Interview with Glenn Danzig

By: by Adrian Breeman WHSR Loud Rock music director

Well actually a lot of people did like it. I'm sure that a lot of the people who just liked "Mother" didn't like it, but a lot of the long-time fans liked it, plus we got a lot of new fans from it. Unfortunately, we got no support from Hollywood [Records], and they actually pulled support on the record about three weeks into the release. Disney found out we were on their label and freaked out. Of course I like every record I do, so I don't know what else to tell you. [laughs]

Do you think you'll have even more new fans with this CD? Did you notice a difference in crowds between 4 and 5, a lot of different people who liked the new direction you were taking moreso than some of the older stuff?

No, it was pretty much the same. [laughs]

Okay.

I mean, if some people like it, great, if other people never liked Danzig and they like it, great. I don't know if that will necessarily bring people out; usually what brings people out is that they know what to expect at a show, and that's why they come out to the live show. As far as the new record, we'll see. So far, the reaction has been overwhelming.

Do you know if you've had a lot of advance Internet sales [through E-Magine]?

Originally, when I was working on new deals for this record, talking to people, one of the guys I talked to does Blondie and Motley Crüe, and he did an advance on Blondie, and after a month and a half they went to number one on CDnow, because they sold 1500 copies in a month and a half. I know that just in the first couple days we had pre-orders, so we'll see what happens.

You mentioned your problems with Hollywood. What took you to Hollywood from American?

Well first off, I left American because Danzig had sold, what we know of, over 8 million records worldwide. And we hadn't been accounted for for any of that, publishing or recording. It was a big problem, and basically Rick [Rubin] told me in a friendly way that I would have to sue him, but that I shouldn't be mad at him because he said he had no control over it. And I said, "What?" This is a guy I thought was my friend. That was in the middle of the recording of Danzig 4, so I said, This guy's not getting my next record. So I just left American; they tried to sue us and get an injunction, and they failed. And then it was a bidding war between a bunch of labels to get the next Danzig record or the next two. I ended up going with Hollywood because they offered me my own label, besides the money the offered me. Pretty much everyone offered the same amount of money, even American. But, everything I was promised at Hollywood, none of it happened.

If Hollywood knew that they were owned by Disney, and knew that Disney would freak out about having you on their label, why did they even try to bid?

I had known about Hollywood, because my old lawyer had left the legal profession to run Hollywood, and he got screwed over. So when they were making their offer, we said, "Well, you know, we have some hesitations," and they said, "Listen, we're dedicated to making this into a real, viable rock label. We're going to be very artist-friendly, be into creater rights and everything. You're going to get your own label." Michael Eisner signed off on our deal, and assured my lawyer that there were not going to be any problems. It was all bullshit. Roy Disney freaked out. Besides finding out that I was on the label, and getting protests from every religious group in the world, he saw this Tower Pulse! political cartoon that hey did. It was of me and Michael Eisner shaking hands in Anti-Disneyland. Mickey Mouse had 666s on his head and people were in roller coasters on flames, there were upside-down crosses everywhere. It was pretty funny, but I guess he freaked. And I know Rick Rubin was pissed off, and sent the "It's Coming Down" video to Roy Disney. You know, the one where the guy gets the nail banged through his dick and everything. That was it. So Rick Rubin's a big scumbag.

So you're not too friendly with him anymore?

Well, what would you do if your best friend said, "Yeah, you sold all those records, but you're not getting paid, and, you know what, to get paid, you'll probably have to spend a lot of money and sue me. But don't be mad at me." It's kind of a fucked up situation.

So now with E-Magine, now you have your own label?

Yeah, my label is licensed through E-Magine, and we have regular distribution through the Warner Bros. chain and everything. It's fine.

So now with the Internet release, do you think that's a new way to branch out? Some artists even like the idea of Internet-only music.

