Promoting his new documentary film, Mean Man: The Story Of Chris Holmes, the former W.A.S.P. guitar legend gave BraveWords a whirlwind tour of his life, talking about living in France, current musical creations and some fascinating tales about his former band, relationships with Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi, late Motörhead drummer Philthy “Animal” Taylor and what he thinks Blackie Lawless would think about the documentary. In an another excerpt, here’s what Holmes had to say about the influence W.A.S.P. had on the metal world.

BraveWords: I was speaking to Silenoz from Dimmu Borgir recently and it seems that a lot of the extreme metal bands were influenced by W.A.S.P. Many Scandinavian bands in particular who were influenced by your guitar playing and took it to greater extremes. 

Holmes: “I think it’s because of the singing. It might be the guitar playing. Motörhead was the first thrash metal band, and W.A.S.P., it was all Blackie’s voice.”

BraveWords: No doubt he had a powerful voice, but you’re your leads sent shockwaves throughout the metal world! 

Holmes: “Kinda. The first W.A.S.P. album to me wasn’t a guitar record to me, because the guitars were buried in the background. Defenders Of The Faith had just come out, and before the W.A.S.P album there was Born Again, so you think I’m going to be proud of W.A.S.P.?”

BraveWords: So you were actually paying attention as a fan? 

Holmes: “Yeah. I liked the heavy guitar sound. Blackie and I, we butted heads on the albums about how they should sound, how loud they should be, and his voice won every time. What do you do? I know you’re not supposed to fight against the producer.”

BraveWords: No, but you also need to have a voice. Does it makes sense that Blackie wrote everything from those first few iconic W.A.S.P. records, or were there writing credits there that you should have been given credit for? 

Holmes: “I wrote a lot more than what I’m written in for, a lot more. If you go back, just ask any W.A.S.P. roadie who was there from the beginning. That’s just 2020 hindsight. At that time you’re as happy making $120 a week. I was happy to make money playing.”

BraveWords: You brought up that the first time you quit; the drummer on that record passed away last year. Tell us some Frankie Banali stories, The Headless Children is just such a heavy record. It was the John Bonham that was behind you.

Holmes: “Frankie recording it … I don’t know why, but somebody had the idea for him to record just the skins first, no metal or cymbals. So, they’d do a whole track and he’d play and instead of hitting the high hat he’d hit his leg. He’d be playing to a click. He played just the skins first and then come back in and overdub the cymbals on top of it, after. I would play a scratch track with him and if that drum track worked we’d go back - it was s motherfucker to do. I really don’t think it made that much separation on the album, maybe it did, maybe it could have in the mixing, but it sure sounds different than the previous three W.A.S.P. albums.”

BraveWords: I’ve never heard of that recording method. No disrespect, but does that make any sense what you guys did to separate that? 

Holmes: “I’m not an engineer, but it could have. Mikey Davis engineered the album, mixed it mostly. Max Norman started it, but just like with everything else Blackie got into a fight with him and he quit.”

BraveWords: But you’re right, the drum sound is more powerful on that record than on anything previous. 

Holmes: “Yeah, that’s also the way Frankie played. Plus he played a lot of different types of beats than Tony (Richards) did. The first album, it’s all swing beat.”

BraveWords: What did you think of the covers. “The Real Me” is one of my favourite covers and you nailed “I Don’t Need No Doctor”. Were you happy with the results? 

Holmes: “No. First of all, you’re not going to play ‘I Don’t Need No Doctor’ better than Humble Pie played it, okay? You can’t. You can’t play it better than they did on the live album, I don’t care who you are. As for The Who song, ‘The Real Me’, the video came out cool. That’s not really a guitar song, it’s mostly bass and drums. I only hit four chords in the whole song. Easy song for me to play. I like the song, I love The Who. Every song The Who ever did was killer. I would have chosen different songs to cover, but I’m not the engineer. If things were done my way it probably wouldn’t have gone as far as it did.”

BraveWords: If Blackie saw Mean Man what do you think he’d say? 

Holmes: “I don’t think he’d really care. Because it’s not about him.”

BraveWords: It’s sad as a big W.A.S.P. fan when you watch, it’s like watching your parents break up. You’re thinking, ‘I love these guys, but they’re not getting along, they’re fighting all the time. Just make more music, please!’ 

Holmes: “It’s not that - have you ever worked with a narcissist? Somebody that it’s their way or the highway? The first album, there’s all the guys on the cover, and the second album, there’s who? And the third album? Once that happened I didn’t really give a shit about it, I would just go along and record my gig and hang with my friends. I already knew that was what he wanted to do. What do you do? I only came back in ‘95 because I wanted to tour and see the world again, I didn’t really care about playing. It’s like a bicycle, playing. Once you learn how to balance it you’re not going to forget.” 

You can watch the entire video interview below: