Rocker throws his hat into the recall ring

Citizen Punk? The strange saga of California’s recall effort against Gov. Gray Davis has plenty of oddities (forget Arnold Schwarzenegger’s flirtation with running -- have you heard Larry Flynt and Angelyne are in the race?), and at first glance the candidacy of Jack Grisham looks like another oddball subplot.

Grisham is the lead singer of TSOL, one of the pioneering forces in the Orange County punk scene that took shape in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Surely, the singer of “Abolish Government/Silent Majority” and “Property Is Theft” must be less than earnest in his bid for the statehouse.

A cynical eyebrow could also be raised when it’s noted that TSOL (short for True Sounds of Liberty) has a new album, “Divided We Stand,” due in September.

But this is no publicity ploy, insists Grisham, who declines to mix the band or its projects into interviews about politics.

“Yeah, my motto could be, ‘No, I’m serious,’ ” says the 42-year-old father of two, who lives in Huntington Beach. “This is not a joke, this is not some stunt, it’s an effort to make change. Look, there are two Californias; there’s California the business and California the people. The major candidates only seem to care about California the company.”

Grisham’s platform is shaped by his years of street-level life, and the core plank is health care reform. He suffers back problems from performing on stage and working as a laborer -- he has long supplemented his musical income by “roofing, digging ditches, just anything with a shovel,” though he’s been idle since January because of his bad back.

His struggles to pay medical bills have left him bitter about the health care system.

“Basically I was told that if I quit my job, leave my wife and kids and go on welfare, I get help. That doesn’t seem to be a good way to do things.”

After years of celebrating anarchy and dark anger in music, Grisham says now that spending some nights in jail, watching friends die of drug overdoses, working shoulder to shoulder with illegal immigrants and having a family that now includes police officers and teachers has reshaped his worldview. “The people who are getting elected have no idea -- no idea -- what life is like for the average person. I do. And, as corny as it sounds, I want to help people now.”

Grisham has an uphill fight, of course. With five days remaining to declare candidacy for the Oct. 7 recall ballot, more than 200 people are jamming the field.

Still, Grisham doesn’t want to be taken lightly, which is why he turned down a CNN appearance when he sensed he was wanted more for amusing the viewers than enlightening them.

“I don’t think CNN is used to getting turned down,” he says with a chuckle. “They called back later and assured me that I would get to talk about real issues. So I won one already.”