buddyhead - i'm great. thanks for talking to us.
glen - so what's this for?

buddyhead - we're an online magazine called buddyhead.
glen - why buddyhead?

buddyhead - i dunno... cuz it needed a name.
glen - there's no secret meaning behind it?

buddyhead - if it was secret i couldn't tell you.
glen - ohhhhh yeah. ok.

buddyhead - i got the new cd yesterday and the press kit. i liked it a lot. i wanted to ask you about the break between labels. from def american, to hollywood, to emagine.
glen - well we weren't happy at american. standard stuff like selling lots of records you aren't getting accounted to, we're doing all the work. they're making all the money, while we make dick...

buddyhead - and danzig was selling some records too.
glen - yeah, at the time we left american, we were the biggest selling act on the label. so, when i confronted rick (rubin) while we were recording "danzig 4" i said, "hey rick we really need to talk because we're selling lots of records and over the years we've never gotten one accounting." and he said, "well you're gonna hafta sue me." he said it matter of factly like it's no big thing. i said, "what do you fuckin mean?" he said, "i have no control over that kind of stuff. it shouldn't interfere with our working relationship. you'll just have to take me to court and get it all straightened out."

buddyhead - that's insane!
glen - yeah. so here's this guy who i thought was my friend, and he wasn't my friend. he was just a record company scumbag who had been stealing money from the band. i could've said nothing and just sued his ass, but i just said that i'd never do another record with this guy again. it was too late for "danzig 4" but after that, that was it. then when we did "danzig 5" we told them we weren't doing another record with them and they tried to sue us and get an injunction against the record. they couldn't. the judge kicked it out of court. so then we went into a bidding war over the record and they actually bid on the record.

buddyhead - really?
glen - oh yeah. they offered a shit load too.

buddyhead - how bizarre.
glen - yeah, then hollywood offered me my own label. but of course that was all bullshit. we ended up settling out of court with rubin. i got a bunch of stuff back, which he still hasn't turned over by the way.

buddyhead - what kind of stuff, like recordings?
glen - yeah. everything unreleased, all the home videos, music videos, the documentary movie we made for the "how gods kill" tour.

buddyhead - so there's a potential for this stuff to be released in the future?
glen - oh yeah. there's also the irvine meadows show we shot with 4 cameras which comprised of stuff we used on the "mother" video. that also had a 24 track recording which synced up to that. every unreleased track from danzig 1 to danzig 4. there's roughly 2 to 5 tracks per record that nobody has ever heard. tons of stuff.

buddyhead - so why did you go with hollywood?
glen - their offer was crazy money wise. still not as much as american, but the key was autonomy. they'd make me a home there, nobody would fuck with me, they knew exactly what i did, and also they wanted me there as a little credibility for their label. i'm not stupid. but... it was all lies. roy disney found out we were on hollywood, (disney owns hollywood records) and he freaked out. so 3 weeks in, we got the plug pulled.

buddyhead - they just shafted your record.
glen - oh, shafted us. it was sooo fucked up. finally we got out of it and i got all my stuff back.

buddyhead - so why emagine now?
glen - i talked to lots of labels but realized it would be the same old bullshit again. even worse now. there's like what? 3 or 4 companies that own every major label? they don't care about good records or bad records, all they care about is if it sells. if it sells, you've got a career. if it doesn't, you're gone. and they'll give you like 3 or 4 weeks. and if it doesn't sell by then, you're gone. so, i had been talking to the guy who ran imagine and eventually decided they were the way to go.

buddyhead - they let you do anything you want?
glen - oh, of course.

buddyhead - i notice that you're releasing the samhain boxset and re-releasing the "black aria" record. i understand there's a second installment?
glen - yeah, next year we're gonna put out the second "black aria"

buddyhead - is that unreleased stuff from the first album sessions or an all new album?
glen - new. i wrote it, i just haven't recorded it yet.

buddyhead - where does that "black aria" record fit in the timeline with samhain, danzig etc?
glen - it came out around 1991. it was just something i did and put out. we didn't do any promo copies or ads. i pulled it from caroline 4 years ago along with all my other samhain stuff. up until that date it sold about 300,000 copies.

buddyhead - i like that record a lot. it seems way ahead of it's time as far as some of the norwegian, black metal, ambient soundtrack stuff is concerned.
glen - yeah. actually cradle of filth gave us a real cool compliment in the press. they said we were the "blackest metal of all" or something like that.

buddyhead - i was wondering about the danzig band members. early on there was chuck biscuits (black flag, circle jerks, social distortion) and eerie von (samhain) . what happened to the og lineup?
glen - originally when rick and i put danzig together, it wasn't supposed to be a band that stays together. it was supposed to have a revolving door with guests. what happened was, the lineup started staying together. in the beginning it was kinda cool, but by "danzig 3" i was looking for a change. that record is a lot more "atmospheric" by "danzig 4", where i wanted to go with the band and where they could go was not gel-ing.

buddyhead - yeah. the beginning stages in my opinion were very bluesy, almost a real classic rock sense. it seems to have progressed into something very modern.
glen - in the beginning rick really wanted john to be the guitar player, but i was like,"no, this isn't the guy." john was this guitar guy who was like, "i can play punky style" he would call and leave messages on my machine with him playing guitar and he was like, "i can do it, believe me i can do it!" so whatever. chuck was my first choice. him or filthy phil from motorhead.

