Discography

Moral Majority was the first band the Doug formed. After graduating high school, he taught Bill how to play bass and formed Moral Majority in 1981. The name came from a friend joining The Moral Majority under Doug's name as a joke.

Moral Majority was first formed with Doug Hopkins, Bill Leen, Richard Flower and Doug Fry, who played mostly punk covers, and punk renditions of songs, rehearsing for a few months and only performing a few family concerts. The band was officially formed when Richard Flower left the group, and was replaced by Jim Swafford.

In the spring of 1981, news arose that local heroes, The Jetzons, were looking for an opening act, after growing tired of playing for sets a night. Doug knew that opening for The Jetzons would gather them attention, and an audition was set up in Bill's parent's house, which saw Moral Majority score the gig. This saw the band move from family concerts, to The Jetzon's opening band at the local club, Merlins.

Moral Majority apparently recorded a 6 track recording at Bleu Studios, that was never commercially released. No further details about it are known.

Moral Majority broke up after internal conflicts.

The following songs were written by Hopkins during Moral Majority days (and assumably performed by the band). We have no further information about the songs, or knowledge whether they were on the 6 track recording.

The Psalms were formed after Doug Fry and Jim Swafford quit Moral Majority. Doug and Bill decided to start another band, with Jim Swafford. Alan Long was recruited to play drums, and The Psalms were born.

The Psalms had a brief hiatus in 1983, when Bill decided to quit the band, due to musical conflicts with Doug. Months later, the two patched up their differences, and reformed the band. Jim Swafford declined rejoining, and was replaced by Richard Flower, who had been part of the original Moral Majority before being replaced by Swafford. With the new line up, the band recorded their No Great Cathedral E.P which Doug was almost immediately unhappy with, despite the it providing The Psalms with their first real media attention.

Due to internal conflicts between band members, and Doug's unhappiness to the direction the band was taking, The Psalms broke up again in late 1984, this time for good.

The songs listed here are just the tip the iceberg. In the early days of the Psalms, they had 22 songs, of which 20 were written solely by Doug. The list certainly goes way beyond what we have listed here.

"Before most of the people who may know Doug now as a member of the Gin Blossoms knew him, he was involved in other projects. And this is one of them called The Psalms. This included Bill Leen on bass, Richard Flower on vocals and Jeff Swatch on drums."

-- Curtis Grippe
Source: Doug Hopkins Tribute - 98 Local Rock.

Living At The Hancock Building was written by Doug when Moral Majority broke up, is (apparently) Paul Weller influenced and much like Doug's later work. It's unknown if this song was recorded.

After graduation ASU with a degree in Sociology, Hopkins began putting together another band, in early 1985. The line up was originally Hopkins, old Psalms band mates Swafford & Flower, new drummer Allen Willey and local guitarist Harry McCaleb. Around this time, The Jetsons (the local music scene, and band the Psalms often opened for) were in the mist of dissolving. Jim Swafford and Richard Flower dropped out of the band (which at this stage was more a group of jamming musicians), and Damon Doiron, lead singer of the Jetzons replaced them, taking over vocal and bass duties. This signaled the official birth of Algebra Ranch.

The new band, who were all more seasoned musicians than Doug had played with before, spent two months learning the songs Doug had written since the break up of The Psalms. These dozen or so songs included Angels Tonight and Dream With You, Not A Word About It, and Twelfth Night which were also carried over to the very early Gin Blossoms days. (It's unknown whether Twelfth Night is an early incarnation of Pieces Of The Night.).

Doug's antics and unserious manner on stage saw the rest of the band tire with the project, and Algebra Ranch broke up in late 1985. All of those present during the Algebra Ranch days site this time as when Doug significantly grew as a writer, and began to home in on the sound and style which would later be known as the Gin Blossoms.

Doug first wrote this song when he was part of Algebra Ranch. After the band broke up and the Gin Blossoms formed, they inherited the song, which was recorded for both Dusted and Up & Crumbling.
Source: Life's No Bed Of Roses For The Gin Blossoms - New Times (Aug 17-23 1988)

Angels Tonight survived the break up of Algebra Ranch, later performed and recorded as a demo by the Ten O'Clock Scholars, and then recording by the Gin Blossoms.

