David Roach, best known as the lead vocalist for Junkyard, has passed away after a battle with cancer. His bandmates in Junkyard shared the sad news on August 2nd. Roach had been a member of Junkyard since 1987. He was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer in February. He married his wife Jennifer on July 19, 2025, presumably wanting to do so before he died.
In keeping with the Ricki C. approach of trying to make these In Memoriam blogs more personal, I will share few stories about my personal experiences related to Junkyard, a band I truly love. The bands’ debut was a self-titled release on Geffen records in 1989. Although I was absolutely listening to the “hair metal” of the era, my first love was punk rock, and I was thrilled that D.C. punk rock icon Brian Baker was a guitarist in the band. That first record grabbed me with the songs “Hollywood,” “Simple Man” and “Hands Off.” I was an instant fan of the band from that point forward. They were part southern-rock, part punk-rock and part metal. The blend was perfection.
The band toured extensively and made a stop at The Bayou in D.C. in early 1990. I had just returned from a trip to the Bahamas with my girlfriend (now wife) and we had tickets for the show, just hours after landing at National Airport. We had gotten into some drinks at a layover in Miami so my girl decided to skip the show. Undeterred, I went, arriving a little late, and sold her ticket to a guy outside. He told me he couldn’t wait to see the opening band. Some guys called The Black Crowes. I had never heard of them. Sadly, we got in too late and missed the openers that night. But Junkyard, with Brian Baker playing some blistering guitar to his hometown fans and Roach belting out the vocals, blew the roof off. I still have a t-shirt from that night.
One more story… When my daughter was about 12 years old, around 2012, she knew that one of my favorite songs, even all those years later, was still “Simple Man.” She was taking guitar lessons at the time, and her teacher said she could play and sing a song of her choice, and he would record it in his home studio. She declared that she wanted to surprise me with the song. Unable to find the music for the song, her teacher found the lyrics online and listened to it repeatedly until he could teach it to her. The day she came home with a CD of “Simple Man” as covered by her, she was thrilled. I was brought to tears thinking of how hard she worked on it.
Long story short, Junkyard made just two records (the second being Sixes, Sevens and Nines) before being dropped by Geffen despite critical acclaim. Two more records (XXX and The Joker) were recorded but only released later. The band split but reformed around 2000 and had sporadic releases of both new and older material, highlighted by the outstanding 2017 record High Water. David Roach was the only vocalist the band ever had. He will be missed.
Here’s a kinda cool obituary of David from the New York Times.
“Simple Man” by Junkyard
JCE, or John to his friends, was born in the Nation’s Capital. He grew up in the VA suburbs of D.C. His earliest musical memories are tied to a transistor radio with a single earphone that he carried everywhere listening to AM radio. He is well versed in the D.C. music scene from around 1980 onward. His wife of 34 years says he’ll never grow up, and she’s exactly right.