To celebrate the band's 30 Years Of Thunder anniversary tour, W.A.S.P. leader Blackie Lawless has penned a monthly diary (fifteen in total) to chronicle the real events of the band and give fans all a little better insight to the last thirty years in their history. Check out the February diary called "The Class of '82’, '83’" below:

"Rod (Smallwood; IRON MAIDEN manager) had gone back to England and we kept in touch over the next few weeks. Both of us were trying to determine where we were going and WHO we were going to go with. Rod needed time to process the demo tape we had done and to really think about if there was a real future with us. Getting involved with any band requires a tremendous amount of time and dedication. Even the most successful bands usually take years to develop into a major act so he needed time to think. So did I. I was still talking to Bill Aucoin. Honestly, the thing with Bill was beginning to make me uneasy. He was managing BILLY IDOL at that time and they had released the Rebel Yell album and it was burning up the charts. Bill was VERY involved with managing Billy and I was afraid of him possibly not having enough time to devote to us. Years ago Ace gave me some of the best advice anyone ever gave me. He said, 'remember that the first contract you ever sign will more than likely determine everything that will ever happen to you in your whole career.' I’d later find out he was 1000 per cent correct. What he meant was, if you sign a bad deal, even if your successful, you’ll get ripped off so bad you can never recover from it. Many successful artists find they’re so far in debt that they can never get out of it and it follows them forever. It’s not unusual for even big name artists to have two or three bad management deals hanging over their heads that they will pay for the rest of their lives and I promise you, those old managers don’t just go away. They stand there with their hands out the rest of your life!!

Now I didn’t feel that this might happen with Bill, I just wanted a situation were we could get the attention we needed. I liked Bill and respected him a lot but my connection with Rod was special. It’s one of those things that you just instinctively know. We had a lot in common, both of us were ex athletes, and STRONGLY believed in the concept that 'Might was Right'!! In other words, if something was in your way, then remove it…..by ANY means necessary!!!! Rod was tough and smart and I would NEVER have that relationship with Bill and it was something that I truly wanted. It was right after Christmas '83 that Rod called me and said he wanted to manage us. I had about three months to think about it and by the time he called I knew he was the guy I wanted. It had absolutely nothing to do with his success managing Maiden. I wanted him whether he had been successful or not. I knew he was the one!!

So he came back out to L. A. a couple of weeks later and we started laying out a plan. First we needed a record deal. He initially went to EMI/Capitol because that was Maiden’s label. They were more interested now because they felt with Rod as manager they might have something. But still they were not willing to commit. There was a smaller local label called Enigma Records that believed in us and wanted to sign us months before. The owner of the company offered to mortgage his house to sign us. Actually we came very close to accepting his offer. So while EMI were dragging their feet we made it known that Enigma wanted us pretty badly. A couple of weeks later EMI finally said 'I Do' and we signed the largest deal in history for any previously unsigned band….seven albums for $2.5 million. We had won the lottery overnight!!!

The day we signed the deal with EMI we went down to the Capitol building in L. A. and they took us to the conference room. Inside was a long table, about five meters long with chairs all around it. All the bosses were there and we all sat down and in the middle of the table was a freshly cut cow tongue. It was huge and it smelled nasty!! Just sitting there in the middle with blood running down the table dripping off the edge!

Nobody said a word about it. They just kept talking like it wasn’t even there. They were all acting like everything was normal, like nothing unusual was happening. After about ten minutes I couldn’t take it anymore and I jumped up and screamed, 'Get that Damn thing outta Here!!!!' The whole room exploded with laughter!! It was EMI’s way of saying: 'Welcome!!' All of the original people EMI/Capitol turned out to be fantastic and we had a great relationship for years.

We went into the studio a couple of weeks later to record, 'Animal – Fuck Like A Beast' with the B-side 'Show No Mercy' with my old friend Mike Varney as producer. The song was originally to be released as a single to get the whole world ready for the album that would come later that year. When we finished the single EMI in the UK had circulated some advanced copies. The Queens Council heard about it (they are a UK government social watchdog group) and they informed the heads of EMI that if they released that song that they would all go to jail for 21 days each!! Needless to say EMI had no desire for that so they stepped aside and allowed Music For Nations to release the single. We could not buy that kind of publicity and it exploded in the UK Metal charts!!

While all that was going on we were in the studio recording the first album. It was exciting and exhausting at the same time. The pressure was intense. We had been given much and much was being expected. Anything less than gold was going to be considered a failure. Fortunately, the record was later well received but at the time I had no way of knowing how the world would receive us. Something I’ve never really shared before is, the first record was so well received that it actually went gold in several countries right away but the first award that was presented to me came from Canada. We had just gotten back to L. A. after our first world tour and I remember taking it and setting it next to the TV and all night long I sat on the bed. I’d watch the TV for a couple of minutes, then I’d watch the gold record for a couple of minutes. I was by myself, and this went on all night!! This is part of the fantasy fulfilled. It’s what you grow up dreaming about. It was one of the greatest nights of my life!!!

We went on to finish that first album and shot the video’s for 'Somebody' and ‘Love Machine'. A couple days before we left to start the tour I was in the studio and ran into Kevin Dubrow. QUIET RIOT had just come back from England and he told me, 'You better get ready, there’s some kind of W.A.S.P.-mania going on over there.' I had no idea what he was talking about. Then we were off to the UK to start that first world tour. We landed in England and the press were there to meet us. On the way into London we stopped at a stop light and on the cover of the daily newspaper the headline read, 'American Sex and Blood Rock Group Banned in Ireland'!! I looked at it and thought…who is that? I had no idea…it was us!!

Because of all the pre tour hype that surrounded us we had been banned from playing in Ireland from the time we got on the plane so we had NO idea until we landed. Norway also banned us on that tour.

But looking back, the moment we landed in London, everything we had done as a band, the demo’s, the home we had made at the Troubadour, the Blood Drive, building the props, ALL of it had lead us to this point. This was that moment, the beginning of everything we’d worked so hard for….but also the end. The end of the magical run that we had in L.A. with all the friends, the triumphs, the insanity that was that time in 82’ and 83’. It was one of the greatest times of our lives. Kind of like that one magic school year you wish would have never ended. You don’t really think that you’re saying goodbye but when we finally got a break 3 years later and looked around L.A., nothing was the same, EVERYTHING and EVERYBODY had changed. But, we were living the Dream. We were famous, we had money, we were dating movie stars and centerfolds. It was all good….but none of it could replace what we had in those early days. As I write this I find myself pretty nostalgic about those times. It’s been written, 'You Can Never go Home Again'.

It’s like an old friend…..one you know you can never see again."

Read more here.

On September 21st 2012, W.A.S.P. will begin the 30 Years of Thunder anniversary Tour starting in the United Kingdom and continue worldwide.

This World Tour will be the biggest spectacle W.A.S.P. have ever created. The two-hour show will consist of three parts. A one hour set contain songs from the first four albums. The second set will be a 25 minute shortened version of The Crimson Idol complete with the movie accompaniment. A third set will consist of material from the new studio album, older material and everything in between. This show will see multiple video screens, pyrotechnics, and elements from the early W.A.S.P. shows (maybe even an exploding cod piece) and Blackie’s moving microphone stand Elvis!