SAN DIEGO — Gary Heffern, who died last weekend at the age of 72 in his native Finland, had an outsized international impact as the lead singer and lyricist of the pioneering San Diego punk-rock band the Penetrators from 1978 to 1984.

The many musicians who were inspired by his passion, charisma and electrifying stage presence included future members of U2 and future Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder, who was a teenager when he attended a riotous performance by the Penetrators at San Dieguito High School.

After moving to Seattle in 1984, Heffern recorded acclaimed solo albums that featured such high-profile admirers as Vedder, R.E.M.’s Peter Buck and Los Lobos’ Steve Berlin. Heffern performed in Seattle with jazz guitar great Bill Frisell and befriended future Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell when both were working at an area seafood restaurant.

An underground music sensation and a poet of note, Heffern combined punk-rock attitude and “look-at-me!” showmanship with rare emotional depth and empathy. He was the subject of two documentary films, one made in San Diego in 2019, the other in Finland in 2010. He moved to that Nordic country in 2006 and subsequently became a Finnish citizen.

The cause and exact time of Heffern’s death has yet to be determined. His body was discovered by his niece, Jaana Välimäki, last weekend in his home in Rovaniemi. The city — population 65,000 — is the capital of Finland’s Lapland Province and is just 4 miles from the Arctic Circle. A memorial service there will likely take place in that region in November, Välimäki said via email, and he will be buried there.

Heffern had long battled Type 2 diabetes. He cited health issues and his age as the reasons he was unable to travel from Finland when the Penetrators were inducted into the San Diego Music Hall of Fame on Oct. 15.

“Gary and the Penetrators were the ground zero of the punk scene here and he was able to convert a lot of people. He was a sweet, sensitive guy,” said Grossmont College Professor Raul Sandelin, who made the 2019 documentary film, “Gary Heffern’s Last Waltz.” Much of it was filmed at the Casbah, the intimate San Diego music club where the Penetrators performed for the final time with Heffern in 2019.

“Gary was a really kind, down-to-earth person and a mesmerizing performer,” said Casbah co-owner Tim Mays, who was Heffern’s San Diego roommate in 1984. “He was a raconteur who could adapt to any situation and engage with anybody. He was very introspective and sensitive, and yet very outgoing at the same time.”

‘Darkness and light’

Heffern’s ability to dig deep into his feelings was spotlighted in an essay by Charles R. Cross that accompanied Heffern’s 2008 solo album, “Consolation.” Cross, the author of bestselling books about Jimi Hendrix and Kurt Cobain, wrote: “In Heffern’s own songs there is a constant struggle between darkness and light, between failed dreams and reckless prayer, between a world where all hope is lost and one where a consoling friend offers a sliver of deliverance.”

Darkness and light were constant throughout Heffern’s life.

He was born Velli-Matti Tervamineni on Aug. 20, 1954, in Helsinki, Finland, and had at least seven siblings there and a half-brother. Because their parents were unable to care for them, the children were placed in different orphanages around Finland.

Gary and his sister, Helena, were profiled in the 1957 Christian Children’s Fund book, “Children of Calamity.” Their story prompted a San Diego couple, Kenneth and Marion Heffern, to adopt the two siblings and bring them here when Gary was 4 years old.

“Unfortunately, as a result, Gary grew up in an abusive family here in Point Loma,” said veteran San Diego musician and writer Ray Brandes.

His 2015 book, “Getting Nowhere Fast,” devotes a chapter to the Penetrators and Heffern, who was a mentor and close friend. Heffern chose Brandes to read his acceptance remarks at the San Diego Music Hall of Fame induction ceremony earlier this month, where the Penetrators performed four songs with Kevin Ring singing in place of Heffern.

“It wasn’t until Gary was in his 30s that he discovered that not only were his parents alive,” Brandes said, “but that he had six brothers and sisters he hadn’t known about still living in Finland. He knew what it was like to want to be liked and encouraged, because he never had that as a child. He made sure to make everyone around him feel valuable.”

