Danzig Days Are Here Again

Glenn Danzig Returns With A Vengeance


Danzig by Steven Batten

Glenn Danzig has a reputation for being difficult. And he doesn't particularly care. But take the time to speak with Danzig about the passions in his life -- his music and his art -- and you'll quickly come to realize that what many mistake for an arrogant and problematic disposition is more likely just Danzig's unwavering dedication to achieving his vision and delivering on a level that his loyal fans have come to expect.
Danzig's latest offering, BLACKACIDEVIL, is no exception. By embedding shards of seething industrial energy and infusing elements of techno deep within his trademark dark and moody compositions, Danzig has achieved a cutting edge amalgamation that once more finds him alone atop his chosen heap.
With a new band in tow including drummer Joey Castillo, bassist Josh Lazie and former Prong main man Tommy Victor on guitar, Danzig is currently tearing up theaters across the country in support of BLACKACIDEVIL, the sixth Danzig release from the former Misfits/Samhain frontman. With special guests Powerman 5000 and the Electric Hellfire Club at their side, Danzig will invade the Agora Theatre this Friday, February 7.
Phoning from an early tour stop somewhere south of the Mason-Dixon line, Glenn Danzig spoke at length about BLACKACIDEVIL, changing labels, enlisting the services of Jerry Cantrell and his successful forays into the worlds of comics [he's owner, publisher, editor and a writer for his own company, Verotik], and feature films [he's set to appear alongside Christopher Walken in the upcoming PROPHECY II]. Here's what he had to say.

