The Boy in the Tree

The story starts in 1971 in a park in San Pedro. A 13-year-old Mike Watt was walking through the park when a boy his same age dropped out of a tree right in front of him. That boy was D. Boon. D. Boon’s first words to Watt weren’t a greeting; he just looked at him and said, "Let's form a band."

Neither of them knew how to play instruments. In fact, they were so isolated from the music industry that they genuinely believed the knobs on a guitar adjusted the pitch of individual strings, not the volume or tone. They taught themselves to play by locking themselves in a bedroom, completely oblivious to conventional rules. When they discovered punk rock a few years later, they didn't see it as a fashion statement or a strict musical template. To them, punk meant absolute freedom—a blank canvas where two working-class kids could write 60-second songs about politics, philosophy, and history without anyone telling them "no."

The Tragedy and the Ghost

The Minutemen became one of the most beloved, fiercely inventive bands of the underground, culminating in their 1984 masterpiece album, Double Nickels on the Dime. They defied every punk stereotype by mixing in funk, jazz, and spoken word.

Then, in December 1985, tragedy struck. While on a road trip, D. Boon was killed in a van accident at just 27 years old. Devastated, Mike Watt quit music entirely. He retreated into his apartment, sank into a profound depression, and intended to never touch a bass guitar again. The emotional weight of losing his best friend—the guy who literally dropped out of a tree to give him a purpose—was too much.

How the Scene Saved Watt

What happened next is the real heart of the lore. The punk community refused to let Watt disappear.

Members of Sonic Youth and a young Minutemen superfan named Ed Crawford essentially bombarded Watt. Sonic Youth coaxed him into a studio just to play bass on a couple of tracks, forcing him to hold the instrument again. Eventually, Crawford convinced Watt to start a new band, Firehose.

Watt survived, went on to play with Iggy Pop and The Stooges, and became an absolute legend of the alternative rock world. But if you look closely at almost every piece of music Mike Watt has released over the last 40 years, you will find a variation of the exact same phrase printed in the liner notes:

"Props to D. Boon."

To this day, whenever Watt takes the stage, he plays with his amp positioned sideways or tilted toward the drums, exactly the way D. Boon used to set his up. He views every gig he plays as a continuation of the conversation they started in that San Pedro park in 1971.