Heffern’s adoptive and biological parents are deceased. In the 2010 film documentary, “Kisses From Mommy: The Gary Heffern Story,” the 1972 Point Loma High School graduate discussed the physical abuse he weathered at the hands of his adoptive parents. He hit a drug-fueled rock bottom in 1984, prior to leaving San Diego for a new start in Seattle.

“I just didn’t take care of myself,” Heffern said in a 2009 San Diego Union-Tribune interview. “I got down to about 89 pounds and had a 29-inch waist by the time I moved up to Seattle. I apologize.”

Larger than life

Dr. Joni Tamalonis was married to Heffern in Seattle from 1988 to 1999. She fondly recalls him as an inspirational, larger-than-life figure who brought people together and commanded attention in any room. She also acknowledges he wrestled with his childhood trauma for much of his adult life.

“Gary did suffer from depression,” said Tamalonis, who is the CEO of the Kentucky Association of Sexual Assault Programs. “He’d have wide swings where he’d be really hopeful and up, and then he’d be down for several days. I think that continued up until his death. That seems pretty typical for someone with a history of trauma and depression.

“It was always a challenge for Gary to see other musicians succeed more than he did,” Tamalonis continued. “Because he felt he was as talented as them — and he was. When Gary walked offstage after shows, the audience would keep talking about him. He looked out for people and cared for them. He really brought people together and connected them. I think that’s his biggest legacy,” Tamalonis said.

Those sentiments are shared by San Diego music writer Peter Blackstock — who chose Heffern to be the best man at his 2004 wedding in Seattle — singer-songwriter Cindy Lee Berryhill and by former Penetrators members Chris Sullivan and Joel Kmak. In its heyday in the late 1970s and early ’80s, the band sold out a concert at San Diego’s Golden Hall, earned regular radio airplay, shared concert stages with the Ramones and B-52’s, and turned down an offer to open a show for Bob Marley.

“Gary was nice, smart, creative and funny, and he was friends with a lot of people,” Blackstock said. “It always impressed me how much the kids in the grunge scene in Seattle took to him because, by then, he was a singer-songwriter, not a grunge or punk guy. But they saw in him a kindred spirit.”

“Gary was such a big fan of all kinds of music,” Berryhill said. “He was incredibly open minded. And I must say he had the kindest heart, a true-poets-soul-heart.”

“Gary always connected with people,” Sullivan said. “I first met him waiting in line overnight to buy tickets for an Elvis Presley concert at the San Diego Sports Arena, and I thought he was like Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck rolled into one! He was so captivating and unique. He was well-read and people always wanted to talk to him.”

“Gary was proof that, sometimes, you don’t have to be the best singer to be the best singer,” Kmak said. “He was one of the best people I’ve ever made music with because of his energy, his command and his style. People gravitated to him.”

What is likely Heffern’s final album, “Midnight Sons” — a duo recording with Ed Pettersen — was released today. It was preceded by the recent online-only release of two songs whose titles now take on an unintended poignancy: “Goodbye” and “All God’s Children.”

“I will remember Uncle Gary as a warmhearted, cheerful and loving person who really loved those closest to him, family and friends, all over the world,” said Välimäki, his niece. “And, of course, for music which was his whole life and runs in our family, too.”

Brandes and Heffern collaborated on Heffern’s poetry book, “Unholy Dreams,” which was published in 2014. The two began work on Heffern’s biography about 15 years ago and Brandes hopes to complete it in the future.

“For me, Gary was a kind, beautiful soul,” Brandes said. “He was a child really, still looking for a sense of belonging and acceptance despite a lifetime of suffering. I really believe he had found some semblance of peace of mind his last few years, living as he did with his dogs in a beautiful natural setting.”

Heffern is survived in San Diego by his sister, Helena Dawson, her daughter Jessica Kattan, her son Jeff Dawson, and five nieces and nephews, and by his half sister Cathy DeLong and her daughter, Summer. His survivors in Finland include sisters Anneli, Lyyli and Leena, and brothers Heikki and Veikko.

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