"Dream With You...Radical Records. After Dusted came out. Great song, will never be on record, but it was a great song, huh"

-- Brian Griffith

"A little demo effort. Doug..."

-- P.C

"Sun Club memories..."

-- Brian Griffith

"It was a good song, so...why did it never get properly recorded?"

-- P.C

"Didn't have time. I don't know what much else to say about it. A small studio in Tempe, that stank of rank human."

-- Brian Griffith

"Oh, and it had the butt-wall! They had a wall...an entire like room was filled with nothing but butts cut out of porno magazines.."

-- Robin Wilson
Source: Doug Hopkins Tribute - 98 Local Rock.

Dream With You was original written and performed when Doug was part of Algebra Ranch, before it being performed and recorded as a demo by the Gin Blossoms.
Source: Life's No Bed Of Roses For The Gin Blossoms - New Times (Aug 17-23 1988)

In addition to Algebra Ranch and the Gin Blossoms, the Ten O'Clock Scholars also performed Dream With You, and recorded it as a demo.

The Ten O'Clock Scholars, were the next band to be formed by Hopkins, who started out in Phoenix, for fun. This time with old Psalms members Bill Leen and Jim Swafford back in the fold. However, Hopkin's suddenly said he was going to LA for a recording contract, and simply left. After weeks of partying in LA, without doing what he set out to, Doug returned to Tempe, to find the Ten O'Clock Scholars gone, with David McKay and Randy Sanders having moved to Portland. Not being able to match the line up they had back home, or Doug's song writing ability, David called home, and it wasn't long before Jim, Bill and Doug had moved up to Portland to get the band rolling again.

The newly formed Ten O'Clock Scholars held onto the Hopkins' penned tunes Angels Tonight and Dream With You from Algebra Ranch. Both songs were performed on the TV show Night Zoo in which Doug did a short interview between the songs. A local pizza store owner also put up cash for the band to go into the studio and record both Angels Tonight and Dream With You, although the demo recording was never released.

The Ten O'Clock Scholars saw the basis of what was to become the Gin Blossoms grow further from Algebra Ranch. In addition to Angels Tonight and Dream With You, they performed the same covers that the early Gin Blossoms did, as well as Hopkin's originals "And" and "Blue Eyes Bleeding". ("Blue Eyes Bleeding" was later demoed by the Gin Blossoms).Apparently it was around this time that Doug began working on "Hey Jealousy", and "Found Out About You".

The band dissolved when Doug decided to move back to Tempe.

"...this song we're going to play now is a song you'll probably never hear again, Doug Hopkins wrote this for a group called the Ten O'Clock Scholars, which included Jim Swafford and Bill Leen. Jim Swafford formally of the Feedbags. And they all moved up to Portland for awhile, had a band up there. They came back to town, the Feedbags got started and they always hung onto this song. This is called Blame It On The Sky."

-- Robin Wilson
Source: Doug Hopkins Tribute - 98 Local Rock.

The only known recording of Blame It On The Sky is believed to be of the Feedbags, not the Ten O'Clock Scholars.

Blue Eyes Bleeding was written by Doug when he was in the Ten O'Clock Scholars, and later recorded in a demo session by the Gin Blossoms, but for a long time never released. It's a twelve bar blue-ish type of song, carried greatly by Bill's running bass lines.

During their attempts to record New Miserable Experience, the Gin Blossoms demoed this song in 1990. The whole recording sessions were deemed a disaster, and were completely scrapped. During the second recording sessions in 1992 at Ardent Studios, the band recorded this song again, for the album. The song never made the final cut, and remained unreleased. However, this New Miserable Experience session outtake eventually appeared on the New Miserable Experience Deluxe Edition release of 2002, being officially released for the first time, 17 years after it's original incarnation in the Ten O'Clock Scholars.

It's the first officially released Hopkins track since My Guardian Angel in 1998, and the first Gin Blossoms song including Doug released since New Miserable Experience in 1992. It's similarly the only song with Doug performing on guitar to be officially released since New Miserable Experience.

After the Ten O'Clock scholars, Doug formed a band, in much the same way he's started every band he'd been in (other than Algebra Ranch)...with Bill Leen on bass. However, unlike the previous bands, this one was set to go beyond the bars and clubs of Tempe Arizona. This was the band that Doug was going to be most remembered for.

