Glenn Danzig "Satan's Child"

Date: 11/10/99

By: Interview from by Chris


You have a new CD out called "6.66 Satan's Child" out on Emagine, so why don't you tell me about the new label?

Glenn: It's actually out on MY label, through Emagine. I don't know what to say. We get regular distribution, and internet distribution, so it's the best of both worlds.

What happened with Hollywood Records since you are no longer on that label?

Glenn: Well about three weeks in, we had all support pulled from us because Roy Disney didn't realize we were on one of his labels and he freaked out. So we spent like a good year, year and a half, getting off that label. But I got all my stuff back, and I settled and got out of there.

And you got everything back from Rick Rubin too?

Glenn: Not everything, just all the unreleased stuff.

That stuff is going to be coming out?

Glenn: Yeah

Are we ever going to hear "White Devil Rise"?

Glenn: Maybe, we recorded that for Danzig 5 as well.

There are some songs that I have heard about, let me ask you about them. First off, I read about a song called "Crucifixtion Destruction"?

Glenn: There is no such song.

How about "Cold, Cold Rain"?

Glenn: Maybe

On the back of the new CD, there's a little coffin, I'm curious as to what that represents and what it's about?

Glenn: You'll have to do some homework.

You played some guitar on the new CD?

Glenn: Yeah

What songs?

Glenn: Uh, I'd have to look at the CD to tell you.

Jeff Chambers did some guitar work on there, now was he ever a full member of the band or was it always like a "guest" thing?

Glenn: He was more like on a trial basis.

Who's the line up on the new tour?

Glenn: We have a new guitarist named Todd Youth, who was in Murphy's Law, Degeneration, and had a side band called Chrome Locust for a while.

Lazie and Joey Castillo are still in the band?

Glenn: Yeah.

I heard Blackacidevil is going to be rereleased?

Glenn: Yeah, with 3 extra tracks.

Is that going to be on Evilive through Emagine?

Glenn: Yeah.

I heard about a follow up to Black Aria.

Glenn: Yeah.

Um, can you tell me anything about that?

Glenn: Well, I had it written for about a year and half and it will come out probably next Christmas.

I was listening to an interview with you a few days ago and I know you study Jeet Kune Do, and you commented in passing, and I was surprised that the interviewer didn't ask you about it more in depth, but you said you have a teaching degree?

Glenn: Yeah.

How long have you been studying?

Glenn: I've been studying, well what I did was I was studying Mui Tae (sp?) and I got my introduction to Jeet Kune Do through my teacher Jerry, who was one of Bruce Lee's five core L.A. guys. And I started training with him January of 1992.

When did you get your teaching degree?

Glenn: He gave it to me either 93 or 94, but I wouldn't take it, because I wanted to be ever better and to be able to answer any questions anybody had, like if I ever had a question, he had an answer, you know? So, I accpeted it like a year later.

How do you feel studying and mastering it has helped you?

Glenn: It's a good way to keep discipline and all that.

Any plans on having any students?

Glenn: We'll see.

We've been hearing about the Samhain box set for a while now, what's going on with it?

Glenn: Yeah, it'll be coming in ummm...maybe January. What's going to be on it is all the Samhain tracks released to date, two live CDs, a bunch of unreleased tracks, and possibly a video.

There was a version of "Twist of Cain" floating around that was a lot faster, will that be on there?

Glenn: Yeah, that'll be on there, Possession, Trouble, some old stuff.

Now, Bloodfeast and Death Comes Ripping were originally written for the Misfits.

Glenn: That's true.

Are we going to see those songs on there, were they ever recorded?

Glenn: No, I gave those to the Misfits Earth AD records because we didn't have enough tracks for it, there are some others on there that I wrote for Samhain.

Samhain is opening for Danzig on this next tour. What's the line up?

Glenn: Everyone except Eerie.

Are you going full out with blood and devilocks?

Glenn: We'll see.

Lyle Preslar was in Samhain for...

Glenn: one show (laughs).

Yeah, one show, and I'm curious as to your opinions and straightedge as he was from Minor Threat.

Glenn: Well, at the time I was straightedge. I mean, occassionally now I'll have some champagne or a glass of Saki if I'm out with friends, but I'm still, like no drugs, you know? As far as the women thing, no, I'm not down with that. I'm a little too extreme.

Hatebreed is opening for you on this next tour?

Glenn: Yep.

I was kind of surprised to see that because on the past few tours you've had bands like Coal Chamber and Hellfire, so I was surprised to see a hardcore band on the tour. Did you choose them or how did they get hooked up?

Glenn: Uh, yeah well they have been mentioned to me. They weren't described to me as hardcore, as much as they were compared to like Pantera and a cross between that, very aggressive, that's fine, yeah.

Tommy Victor was in the band...

Glenn: Tommy was in the band as a guest guiar player for the Blackacidevil tour? He was NEVER officially in the band.

Did that just not work out or what?

Glenn: Yeah, Tommy had, you know, even though Prong was dropped, he was still thinking about doing Prong or this thing he was going to do called Serpico, yeah but none of that ever happened I guess.

You had a bit role in the Prophecy 2. There's been a lot of talk about the X-Men movie and The Crow 3, are you going to be in these or do you want to do any acting?

