BLACKIE LAWLESS
W.A.S.P. vocalist/guitarist
www.waspnation.com

(Spring 2004) by George Dionne

It's been two years since W.A.S.P.'s last studio album, Dying for the World. So what has the dark and twisted mind of Blackie Lawless' been up to? He's been crafting a tale of epic proportions. W.A.S.P.'s latest creation is the two part concept album The Neon God. Part One: The Rise was released in the spring (read CD review), with Part Two expected to drop six months later. The Neon God tells the tale of Jesse, a tormented orphan boy who.....you know what? Even if I explained it to you, you wouldn't understand it. In fact, I don't understand it.

When I spoke to Blackie about his latest release, he must have woken up on the wrong side of the bed. Could it have been he was disappointed with the first week’s sales? Was it because the story of The Neon God has more holes in it than Swiss cheese? Who knows? After asking the first question I knew that the interview could go sour at any moment. However, I did learn some valuable tips on how to interview Blackie Lawless: Don't ask him questions that you should know the answer to, even if people reading the interview don't know the answer. Don't criticize his story or music. Don't ask about the back catalog or projects that haven't panned out. Don't ask what he perceives as negative questions. And finally, avoid any and all questions about former band members.

RIL: Before we get started, I just wanted to say that I'm a big W.A.S.P. fan. I have everything that you guys ever did. It's really cool to be able to talk to you today.
BL: Really? Well I appreciate that, thank you.

RIL: Your new concept album The Neon God Part I: The Rise was just released; can you briefly describe the story?
BL: Honestly, no.

RIL: No?
BL: Well, when you say briefly. You have the record right? I assume they gave you the booklet and all that stuff?

RIL: Oh, I know exactly what it's about…
BL: To say or to ask; and I'm not trying to be a snot with you here, don't get me wrong but it's just an enormously complex piece of work. In one way. I see this story in two different ways. It's a very complicated story, but at the same time I can see it as an incredibly simplistic piece, depending on how a person wants to look at it. My main motivation for doing it was; I was looking for what I though was the greatest common denominator that we all have as humans. I don't mean food, shelter, water, and things of sustenance. I'm talking about; what's the greatest thought that we all have? Who am I? Where am I going? Does my life mean anything? Will it mean anything after I'm gone? All that stuff. Is there a God, is there not? Is there any sort of afterlife? What does all of this mean? I think that's the one nagging question that we all have. Maybe we don't talk about it a lot, but we're all thinking about it constantly. That's when I came up with the line, 'Oh tell me my Lord, why am I here?' I thought that one thought, for me, encapsulated all of those ideas. Basically, by someone desperately crying out, 'What the heck is this all about?' In that sense it's ultimately simplistic, depending on how someone wants to look at the story.

RIL: Was there a story or an event that inspired you?
BL: No. Like I said, I went around looking for a way to try to roll all of those thoughts together. When I came up with that one line, that to me is what did it. It's kind of like Jeopardy, I had the answer first and I had to go back and find the question.

RIL: Were you the sole songwriter for this?
BL: Yep.

RIL: The Neon God is split into two releases, why not release them together?
BL: Quite frankly, that's a retailer’s decision. It's not really left to the artist anymore, because retailers are getting to the point now where they don't want to take double record sets. They complain about the amount of space that it takes up and stuff. Knowing what I know now, I probably would have done it in two different parts. My original idea was to release them both as one piece. At the end of the day, it's not the artist's or the label's decision.

RIL: Now to me, on the track "What I'll Never Find"; the way that the story flows, it doesn't seem that Billy's death had any significance to the rest of the story. Am I missing something? Was it more of a way to work a ballad into the otherwise intense music?
BL: Well, I don't see that song as a ballad, number one. Secondly, Billy's death is enormously important to the story. I mean, here's a guy (Jesse: the main character) that's known nothing but despair and anguish his entire life, and the one person that he finally clings to........Billy serves as a symbol of nothing being permanent. The fragility of humans; emotionally, spiritually, of life and death. Billy is an enormous apex in the road for this kid. [Jesse] has three of them up and to this point; Billy being the third, his father being the first, and Sadie being the second. These characters are not so much just people; they're symbols of what happens in our lives.

RIL: How many of the new songs do you plan to play live?
BL: Three or four. We're in rehearsals right now. We're not sure exactly what we're going to do just yet. You have to understand that when a new record comes out, everyone's not familiar with it. It takes a while for it to grow on people. We don't want to bombard people just yet with this piece of work. Ultimately, after we get out on tour, the audience will tell us what they want. You have to remember that when a band goes out on tour, provided they are listening; the audience is listening to them, but they should be listening to the audience at the same time.

RIL: Can we expect any stage theatrics at all?
BL: W.A.S.P. will always have visual presentations, but a lot of times you can't describe them. You just have to go see the band. It would be us without visual presentation.

