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Ross The Boss 1975
The story of the Dictators goes that the guys met at the party house Ross lived in near the State University of New Paltz. Ross was in his first band, Total Crudd, when Andy Shernoff talked him into starting a band with him.

They played lots of shows in the NYC area and made a reputation for themselves as cocky loudmouths who poked fun at other bands. This was the beginning of punk rock.

The Dictators at White Castle
Yeah, the Dictators. The band that embodied all the elements of junk culture (when it wasn't cool) and threw it right back in the public's and the perplexed critics' faces. A band that helped put a bit of the fun back in rock 'n' roll when it was becoming way too serious, obviously ahead of its time and, while influential on many underground bands (as well as better-known acts), never really getting the credit they deserved. Well, fuck 'em if they can't take a joke.-- Suburban Voice Fanzine #26
The Dicatators 2002
The band broke up for two years in 1978. By 1980 The Dictators started to do reunion gigs. This led to a live album, more reunions, tours, another studio album (DFFD 2001), another tour in 2002, and another live album (¡Viva Dictators! 2005). Today, the members of The Dictators all do side projects and they all come back together again when the time is right.

Any 'breakup' the band ever had was so brief and inconsequential in the relative scope of history that they'll be the first to tell you the Dictators never broke up, and therefore can't do "reunions". They are the Dictators Forever, Forever Dictators: DFFD.


The Dictators headline the last Friday and Saturday CBGBs was open


In October 2006, the band headlined two special shows the last weekend CBGBs was open. They have the honor of having been the last punk rock band ever to play at this historic venue.

"The Dictators, a New York institution since 1974, were -- and are -- one of these bands that got screwed by poor timing. Making the scene when the New York Dolls were crapping out as trash-rock saviors and being just a little too instrumentally savvy to completely fit in with the CBGB punks that they are always lumped in with, the 'Tators weren't `too much too soon' or even too little too late. They were outcasts in a scene of outcasts..." -- RollingStone.com
 
 
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Ross The Boss' Bands:

The Dictators
Shakin' Street
Manowar
Manitoba's Wild Kingdom
Heyday
The Spinatras
Thunderboss
Thunderbolts
The Brain Surgeons
Ross The Boss