W.A.S.P. Mainman Blackie Lawless - "I Will Never Play 'Animal (Fuck Like A Beast)' Live Again"
September 22, 2010, 14 years ago
This past Sunday marked the 25th anniversary of the PMRC hearings in Washington - the PMRC was an American committee formed in 1985 with the goal of increasing parental control over the access of children to music deemed to be violent or sexually suggestive. The PMRC released the Filthy Fifteen, a list of the 15 songs they found most objectionable which included tracks from MÖTLEY CRÜE, AC/DC, TWISTED SISTER, DEF LEPPARD, MERCYFUL FATE, BLACK SABBATH and VENOM. Also on the list was W.A.S.P.'s 'Animal (Fuck Like A Beast)' which was clearly the filthiest of the Filthy Fifteen list, and while it certainly caused a stir at the time, frontman Blackie Lawless now regrets it, especially as he has renewed his religious faith.
“Words are the most powerful things we possess,” stressed Lawless to Bryan Ressman's Attention Deficit Delirium . “They shape our very lives and determine who and what we are. Some may find it remarkable, but I was born again when I was 11 years old. I was very active in my church until I was 18, and when I left the church, I went about as far away as a person could go when I then studied the occult for three years. I wrote that song a couple of years after I stopped that study. I went for 20 more years before I returned to my Christian faith, which is where I am now. That song was put into my life for a reason. I was talking to ALICE COOPER, who is also born again, earlier this year, and we both feel the same about our early work. Although a lot of the music we did early on was as diametrically opposed to the way we had been brought up, a lot of the early songs we did were laced with those Christian valves. He and I were talking and said, all we need now is Marilyn Manson and we could start a band. The world would never believe it! I said all that to say this: I renounce, denounce and pronounce that I will never play that song ['Animal'] live again. Actually, I’ve not played it live for several years.”Read the entire interview here.
