{{Short description|American musician}} {{redirect|El Duce|the Italian title|Duce}} {{Use mdy dates|date=May 2021}} {{More citations needed|date=January 2010}} {{Infobox musical artist |name = Eldon Hoke |image = El-duce-02.jpg |image_upright = 0.85 |caption = |background = solo_singer |birth_name = Eldon Wayne Hoke |alias = El Duce |years_active = 1974–1997 |birth_date = {{Birth date|1958|03|23}} |birth_place = Seattle, Washington, U.S. |death_date = {{death date and age|1997|04|19|1958|03|23}} |death_place = Riverside, California, U.S. |instrument = Vocals, drums |genre = Heavy metal, punk rock, shock rock |label = Ever Rat, Mentor, Metal Blade, Mystic |associated_acts = The Mentors, Gardy Loo!, Coven, the Screamers, Chinas Comidas }}
'''Eldon Wayne Hoke''' (March 23, 1958 – April 19, 1997), nicknamed '''El Duce''', was an American musician best known as the drummer and lead singer of the shock rock band the Mentors, as well as other acts, including Chinas Comidas and the Screamers.
Apart from his musical career, Eldon was also an actor who appeared in several films as an extra, and discussed his band and lifestyle on Jerry Springer and Wally George TV talk-shows.
The Mentors' songs were covered by artists including Black Label Society, GWAR and Koffin Kats, and quoted by Guns N' Roses, Anthrax and Dr. Know (in "Cornshucker", "I'm The Man" and "Fist F*ck", respectively).
==Early life==
Hoke was born in Seattle, Washington to mother Doris Hope and father Walter Hoke.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.instagram.com/p/BI0v3TGjGcJ/ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/iarchive/s/instagram/BI0v3TGjGcJ |archive-date=December 24, 2021 |url-access=registration|title = Instagram post from August 8, 2016|last=@broysteve|publisher=Instagram|access-date=June 1, 2021}}{{cbignore}}</ref> His father designed bombs for the Vietnam War, and he was also abusive towards him and his sister.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.arrow-player.com/the-el-duce-tapes|title = The el Duce Tapes}}</ref> He attended Roosevelt High School where he formed the Mentors with school friends Eric Carlson and Steve Broy<ref>{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f_8GAwAAQBAJ&q=%22eldon+hoke%22+seattle&pg=PT204 |title = Love & Death: The Murder of Kurt Cobain|isbn = 9780749016104|last1 = Wallace|first1 = Max|date = March 20, 2014| publisher=Allison & Busby }}</ref> after he was expelled for repeatedly vandalizing the school.
==Career==
===The Mentors=== {{Main|Mentors (band)}} Hoke and the Mentors worked to gain attention through farcical demonstrations of political incorrectness. The band's guitarist, Eric Carlson, renamed himself "Sickie Wifebeater", and the group often appeared in public wearing black executioner hoods.
During the 1985 U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation's hearings into the proliferation of "obscene" lyrics in popular music, the Reverend Jeff Ling recited the lyrics to the Mentors song, "Golden Shower" to musician Frank Zappa, who opposed the hearings. The lyrics, which included the line, "Bend up and smell my anal vapor/Your face is my toilet paper" prompted Zappa and others to denounce the hearings as a farce.
===Kurt Cobain death claim=== {{See also|Suicide of Kurt Cobain}} After the body of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain was discovered in the greenhouse of Cobain's Lake Washington home on April 8, 1994, Hoke began making the claim that Cobain's wife, Courtney Love, had offered to pay him to kill Cobain. Hoke promoted his story in such media outlets as TV's ''Jerry Springer Show'', ''The National Enquirer'' weekly tabloid, and in Nick Broomfield's documentary film, ''Kurt & Courtney''. In 1996, Hoke passed a lie detector test when claiming that Love had offered him $50,000 to kill Kurt Cobain. In his interview in the ''Kurt and Courtney'' film, recorded on April 11, 1997, El Duce again claimed that Love had offered him $50,000 to "whack" Kurt Cobain, and further claimed that he knew who did kill Cobain (giving the name "Allen", some say from the band Kill Allen Wrench), but said he would "let the FBI catch him".
===Other appearances=== In addition to his musical career, Hoke also worked as an extra in television (such talk shows like ''Hot Seat with Wally George'' and ''The Jerry Springer Show'', and ''Tales From The Crypt'' episode), movies (including the science fiction musical ''Population: 1'', starring his bandmate Tomata Du Plenty; ''Two Idiots in Hollywood'', directed by Stephen Tobolowsky; and ''Du-beat-e-o'', starring Joan Jett), and in music video productions.
In 1998 ''Backstage Sluts'' (lately shortened and re-edited as ''Backstage Pass: Uncensored''), directed by Matt Zane, was released — a movie wherein famous rockers (including members of Motörhead, Korn, Limp Bizkit, Sugar Ray and Insane Clown Posse) recount their wildest sexual moments, while actual porn stars acted them out. The film contains a penultimate interview with El Duce from 1997, in which he drunkenly declares his taste in the opposite sex: "I like nasty women. I like... homeless women."
