & the Heroes will be performing.

Tickets are $35. A GoFundMe page has also been set up for donations.

The Coakleys said their hour-and-a-half documentary, which was successfully funded by a Kickstarter campaign that raised more than $58,000, includes more than 50 interviews with fans, venue owners and rock musicians including members of Pearl Jam, TSOL, Foo Fighters and Rancid.

Brian Coakley said audiences can view the film and make their own judgments about why the Cadillac Tramps didn’t realize full stardom.

“I’m not giving away any spoilers,” he said, half-jokingly. “The film shows how some things are way more important than whether you made it or not. There are very important things in life that completely trump all other of your endeavors and just make the one thing the most important thing, like brotherhood and the love of your family and friends.”

The couple hope the film, which they plan to premiere at the SXSW festival in Texas in March and release for sale in the summer, will serve as a reminder for Gaborno’s young son that his dad was a great musician.

“As parents, looking at the probability that Gabby won’t get to be there the whole time for his son, worst-case scenario, we wanted to make sure his son had something he could watch that would show the whole story about his dad and how his music touched the world,” Jamie Coakley said. “That’s kind of what lit the fire under us.”

Wickersham, original guitarist for Cadillac Tramps and current guitarist for Social Distortion, remembers Gaborno as a captivating frontman.

“Gabby has this amazing gift of being able to reach people on different levels,” Wickersham said. “He has this amazing sense of humor. He’s the only person on the planet who I know that can find your weakness, make fun of you for it and have you laughing along. Not everybody has a way of connecting to the crowd in that way, especially doing it without the support of the material or songs.

“There are a lot of great frontmen out there because first and foremost the people are there because of the songs. Gabby could capture people who had never seen us or heard us before.”

Brian Coakley remembers the diverse crowds that the Cadillac Tramps would bring in, from people who looked like they had come straight from the office to punk rockers with mohawks. He also remembers the fun free of alcohol and drugs, inspired by the some of the band members’ success in becoming sober in the late 1980s.

He said the music effortlessly blended rockabilly, punk, blues and rock, and because of that the band couldn’t be “pigeon-holed.”

Wickersham argued that may have been part of the band’s downfall.

“At the time, when we were playing all the time to these diverse crowds, I took that as a sign that we would be able to really reach a lot of different types of people and we wouldn’t be so genre-specific to the punk rock or rockabilly scenes,” he said.

“We were none of that. We were a punk band with so many other genres infused. People in the music business didn’t really see it that way or appreciate the diversity. Because of that, we just never really had a lot of necessary help to really break through.”

Above all, to their fans and other players in the Orange County music scene, the Cadillac Tramps are remembered for their vivacity and unique sound.

Linda Jemison, former owner of Linda’s Doll Hut in Anaheim, where the group played “countless” times, said she believes the Tramps were the “most exciting band of the ‘90s in Orange County.”

“Seeing them live was just truly an experience,” she said. “I’ve never seen anyone like them. They could get the crowd so excited. It’s almost like you were on stage with them. They sucked you in that deeply because of the energy of the show. I can’t think of a band more worthy of having their story told.”