A Berlin Revelation - Skrewdriver In A River
According to this report from VICE magazine, Ian Stuart, lead singer of the far-right band Skrewdriver had a brief affair with the doomed, pasty-faced American actor River Phoenix in June and July of 1991. Could this really be true? Even if it isn't, it makes a strange sort of sense.
Ian exuded this power and a sense of honour that was attractive for any man, but to a kid like River (he was about to turn 21), who was feeling exhausted and insecure and disillusioned about being a teen idol, it looked like the guy had everything he lacked – experience, wisdom and self-confidence. Ian, on the other hand, was more difficult to figure out, but he must have found some kind of fatherly security in looking after this innocent boy. (Ian spoke good German, whereas River probably didn’t know shit about shit in Berlin.)
It was pretty obvious that River felt like he was being fucked over by the Hollywood system, and Ian saw it as his duty to teach him an alternative way of life. River never got into the white supremacy thing, but he was definitely in deep awe of Ian. He probably thought his northern English accent was cute too.
It was always obvious that they both had a gay side, and here they were, free and alone and away from home. River Phoenix had just finished playing a rent-boy in My Own Private Idaho, and before filming he’d researched intensively with the hustling kids in Portland in the USA. Everyone knew that his identification with the role was freaky, and in that summer, which he spent chilling out, bumming around Europe, it looked like he never let it go. As for Ian, well, what do you expect from a skinhead? Most of them are gay aren't they?