Christmas '87 saw the formation of the Gin Blossoms, with Doug on guitar, Bill on bass, Chris McCann on drums, Jesse Valenzuela on guitar, and Richard Taylor on vocals (who was to later claim song writing credit for Found Out About You). At the time, Richard was on parole, and to get around parole violations, the band also assumed an alter ego, The Del Montes. As the Del Montes, they would play mostly cover songs, and originals by Hopkins. Doug obtained the alias 'Otis Del Monte', who since, has been referred to as 'Otis' almost as much as 'Doug'. Long after the Del Montes legend was created, Robin can still be heard yelling out "Otis!" before guitar solos (Dream With You / Cajun Song, Hands Are Tied) and many tributes (in album liner notes and songs) refer to Doug as 'Otis'. A memorial Doug incident from the Del Monte days, is Doug quite fittingly singing the Miller Beer theme song between songs at Long Wongs. This is one of the rare recordings of Hopkins live.

Come 1988, Chris left the band, and Richard was fired, to be replaced with Doug's skating friend, Robin Wilson on guitar, and Dan Henzerling on drums. Dan's stint in the Blossoms didn't last long, and was replaced by Phillip Rhodes. Discovering that Robin was a better singer than guitarist, and Valenzuela a better guitarist than singer, they switch roles, settling on this line up, that stuck for years.

The summer of 1989 saw the Blossoms record their first independent album, Dusted. Although the album credits credit the whole band on the writing, at least 5 of the 12 songs were Doug's songs. (5 of the remaining 7 songs could have been written by Doug also). These Hopkins' track include some new Hopkins' material, such as Lost Horizons, material ground work started on during the Ten O'Clock Scholars period, Hey Jealousy and Found Out About You, and Angels Tonight, carried over from Algebra Ranch. Although hard to come by, Dusted is probably one of their earliest Hopkins recordings still available, if you look hard enough, or have the right connections. Included on Dusted is Angels Tonight, one of the songs from Algebra Ranch days.

1991 saw the recording of the EP, Up And Crumbling, which featured two Doug songs. "Keli Richards", and "Angels Tonight" (which was a carry over song from the Algebra Ranch days.

The following year was bittersweet for the band. The band landed their first major label album contract. During the recording of the album that became New Miserable Experience, the bands double platinum album, Doug was fired from the band. Although he was fired midway through the recording sessions, and there has been conjecture to how much of Doug is on the album, he maintained that the majority of the guitar on it is his. We can only speculate what slack Jesse picked up after Doug was fired. Comparing pre and post Doug recordings and performances does however give a fair indication.

The album was released shortly after, still containing 4 Hopkins penned, and 2 co-written by Hopkins tunes, out of the twelve. Half the album in total. The first two singles, which were the most successful from the album, were Doug's songs. Yet, there is barely a mention of Douglas on the CD. Other than getting credit for playing guitar, and the song writing credits, there are no photos or mentions of Doug. In his place, Scott Johnson, who was his replacement, who evidently didn't write nor play a single note on the album.

"This next song...Doug and I used to spend a lot of time just playing together acoustic. And we did a whole slew of songs once, in my brother's bedroom. This is from those sessions, this is a song Doug wrote, 25 Women Ago."

-- Robin Wilson
Source: Doug Hopkins Tribute - 98 Local Rock.

Note: Nothing At All is the only song listed in this discography not actually written by Doug. It is listed here because the content and Robin's spiel on the song below is quite pertinent to Doug, even though he didn't write it.

"...on the way back home, we, one the last night we, Doug and I had stayed up all night long with the engineer and we were mixing down the record and about 6 in the morning we were finally done. We'd finished Dusted in 6 days and Doug and I got in his car, which we used to call the Command Module, coz remember in the Pharoahs....in the Pharoahs we had Pharoah names.....yours [G. Brian Scott] was Fats I believe, how appropriate enough, and Doug's was Pops, because in those days, he was the oldest member of the Pharoahs, he was 27 when the Pharoahs were formed. My Pharoah name was Commander Rock. Was and is Command Rock. And so we used to call his car the Command Module, cause he couldn't drive, cause he always had his license suspended. And so I'm driving his car back, and we started arguing about the record and about each other, and about the universe and why I gave a shit about physics and stuff - which I used to be really interested in. And he used to argue...'it was stoopid to care about your Uranus when we still don't understand the human mind'. He used to argue that with me all the time. And I remember, we got out of the car and we were taking a piss somewhere between here and Tucson, somewhere by Piscaso [?sic] peak. We were screaming at each other, we both had our dicks flying in the wind, we're peeing out on the highway, and we were screaming at each other about the validity of my interested verses Doug's interests. Anyway, I went home and I wrote this song, which was about this argument that Doug and I had. And I wrote this song from Doug's perspective. In the song I'm trying to sing what Doug said to me that day on the way back from Tucson. And anyway, this song is called Nothing At All."

