Las Vegas Magazine’s Matt Kelemen caught up with Glenn Danzig for an interview about his upcoming covers album and current North American tour.

An excerpt below:

Kelemen: I was not able to obtain the full track listing before the interview, and I didn’t recognize a few of the songs among the ones I was aware of. I looked up the Troggs’ “Girl Like You” and I was like “I know that song!” So you’re kind of breathing new life into some of these covers, I imagine.

Danzig: “That’s my attitude with covers. Unless you’re going to do something different with it and give it a new life, like you said, or give it a new dimension, leave it alone. It’s going to be judged against the original anyway. If you just try to record it exactly like the original, everyone’s just going to like the original better because they’ve heard it a million times. Also, why cover it if all you’re going to do is just cover it? At least that’s my opinion, and that’s why if I’m going to cover a song, I’m going to give it a new life, new dimension, new feeling. Do something different with it.”

Kelemen: I saw you on the first Danzig tour, and it was one of the most hard-hitting shows I had ever seen. Still is. It was so powerful it made a permanent impact on me as far as what a live show needs to be in hard rock music.

Danzig: “If you haven’t seen us since ’88-’89, you should go to this show (laughs). People are more insane, though. You’re really going to have a good time.”

Kelemen: Are you comfortable with this touring schedule? It’s not long but there are a lot of shows.

Danzig: “I don’t really tour that often. Last time I toured the States was two years ago, and so this should be OK. I think I’ll be able to handle it. I don’t really like touring anymore. I like being onstage of course, going crazy, but the rest of it, you know, sitting at a bus stop, sitting around for 18 hours a day, it’s not fun.”

Read the rest of the interview at LasVegasMagazine.com.

Danzig is on a month long North American headlining tour, which began on July 11th in Pomona, CA and ends on July 31st in Las Vegas, NV.

Tour dates:

July
25 - Edmonton, AB - Shaw Conf. Centre
27 - Vancouver, BC - Queen Elizabeth Theatre
28 - Seattle, WA - Showbox Sodo
30 - San Francisco, CA - The Warfield
31 - Las Vegas, NV - Brooklyn Bowl

(Photo: Paul Brown)