Poorman’s 15 Minutes of Fame: Billy Shire
“[How did it all start?] Well, primarily, it boils down to soap. We started with soap. My mother and I started the soap store. I did leather in the back and we had my brother’s ceramics. It became kind of a pop culture emporium, you know. I call it a pop culture gift shop on steroids and it’s got besides gifts and things, it does have a major amount of books, it has the art gallery. So, you know, it’s really developed over the years from just having soap to having a little bit of everything, and I like to think of it as my interpretation of the best of each genre, so to speak.”
Air date: 03/28/2025
Tune in as Poorman interviews Billy Shire, owner of Wacko, Soap Plant, and La Luz de Jesus Gallery since 1971. In the 80s and 90s, the wild, underground art openings at La Luz de Jesus Gallery attracted the likes of Guns N' Roses and Andy Warhol. Billy’s legendary studded Levi’s jacket that he created in 1973 has been exhibited at museums from San Francisco and New York to Amsterdam and Brussels. instagram.com/soapplantwacko
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