Interview

The Godfather of Vintage Heavy Metal T-Shirts

Published on February 1, 2009

Meet Jochen from Germany. That’s a picture of him with Travor from Sadus. He’s the webmaster of a DEATH and Overkill fansite and two others that are vintage t-shirt specific. Jochen’s outstanding vintage t-shirt collection at Old School Metal Shirts is over 600 of the most sought after vintage metal shirts on the planet. And he’s not selling a single one of them. You might have better luck tracking down something to buy on his popular forum of heavy metal shirt collectors, Shirtchaser.

How long have you been collecting?

I’m 34 years old, and I bought my first shirt when I was 13 or 14. So about 20 years. I started my career very early – at 15 I had a steady income so I had lots of money for concerts and shirts. By 18 I had my first small collection of about 25-30 Shirts.

Where do you find your tees?

In the Past (before the internet and eBay) I bought my shirts at concerts and in a street shop next to my city. In the late ’80s and early ’90s they sold original band shirts which were imported from the UK.

The Holy Bibles from the past were the EMP and Bullshirt merchandising catalogues. They were like a dream come true, filled with hundreds of great shirts. It was amazing, at that time, you got a original Cynic Tour Shirt from 1993 for around $6. Today you have to pay $150-200 for this shirt. If you only knew then, you would me a rich man now.

Seven or eight years ago I started buying t-shirts on eBay. Then about a a year ago I had the idea to create a online forum to bring metal shirt collectors world wide, together, to share their passion with other crazy people. So now Shirtchaser is a very big community of metal shirt collectors. This portal is a very good place to buy and trade shirts.

Tell us a little something about the two rarest t-shirts you have and the most you have ever paid for a tee.

Hmmm, that is always hard to answer, because this changes a lot. Narrowing it down to two is tough because I’d like to mention 15-20 shirts in my collection. At the moment I think Metallica – Metal up Your Ass (first edition) and Control Denied – a shirt which Chuck Schuldiner made only for the band and some friends, only a few were made.

Some people think high price shirts are “rare”. But, how rare is a shirt with a price of $400-600 if you know 15 people who have it? For me, a really rare shirt must have a unique story or background.

I think the most money I’ve ever spent is about $350-400 on a Iron Maiden Texas shirt. I hunted for it for a really long time.

Your site details how you store your shirts, do you wear any of them?

I wear all my t-shirts but I also protect them in plastic when not in use. Sweatshirts and baseball shirts are hanging in my wardrobe. In the beginning it was a lot of work to pack all the shirts into plastic, but the end result was worth it. I sort my shirts like a CD or LP collection by band name, so it’s easy to find and pick them out. And believe it or not, after washing it’s much more easy to fold them. I see only pros in this kind of shirt storing.

You also have a section on your site for dyeing vintage t-shirts, don’t you think it’s more important to preserve the original look of the garment?

In the past I also had this opinion about faded metal shirts. But a deep black color of a shirt raises the value. In my dyeing description you can see also the positive effect of dyeing. With a darker black, you get a better contrast to the print, and then the shirt and print looks unused and fresh.

It’s a mission of mine to keep some rare shirts in a amazing condition. To conserve them for a long time, and show the next generation of shirt collectors what kind of shirts existed in the past. Just like a archaeologist would do with his discoveries. I’m not really into cutting sleeves and collars – that’s a crime against old shirts. I also keep the shirts away from sunlight and moths, both are t-shirt enemies.

Do you have any secret stain removal techniques?

Hmmmm, some stains are impossible to get out. Sometimes I use special textile cleaning liquids (for oil, blood, and other things). Sometimes I use a cutter to scratch some paint stains. Also black re-colouring brings good results.

When you die, which t-shirt will you be wearing in your coffin?

This changes a lot. But if I have to make a decision at the moment, I will wear my Slayer Reign in Pain tee. But in ten weeks I am having my first child, a boy, and I hope he follows in the footsteps of his father and finds love for the greatest music in the world – HEAVY METAL. Then he’ll inherit my collection.

Check out our other interviews with vintage junkies or our top 5 list of vintage thrash metal t-shirts.

Jimmy J

Test

14 Comments

Hermosa_Vintage

February 2, 2009 at 1:04 pm

“Special textile cleaning liquids” I imagine he’s not talking about Tide or Shout. I like they dyeing idea. Nice interview! Any association between Defunked and oldschoolmetalshirts.com? Your crests are very similar!
frank

February 2, 2009 at 2:47 pm

Dyeing vintage shirts is sacrilege!

Cheers for the brilliant interview! Up the irons!
John K.

February 2, 2009 at 6:50 pm

I’d have to agree with Frank…a dyed original is no longer “original”.

