CBGB & OMFUG

“If we citizens do not support our artists then we sacrifice our imagination on the altars of crude reality and we end up believing in nothing and having worthless dreams.”
- Quote from the Life of PI, One of Hilly’s Favorite Books

Matt Pinfield – DJ and TV Host
I met Hilly when I was 18. He could sense my love and enthusiasm about rock and roll. He said to me “Don’t ever lose that passion kid! People will try and steal it from ya. Its ok to be you!” I didn’t understand it at the time, but I do now! Never give up on the dream. Follow the road wherever it takes you! He was a bit hard on me when I was a kid! But he always showed me warmth and believed in the pure love I had for music! He always treated me well. Years later he told me how proud he was of me!

Genya Ravan – Producer Dead Boys, Singer for Goldie & Ginberbreads
I miss “The Deep Voice,” “The Vision of Music,” “The Heart-felt Roar of the Bowery King’s Maddness and Laughter.” It’s the biggest Ozone Hole we have on this planet!!!! That’s……’Hilly Kristal’. Gone but not ever forgotten.

Vernon Reid – Living Colour
“Hilly was an amazing man, an institution unto himself. Without his unshakable belief in us, I don’t see how my band Living Colour would have made it. I adored him.”

Cheetah Chrome – Dead Boys
I don’t know what I can say about Hilly except that I miss him a lot. Him being gone is something that will still take time to heal; I can’t count how many times I’ve wished I could call him to ask his advice, or just talk. NYC isn’t the same place without him. I have a picture of him in my studio, and it’s comforting to look up and see him at his desk, playing his guitar….it’s the way I like to remember him.”

Bob O’Gureck – Fossil
CBGB Where dreams come true…
The first time I met Hilly I was auditioning with my band Fossil on Valentines Day in 1992. I gave him a shirt. He gave me a characteristic Hilly gleaming eye grin and mumbled a “Thank you.” We both then watched as his dog Dominique took a piss on the club’s dilapidated hard wood floor. Attending the show that night was my future wife Sara. Our daughter Anna was born 15 years later on Valentine’s Day.
Hilly ultimately made my dreams come true when he got us a deal with Seymour Stein and Sire Records. Seymour had signed many of my heros including Talking Heads and The Smiths. I was in pretty heady company and it blew my mind.
The point of this rant would be that I emerged from the experience a changed man. Like many of the outcasts who passed through the club’s doors I found validation. I am eternally grateful to Hilly Cristal and CBGB. Thank You Hilly for making me feel like I belong somewhere and that I am actually worth something. I think of you, as I’m sure many do, as a foster father and I hope that I still make you proud in some way. I hope the bathrooms are cleaner in heaven. Love, Bob

Richard Gelbstein – The Big Fat Pet Clams From Outer Space
A day does not go by that I do not muse about Hilly. He was so huge in my life, not because he managed my band, The Big Fat Pet Clams From Outer Space, but because we became such good friends many years later.My wife Evelyn and I talk so lovingly of Hilly every night during our cocktail- reliving such incredible memories. Hilly’s voice will never die in the Gelbstein family.

Mike Thorne
Hilly came up to our place in CT maybe 15 years back. By the sunny pool, niece Katherine mentioned it was her fifth birthday. Such time scales are seriously important when you measure them in single digits. Hilly picked up his guitar and sang his song ‘Birds And The Bees’ as her present. ‘I love you Hilly.’ ‘And I love you too, Katherine.’ Not quite punk rock….

Bebe Buell
Hilly will always be remembered as the man who brought us CBGBs- thats a given. But I too treasure his compassionate honesty, his friendship and his hugs. Hilly gave great hugs. They made you feel safe.

Louise Staley – CBGB
I first met Hilly in 1986 when I was interviewing for an internship there. I walked in and he was at his desk. I introduced myself. He seemed somewhat confused by my presence and I reminded him why I was there. He looked up and asked me if I could drive a stick shift. I nodded and he told me to move his car. When I returned from parking it, he told me I was hired.

After working with him for 21 years, I thought of Hilly as a big brother, although sometimes a little more intimidating than my real ones.
When we were on the Bowery, it never seemed like “work”…more of a clubhouse; it was controlled chaos every day. Fun days were great, and even the bad days were okay because of everyone there, and of course Hilly.

The morning when I found out he died. I called my Mom to tell her. She said, “Don’t you remember, your father died on this day almost 30 years ago, isn’t this strange?”
And it is, in an odd and profound way.