I & I SURVIVE
WHEN GARY MILLER graduated from high school in the late 1970s, the Washington, D.C. guitarist — better known as Dr. Know of the seminal hardcore group Bad Brains — was not planning on a lifetime career in rock and roll. “I was going to Maryland University and I wanted to be a doctor,” the 61-year-old says from his home in Kingston, New York, where he is still working to undo some of the effects of a severe stroke he suffered in 2016. “That’s how I got the nickname ‘Dr. Know,’” he adds. Of course Doc, as his bandmates call him, was not to finish his medical studies but to devote his life to his musical craft instead. “That’s how the spirit works,” he says. “It’s like, ‘All right, you boys are going to come over here and play this music.’”
“WE HAD STARTED WITH THE FUSIONY STUFF, BUT WHEN WE HEARD THE AGGRESSIVENESS OF PUNK, THAT REALLY HIT HOME”
Whether guided by divine forces or their own talent and vision, Bad Brains went on to become pioneers of hardcore punk. Formed in 1977 by Dr. Know, bassist Darryl Jenifer, vocalist Paul Hudson (known to most as H.R., an acronym for Human Rights) and his brother, drummer
