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There was no aspiration to become a roadie or even Punk Rock royalty, Handsome Richard Manitoba said.

“I was a friend of the band – a mascot,” the veteran Dictators band member said. “And as a friend, they said, get Richard something to do.”

It was after a happenstance performance at Sheepshead Bay’s Popeye’s Spinach Factory that Manitoba was catapulted into front man status.

“I did an insane drunk version of Wild Thing and people went ballistic,” he recalled. “They saw something and said let Richard sing another song.”

Thirty years later, Manitoba leads the charge as the divergent ‘Dictators NYC’ tour the nation and the globe.

At 8 p.m. Friday at Cookman Avenue’s House of Independents, Manitoba returns to Asbury Park with some of the fan favorites and the local debut of Manitoba’s first scripted song – ‘Supply and Demand.’

Watch the video interview here.

“I was always apprehensive about writing because I want to write in my voice,” he said. “I’ve got craftsmanship of radio, I’ve got the craftsmanship of performance but with writing lyrics you want to craft three pages in one line and grab people’s imagination while having some fun.”

The Dictators first hit notoriety during the nascent stage of the punk explosion. They were a regular part of the CBGB scene and are among those feature in the Cleveland, Ohio’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Punk Wing.

Steve Van Zandt called them ‘The connective tissue between the eras of The MC5, Stooges, NY Dolls, and the punk explosion of the mid to late 1970s.’

Today, the Dictators NYC is an amalgamation with Manitoba at the helm, co-founding guitarist Ross the Boss, and longtime drummer JP “Thunderbolt” Patterson, alsongside bassist Dean Rispler, and rhythm guitarist Daniel Rey.

After short stints as a New York City bartender and taxi driver, Manitoba saved enough money to purchase his own visual homage to the punk genre – Manitoba’s on Avenue B. He balances life as a married father of a 13-year-old son and his lower east side watering hole, with national and international tours.

“We just finished a 10 show tour on the West coast,” Manitoba said. “I’d say we do 30 shows a year in the states and anywhere from 40 to 75 shows in Europe. We leave in August for a 23-city tour in Europe.”

The last time they were in Asbury Park, Manitoba said the band played Asbury Lanes. And with his return to the city by the shore, there is no sign of this high energy 62-year-old punk showman slowing down.

“Look, it’s my job,” he said. “I want people to come out, have a few drinks, get a buzz, jump up and down, and interact with me, then leave sweating and buzzing and wanting to come back again.”

[Photos courtesy of Manitoba]

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