June 6, 2022 marks the 40th Anniversary of one of the most infamous, notorious, controversial heavy metal bands in the world… W.A.S.P. The band's special 40th Anniversary World Tour kicks off in Milan, Italy on March 18.

Ahead of the tour, frontman Blackie Lawless tells Louder about some of the characters he's met along the way, including Ace Frehley, Alice Cooper, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Gene Simmons, Lemmy Kilmister, and more.

In regards to Muhammad Ali, Lawless reveals: "I’ve often said that next to my father he was the single greatest influence in my life. The single greatest thing I ever learned from him was the concept that the difference between good and great is the attention to detail. Specifically, the last 10 per cent of anything you do. If you have any kind of talent at all, the first 90 per cent will come relatively easy. The last 10 per cent that usually takes 10 times as much effort as the first 90. When you get towards the end of something and you can’t think clearly any more and you want to quit, you think about the inspiration of a Townshend or Ali and a little voice tells you that if you want this, then you cannot quit."

Read more at Louder

This first leg of W.A.S.P.'s 40th Anniversary World Tour will hit Italy, Spain, Ireland, North Ireland, United Kingdom, Scotland, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Germany, Romania and Bulgaria. More dates and a US tour will be announced.  

Witness live the Winged Assassins specticle of “SHOCK and ROLL” as they take you Back… Back to the Beginning!

Blackie Lawless on the 40th Anniversary World Tour, "For the W.A.S.P. 40th Anniversary World Tour we’re going back to the beginning. We’re taking the show back to where it all started. Complete with all the fire and all the blood that shocked the world the first time. We only did this type of show on the first world tour and never did it again…until now! I’m gonna scream and I’m gonna bleed, cause I Wanna be Somebody! We’re taking everybody back…back to the beginning!"

Tour dates:

March
18 - Milan, Italy - Live Club
19 - Padova, Italy - Padova Hall
23 - Bilbao, Spain - Santana 27
24 - Murcia, Spain - Sala Gamma 3
25 - Barcelona, Spain - Razzmatazz 1
26 - Madrid, Spain - La Riviera  
30 - Dublin, Ireland - Vicar St.
31 - Belfast, Ireland - Ulster Hall
 
April
1 - Wolverhampton, UK - KK's Steel Mill
2 - Manchester, UK - Academy
3 - Nottingham, UK - Rock City
5 - Glasgow, UK - O2 Academy
6 - Newcastle, UK - O2 City Hall
7 - Bristol, UK - O2 Academy
8 - London, UK - Rou-House
9 - Eindhoven, Netherlands - Effenaar
10 - Copenhagen, Denmark - Amager Bio
12 - Malmö, Sweden - Moriskan
13 - Huskvarna, Sweden - Folkets Park
14 - Sundsvall, Sweden - Sporthallen
15 - Umeå, Sweden - Idun
16 - Oulu, Finland - Teatria
17 - Tampere, Finland - Pakkahuone
18 - Helsinki, Finland - Kulttuuritalo
20 - Gävle, Sweden - Gasklockan
21 - Eskilstuna, Sweden - Lokomotivet
22 - Örebro, Sweden - Conventum
23 - Karlstad, Sweden - Nöjesfabriken
25 - Oslo, Norway - Rockefeller
28 - Stockholm, Sweden - Stora Fållan
29 - Norrköping, Sweden - Arbis
30 - Gothenburg, Sweden - Trädgårn

May
1 - Bremen, Germany - Aladin
2 - Mannheim, Germany - Capitol
4 - Saarbrücken - Garage
5 - Oberhausen, Germany - Turbinenhalle
7 - Geiselwind, Germany - Music Halle
8 - Munich, Germany - Backstage Werk
13 - Zurich, Switzerland - Venue TBA
14 - Lausanne, Switzerland - Venue TBA
17 - Bucharest, Romania - Arenele Romane
18 - Sofia, Bulgaria - Universidada Sports Hall

Few bands in the history of rock n’ roll have ever incited the love, the hate, the raw emotional effect this band has had on the world. From the very beginning, in the small venues of Los Angeles California, and later to the numerous countries worldwide that banned these Winged Assassins from performing live, the band’s unique style of shock and rock caused religious organizations, local city councils, parlaments, and the Washington D.C. Senate to hold hearings in an effort to bar this group from selling records and trashing stages everywhere they played.

The band’s founding member, frontman Blackie Lawless, has led the group as its lead vocalist and primary songwriter since its beginning. His unique brand of visual, social and political comment took the group to worldwide heights and sold millions of records alongside a legacy of sold out shows across the globe for 4 decades.

Joined by bassist Mike Duda and guitarist Doug Blair, whose tenures in the band span 26 and 18 years respectively, along with drummer extraordinaire Aquiles Priester, will take the band and the fans back to where it all started. Complete with the stage show extravaganza that many fans never saw live.

For further details, visit waspnation.com.

Blackie Lawless talks about the upcoming tour in this extended video: