Anthony Bourdain’s musical hero: “His guitar made life worth living again”
The late great Anthony Bourdain was much more than just a celebrity chef; he embodied everything the punk movement represented and brought that ethos to an entirely new field. His documentaries were about as rock ‘n’ roll as you can get, tearing up the rulebook on what travelogues could be. With his pioneering approach, Bourdain guided viewers around the globe through his maverick lens, which should come as no surprise considering the selection of his musical heroes.
Bourdain became synonymous with non-conformity. Whether through his progressive approach to food, his dedication to dive bars and their colourful inhabitants, or his adoration of all things punk, Anthony Bourdain was a bastion of anti-establishment splendour. He was determined to integrate his two passions seamlessly. This ingrained love for the attitude of music permeated Bourdain’s world, one which was universally left in a state of mourning following his tragic death in 2018.
The chef was a well-known champion of New York’s punk movement and, somewhat coincidentally, Bourdain was also at the forefront of the burgeoning food scene in NYC’s backstreets. It was a marriage made in heaven for the young Bourdain, who saw both chefs and musicians as creative equals. Both worked in similar undulating patterns, touched the darkest reaches of the city every night, and shared an unstoppable thirst for chaos.
There is one figure from that aforementioned New York punk movement who was more pivotal than any other in the development of Bourdain as a punk: Johnny Thunder, the late guitarist of the pioneering New York Dolls. They were both hanging around the city at the same time and helped usher in a new face of culture for the East Coast.
“Johnny Thunders guitar made life worth living again and gave permission to everything good that followed, like New York punk. Joyously nihilistic,” Bourdain once said about his musical hero, who also happened to be a great friend of his.
Marky Ramone reminisced fondly about Bourdain’s integral part in shaping the New York punk scene following the chef’s death in 2018. “When we talked about music, he’d tell me about how he used to hang around CBGBs,” wrote the drummer in Rolling Stone. “He loved the whole atmosphere of the place and the political connotations of the whole movement. We talked about how we liked the same music – Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers, the Dolls, the Ramones, Blondie, the Pistols – and he despised right-wing, conservative fanaticism.
“He was a true punk. I mean, look, he did what he did. He tried to maintain a lifestyle without all that garbage in his system, but it was very hard,” Ramone added. “I always knew there was some kind of edginess in him. But then again, when you do things like [drugs] for part of your life, a lot of times it stays with you. It’s hard to get rid of. I mean, I can relate to it because I had my demons”.
Bourdain lived and breathed punk. As a quintessential New Yorker, his attitude and presence made him the ultimate rebel, channelling a no-fucks-given, maverick counter-culture spirit into a new realm. This spirit has been profoundly missed since his passing two years ago. Anthony Bourdain was a punk icon in every sense.