-- Robin Wilson
Source: Doug Hopkins Tribute - 98 Local Rock.

"...I don't know if you remember Robin, this day you came in to do this interview, you and Douglas were driving up to Flagstaff, and that's when Wondering Where Those Bastards Are was written."

-- Leah Miller

"...this is a song, this was Doug and I recording in my brother's bedroom a few years ago, and this is the song we wrote the day we did that stoopid interview for the godforsaken Snickers New Music Search. And this is a song we wrote together, called I'm Still Wondering Where Those Bastards Are."

-- Robin Wilson
Source: Doug Hopkins Tribute - 98 Local Rock.

"...the truth of the matter is we sing about [girls and beer -- Doug] and porno stars and beer and stuff like that, and are songs are basically pretty silly, y'know, when it comes down to it. We try to be clever about it but..."

-- Robin Wilson (unknown interview from 1990)

"...well no, theres actually...if you...okay...if you listen to our record actually - I've thought about this. There's like certain songs that are like meant to be sorta serious, that were meant to be like, sorta like school boy poems or something, y'know? And then there's other songs that are meant to be deliberately idiotic, where it's like `let's get drunk and write a song'. That's like Keli Richards'. Okay, so you write a song about a porno star, fine."

-- Doug Hopkins (unknown interview from 1990)
Source: Doug Hopkins Tribute - 98 Local Rock.

Interview Audio: Low | High

Keli Richards is a real life Hollywood porn star, who has starred in such movies as Caught From Behind II, which is a lyric in the song.

Doug wrote Lost Horizons just before the Gin Blossoms were formed, and was one of the new Hopkins' songs that was played during the Blossoms' debut show at Edcel's Attic in December 1987.

The Gin Blossoms also performed Lost Horizons during their CMJ performance in 1990. It was originally recorded for Dusted in 1990. It and the Dusted version of Hopkins' song Found Out About You was featured in the Snickers New Music Search (and is available on the Snickers New Music Search LP). It was later re-recorded for New Miserable Experience, which it was lifted off from as a promotional single in 1992.

Hey Jealousy was inspired by David Swafford's (of The Best Kissers In The World), sister, who Doug dated.

Although Doug wasn't a member of the Gin Blossoms by this time, this was his first song to break, not only nationally, but internationally, cracking both American and Australian top 40 charts.

"It's July 29 of 1985, I went to see R.E.M at the Palace West Theatre, and after the concert I see her. I turn to walk away, and she runs up from behind me - she was a black strip in Twe Kwon Do - and she nailed me one, put me in hospital for a week and a half. Shattered cheek bone, shattered occipital lobe. I still have scars from this folks. Aww man. Anyway, it's about her."

-- Doug Hopkins (KASR Interview 1990)
Source: Doug Hopkins Tribute - 98 Local Rock
Interview Audio: Low | High

The second single released from New Miserable Experience, penned by Hopkins, cracked the US Top 10, peaking at #6 on the Billboard singles chart shortly after Hopkins' suicide.

"'Pieces of the Night' had a totally different ending, a piano ending, that was my idea. The other instruments faded out and the piano just continued. It's a trick I stole from Springsteen," he said, referring to the fadeout on "Incident on 57th Street" which goes into "Rosalita."

"Of course, after they kicked me out of the band, they didn't care that it was my song and my ending got junked."
Source: "Two Views Of A Gin Blossom", Where It's Hot (Sept 8 - 22, 1992)

The aforementioned version of Pieces Of The Night, recorded during the New Miserable Experience sessions will be available on the re-release of New Miserable Experience in mid 2002.

