Island Rock God - Ray Fogg

Article from the Funcoast, Summer 2006

by Eric Linge

Ray Fogg, Island Rock God

Just because of the nature of his business, the Island Rock God is usually up pretty late. After all, when your job is singing to a roomful of drunks about getting drunk, you're likely to stay out pretty late drinking with them. God's first thought when he wakes up (usually late) the next morning is, "I need a glass of water." After a fairly healthy breakfast of eggs, he tries to partake in a completely healthy activity, like jogging, in order to make up for the night before. Alas, there is a dual nature to the Island Rock God, alias Ray Fogg.

The high season of Put-in-Bay has already begun, which, for Ray Fogg, means night after late night of singing songs to drunks about getting drunk, and all the mischief and boating that go along with getting drunk on and around the Lake Erie islands.

Ray is locally famous as a boastful, funny singer-songwriter whose repertoire includes classics like "You're Starting to Get Hammered Aren't You?" and "Everyone's a '10' at 2:00." But what's the difference between Ray Fogg, average islander, and Ray Fogg, Island Rock God?

You can judge for yourself at various Put-in-Bay venues all summer long. Look for a new album, "Sorry If I Was a Dick Last Night," from him this summer, too. He also sometimes plays with a band, the Swinging Lesbian Frogs.

Songs like "Kiss My Bass" have made Ray notorious, but he has written less raunchy, sometimes even pretty songs. Ray truly loves Put-in-Bay, and some of his favorite songs are the songs he's written out of love for the island. He lists two of his favorites as, "'Look for the Whiskey Light,' which is about the beginning and the end of the tour season at Put-in-Bay, at the Roundhouse; and 'Waves,' which is about the tradition of waving off the last boat of the season," he said.

Longtime island resident D.J. Parker is partial to a Ray song called "Blue Catawba Moon," which name drops island families. He loves the way Ray describes the island and the island life in his songs.

D.J. says about Ray: "He's a real nice guy. He's got community spirit. He's got a show image, and then his personal image is that of a nice guy."

When he's not performing, he likes boating with his friends and watching "Boston Legal." He's also worried about sunburns, and although he wishes he could soak up more sun, he usually takes to hiding from it under the sunshade of his boat.

And while it is true that the Island Rock God does have a modest streak, he isn't a liar. His songs are all based on truth. Sometimes they are written about other people though. His new album will include a song called "Curt," and yes, everything in the song is true, including the lines: "Right there in front of my mother and my future ex-wife's brother, Curt was dancing on the bar slapping his bare ass pink, with his balls hanging down in a drink." This was at Ray's wedding reception. He's divorced now.

Sometimes his songs are written about himself. The title track to the new album, "Sorry If I Was a Dick Last Night," is based on the roast his friends gave him for his 40th birthday. At a roast, friends take the stage one by one and lovingly hurl insults at the man or woman of honor. At his roast, Ray took 12 shots of Jaegermeister in 45 minutes.

"Needless to say I got pretty blasted," he said. "I took the mic back and started roasting everybody so bad that girls were crying and my friends were all mad at me for a couple of months. I had to put a full-page ad in the Put-in-Bay Gazette apologizing to everyone who had contact with me that night."

When asked if he had any favorite Ray memories, Carl Krueger, witness to the infamous roast and owner of the Put-in-Bay Brewing Company, a venue Ray often plays, just laughed before saying, "Not that we could put in the Sandusky Register."

Well this is Funcoast, not the Register. So this is the memory he offered: "Ray put a flag up at his house naked on New Year's. It's the annual flag hanging tradition now."

But the truly drunken Island Rock God only appears at certain times. Three times a year he plays shows for kids and families, with his drunken God character purposely tucked. At these concerts you're not likely to hear, "Who's the Bud Light Chick?" These are also the only shows his six-year-old daughter is allowed to watch all the way through. His repertoire of songs, after all, does include some sweetness and sentimentality in addition to the raunchy.

D.J. Parker has been watching Ray Fogg concerts for years, and when asked what he remembers most about the God, alcohol isn't even mentioned. He most remembers Ray as the guy who may have saved a fellow islander's life. The islander needed a kidney, and this was in the days before there was an ambulance-helicopter on Put-in-Bay. A kidney suddenly became available on the mainland, but the kidney would go to the next in line if the islander didn't get there quick. Ray volunteered his boat, the islander got his kidney and he lived to thank the Island Rock God.

This, by the way, is the same Ray Fogg who wrote "If They Could Just Cut Off Your Great Big Fat Ass I Think I Could Love You Forever."

Funcoast postulates it is alcohol, preferably copious amounts, that turn Ray Fogg, average islander, into Ray Fogg, Island Rock God. Maybe we should have done this interview after pumping Ray full of Jaeger in order to get both sides of his card.

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