The Halloween Adventure Shop in New York City is gigantic. It extends a full city block, and its two floors are stuffed with latex masks, outrageous wigs, makeup, and every possible accessory required to transform everyday people into nightmarish creatures. Lifelike rats sit on top of bottles full of blood, skulls of every shape and size are piled two feet deep, and entire walls are dedicated to the most insidious weaponry ever made out of plastic.
Despite the lengths to which the store goes in establishing a macabre mood, Glenn Danzig is less than impressed. "This place is gay," says the singer, poking halfheartedly through the racks. He's dressed in black jeans, a black T-shirt, and despite the June heat, a black leather jacket. He brushes his long hair—also black—out of his eyes and continues, "It's all fake—it's the same shit you find in a mall. I've got the real deal back home: goat heads, double-headed skeletons, and shrunken heads from South America."
One of the store's employees hovers nearby, but she doesn't look offended by the comments. Because this is what you want to hear from Danzig, a man who has, for more than 30 years, ruled music's dark and gritty underworld as the frontman for, first, punk legends the Misfits, then death rockers Samhain, and finally the full-on metal solo act that bears his surname. And while there are lots of musicians out there that would have their fans believe they're spooky, creepy, and more than a little bit twisted, none of them keep it real like Danzig, a guy who has a stuffed wolf in his living room and can tell the difference between skulls harvested legally and those that, well, aren't.
"He's exactly how I hoped he'd be," says Laramie Wilcox. She's the assistant manager at Gothic Renaissance, a clothing and accessories boutique that Danzig visited after abandoning the Halloween store. "He doesn't feel like he's faking it."
"He was living this lifestyle before it was part of a scene," says her boss, a man who goes by the name Mr. Stitch. He gestures towards the store's vinyl outfits, chunky boots, and bags adorned with skulls and bats. "All these clothes, everything you see here, it was inspired by a culture that he helped create."
"He asked us if we carried real skulls," adds Wilcox. "I wish we did!"
"It's all about credibility," says Danzig, explaining his lifestyle, his music, and also his career longevity. "You see it all the time, bands that jump from trend to trend and end up disappearing. Fans can tell the difference, and those bands don't last very long."
The singer, meanwhile, just keeps going strong. He recently released his ninth Danzig album, Deth Red Sabaoth (Evilive/The End Records), which indulges in the bluesy, stripped-down sound of his earlier records. And through October and November, he'll helm the 2010 edition of his long-running annual Blackest of the Black tour, supported by a host of extreme-metal bands.
So what advice does this grizzled veteran have for up-and-coming bands? He pauses for a second, before saying with a chuckle, "Listen to your friends when they hear a song you're working on and tell you it sounds gay!"
SO THE HALLOWEEN STORE TURNED OUT TO BE A BUST. DO YOU EVEN CELEBRATE HALLOWEEN?
GLENN DANZIG Man, every day is Halloween for me. [Laughs] But I like that time of year, so yeah, Halloween's cool.
YOU'RE ORIGINALLY FROM NEW JERSEY AND NOW YOU LIVE IN LOS ANGELES. DOES THAT MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN HOW YOU APPROACH THE HOLIDAY?
Not really. It's still a lot of fun. It's not as seasonal out here, but you still get the dead leaves, and it gets darker earlier, so the atmosphere feels right. There's definitely an energy in the air.
WHAT SORT OF ENERGY?
It's mystical, or whatever you want to call it. An energy, and for people who can tap into that sort of thing, it's much stronger during that time of year.
IS THAT SOMETHING YOU PERSONALLY TAP INTO?
Well ... I don't think this is that kind of interview. [Laughs] Let's talk about something else.
I ONLY ASK BECAUSE IT'S SOMETHING THAT SEEMS TO COME UP IN YOUR MUSIC.
This whole lifestyle, this look, this attitude, my music, whatever, over the years I've tried to take it deeper because I wanted to show people that there's more to it than just dressing a certain way or whatever. There are roots to it, different religions, different ways of seeing the world, things you don't know and haven't been told.
I've always been the guy who would lift up the rock and see what's under it. It could be a snake, it could be a couple worms and a slug, or it could be nothing, but I've always wanted to look. And then when I'm done looking, I'll take that rock and throw it at someone! [Laughs]
YOU'VE RECENTLY ANNOUNCED THE NEXT BLACKEST OF THE BLACK TOUR. IT'S GOT A PRETTY EXTREME LINEUP THIS YEAR.