"One night we were sitting in the studio listening to it at Ardent," Hopkins said, referring to the Memphis studio where the album was recorded, "and, OK, it's like three in the morning and I was drunk and it sounded great blasting through those speakers and I turned to Robin and said, 'OK, I'll give you half credit on this song if you promise to vote with me on having this as our first single and video,' because we thought A&M (the band's label) was going to let us pick the first single and video. That's how naive we were."
Source: "Two Views Of A Gin Blossom", Where It's Hot (Sept 8 - 22, 1992)

After the short stint with The Eventuals, Doug went on to form what would be his last band, after 12 years of being part of the Tempe music scene. Or at least the last band with documented Hopkin's material.

He approached friend Lawrence Zubia, of Nudes Live with the proposition to start a band. At this stage, despite being outed from the Gin Blossoms, Doug Hopkins was the biggest thing in Tempe, and Lawrence knew right away that he wanted to work with Hopkins. Zubia's Live Nudes disbanded, and with vocalist Lawrence Zubia and brother Mark Zubia (also formally of Live Nudes plucked Mark Riggs and Scott Andrews from blues rock band Chuck Halls and The Brick Wall and The Chimeras were quickly formed in August 1992.

The Chimeras were a musically contrast to Doug's former band, the Gin Blossoms. Musically more blues-ish, no doubt in part due to the history of the new members and Lawrence's throaty vocals. The large contrast in vocal style between Zubia and Wilson challenged Doug to write songs for catering to Zubia's voice, which soon came together and spawned yet another style of music explored by Hopkins. The Chimeras also showcased a more soulful sounding Hopkins on the lead guitar. Despite the quite obvious blues sound of the band, compared to the alternative pop sound of the Gin Blossoms, Doug's pop influence and signature guitar style of octaves and high end arpeggios was not lost, producing tracks that were a growth from his previous musical styles, yet still undeniably Doug Hopkins sounding. His lyrics also began to take a third person approach, compared to his usual writings of events around him.

The Chimeras were virtually an instant success, filling Edsels Attic for their first gig in August 1992. With a strong local following, and no problem booking gigs, the band travelled to Austin Texas to perform at South By Southwest in March 1993, and recorded and recorded an independent cassette, Songs Of Innocence, featuring Hopkins on guitar. It was the prediction of many that The Chimeras would be next band signed out of Tempe.

However, in April 1993, after fumbling a solo at a local music festival, Doug declared that he was quitting the band. The next day, the Chimeras all got together to discuss the future of the band, where Doug asked to rejoin. The band, hesitant about Doug's behavior and inner turmoil, declined to allow him to rejoin the band.

Like the Gin Blossoms and unlike all of the other Hopkins projects, the Chimeras continued after Doug. However, there was no bitterness between the two parties. Doug remained friends with the band, and particularly Lawrence, and both of the parties were happy for the Chimeras to continue playing the songs that Hopkins had written in the band. Shortly after Doug quit the band, Mark Riggs also quit. Rather than calling it a day, the Chimeras continued playing with significantly smaller line up, finally settling on Pete Milner as to replace Hopkins and current Pistoleros drummer Gary Smith on drums.

Throughout the later part of 1993, The Chimeras continued being local staple, up to which point, their repitia consisted largely of the songs Doug had written in the band. After Doug's death, the Zubia brothers began to replace old Hopkins tunes with new songs they'd written, both to establish the band in it's current form, and to because of the memories that playing a set full of Hopkins tracks would bring, though still held onto a few of the previous Hopkins songs.

During 1994, the band recorded their locally released album Mistaken For Granted (now out of print and is a collectors item). The album has a notably more blues, and less pop feel than the previous tracks with Hopkins.

Fast forwarding a few years, The Chimeras were signed to Hollywood Records in 1997. A few changes for the band took place. Pete Milner, Doug's replacement, left the group and was replaced with Thomas Laufenburg, their current day guitarist. Being signed to a major label, the band also had to change their name, since an Irish band called the Chimeras already existed. The band settled on the name The Pistoleros and recorded their first (and to date, only) major label record for Hollywood Records, Hang On To Nothing. In addition to a slew of new songs, and a few old songs from the Zubia brother's Live Nudes days, Hang On To Nothing included My Guardian Angel which was written by Doug in the days of The Chimeras.

