Roky Erickson

Roky Erickson is one of those artists who matters more than chart numbers ever suggest. As the leader of the 13th Floor Elevators, he helped invent psychedelic rock, and the label outsider genius fits him perfectly. What draws me in is the rawness and purity of his sound, made all the more haunting by the mental illness he battled while continuing to create. His later work with the Aliens, drenched in horror imagery, only deepened his singularity. He died in 2019, but the songs wrung from his suffering have not faded. He will never be for everyone, and that is exactly why he endures.

Name (English)

Roky Erickson

Name (Japanese)

ロッキー・エリクソン

Reading

ろっきー・えりくそん

Born

July 15, 1947 – May 31, 2019

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Cancer / Boar

Origin

Austin, Texas, United States

Occupation

singer-songwriter / singer / guitarist / recording artist / musician

• Official sitehttps://www.rokyerickson.net
• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roky%20Erickson
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%AD%E3%83%83%E3%82%AD%E3%83%BC%E3%83%BB%E3%82%A8%E3%83%AA%E3%82%AF%E3%82%BD%E3%83%B3
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q922145

Tags

• Texas
• singer-songwriter
• singer
• guitarist

Last updated

2026-06-21

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.