We met him at the Hampton Inn on a rainy Saturday in July.

Kevin “Hotwheels” McGregor. Frontman of The Earps in Phoenix, Arizona. In town on a business trip for his day job.

He came out the back entrance, running through the rain to hop into the back of my girlfriend Nikki’s Nissan Pathfinder. It was my first time seeing him since Nashville a few years ago.

We headed off to meet Marvin Goldstein, aka “Jewey Ramone,” and his wife, Char Goldstein.

Marvin, along with Bill Levin, was among the first people to establish the punk rock scene in Indianapolis in the 1970s.

We missed an exit and had to double back.

“I love you, honey, but you’re not a very good driver,” Nikki said.

Kevin agreed.

We arrived at the Goldstein home, where Char had prepared a spread of cheese and crackers, chips and dip. Kevin admired the design of the home and the decorations.

With Kevin and Char in the same room, there was never much danger of an awkward silence. Both are high-energy people. The conversation moved fast, bounced from subject to subject, and occasionally had several subjects going at once.

We saw Marvin’s “Ramones Man Cave,” a small room with mostly, but not completely, Ramones-related memorabilia.

We left after a while to attend Punk Rock Night at the Melody Inn.

I hadn’t been there since I played bass for Ricky Rat, the guitarist of Detroit’s Trash Brats gone solo.

A $10 cover and a bill of mostly younger punk rock bands.

We ordered some drinks, and Kevin went to the men’s room to add to the decor of the sticker-bombed dive bar restroom with a vinyl Earps decal.

We went to the beer garden out back, and McGregor got us up to speed on the latest adventures of The Earps, a band that was founded in 2003 and continues to this day, with many lineup changes along the way.

The original drummer, Matt Maverick, has returned. A woman named Darcy is on bass now. They’re still seeking a permanent guitar player. An album is in the works—being written, anyway.

The band too tough to die.

I joined The Earps shortly before Halloween 2005, replacing original bass player Leif L’Amour, who I still bullshit with on Facebook once in a while.

My nickname in Phoenix was “Georgie,” based on an early glam rock pseudonym I used in a glam/drag band called Perfume Bomb: Georgie Glitterbrat.

(We were young.)

Kevin had decided that Jason Smith was not a usable stage name, so Buckshot George was born.

It was a Young Guns II reference. The Earps were really big on ’80s movie references.

I went to Kentucky in 2010.

The Earps moved on.

Buckshot George moved on.

Anyway, like Jeff Dahl, Kevin insisted that we watch a little of each band instead of hanging out back for the entire show. It’s respectful, plus you might miss a really great band.

We caught the first band, a pop-punk group, and then Alex K & The Board of Directors from Cincinnati.

We watched The Board of Directors and agreed they had a great show. Gimmicks, kitsch, and theatrics are well appreciated by The Earps, and The Board of Directors had all that.

After a couple of bands, we called it a night. We climbed back into Nikki’s Pathfinder and returned Kevin to the Hampton Inn.

An Earp had come to Indianapolis.

We sent him back with another punk-rock bathroom properly stickered.