Yeah, it came together really quickly. It's us, obviously. But also this band called Possessed. They're this legendary, dark band from the Bay area that's been around for a long time. They recently reunited, and I saw them at the House of Blues about a year-and-a-half ago, and the place was sold out. We've also got Marduk, from Sweden, and a group called Toxic Holocaust that did some shows with us during a quick little West Coast run. Then opening the whole show is a group called Withered.
Honestly, this is a great chance for people to see groups like Possessed and Marduk. Those guys might just do a couple shows on the East Coast and a couple shows on the West Coast and then head home. But we're starting in Albuquerque, and then going into Texas, Little Rock, Knoxville, and into the Midwest and then to the North Midwest, and then down into the Northwest, and then back down into California.
SO IT'S ABOUT GIVING THESE BANDS EXPOSURE?
That's the reason I started Blackest. Some of these bands, they won't get touched before we take them out. This tour gives them credibility, and then they can get on other tours. It's really cool.
DO YOU WISH YOU'D HAD THAT OPPORTUNITY WHEN YOU WERE STARTING OUT?
Maybe. You know, AC/DC was scared to take us out. They said we were too satanic or something. [Laughs] But I'm glad we did it the way we did, playing clubs, selling them out, moving to bigger venues. We built a real following that way.
OVER THE YEARS, YOU AND YOUR BANDS HAVE HAD A STRONG INFLUENCE ON POP CULTURE; YOU'VE HELPED CREATE A DARK AESTHETIC THAT'S STILL GOING STRONG TODAY. SO I'M WONDERING, ARE YOU PREPARED TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR ALL THE MOPEY EMO BANDS?
No! [Laughs] My whole thing is, I want people to question authority, to ask the questions that no one else wants to ask, to seek out the mysteries of the world and find out why things tick.
DOES THAT EXTEND INTO POLITICS? YOU'VE MADE SOME OUTSPOKEN COMMENTS IN THE PAST, INCLUDING TAKING A SHOT AT PRESIDENT OBAMA ON FOX NEWS.
You know, I sing about sociology, not politics. Look, every single politician is a piece-of-shit crook—no matter what party they're in. They're all fucking thieves. [Laughs] I think the government's playing with fire, because eventually there will be some kind of violent uprising in this country. People are pissed off that they're not getting their money's worth with government, and government don't care.
YOU'VE GOT SOME PRETTY STRONG FEELINGS ON THE SUBJECT. WHY DON'T YOU SING ABOUT POLITICS?
Politics is such a drag, and music shouldn't be a drag. I don't want to be preachy. I'll say something, and if you want to hear it, cool, but if you want to just listen to the music and go out of your fucking mind, you can do that too. I want people to enjoy the music on many different levels. I don't want to be a political musician—and I'm not one.
THIRTY YEARS ON, HOW MUCH LONGER DO YOU THINK YOU'LL BE MAKING DANZIG RECORDS?
I need to have something to say or else I won't go into the recording studio. It's really that simple. That said, I might not do another Danzig record because it's just too expensive to do records these days.
YOU MIGHT NOT RECORD ANOTHER DANZIG RECORD?
Maybe not. I'm not going to produce some ProTools crap in my living room. I want to be in a real studio, with real musicians, and that's expensive. It's my record label, so I pay for everything, and that includes mastering the album, producing cover art, getting photos, doing publicity—everything. I don't care if I make money on an album, but I don't want to lose money on it, either. So for now, I'm going to work on Black Aria III, and then see what happens next.
DOES IT MAKE YOU NERVOUS TO HAVE THAT UNCERTAINTY HANGING OVER YOUR HEAD?
Not at all, I'm used to it. Back in the day, I took all the Misfits demos to the record labels and they were like, "This is terrible. It's just a wall of noise!" And I was like, "Yeah! Wall of noise! That sounds great!" [Laughs] Anyway, there was a guy at one label who said to me, "This is the worst shit I've heard in my life. You'll never have a career in music." And I was like, "Go fuck yourself." His label's gone now, and I'm still here.
My point is, I don't have to do anything just because it's expected of me. I tell people all the time, "Stay true to yourself. The sky's the limit, and if you only get halfway there, that's still a jillion miles further than most people are going to get." New Danzig record or not, I'm not going anywhere. If anyone has a problem with that, they can go fuck themselves, too.
