People were worried about children or work. I said to myself: I don’t care, just kill me
Petr Ouda was born on August 14, 1953 in Teplice. At the age of sixteen, he left home and, as a wandering singer, he moved among independent North Bohemian youth. He trained to be a plumber, then worked in the national company Báňské stavby. Due to his nonconformism, he was constantly chased by the police. He was convicted for the first time in 1972, due to the removal of the Soviet flag during a trip to Mikulášovice in North Bohemia, and then spent nine months in the prison in Ostrov nad Ohří. After his release, he collaborated with the activist, musician and publisher František Stárek and became even closer to the North Bohemian underground subculture. He signed the Charter 77 Declaration; he also helped to spread the document and gained more signatories. In the second half of the 1970s, he was imprisoned again, first for a minor offense and later for the alleged perjury in the trial of Jiří Chmel. After his release, he found refuge in a community of friends from the underground, who, under the leadership of Jan and Květa Princ, lived in a former rectory in Robeč and a farm in Mastířovice pod Českým středohořím. After being forced to leave the Mastířovice house, he was given an apartment in a block of flats in the nearby village Hošťka. He spent the late 1980s in Prague, and in the 1990s he ran a rock club in Teplice.