RIL: Is there a reason that you guys don't tour through Massachusetts anymore?
BL: Massachusetts really doesn’t have a whole lot of places to play anymore. As a matter of fact, this question came up last night. When a band goes on tour, they don't make conscious decisions not to go someplace. There's one of two reasons normally that will cause a band to not go to someplace. A, number one; there's not a venue that's suitable for them. Secondly, there's not a promoter that's willing to bring them there. That's the only two reasons that I can think of. It's not just W.A.S.P., it's any band.

RIL: Are you still using the codpiece after The Station Fire incident?
BL: Quite honestly, everybody understands that tragedy and how horrific it was, but when I say to you that it had no bearing on what we are doing right now, I don't mean to diminish that tragedy in any way. These decisions were made; that we would not do that sort of stuff, long before that happened. When we did The Crimson Idol, I got pretty belligerent at that point, and I determined that we weren't going to do any theatrics. I was going to make people listen with the ears instead of their eyes. I refused to do anything visual. I've loosened up on that somewhat this time, but I'm still very much in the state of mind that I want people to listen with their ears instead of their eyes. That determination, for the codpiece and things of that sort, was made long before [The Station Fire] happened. You have to remember; I've been working on this piece of work (The Neon God) for almost ten years, and actively recording it for over two. So, this goes back quite some ways.

RIL: With the violence on television, violence in the movies, and violence in video games today; do you think that there is anything left that you can do on stage to shock people?
BL: I'm not trying to, I never did. That's an overly simplistic thought. What we did in the very early days, we did to entertain ourselves. Anything that we did from The Headless Children on was all designed to make social comment. I'm trying to use my career to say something. I don't think that is what artistry is about. I could care less about shock. That means nothing to me. Trying to say something with the opportunity that I've been given, that being my career; to me, that's what it's all about. Again, shock is.....

RIL: It's all perception. What you would find shocking, might not be what I would find shocking.
BL: Again, I'm not looking at it in those terms. I'm trying to get people to think. There's a huge difference. You don't have to hit somebody on the head with a sledgehammer to get them to do that. This whole record I just did is designed to do just that. It's designed to try to get people to think about who they are, where they are in their lives, and about this journey that we are all on. If the record can do that, then it's been successful. That's the whole object of everything I've been doing for the last fifteen years.

RIL: It was just announced that Stet Howland is going to be playing drums on the upcoming tour. Is he permanently in the band, or is it just for the tour?
BL: You said it was just announced?

RIL: I read it yesterday (at www.waspnation.com & www.stethowland.com dated April 21st. Today is April 23rd).
BL: 'Cause he's been here for a while.

RIL: I read it yesterday, and I read a past interview of yours that said he played on the album, but it didn't mention the tour.
BL: Hmm. People assume things a lot of times, like who's doing stuff or whatever. I try not to get involved in stuff like that. People want to try to start drawing conclusions as to what a band may or may not do. When I say a band I mean anybody, not just us. Unless someone's on the inside of a situation, they really don't know the internal workings of something. So, anything other than that is just pure conjecture. To say that [Stet's] been here a while is kind of a gross understatement would you think?

RIL: Is he just going to play the tour?
BL: Well, he was doing a lot of solo work on his own. He built his own studio and stuff. We'll cross that bridge after the tour's done. That's a long way down the road right now.

RIL: Back in the eighties, W.A.S.P. was singled out by the P.M.R.C. for indecency in their music, which led to Congressional hearings. Today the government and the FCC are cracking down on indecency on the radio and television, because Janet Jackson exposed her breast during the Super Bowl. What do you think about the whole thing?
BL: I think that the difference between this one and that one before was that; when it happened in the eighties, it was politicians jumping up on a soapbox to try and create a political platform for themselves. This time it's not spearheaded by politicians, this is social backlash. There's quite a bit of difference this time. Yeah, I'm familiar with all the Howard Stern stuff, and there's probably a 'witch hunt' going on there. I think over all, when you look at surveys and people being polled, I think this is more social than political.

RIL: You don't think it's religious?
BL: Well, if you polled the people, than you'd have to ask them individually about that. That's a whole different question than what you first asked. You'd have to get inside everybody's head to know what the truth is there.

RR: What do you think about the RIAA suing illegal downloaders?
BL: That's more like the big dog in the front yard theory. It pays to advertise from their point of view. Unfortunately, anyway you look at it; the artists are never going to get paid for downloading when it comes to that sort of stuff. It's stuff that will falls through the cracks, and the artist will never see the money from it one way or the other, whether the labels get it or not. That's just the way that fuzzy math is done there. To be brutally honest with you, I don't think that artists care one way of the other. They know that it's a lose-lose situation for them any way they go.

RIL: Is it more about big business? Do you think that the records industry is doing it for themselves?
BL: Of course. Nobody is doing it to represent artists. No matter what they tell the public.

RIL: How many more times is the W.A.S.P. catalog going to be re-released?
BL: What specifically are you referring to?

RIL: Well, you have the studio albums when the were originally released, then you added bonus tracks and re-released them, and now their being repackaged again in digi-packs. Is that something that you have control over?
BL: I have no control over that. That's news to me, to be honest. When did that start?