Great work Jimmy!
Jimmy J

February 2, 2009 at 7:43 pm

Hermosa. Ya, I noticed that too. No relation though, how cool would it be if our crests did it and had baby crests?

Frank, John – I hear ya. The thought of dyeing never crossed my mind, and I had the same reaction when I first read it. But restoration is widely accepted in a bunch of areas of collectibles, comics, cars, etc. All you are doing is adding ink to a wash, it’s probably way less harmful to the fabric than adding detergent, and it’s eventually going to fade out again anyway. What’s the difference between what he’s doing and re-painting a classic car? I’m just playing the devil’s advocate, I wouldn’t dye, but it’s interesting..
S.O.D

February 3, 2009 at 1:15 am

>>> I’d have to agree with Frank…a dyed original is no longer “original”.

Haaaaa – nice joke.
And a “white” human who get’s in the sun “brown” is no more a “real” human.

You can see it also from the other way. The real and original Shirt was BLACK NOT GREY. So when it faded out, it’s no more “original”. And with dyeing, you give the Shirt his lost colour back. So only THAN it’s again a original *hehe*
Justin C

February 3, 2009 at 2:10 am

I found this blog through Google Alerts, I’ve got a trigger for “music T-shirts”. It’s nice to see that people are archiving the history of this stuff! I work for a company that distributes music tees, and both companies mentioned (EMP and Bullshirt) have been customers of ours. Bullshirt went out of business a long time ago, but EMP are now a *huge* company and a major player in the music retail business… it’s been many, many years since I sat down in Saxenhaus, Koln with the two guys running it… and I’m sure they’re too important to do so now!

Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks for posting this, I spent a few minutes in a warm glow remembering when I was young and enthusiastic about it all… I’m just old and cynical now. 🙂
Jimmy J

February 3, 2009 at 10:25 am

Well, S.O.D. – you have a point. Although many view someone who is tanned as being “fake”. I guess it depends on where the person got the tan? The beach or at a salon or is it spray on? haha.

Justin – welcome to the disturbing world of vintage t-shirt collectors. Stay a while, stay….FOREVER. (Impossible Mission for the C-64, anyone remember?)
S.O.D

February 3, 2009 at 1:44 pm

No Problem. But for me as a Metal Shirt Collector, it’s important that a shirt is old. That’s why we call it Old School Shirts. The condition in this case is secondary. But as better the condition (of Shirt and Print) as better is the value of the Shirt. And that’s important for me – Old and nice condition. And if you can give a Shirt a better condition with new colour – I see no reason to do this not. I also use only detergent for black clothing’s to keep than black as longs as possible.
John K.

February 3, 2009 at 11:43 pm

S.O.D you have an awesome collection!!!

I simply prefer not to alter what time & wear has created in a vintage tee. Some of my favorites are stained, have holes and worn so thin that I can hardly wear them anymore. To me these flaws are what show the history/story of the shirt and this aspect of vintage tees I enjoy almost as much as the tee itself.

Best regards, John K.
mick

November 30, 2009 at 1:16 am

iv got a iron maiden t shirt from a signing session at tower records in london it was when best of the beast came out it has the best of the beast pick on the front and on the back it has i meet eddie at tower records with the date there was only 200 made wat do you think its worth?
STORM

September 22, 2010 at 3:05 pm

S.O.D i will tell you some words and put it your mind very well,METAL ISNT BUSINESS
William Powell

February 27, 2011 at 10:53 am

I have only one of each original(genuine)five t/shirts and one sweatshirt; excellent condition, also have on the back the concert(dates), from the 1980s-1990s they are as follows :
1,HEAVY METAL: 1,IRON MAIDEN: 1,MEGADETH: 1,ANTHRAX: 1,MORTAL; T-Shirts. and 1,METALIC T-Shirt.
All in excellent (top quality) condition.
Open to genuine offers only,fist come fist served if sensible and genuine.
To collect or P & P
William Powell

February 27, 2011 at 10:56 am

T/ph (UK) 01273 592841 (uk) for the aboe t shirts/ sweatshirt
from William1st
River Nygryn

July 3, 2012 at 9:21 pm

Hi just wondering if you know where i can find this tee:
http://www.nastygal.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/product.detail/_/kill-em-ripped-tee/productID/6e1d2156-bb20-4694-8363-5358bf6db1ad/productOptionIDs/3a3bd235-9b05-4913-a140-7d745f93d74a%2C3bbad8e9-ae28-4ed0-8123-4242064a38a6/categoryID/1f1699e6-97c7-480a-97a6-9a7c91c883d4?wishListID=583685ff-efa4-4f75-bc3e-9d3bb69067d9