Glenn: No

I thought I heard about a Death Dealer movie?

Glenn: A long time ago there was talk about it, but nothing ever happened. There may be a Jaguar God movie, though.

On the new CD you have a song called Kali's Song.

Glenn: Kali

What can you tell me about Kali, because I've been finding the goddess of love and war...

Glenn: You're reading the wrong books.

Um...can you tell me anything about it then, give me some background.

Glenn: Um...well the Kali I'm writing about is a deity, yeah, middle eastern, really the goddess of blood...lots of blood sacrifices.

On the Less Than Zero soundtrack, you have a song called "You and Me"...

Glenn: Yeah, I have two songs on there.

Yeah, the song you wrote for Roy Orbison, and I was wondering if you can tell me anything about that band, as nothing has been released under that band since.

Glenn: Yeah, well I wrote two songs for that soundtrack. One for Roy Orbison and one Rick wanted me to write this song, it was a favor for Rick Rubin, the producer. He wanted me to write a song that some girl was going to sing, that kinda related to what was going on in the movie, between the main three characters. He wanted a girl to sing it, so I what I did was I laid down a rough vocal track for her, so she'd be able to...you know, whoever he hired...to hear how the melody went and sing it. And eventually he couldn't find a girl to sing it or what you know, whatever it was, and he played the demo for the people at CBS and they said 'well just have this guy sing it,' so he asked me to do it. I said 'well this isn't really the kind of stuff I usually do' but I ended up doing it just as a favor to him.

How did you get hooked up with writing songs for Roy Orbison and Johnny Cash?

Glenn: Let's see. Roy Orbison, they asked me to write a song for him, and I said, yeah I love Roy Orbison. So, I wrote him a song, met with him, went in showed it to him and he liked it and he ended up doing it in the studio. Pretty much the same thing with Johnny Cash, I was asked if I'd be interested in writing a song for Johnny Cash, and I said fuck yeah, I love Johnny Cash, so I wrote the song for him, taught it and he loved it and put it on his album.

The song "Heart of Devil" was originally written to duet with Willie Dixon?

Glenn: Yeah

Um, do you have any plans of recording or writing for anyone else?

Glenn: Not right now.

I've been hearing about...back in the day...that the Misfits existed before Jerry Only?

Glenn (sounding happier): Oh yeah, that's true.

Did you ever do any shows or record or who was in the band?

Glenn: I don't think we did any shows, you know we had friends come down to rehearsal to hang out or whatever, but lots of different line ups in there. It was like me, this girl I knew who was a friend, she played bass, named Diane, and a guitar player friend of mine named Jimmy Battle who I went to school with, and uh Mr. Jim and Manny alternating on drums.

There's an interview floating around, a tape of it, from 1990, and you're on the tour bus, and you hear Manny come up in the background explaining that he was from the Misfits, and we haven't heard much from him at all, except for back in the day.

Glenn: Yeah, he's an old friend of mine. He hates Jerry.

Really?

Glenn: Oh yeah.

Has he been doing any bands or anything?

Glenn: I don't really know what he's up to, I haven't seen him since '90 or '91.

A few years back there was supposed to be a live tape from Max's at Christmas of 78, and it never came out. Jerry came out and said "well Glenn said no," so did you really say no or what?

Glenn: No, I have no say in that, so that's bullshit. Maybe Caroline felt that it sounded like shit or something. It was only like a little four track tape, if it ever came out I'm sure it'd have to be worked on...I didn't think it sounded that good (laughs). But, no, I had nothing to do with that, in fact we sold the whole Misfits catalog, except the publishing, I have that because I wrote all the songs, so I have all the publishing. But we sold the whole catalog to Caroline back in 1995 or whenever that was.

I don't know if you'd even be able to answer this, but "Return of the Fly" was one of the...well almost everyone knew it and it wasn't even released, and you know, there are these demos out there, so how do songs like that get out.

Glenn: Sure (sounding happy), what happens is a friend you trust, maybe has a tape of it, and he sells a demo to somebody and then that person sells demos to somebody, and then that person sells it to some scumbag who puts out a bootleg record. So, it's usually someone you trust that sell you out down the road (sounding pissed). You know what I mean? (sounding happy again) It's very fucked up.

Okay, well the song "7th House"? What can you tell me about it?

Glenn: What do you think it's about?

Well I know what it's about...

Glenn: No you don't, don't lie (laughs).

Yeah, I do, I just am unclear as to the term "7th House"?

Glenn: Uh huh.

So, can you give me any insight.

Glenn: Nah.

Uh, so what bands are you listening to now?

Glenn: I like some Korn, I liked the new Orgy record until MTV played the fuck out of it. Um, just various different stuff. I like some riffs by some black metal bands.

Have you heard Slipknot?

Glenn: No, I haven't heard them. Actually, I heard a demo that was very poppy.

They kinda have the Korn sound. They have a good live show, but the music is okay. You're playing the House of Blues on November 21st, which is a real nice place, I think you'll like it more than the Vic where you've played a few times.

Glenn: Yep

Um, well I think I'm just about out of questions.

Glenn: Cool.

So, thanks for doing this.

Glenn: My pleasure.

~The End~