Ghoulardi's influence ultimately inspired the music and performance styles of a number of rock and punk bands from Cleveland and Akron, Ohio. The self-proclaimed "psychobilly" band, The Cramps, named their 1990 album "Stay Sick!" and dedicated their 1997 album, "Big Beat From Badsville", to Ghoulardi's memory. David Thomas, of art rock band Pere Ubu, said that the Cramps were "so thoroughly co-optive of the Ghoulardi persona that when they first appeared in the 1970s, Clevelanders of the generation were fairly dismissive." Thomas credits Ghoulardi for influencing the "otherness" of the Cleveland/Akron bands of the mid-1970s and early-1980s, including the Electric Eels, The Mirrors, the Cramps, and Thomas's own groups, Pere Ubu and Rocket From The Tombs, declaring, "We were the Ghoulardi kids." Members of Devo and The Dead Boys have also cited Ghoulardi as a strong influence. Pretenders founder Chrissie Hynde, an Akron native, referred to Ghoulardi as a local "guru": "He had his own language and we idolized him, the Beat version of a ghoul."