In addition to My Guardian Angel, the Pistoleros also held onto two other Chimeras songs that Doug wrote, Long Last Lonely Mile and Southbound Train, both of which were expected to be dusted off for the Pistoleros set at the Scotti Stock charity concert in 2001. (Whether or not these actually got played is another thing). Southbound Train has definitely been on the setlists of some Pistoleros gigs during 2002, including their opener for Stephen Ashbrook's "American B-Sides" CD release party in March 2002.

In May 2002, the band celebrated the 10 year anniversary of the formation of The Chimeras (a few months early???) with a pair of gigs in Tempe. Southbound Train was also present on the setlists of these gigs, which has been released as a live CD on December 14 2002. The live CD is contains the live performance of Southbound Train, Long Last Lonely Mile and My Guardian Angel from the gigs.

"The song we're going to play is called Ponyboy And Johnny. It's a song Doug wrote, and I think it has a lot of significance...to Doug and his personality and the Doug we knew and Doug we loved very very much."

-- Lawrence Zubia

"Ponyboy And Johnny is a song that Doug wrote, both lyrically and musically and bears a lot of significance....in relation now, in hindsight to what has gone on. And I think that you will be able to relate to lyrically. It was a song that was very dear and special to Doug."

-- Lawrence Zubia

"...that song is filled with, like you said, a lot of quintessential Doug, the lead, the lyrics, everything about it, the melody, is really everything the guy's all about."

-- Robin Wilson
Source: Doug Hopkins Tribute - 98 Local Rock.

"...what's this song we're going to play now Lawrence? Are we going to play Cathedral City? Yeah, this is a song...he wrote this originally when we was in the Gin Blossoms, but it's the only song of his that we ever never really liked playing very much for some reason. It was the one song that...the Gin Blossoms have a pretty rigorous process when a song gets introduced and Jesse and I have always had...we have to go through this big screening thing. But hardly ever did we hear a Doug song that we didn't want to play almost right away and this is the only one that didn't seem to work for us. But the Chimera's started do this song, and how did it work with you guys?"

-- Robin Wilson

"It worked good...but...Doug insisted that we did it y'know? And so it grew and it grew and it [Doug used to do a lot of insisting. -- Robin]...and it grew into something that we...one of our favorite songs as the Chimeras."

-- Lawrence Zubia

"That guitar solo is everything he bases himself on, y'know? He's always had the strength of not knowing exactly a whole bunch of riffs, but he milks what he knows, he always did. He took the little he knew about the guitar and made it work...which is fine for pop music."

"Well, he was such a popster, everything he did. He digested everything the Beatles ever did. UHe ate pop music and top 40 radio whole. And there were parts of that song that really reminded me of...what's it? Just Like Heaven, by the Cure. That was a song that Doug, he just used to love that because it's one of those 3 chord pop songs."

-- Robin Wilson
Source: Doug Hopkins Tribute - 98 Local Rock.

All we know is that this was written by Doug when he was part of the Chimeras. They may or may not have recorded it for Songs Of Innocence.

All we know is that this was written by Doug when he was part of the Chimeras. They may or may not have recorded it for Songs Of Innocence.

Long Last Lonely Mile was one of three songs written by Doug Hopkins while in the Chimeras, which the band held onto after his passing, and is well known by people attending their shows (often referring to it as 'Drinkin' & Stinkin'). The Pistoleros were expected to dust off this old classic for the 'Scotti-Stock' benefit concert of 1998. This live performance appears on the Scotti-Stock CD, released in 2004.

The song has also recently been released on the Pistoleros live album Bars & Guitars.

It's possible that the song was recorded with Hopkins for Songs Of Innocence.

"There's a particular song called 'Southbound Train,' which was one of the last songs he wrote and had a lot of himself in it. It's classic Doug, it's like he was writing one of his last songs and knowing it."

-- Lawrence Zubia

Source: "Friends Prefer To Remember Doug Hopkins Life Rather Than His Death", Get Out Magazine, Dec 7, 2003

Southbound Train is the second song written by Doug which the Chimeras held onto. Like, Long Last Lonely Mile it was expected to be in the 'Scottistock' set, and has been played live in recent years, such as during the Pistoleros opening set of Stephen Ashbrook's American B-Sides CD release party. Similarly, this also appears on the Pistoleros live album Bars & Guitars.

Once again, it's possible that the song was recorded with Hopkins for Songs Of Innocence.