RIL: I would say late last year. I want to say that Snapper Records is doing it.
BL: Well, they're the one's that have the rights to the catalog, but I haven't seen what they are doing.

RIL: They're just taking them out of the jewel cases and sticking them in a cardboard case.
BL: I have a very poor relationship with them, and like I said, this is news to me. It's not uncommon.

RIL: Yeah, it happens all the time.
BL: Then why would you ask me about that?

RIL: Well, I asked you if you knew about it, if you had control of it, and why it would happen.
BL: For any artist that would do it, it would be obvious. There's two reasons; A, number one, you're wanting me to say that it's income, and quite frankly it is, but at the same time you have to understand that there's a need for that. When you go on the road and you listen to fans talk, they are constantly clamoring for new material. When I say new material I don't just mean new songs, I mean new product. You have to understand that record companies are in the business to make money, and they're going to feed that machine any way that they can. A lot of times an artist doesn't have control over that sort of thing. Sometimes they do, and sometimes they don't.

RIL: There was supposed to be a W.A.S.P. DVD of all your videos that was to come out last fall or the fall before that (Fall 2002); What happened with that?
BL: That's still in the process of restoration from what I understand. That too is something that I don't have...I do have some control over that, but I won't have any control until it's ready to go.

RIL: Is there a reason you don't attend any of the after show parties, or meet and greet session after the show?
BL: Tell me specifically what you're referring to. I understand the question that you just said, but when you say meet and greet with W.A.S.P., we really don't do those things.

RIL: Okay, for example; the last show you did in Connecticut for the Unholy Terror Tour, I was invited to the after show and you didn't come out.
BL: What sort of after show?

RIL: The band just came out and hung out with a bunch of people. It was Stet, it was Darryl, and it was Mike. They just come out and hung with people. Their families were there.
BL: But that's where they're from, they're from there. That's not really an official after show thing. I mean, if it's something that the label would arrange, or something like that they want me to do, then of course I'll do it. Unless I'm invited to a family reunion, then it doesn't seem like a lot of point.

RIL: Last year I read an interview with Chris Holmes and he said that you thought that the fans are beneath you. Is that true?
BL: (Big sigh) I understand you're a fan, but I am not going to dignify anything like that with an answer. I don't want to continue to do a negative based interview. When we first started, everything was okay. The last three or four you've asked me are coming from a direction that I think is very unfair. If you've got a bone to pick with me, let's do it right here, right now.

RIL: I don't have a bone to pick with you, but when I was coming up with my questions I was trying to come up with a blanket of what people would want to know about. Not just me. I try to get a broad range from top to bottom if I could.
BL: I'm not interested in doing any sort of negative interviews or anything like that. To dignify any sort of thing that Holmes would say something like that; you've gotta understand there's a guy that is desperate to try and get people to listen to him. The only way that they will is if he talks about me. Make sense? So, I am not going to get into mud slinging and things of that sort. I despise it when I see other entertainers do it. It's very cheap and there's no class when people do that. Honestly, whether it's true or whether it isn't, it is still not something, especially bands, should do; is air their laundry in front of the public. Again, whether it is or is not true, it shouldn't be done. To go further into it only continues to fuel some sort of fire like that. For anyone that needs that question answered truthfully, all they need to do is go and look at what I do when I make records. I pour my heart and soul into those things. If that's not enough, then I should quit.

RIL: Ooh-kay. One of my favorite CDs of yours was K.F.D. It was kind of a different direction for W.A.S.P. It was... I guess I could describe it as industrial, but it's really tough to put a label on it. Would you consider doing another album like that? In that vain, in that style of music.
BL: I try to make records that reflect who I am at the moment. So, that would be hard to answer. To answer you right now, I couldn't. I would say this on behalf of that record, it's probably the record with the greatest imagery that this band ever did. If you go back and you look at the scenarios the way that they are painted on canvas lyrically, there's no record that we've ever done that's quite like that.

RIL: I missed out on the tour and from what I understand, it was pretty wild.
BL: It was the best show we ever did.

RIL: It's a really strong and intense album. It's what I picture W.A.S.P. to be. Not taking away from anything that you did before that or after it, but it was just intense.
BL: That show and that record was built around pure social comment. That's where I get my inspiration from now. If any artist is given that great gift of being able to voice their thoughts and feelings, and that's ultimately what any artist's platform is at the end of the day, it's not their talent. They're given this gift of being able to speak to people. The object of it is to stimulate thought.

RIL: Can you hint to what we might expect on Part II of The Neon God?
BL: That's a little early yet. We've made a conscious decision not to go that far yet.

RIL: Is there anything else that you would like to talk about?
BL: The only thing I can think of, as far as America is concerned; we start here in mid-July, and we're just trying to put one foot in front of the other right now. This has been a long road to get this to this point. This has been a very, very difficult birth with this record. To get out on the road, to get some rest, is not an overstatement. This is something we're looking forward to.

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