buddyhead - yeah. he's amazing.
glen - chuck worked out good, but eventually had some problems he had to deal with. i told him right from the beginning y'know, no drugs. that's just not my thing. that wasn't happening so... right around "danzig 4" we were on the road with metallica and chuck tried to kill himself. it was a nightmare every night. we were all freakin out. he would say, "ok i'll do the shows, but it's on a night to night basis" so we had to sit around like we were waiting for axl or something. around that time also i just said, "john, i'm gonna find a new guitar player" he wanted to do the "danzig 4" tour so i just said, "ok, but after that we're going to part ways." eerie left on his own.

buddyhead - who's in the band now? i heard it was todd youth from warzone. is that true?
glen - was todd in warzone? i knew he was in murphy's law and d-generation.

buddyhead - yeah i think he did some time in that band, he's the guitar player?
glen - yeah we had guitar tryouts, and like always we didn't take out ads or anything cuz we didn't want a bunch of idiots showin up, and todd was the guy.

buddyhead - so samhain is doing some shows?
glen - just this month then we're out. then it'll never happen again.

buddyhead - is the samhain boxset coming out soon as well?
glen - yeah. we talked about doing the samhain thing for a long time. at first i told the danzig guys, "i think i wanna bring the samhain guys out on the danzig tour and be part of the set. and they were like, "really?!" i went through all the pro's and cons in my head. there weren't too many cons. the pro's were: samhain wouldn't have to rent a bus or driver or pay gas cos they could ride on the danzig bus. that's a big plus right there. then samhain wouldn't have to pay to haul equipment, cos they could use danzig's equipment. now samhain doesn't have to pay for p.a. or lights cos we could use danzig's lights.

buddyhead - so it's convenient and cost effective.
glen - what we want to do is just go out and have a blast on stage. it's the first time in 13 years. the first and only time, cuz we'll never do it again. the guys in samhain can take off from whatever gig they have, whether it's their job, band, whatever, everybody has a life, and have a blast and not have to worry about paying bills or whatever and then go home and get on with their lives.

buddyhead - right on.
glen - everybody is just going to see a band having the best fuckin time of their lives.

buddyhead - i wanted to ask some questions about the comic book company you run,"verotik."
glen - cool. it's funny. spin magazine is doing a feature on "verotik". i guess they're moving more towards electronica or whatever cos alternative is dead. they were like, "we'll talk about the new danzig record, but we really wanna talk about verotik."

buddyhead - interesting.
glen - it's cool. it's something i started really as a mission. it wasn't about money. it was about kicking the other comic book companies asses and changing the rules. for so many years it had just been... superman, spiderman. y'know what i mean?

buddyhead - totally.
glen - guys in underwear saving the world. there was no room for any kind of female character. and if there was she was just some second or third rate copy of all the other male superheroes. not many girls really cared about it. one of the things we've done, is we've helped women into reading comic books.

buddyhead - what are some titles that you guys have?
glen - we publish "satanica" which is our flagship title. she's a female demon, like part human and part fallen angel. it's pretty wild. it's all theologically based on paradise lost and the bible.

buddyhead - who writes it?
glen - i write it. then we did a horror anthology called "verotika." it was all stories from paperback and hardcover erotic horror anthologies. so it wasn't comic writers. i hired all these people who write novels and stories. so we'd match up an artist who we felt complimented the story and boom. there it was. some crazy comics. our comics are translated into german... we did a "satanica" anime pilot with the best animation studio in japan, madhouse.

buddyhead - what happened with that?
glen - we put it out on video with interviews with myself and the other creators.

buddyhead - wow.
glen - yeah we sold 20,000 copies of the thing.

buddyhead - do you guys have a website?
glen - yeah, it's called danzig-verotik.com

buddyhead - in one of the danzig home videos, you talked about some suggested reads. i was wondering if you had any current suggestions on books or some of the music you've been listening to.
glen - there ain't much current music i'm listening to. uh... i like the new korn record. before mtv played the hell out of orgy, i loved that record. um... maybe a piece or two of cradle of filth here or there. nothing that's really making me run out and buy records.

buddyhead - any older bands? any old faves?
glen - um... alice in chains. haha, that sounds so funny, one of my old favorites.

buddyhead - yeah like 5 years ago.
glen - especially that second record. i love that record.

buddyhead - is that "dirt"?
glen - yeah. actually there's this band from stockholm called drain...

buddyhead - yeah, drain th.
glen - yeah there's a couple good songs on there, then the rest all start sounding the same. it's like the female alice in chains.

buddyhead - that's what i hear. any books you suggest?
glen - anything by michael badgin. "holy blood, holy grail" is this whole expose, history, biography of the knight's templar which is really interesting reading. especially if you're into the whole global domination thing. um... i just got this book called "the lucifer principle."

buddyhead - this one book you spoke of in the video i've always tried to find...i can't remember the name of it, but last year when i was on tour i tried to find it...
glen - really what you need to do is just go to the oldest looking bookstores you know, and just ask for their occult section. they just lump everything into occult, but sometimes if you ask for the psychology section, they'll be there for some stupid reason. i did the same thing you did, i'd be on the road and find a lot of my books over the years.

buddyhead - yeah cool.
glen - have you ever been to the boadie tree?

buddyhead - i've heard about it, yeah.
glen - yeah, it's on melrose. the new store is on melrose all the way over by the pacific design center. go around the corner to the back, and there's a used bodie tree. that's where you're gonna find all the out of print books, and they're cheap. anywhere from 4 to 15 bucks. sometimes as cheap as 2 bucks. if they know what they've got it'll be like 20 or 30 bucks. if they don't, it'll be in the racks with all the used books. you might want to go there.

buddyhead - thanks. i'll check it out. um... that's about it. i wanted to stray away from all the misfits stuff cos i'm sure you hear it all the time...
glen - that's a big fuckin joke anyway.


-go download some danzig mp3's. now.