Angel De Mi Veda was written by Doug in the Chimeras, and is most likely the original title of My Guardian Angel. It's the third Hopkins / Chimeras song that the Chimeras held on to. (More about the song can be found under My Guardian Angel). It may have been recorded with Doug for Songs Of Innocence.

At the time, My Guardian Angel was the only song, written by Doug which had been recorded and released post his passing. The Pistoleros (formally the Chimeras) recorded this Hopkins penned song for their first major label release, Hang On To Nothing. In addition to this, this My Guardian Angel was released as a single in 1998, it also still being the only single released that been written by Doug since the Gin Blossoms released Found Out About You in 1993.

From the inner sleeve of the My Guardian Angel promotional CD single:
The translation of the chorus to "My Guardian Angel" sung in Spanish is: "My guardian angel / My sweetest companion / Don't ever leave me / In the nighttime or the daylight". "My Guardian Angel" was written by Douglas Hopkins, a former band mate of the Pistoleros and ex-member of the Gin Blossoms, who also wrote "Hey Jealousy" and "Found Out About You".

The above CD single contains Radio Version, Album Version (both English verses, Spanish choruses), Spanish Version (Spanish verses, English choruses) and Angel de Mi Guardia (all Spanish).

Just as a note, although the sleeves of Hang Onto Nothing and the My Guardian Angel single list song writing to credit to Doug Hopkins, Bars and Guitars lists Doug Hopkins / Mark Zubia, which corresponds with interviews about writing the song. (See articles.)

See the Pistoleros' press page more on the writing of My Guardian Angel.

After his dismissal from the Gin Blossoms, tradition had ceased. Doug started his only band other than Algebra Ranch (and the Chimeras), without Bill Leen, who was still part of the Gin Blossoms. He teamed up with one of his biggest fans, Brian Blush, and formed The Eventuals. The band had a short stint together, apparently only playing one show at Edcel's Attic, where they played Hopkin's tunes such as "Hold Me Down" and "Angels Tonight" and a few that he and Brian had written.

By all accounts The Eventuals seemed to be over not long before they began, however at least one Eventuals recording exists, Just Fall Thru.

There is at least one recorded song by The Eventuals, "Just Fall Thru". All details about this song, who wrote it (assumably Doug and Brian), and the circumstances under which it was recorded are unknown. It's a cool bluesy number, which is reminiscent of what would become The Chimeras. It an be downloaded from the Storyline web site. (Under "Bios" -> "Brian Blush"). Sorry folks, the Storyline site no longer exists.

Brian Blush and PH Naffah would go on to be part of the 'other' Tempe band to make the big time, the now defunct Refreshments.

The Chimeras are generally considered the last band Hopkins was in, but apparently his final band was with Friday's Angels, (who I think were already together before Doug joined), who played two shows in Tucson. He also made a guest appearance with Hans Olsen, and Dead Hot Workshop, which was to be the last time Doug was on stage.

Around this time, Roger Clyne, fresh out of The Mortals, and having hooked up with Dusty Denham, (also of The Mortals) and Buddy Edwards, was looking for a guitarist, and asked Doug to sit in with his new band. Doug missed the appearance, informing Roger that he'd rammed his guitar through the roof at Edcel's Attic, which Roger took as a bad sign and made no follow up on. A postscript to this is that the lead guitar spot filled by Doug's Eventuals band mate, Brian Blush, in early 1994, who until that point had quit music altogether after Doug's suicide. Clyne's new band would, with a switch to former Eventual, P.H Naffah on drums, become the next big thing out of Tempe since the Gin Blossoms, called The Refreshments.

In the last year of his life, Doug wrote a number of songs, which didn't see the light of day. Among these, is a demo tape of songs he gave to Robin Wilson, who subsequently chose not to record.

Scared To Death is a song Doug wrote in the last year of his life. The lyrics are an autobiographical look, through the eyes of his girlfriend. It's unknown if Hopkin's wrote this while in one of his last bands, or if the song was ever performed or recorded.

The following are a portion of the lyrics that we have:

Sometimes you act as if you're the only one who's suffered
And I know you know better than that
And sometimes the things you do to yourself
You worry me clear to the point where I can't
Be with you when you need me
I know I should walk away and yet
It's yourself you're killing
But it's me you're scaring to death