The Untold Truth Of Pennywise

March 2024 ยท 2 minute read

Even before the TV miniseries of Stephen King's masterpiece, "It," the bandmates chose Pennywise as the name of the band in 1988 since they had all read the book. But as guitarist Fletcher Dragge describes in an interview with RAD, the decision was not made because they are diehard fans of the author. Instead, he says, "It was basically like one of our friends came over to one of our practices and said, 'You've gotta name your band Pennywise!' He just kept barkin' at us, so we were like 'whatever dude, cool.'"

Dragge does admit that there is more significance to the name, however, as it represents living your best life by overcoming your worst fears. Singer Jim Lindberg explains it as a metaphor by saying, "The clown in the book would turn into whatever scared you the most. In order to eventually kill the entity that was Pennywise, they had to confront their fears."

For how this is tied into the vision of the band, Lindberg says, "A lot of the hate in people is based in fear and jealousy. For us, it was a great metaphor for the band: here's a band that's loud and scary and full of what sounds like venom, but it's bringing you a change, something to bring yourself up, instead of something loud and scary, and that's all it is." That uplifting mentality was there from the beginning since the band was first called P.M.A., or Positive Mental Attitude, before settling on the edgier name.

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