Oh yeah, for sure. Well, I don't know about Internet-only music. For example, we have full Internet distribution through E-Magine, but we also have all these different outlets like CDnow, amazon.com, and now Tower has their own internet store, and you watch, everyone's going to have their own Internet store.

I read that you won the rights back to all of your old material. Will you be possibly re-releasing it through E-Magine?

Yeah. I didn't win the rights to all my old stuff. As part of our settlement, Rick and I, I got the rights to all the unreleased stuff. All the tracks from the recording sessions from Danzig I up to now, because I got everything back from Hollywood. The stuff from American, I got everything that was unreleased, so all the live unreleased stuff, every track that's unreleased, the songs no one has ever heard. From every recording sessions, there's about two to five. All the MTV stuff, the videos from Danzig III on, a documentary movie, live shows, everything on film, tons of stuff.

What about Black Aria? I've seen copies on eBay going for upwards of fifty or sixty bucks.

We're going to reissue that. I had my own label, [on?] Caroline, and I pulled that about four years ago, so it's been out of print since then. Same thing with the Samhain stuff. So the Black Aria thing is coming back out, and the Samhain box set is finally going to come out. A whole bunch of stuff.

A couple of years ago, I rented a movie called "The Prophecy II" I rented it mainly to see your part in it, and I was a little disappointed that it was so short. Do you see yourself branching out into more movies?

Not right now. I've been offered a lot of stuff, but that was the only thing I thought was really worth it.

I heard rumors that you were supposed to be cast as Wolverine in the upcoming X-Men movie. I've seen a list of the cast members and you weren't there. Were you offered the part and turned it down, or did they not even offer it to?

Yeah, they did come to me. The new producer and director are the third "team" or so, and I've met with pretty much all of them. This time I was hoping it was going to happen during my down time, but, of course, it didn't. They wanted me for nine months if I would have gotten the part. I told them, Sorry, I'm leaving for Europe in two weeks, and I'll be gone for three weeks, and then I've got a tour coming up in November, and the new record.

Bad timing?

Well, yeah. They would've wanted me for nine months, which means I wouldn't've been free until May or June of 2000. And I couldn't've left or done the tour. I've got the guys in my band, you know? They can't sit around for nine months. So I said I couldn't do it. They said they wanted me to read anyway. I told them I would, but it was kind of pointless. But I might give them a song for the movie, though.

Next month the movie "Dogma" comes out. Were you offered a part in that? There are about a thousand people making cameos, and being as you and Kevin Smith have some things in common, both being from New Jersey, both being involved with comics, and the movie has a religious theme, did anyone come to you about that?

Nope, I wasn't offered anything. Our comics are a little different than the stuff I've seen him write. He writes superhero crap, and we don't do anything like that. Ours are violent, sexy, demonic, barbaric ... no superheroes saving the world. I think I might be too heavy for that movie, anyway; I think Alanis Morissette in that?

Yeah, she is.

If I just looked at her, her fucking face would melt.

A few Megadeth albums ago, the band released some comic book that tied in to their new disc. Since you are involved with both comics and music, is that anything you might be doing in the future?

We originally started to try and do something like that. We were thinking of doing a CD where people could pick their favorite songs or whatever, and just make the CD. But it never happened. It was supposed to happen, because I was supposed to have my own label over at Hollywood, but that all went . That all went out the window, but maybe I'll resurrect it.

So what will the setlist for the upcoming tour be like? Will you concentrate on the new stuff, or mix in an each album somewhat evenly?

We're going to mainly focus on the new stuff, but we'll do about a song or two from each record.

Who are the opening bands?

This is for the Baltimore area?

Yes.

So we'll be at the Nation in D.C. on November 13th, with Hatebreed. And right before Danzig will be my old band Samhain.

I noticed you recorded "Thirteen" on this CD, and I remember seeing it on one of Johnny Cash's solo CDs (American Recordings). Why did you choose to resurrect this song? Are you still in contact with Johnny Cash at all?

