W.A.S.P. Frontman Blackie Lawless - "In The Beginning We Were Holding Up A Mirror To The World And Saying 'If You Don`t Like What You See Maybe You Should Examine Yourself'"
September 16, 2012, 12 years ago
W.A.S.P. frontman/founder Blackie Lawless is featured in a new interview with Mick Burgess at Metal Express Radio. An excerpt is available below:
Q: You have a special show lined up for this tour. What have you got planned?
Blackie: "We`ll be doing a show in three parts over two hours. The first part of the show will cover from our first album up to The Headless Children. We`ll then take an intermission and do a condensed version of The Crimson Idol. We`ll have another intermission and will come back and do material from the rest of the records. Part of the reason for the intermissions is because there`s set changes. It`s not a play but the environments are going to change. One of the cool things we`ll be doing is with The Headless Children. On the album, all four members are playing at full volume. What I`m doing on the tour is I`m going to come out with just an acoustic guitar and I`m going to show you how the song was born. It`s not just going to be me doing it though. We`ll have multiple movie screens behind us and I`ll sing the first line and behind me on the screen will be Martin Luther King, he sings the next line and we`ll start with me and Martin Luther King trading lines. It`s an interesting way to do the song because nobody has ever done anything like this before. It`s taken a lot of work to get it to work out like this. It`s a cool effect. Believe me, when you see it, people will walk out and ask how we did that."
Q: Along with the Crimson Idol, your previous album The Headless Children showed a different side to you. Indeed your later albums look at topical political issues such as US Foreign policy. You have been accused of corrupting the youth with your music. Was this your way of answering your critics and showing a greater depth to your music?
Blackie: "In the beginning we were doing visually what we thought was social commentary. We were holding up a mirror to the world and saying 'if you don`t like what you see maybe you should examine yourself.' We found that people were looking more with their eyes than listening with their ears. If you look back on the history of the band we didn`t do that show for very long, maybe only one tour.That was nothing to do with the critics. What I found was happening was we were getting labelled as a Shock Rock band and I didn`t like that as I knew what our intent was. By the time we did the The Headless Children I learned then to get people to listen to the music and not focus on the visual side was to shrink that circle to narrow the focus of what I was trying to say. When that happened people could then see what it was I wanted to say."
Go to this location for the complete interview.
W.A.S.P.'s tour schedule is as follows:
September
21 – London, UK - The Forum22 – Edinburgh, UK - HMV Picture House
23 – Newcastle, UK - Academy
24 – Belfast, Ireland - Ulster Hall
25 – Dublin, Ireland - Vicar Street
27 – Manchester, UK - Hmv Ritz
28 – Leeds, UK - Academy
29 – Nottingham, UK - Rock City
30 – Norwich, UK - Waterfront
October
1 – Wolverhampton, UK - Wolfrun Hall3 – Cardif, Wales - The Great Hall
4 – Bristol, UK – Academy
6 – Varberg, Sweden - Arenan
10 – Hässleholm, Sweden - Qpoolen
11 – Trollhätan, Sweden - Älvhögsborg
12 – Sundsvall, Sweden - Spegelsalen, Stadshuset
13 – Örebrö, Sweden - Kongress
14 – Eskilstuna, Sweden - Lokomotivet
16 - Tallin, Estonia - Rock Cafe
17 - Helsinki, Finland - The Circus
18 - Tampere, Finland - Tampere Hall
19 - Turku, Finland - Logomo
20 - SeinaJoki, Finland - Rytmikorjaamo
21 - Lulea, Sweden - Kulturenshus
23 – Bo, Norway – Kroa
24 – Oslo, Norway – Rockefeller
25 - Huskvarna, Sweden - Teaterladan
26 - Stockholm, Sweden - Rockklassiker Krysningen
27 - Karlstad, Sweden - Nojesfabriken
30 - Köln, Germany - Live Music Hall
31 - Bochum, Germany - Zeche
November
2 – Tilburg, The Netherlands - 0 133 – Antwerp, Belgium -Trix
4 – Lille, France - Le Splendid
5 – Paris, France - Le Bataclan
6 – Toulouse, France - Bikini
10 – Lisbon, Portugal - Campo Pequeno
14 - St. Etienne, France - Le Fil
15 – Strasbourg, France - La Laite
17 - Stuttgart, Germany - Lka Longhorn
19 - Linz, Austria - Posthof
20 - Treviso, Italy - New Age
21 - Bologna,Italy - Estragon
23 - Athens, Greece - Fuzz Club
24 - Thessalonki, Greece - Mylos Apotheke Club
25 - Istanbul, Turkey - Kucukciftlik Park
27 - Budapest, Hungary - Club 202
December
3 - Neu Isenburg, Germany - Hugenottenhalle5 - Osnabrück, Germany - Rosenhof
6 - Memingen, Germany - Kaminwerk
