After Rusk, Erickson's once-trippy music took on horror movie themes, such as "Creature With the Atom Brain" and "I Think of Demons." He called himself the Evil One, his band the Aliens and made some pretty good records on his good days. His 1976 single "Red Temple Prayer (Two-Headed Dog)" shared Rolling Stone's top single of the year with "God Save the Queen" by the Sex Pistols. "Don't Slander Me"/"Starry Eyes" was another triumph in 1984. On the eve of that single's release, Roky told Third Coast magazine, "When I write a song I like to do it for an audience, but a lot of times my music scares them because they don't understand what I'm trying to say."

When he played the Ritz Theater in Austin in 1987, backed by Will Sexton, Speedy Sparks and other longtime supporters, it felt like the final Roky Erickson concert. He struggled and seemed lost. The magic was gone.