==Death== On April 19, 1997, one day after his final performance and talking to Brent Alden, and eight days after filming his interview with Nick Broomfield for the ''Kurt & Courtney'' documentary, Hoke was found dead on the railroad tracks in Riverside, California. He was "decapitated in the accident — he was hit full on by a freight train doing 60 MPH", according to Steve Broy, the Mentors' bass player. Subsequent tests indicated a high blood alcohol content and thus Hoke's official cause of death was given by the coroner's office as "misadventure".<ref name="Simmonds">{{cite book|last=Simmonds|first=Jeremy|title=The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars: Heroin, Handguns, and Ham Sandwiches|year=2012|publisher=Chicago Review Press|isbn=978-1613744789|page=371}}</ref> Al Jourgensen (of the industrial metal band Ministry) wrote in his autobiography that El Duce was killed by the train when some fans on the other side of the railroad tracks called his name and, as he attempted to cross to meet them, his toes became stuck in the track.<ref name="Jourgensen">{{cite book|last=Jourgensen|first=Al|title=Ministry: The Lost Gospels According to Allen Jourgensen|date=September 9, 2015|publisher=Da Capo Press|isbn=978-0306824630}}</ref> Another story is that he gave a Nazi salute in front of the train as it mowed him down. Due to the timing of his death (eight days after the ''Kurt and Courtney'' interview), some have speculated that his death was related to the statements he made that Courtney Love offered him $50,000 to "whack" Cobain, and that someone named "Allen" took the offer.<ref name="Simmonds"/>
According to the self-published book ''Truth Is Funnier Than Fiction'' by Mentors bass player Steve Broy, the whole story was concocted by Mentors associate Rev. Bud Green in order to sell to supermarket tabloids.
== Discography == {{col-begin}} {{col-2}}
=== With the Mentors === '''Studio albums'''
* 1982 – Trash Bag (a.k.a. "Get Up & Die") * 1985 – You Axed for It! * 1986 – Up the Dose * 1989 – Sex, Drugs & Rock 'n' Roll * 1990 – Rock Bible * 1991 – To the Max
'''Singles'''
* 2007 – Shotgun Suicide [1997] * 2009 – Oblivion Train [1977] * 2018 – Nuthang [1977]
'''Live albums''' * 1983 – Live at the Whisky / Cathay De Grande * 1987 – Live in Frisco [1983] * 2017 – To the Max "Live" [1992]
'''Compilations''' * 1994 – Houses of the Horny * 2023 – "The Rock Bible" Outtakes
'''Demo tapes''' * 1981 – "The Mentors" Demo * 1989 – "Rock Bible" Demo
'''Featured on'''
* 1984 – Various artists – The Sound of Hollywood – Copulation {{col-2}}
=== With Gardy-Loo! === '''Studio albums''' * 1997 – Perverts on Parade
=== Solo releases === * 1991 – The Man, the Myth, the Legend * 1992 – Booze and Broads * 1993 – Musical Pornography * 1993 – Slave to thy Master * 1995 – Buttfucking Man * 1996 – Lock Up Yer Daughters * 1997 – Karaoke King I * 1997 – Karaoke King II * 2010 – God [1996] * 2011 – El Duce's XXX-Mas [1996] * 2018 – Symphony [1991 & 1996] * 2018 – Three Second Man (single) * 2018 – The Man of the House (single) * 2018 – Harvest Time in Humboldt County (single) * 2018 – El Duce & The Sex Devils – Man, Myth, Live! [1991] * 2020 – 1985 * 2021 – Dead Man Rocking (EP)
=== As featured artist === * 1987 – Zoetrope – A Life of Crime * 1991 – Dr. Heathen Scum II – El Magnifico Musicione * 1991 – Insect on Acid – Sex Sex Sex * 1996 – Love Sandwich – Hollywood 4-Way * 1997 – Sloth – Bring On The Gaffs {{col-end}}
==Videography== * 1981 – ''Get Up & Die'' * 1987 – ''Fuck Movie'' * 1990 – ''A Piece of Sinema'' * 1990 – ''The Wretched World of The Mentors'' * 1991 – ''Hollywood Head Bash'' * 1991 – ''Tour De Max '91'' * 1993 – ''El Duce: The Man. The Myth. The Video'' * 2007 – ''El Duce Vita'' * 2010 – ''Perverted Movie'' * 2017 – ''The Kings of Sleaze'' (documentary) * 2019 – ''The El Duce Tapes'' (documentary)
Appearances: * 1986 – Quiet Riot – The Wild and the Young (promo video) * 1997 – Nine Inch Nails – Closure (documentary) * 2011 – Ministry – Fix (documentary)
==References== {{reflist}}
Broy, Steve (2015). ''Truth Is Funnier Than Fiction: My Life With Eldon Hoke and the Mentors'' Self Published, Second Edition p. 263-264.
==External links== {{Wikiquote}} * [http://www.churchofelduce.com/ The Church of El Duce] * [http://www.metal-archives.com/band.php?id=40220 El Duce] at Encyclopaedia Metallum * [http://www.metal-archives.com/band.php?id=15788 Mentors] at Encyclopaedia Metallum * [http://www.discogs.com/artist/El+Duce El Duce Discography] at Discogs
{{Mentors}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoke, Eldon}} Category:1958 births Category:1997 deaths Category:American baritones Category:American punk rock drummers Category:American male drummers Category:American punk rock singers Category:American heavy metal drummers Category:American heavy metal singers Category:Deaths by decapitation Category:Singers from California Category:Railway accident deaths in the United States Category:Accidental deaths in California Category:Mentors (band) members Category:20th-century American singers Category:Drummers from Seattle Category:20th-century American drummers Category:20th-century American male singers Category:Roosevelt High School (Washington) alumni