Eric Reed Boucher (born June 17, 1958), better known by the stage name Jello Biafra, is an American punk rock musician and political activist best known as the former lead singer of the Dead Kennedys. After the band's disbandment, he became a solo musician and spoken word artist, releasing several albums based on both careers on his record label, Alternative Tentacles. In his political life, he is an active member of the Green Party and participates in activism relating to his progressive political beliefs. He is a self-proclaimed anarchist (though not a promoter of anarchy), and advocates civil disobedience and pranksterism in the name of political change. Biafra is known to use absurdist media tactics in the tradition of the Yippies to highlight issues of civil rights, social justice, and anti- corporatism.
His stage name is a combination of the brand name Jell-O and the name of the short lived country of Biafra which attempted to secede from Nigeria in 1966. After four years of fighting and horrific starvation, Nigeria regained control of the nascent Biafran state. Jello Biafra created his name as an ironic combination of a non-nutritionally valued corporate food product and mass starvation.
Biafra was born in Boulder, Colorado, USA to parents Stanley and Virginia Boucher, both social workers. Biafra developed an interest in international politics early on, which his parents encouraged him to learn more about. As a child, he avidly watched the news. One of his earliest memories of his childhood is of the John F. Kennedy assassination. Biafra claims he has been a fan of rock music since first hearing it in 1965, when his parents accidentally tuned in to a rock radio station. During the 1970s, he became involved in activism in reaction to several events of the era including the Vietnam War, the Chicago 7 trial, and the Kent State shootings.