Back in March, Jimmy Kay from Canada's The Metal Voice spoke to former W.A.S.P. guitarist, Chris Holmes, who discussed his upcoming new studio album, his plans to write an autobiography, and details about his recently completed documentary.

Holmes: "The documentary is about me starting over in Europe. It goes back five years to the first band members I had and going out on the road. There are interviews with people at the shows and what goes on at the shows. The guy doing the documentary (Antoine De Montremy) also went to Los Angeles and talked to a lot of my friends in the past, my sister is in there, he went and visited my mom. I think he talked to my uncle and a bunch of people I played with in LA over the years. He also interviewed some people I knew in high school that were roadies in W.A.S.P. The documentary should be released before the end of the year."

Written and Directed by French filmmakers Antoine de Montremy and Laurent Hart (whose Music production career includes televised interviews with Scorpions, Deep Purple, Guns N' Roses and more), Mean Man: The Story of Chris Holmes was a project that was born in 2014 after they had an opportunity to meet and direct Holmes in a music video for the Holmes-penned song “Let It Roar” in Cannes, France. At that time, the former W.A.S.P. guitarist had more or less disappeared from the music scene, leaving his home in the U.S. to seek a new beginning with his wife Catherine Sarah in France. Not content with merely directing a music video for the re-born Holmes, de Montremy pursued his bigger dream of writing and directing a documentary film about this iconic metal guitar legend and for the next several years shadowed him throughout Europe while filming everything from band rehearsals, to recording sessions to live performances.

By creatively combining archival footage, interviews with past and present bandmembers and musical peers, family members and childhood friends – interspersed with beautifully filmed concert performances of Holmes’ current solo band – Director de Montremy skillfully portrays the story of an iconic guitar player who has lived a life of extreme highs and lows. After losing the publishing rights of his own songs and combatting dangerous addictions, the legendary W.A.S.P. guitarist is shown starting over from scratch while living at his mother-in-law’s in Cannes, France as he puts together with his wife a brand new band and a brand new musical role as not only the main guitarist, but now as the actual lead singer of this newly-born musical project aptly named Mean Man.  

Quotes de Montremy “Over the last five years, I’ve had the privilege to establish a true relationship with Chris Holmes and to follow him throughout Europe. I was impressed by his charisma, his approach towards life, his multiple experiences and taste for simplicity which have actually altered my own vision of existence. In fact, he has almost become a spiritual father to me, in the way that he inspired me in many of my own decisions. “ 

A trailer for the documentary can be viewed below.