Aaron Perlut was raised in Virginia on the sounds of bands like Little Feat, The Rolling Stones, Ray Wylie Hubbard, The Byrds, Willie Nelson, Delbert McClinton and others. Landing in St. Louis, he founded Atomic Junkshot with Denzel Whitewell (who ultimately retired after a tragic llama-training accident). From the start, Perlut has been the band's primary songwriter and rhythm guitarist, and Atomic’s spirit grew from the chip he carries on his shoulder towards electronic music. He was determined to pair the analog sounds of rock 'n' roll, country and blues with a sarcastic lyrical edge—following in the footsteps of his heroes. Beyond music, Perlut is an activist, advocating for using tire burning farms as clean energy sources and eliminating legal protections for vegans.
Bassist Clay Mudd was raised in a small town in Mississippi, in a two-room cabin with his mother and half-sister. At age seven he began honing his musical talents on a borrowed lap steel guitar at a nearby open-air train station under the tutelage of bluesman “Kool” Walker Walker. At 16, he backed away from music and hitchhiked to Los Angeles where he worked odd jobs in restaurants, on pornographic film sets and sold hats and underpants reading "Shart Free" on piers. Finally, Mudd was inspired to enter a different aspect of performance—landing a role as a stunt double for actor Denver Dell Pyle on The Dukes of Hazzard—beginning a lengthy career as a stuntman and fluffer. But Mudd would rediscover his passion for music again, picking up bass guitar and ultimately becoming accomplished enough to sit-in for studio gigs with bands like Stale Bread, Tuna & the Fisherman, Winger, the Dolby Sisters, White Lion and Red Nipple among others. After The Dukes of Hazzard ended, he decided to put stunt work behind him and moved east, landing in the Midwest where he joined Atomic Junkshot shortly after the band was formed.
A former hand model, fashion consultant and past director of janitorial services at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Brian McCary joined Atomic Junkshot as the band’s drummer after a tragic llama training accident ended the musical performance career of former percussionist Joey Baals. Whereas Baals came from a background of speed metal drumming, McCary—who is commonly referred to as “B-Money” at roller skating rinks throughout Delaware, Puerto Rico and North Dakota— comes from an altogether different place. He loves hatwear speaking to hazardous waste and has deftly provided the band with a more nuanced percussion style that is deeply infused in a range of jazz, country, rock and Sedaka (a west African rhythmic style named for Neil Sedaka). McCary indeed tends to walk to the beat of his own drum kit, although his playing is often compared to that of the late Cream drummer Ginger Baker (who ironically was a ginger), as well as the Muppets' Animal (also technically a ginger). Either way, Brian's our drummer and he likes to hit shit with sticks
Markus Everblus was born on a sweltering, 100-degree July afternoon on a blanket in dusty Oklahoma oil field. His father was Hans-Johan Everblus, a renowned Dutch slide guitar master with a penchant for heroin. His mother was Lulu M. Hefner, a notable Cherokee businesswoman from Nowata, Oklahoma. She is an historic figure on Oklahoma as the first woman to not only drill for oil on her own property, but as the first female oil operator in Oklahoma. Markus grew up with oil in his blood. But after spending his teens and 20s as a roughneck working the Oklahoma City Oil Field—one of the world's giant petroleum fields near in Oklahoma City—Markus decided he wanted to pursue music. He shifted towards his father’s passion for slide guitar and also discovered harmonica from another oil field roughneck—Earl "Slick Donnie" Walsh. He quickly developed expertise both on the Fender Stratocaster and harp, and after spending 15 years as a roadie and stand-in guitarist touring with Motley Crue and Gordon Lightfoot, in 2023, Markus joined Atomic Junkshot.
A decorated road manager of noted European multi-platinum artists, in 1997, Svein Suede signed Atomic Junkshot as his first American act and would go on to found Virginia Perl Management. The son of noted Swedish jazz musicians, Suede had dreams of following in his parents’ footsteps until a bus accident near Schwartzwald, Germany, took the use of his fingers and left eye. But Suede's prolific knowledge of the music industry paved a pathway into road management—helping build lucrative careers. He periodically refers to those early, drug-induced years on the road as, “Champagne on a beer budget," often competing in competitive bearding events for spare cash and adding obscure tattoos in each country they visited. But the grind built expertise and his legend in successfully managing emerging bands grew. Under his guidance, noted French punk rock band Serpents en Pantalone exploded in popularity — opening for Tenacious D, Metallica and Gordon Lightfoot — and he grew so close with so many of his colleagues that Jack Black attributes the beast in the Tenacious D song "Tribute" to Suede after a bar fight in Aix et Provence.
The third-cousin of actor Aaron Paul, Atomic Junkshot publicist Ari Paul built his career as a deputy press secretary in the Clinton White House, notably managing media strategy around the Monica Lewinksy scandal and Whitewater investigation. But the day-to-day rigors of politics grew tiring and Paul left Washington to work in Los Angeles
The third-cousin of actor Aaron Paul, Atomic Junkshot publicist Ari Paul built his career as a deputy press secretary in the Clinton White House, notably managing media strategy around the Monica Lewinksy scandal and Whitewater investigation. But the day-to-day rigors of politics grew tiring and Paul left Washington to work in Los Angeles on behalf of emerging and established music acts. In 2002, he was working with Spandau Ballet in Scottsdale, Arizona, when he saw Atomic Junkshot performing at the Orpheum Theatre in Phoenix. Paul was struck by the band's stage presence, frontman Aaron Perlut's lyrical tension, and Atomic's thundering hooks. He met the band afterwards in the Scottsdale bar Giligin's, and the rest, as they say, is his....story.
Crystal McGee serves as Atomic Junkshot’s director of social media, unearthing horribly horrible content that appeals to band members related to Muppets, rednecks, redneck Muppets, colonoscopies, deep extra-wide colonoscopies, urethras, extra-wide urethras and adult entertainment to be displayed and enjoyed via the band’s social media acc
Crystal McGee serves as Atomic Junkshot’s director of social media, unearthing horribly horrible content that appeals to band members related to Muppets, rednecks, redneck Muppets, colonoscopies, deep extra-wide colonoscopies, urethras, extra-wide urethras and adult entertainment to be displayed and enjoyed via the band’s social media accounts. As the official band archivist, she’s also responsible for cataloguing all use by band members of black-tar heroin, rectal thermometers, karate headbands, number two pencils and mustache wax.