1996 was a year of rebellion for Billy Blaze. Before dropping out of school early in the year, he formed a band with the star of the Apogee game Monster Bash, Johnny "Dash" Daniels and his own co-star from Keen IV, "Princess" Lindsey Lawrence.

Their band, Perigee, encountered brief success - more for its celebrity members than its music, which mostly involved Billy rapping about various computer games. Eventually, Lindsey Lawrence was "discovered" by Sony Records Inc. and was contracted to produce a number of songs in late 1996. After producing her first record outside of Perigee, she became the international teen superstar, Princess L.


"Yeah, I remember Billy. He was a really good friend back when we were in Commander Keen... But when the computer program-makers stopped doing Commander Keen, he got more and more... I dunno, he just changed; I was sad when it was all over, too, but he just didn't like to talk about it - he didn't believe it was over, really. But that's a good thing, 'cause otherwise I wouldn't be a famous singer like I am now."

*


"The only reason we did well in Perigee was that we were doing something new. Everybody's seen Commander Keen, Princess Lindsey and Johnny Dash before, but when we started doing music, it was new. Well, Billy never ditched his old image, y'know? Well, okay, so I stuck my old slingshot from Monster Bash onto my guitar, but he just wouldn't let go of the Commander Keen image. So we never moved on from that and that's why the band broke up. Well, that and Lindsey being contracted by Sony. We really needed her back-up vocals, so when she left, I left. And Billy just... I dunno. He was kind of nutty. He was into some pretty heavy drugs. The next time I saw him was on World's Wildest Police Chases."

Billy had a reputation amongst his band members as "the junkie". It is also believed that he was taking skin pigmentation-altering drugs in order to make his skin unnaturally pale. Perhaps Billy had hoped that he might someday reprise his role as the Commander Keen computer graphic - whose skin was albino white due to computer graphic limitations of the time.


Suspected of dealing in ecstasy shortly after the band's break-up, the 16-year-old Billy Blaze was hunted by police and found in a small house in Denver, Colorado. Blaze refused to come along quietly and a four-hour car chase followed.

Although no evidence of drug dealing was found against Blaze, he served six months periodic detention for his reckless driving and attempting to evade police arrest.

But this was not the end of Billy Blaze's fame and fortune.
Like the comeback of the computer game in 1991, Commander Keen was about to capture the public's imagination yet again.

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