I haven't talked to him in a while. When I wrote that song for him, it was something of an honor for me. During the recording sessions for this record Joey (Castillo, Danzig's drummer) and Lazie (Danzig's bassist) told me I had to do this song, and I wasn't sure. The recording engineer Josh said I should do it, so we just recorded it, not knowing if it would make it to the record or not. It came out really good, so we threw it on.

I read in an inteview from a couple years ago where you said, "If you think you know who Glenn Danzig is, you may be right, you may not be right." Depending on where you read or who you talk to, there are a lot of different opinions on you. How do you react toward the negative and false things being spread?

There's nothing you can do. That's one of the reasons we have our website (www.danzig-verotik.com), to field all the bullshit and lies and all that. So now we get a little bit of the power back.

Of the discs that have come out lately, whose are you spinning? What stuff do you like?

You mean lately?

Yes.

[chuckles] Not much.

You're not into the Kid Rock, Korn, Limp Bizkit scene?

Well, I view Korn as much different than Kid Rock or Limp Bizkit. There's some stuff I like by Korn, but I can't say there's much I like by the other other artists. [laughs]

I remember seeing you on MTV a few years ago, when there was an earthquake in California and you were showing some of the damage to your house. I mentioned to my sister that you were originally from the Lodi, New Jersey area, and she said that Lodi was one of the areas hardest hit by the hurricane that came up through here a few weeks ago. Do you still have any kind of house in New Jersey that was affected?

Nope. I've lived in L.A. for ten years.

What did you think of the media response to the Columbine shootings? You are obviously an artist who, if you haven't been singled out as one of the "worst" yet, may be in the near future.

It's all bullshit. Here we go. People are being killed every night in major cities across the country and urban areas everywhere. That's not "newsworthy." Then, a couple of kids deal with a problem they have in a very extreme way, and all of a sudden it's a big deal. Why? Because it's in a white neighborhood? Why, because it's election time? I think a lot more people were killed on Kosovo, wouldn't you think?

I would think so. Certainly more than 15.

How come Clinton, and the music and t.v. he watches isn't being blamed? It has nothing to do with music. It's ridiculous. People are using whatever they can to get elected. And now Tipper Gore, her whole censorship thing ...

"Parental advisory."

Well, the actually want to ban records now. That scumbag fuckface wans to ban records. And she's the wife of a man who's running for president, you know? What pissed me off about R.E.M., they went and played for Clinton. Don't they understand? The guy who's vice-president, his wife, who could be the possible first lady ...

Is a complete idiot.

Is a complete fucking censorship freak and just wants to destroy any kind of First Amendment rights you have. Does anybody care? Hello?

Speaking of which, there's a second cover for this CD, if you order it online?

Yes. There was a cover I originally commissioned from one of my comic artists, Marty. It came out totally awesome, but the girl's totally naked [laughs], and I knew record stores were not going to display this record; they'll just bury it.

So this other cover is the Walmart-friendly version?

[laughs] No, you'll never see a record called Danzig 6:66 Satans Child in Walmart. There, I guess it's Simon's version of me; it's got "666" branded on my shoulder; you're never going to see that at Walmart, believe me. [chuckles] I like the other cover, and I realized we had to do something, so we made it an Internet-only limited edition cover, and this one will go in the stores. You can get this one on the web too, if you like it better.

Okay, this is the end. I have one more somewhat lame question that begs to be answered. Who would win in a fight, you or Henry Rollins?

[laughs] Well, first off, there wouldn't be a fight, because Henry and I are friends.

See, I've heard him say that, but I thought maybe he was just tap-dancing around the question. I've seen some MTV Grudge Matches, and, as far as I know, they haven't had the two of you yet. Friends or not, that would be something worth seeing.

Henry and I have been friends for a while. He was on one of the Misfit live records, you know? On Evil Live. I've known Henry for a long time; it wouldn't be a fight. [laughs] So you'll never know.

~THE END~