SCENE: You've taken some big steps with this record, heading further down some paths that you'd begun to explore on your previous releases.
Glenn Danzig: Originally on DANZIG 4, I wanted to use Bill Kennedy, the guy I used this time as engineer. I asked American to get in touch with him, and they came back and told me, "Oh, he's busy. He can't do it."
When I got in touch with him myself to do Danzig five [BLACKACIDEVIL], I told him about the whole thing and how it was a shame that he couldn't do it, he said, "Well, no one ever called me. I was available during that time, and I've always wanted to work with you."
Had that happened, I think the transition wouldn't have been so different. It would have been a little smoother. But I think people -- longtime Danzig fans -- kind of knew what was going on when they heard "Cantspeak" and they heard some of the interviews and that song ["Deep"] on the "X-Files" album [1996's SONGS IN THE KEY OF X].
SCENE: This is your first release for a new label, Hollywood Records, after severing your ties with Rick Rubin's American Recordings. Would it be safe to assume that American didn't share your vision towards the end.
GD: I did. They didn't. Rick was never at the label. If he was co-producing or executive producing or whatever, that just amounted to Rick coming down to the studio for 15 minutes at the end of the night or in the morning.
It was just total chaos at American, people leaving, Rick trying to sell the label. He didn't want to be part of it anymore. Pile on top of that not getting paid, not getting accounted to. It was total bullshit.
SCENE: You seem to have found a more suitable creative environment with Hollywood, somewhere you can kind of grow together rather than apart.
GD: It's not a new company, but as far as actually putting out real bands and not just soundtracks, it is a new company. There's a lot of cool people there, and it's exciting.
SCENE: Danzig have always been centered on yourself, but over the last couple of years you've lost some key personnel and popular players in Eerie Von [bass], John Christ [guitar] and Chuck Biscuits [drums]. It doesn't sound like you've had much of a problem with continuity, however.
GD: No. Joey did all of the DANZIG 4 tour, and he played on a lot of the live B-sides for the Europeans. It was really solid. I think Joey's a solid, solid, solid drummer. He's more rock steady than Chuck was, so it wasn't really that hard.
SCENE: How did Jerry Cantrell come to be involved with BLACKACIDEVIL? Had you been friends prior to this project?
GD: No, actually. We had met a long time ago previously, but when I wanted to put some lead guitar stuff on the record, I immediately thought of Jerry. He's one of my favorite guitar players. I knew their management, because we had taken Soundgarden out on tour and they have the same manager.
So I called up and asked if Jerry would be interested in doing a couple of songs on the album. And he said, "Sure," and came down.
SCENE: When did Tommy Victor come into the picture?
GD: What happened was, Prong and Danzig were in the same rehearsal studio, and we were trying guitar players out and they were getting ready for their RUDE AWAKENING tour. Tommy was talking to Joey, and he said, "Oh, man, I'd love to try out." But he had his deal with Prong, so he went out on the Prong tour.
Eventually what happened was, we were getting ready to do the Ozzfest, and Prong were supposed to be on the bill also, but we heard that Prong weren't doing it and they broke up or lost their tour support. So Joey says, "We should ask Tommy. We should ask him if he wants to do it."
So I said, "OK, I'll give him a call." We called him up, and he was into it, so he flew out, had a couple of rehearsals and it was incredible.
SCENE: You can't help but get better as a band when you add a guy like Tommy to the lineup.
GD: Tommy's just an incredible guitar player, and he's also got his own career, you know what I mean. So it's cool.
SCENE: Do you envision collaborating with Tommy for the next record.
GD: We've already started working on an EP for this summer, and Tommy's on that. It'll have six or seven songs on it.
SCENE: I know you're a big Ozzy fan, even retooling Black Sabbath's "Hand Of Doom" for this record. What was it like for you touring with Ozzy?
GD: It worked out great. They called and asked if we wanted the tour in the special guest slot, so I had to think about it for a while, only because it meant a lot of days off. But then I was like, "Yeah, definitely." Ozzy in Black Sabbath was the first live band that I saw.
SCENE: What are your thoughts on the recent Misfits pseudo-reunion and box set? It didn't really seem to carry much weight without your involvement.
GD: It wasn't much of a reunion. It was a guitar player that played in the band for about a year, going out with a bunch of new guys -- That wasn't really a reunion. What happened was, they asked everyone, and no one wanted to do it. So they put it together to try to cash in.
It's just kind of sad that in all of those years since we've been together, the only thing they can think of doing musically and creatively was this half-assed thing they did, instead of maybe creating new music and putting something into it. They didn't write any of the songs. That's my attitude.
SCENE: Shifting gears to a more pleasant topic, your comic line seems to be doing rather well these days.
GD: Yeah. We, of course, have had a big problem with censorship, but despite that, yeah. Meeting the demand was one of the reasons I did it. That wasn't being addressed by all the other comics.
And it never was going to be -- no one even cared. A line of comics that took itself a little more seriously and took its readers seriously? It's been great.
SCENE: Of what I've seen, such as "Verotika" and "Satanika," you're doing something that nobody else can really touch.
GD: No one else was doing it, and no one was going to do it, and at the time, I was able to do it. Being a comic fan and realizing that no one in the United States was going to do a company like this unless I did it, you know -- Japan and Europe, they have comics for every age group. Here they don't.
They just want to make money, and it's like superheroes trying to save the world, you know what I mean. How does somebody that sees people get shot on the streets relate to that?
SCENE: You're also going to be spreading your wings into the motion picture arena, I'm told.
GD: Oh, I did that. It went great. I did that while I was doing the Ozzfest. It was a lot of hard work, but it was worth it.
SCENE: You've obviously got a lot of creative outlets. Does that help you when you get back to focusing on the music?
GD: Yeah, you know, 'cause I've been doing this for a long time. It keeps me fresh and focused, and sometimes if it's the only thing you do, you can't be objective. And one of the things I've always tried to do is be objective. So yeah, it works real well.
SCENE: Your live performances have always been your strong suit. Are you working in a lot of the new material this time around?
GD: It's basically just a blend of all of the stuff from the beginning until now.
SCENE: And Danzig shows have always been a high-energy affair .
GD: It's even more high energy. Eerie's back was really bad on the DANZIG 4 tour, and he wasn't moving around that much. And John never really moved around. And now the band that I've got . If you've seen Tommy before, he's out of his mind. And an incredible guitar player. And then Lazie also is just all over the stage. He's great. It's a lot of fun.