Danzig Interview On Loud (2000)
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00:00Alright, welcome to Loud of George Stroumboulopoulos.
00:03I'm really glad you're along for this week.
00:05Look at the album, look at the venue, look at the man.
00:07It's Glenn Danzig. Welcome to the show.
00:09How are you doing?
00:10Good, good to have you here.
00:11So, the album is there, Satan's Child, and the career continues for you.
00:14Yeah.
00:15It's been a hell of a run, man.
00:17It's been a lot of bullshit, but also a lot of great times, you know.
00:22Great shows, great records. I don't know what else to say.
00:25By the time you get on stage, or you write the record, you get on stage,
00:28what do you want to do?
00:30You want to do a good record first, and, you know, of course,
00:33doing a record is its own entity in itself.
00:36But going on the road is, you know, you get the energy back from everybody,
00:41and you give them energy, and it's a little more special.
00:45When I'm running, you come.
00:48When I'm running, you come.
00:51When I'm running, you come.
00:54When I'm running, you come.
00:57The band is on the road with Disturbed, you know.
01:00Disturbed's opening up.
01:01Then there's Hatebreed for some of these East Coast shows,
01:05and Six Peenunders on the whole tour, all the way out.
01:08Disturbed ends in L.A.
01:10Then all the way out, Six Peenunders all the way out with us.
01:1370s, 80s, 90s, now you're in the 2000s.
01:16You know, you've been on the road with a lot of bands.
01:18Has there been some stuff that's just stuck out for you,
01:20and you think, yeah, this is what Danzig wants to be a part of?
01:23As far as what, you mean the bands?
01:25Just bands you've been playing with.
01:27You've played with everybody, haven't you?
01:29Not everybody, but a lot of them.
01:32I mean, it's cool playing with Ozzy.
01:35The guys in Metallica, of course, you know, and all those guys.
01:38But it was cool taking Korn out on their first tour, you know,
01:42stuff like that, and Zombie, and a lot of bands, you know.
01:45Kevin Manson, you know, that thing too.
01:49I like taking out bands I think are good and deserve to be seen,
01:53and that's about it.
01:55Bands that are willing to put the work in.
01:57Go right back to The Misfits, you know,
01:59a band that still holds so much power in a lot of people's minds.
02:02And it's funny because the songs are your songs,
02:04and you watch The Misfits today, and you think to yourself,
02:07eee, you know, this is my stuff.
02:10Those are my songs.
02:12Does it drive you nuts, or are you proud of what the guys in The Misfits are doing now?
02:15I'm not proud of what they're doing now.
02:17I think it's kind of sad.
02:19I mean, that band broke up in 83,
02:22and then to, you know, just revive it, like,
02:25almost, you know, 15 years later just for a paycheck is pretty sad.
02:29I think it would have more credibility
02:32if Jerry just called it the Jerry Only Band.
02:35The Misfits
02:43Right now we're in the Phoenix concert theater,
02:45and we get a little look around here.
02:47This is a scene from the movie American Psycho.
02:49They used this venue, the Phoenix, in downtown Toronto,
02:52and Danzig had an opportunity to have a song on that soundtrack, right?
02:56Yeah, they came to us and asked us if we'd put a song on the soundtrack,
03:00and at first I was like, yeah, that'd be really cool.
03:03I was like, I'm sorry about soundtracks. I've only done three so far.
03:07And then they said, well, you have to do an 80s song.
03:10And I said, that's cool. I'm sure we can pick out a great 80s song.
03:13And they were like, well, no, you have to do one of the songs we've already bought.
03:17You know, they buy the publishing for the movie,
03:19and so I was like, well, let me see the list then.
03:21That changes everything.
03:23And then we saw the list, and we weren't too happy.
03:26I was like, well, I don't know.
03:28And they're like, well, we really want you guys to do Lady in Red.
03:31And we're like, no, that's not going to happen.
03:36What song would you have wanted to do?
03:38Well, actually, we did it anyway, because we were in the studio this summer.
03:44And we did Bowie's Cat People.
03:47So that'll probably be on something.
03:50We also did a cover of The Germs, Caught in My Eye.
03:52That's right. I heard that one.
03:54It's either going to come out on an EP, or it'll be part of Danzig 7. Who knows?
03:59But instead, we did the Crow soundtrack.
04:02That's right, the new one.
04:04Apparently that movie's actually going to finally make it to the theaters.
04:07Yeah, I know. They released the soundtrack earlier than the movie, but we'll see.
04:13We're in conversation with Glenn Danzig here in the Phoenix.
04:15We'll get back with some more in a bit, but this is more Danzig on loud.
04:29I'm talking with Jay, and I'm here from Orgy.
04:31A couple other guys that had a hand on the new record, right?
04:33Yeah, Jay actually is an old friend of Joey's.
04:35That's how I've known Jay, way before even Orgy.
04:39So when it came time to mix the record,
04:43Jay's name came up immediately, because he's worked on a bunch of stuff.
04:47We took Coal Chamber out on tour on Black Ass of Devil.
04:52And so his name, among other mixtures,
04:55And him and Amir are a team, so I didn't really know Amir, but I know Jay.
04:59So we ended up giving him a shot at mixing seven or eight tracks.
05:04It came out really good. I thought they did a good job.
05:06Do you like bringing other musicians in?
05:08Yeah, sometimes, especially in the mixing process.
05:11It's good to get somebody else to bounce ideas off and see their ideas.
05:16Jay has a lot of really good ideas in the studio, and I think it worked really good.
05:20You talk about some of the old pictures that they had.
05:22I mean, obviously, in your career, there are so many different shots of you from getting off a bus.
05:27Yeah, but I don't have any shots like that.
05:30You were never in a band. It sounded like poison.
05:32Yeah, no, there's no shots of me in LeMay of Hands and stuff.
05:35There's none of that going on.
05:37Well, I mean, you've been sticking to one, I guess, to a philosophy for a long time.
05:41Yeah, and it just keeps expanding and becoming, you know,
05:45I mean, some people call it dark. I don't really see it as dark.
05:48I see it more as a realistic view of the world and the way the world is and the way it's always been.
05:54And so that's, you know, that's kind of what I'm about.
05:57I've always been that way.
06:00You have such a loyal core of fans.
06:02Do you ever think that sometimes all the other stuff in the business,
06:05like the media and like the pictures,
06:08it gets in the way of what you're really doing, which is music?
06:10It can get in the way if you let it, because it can become a real,
06:15you know, it can become a real, you know,
06:18it can become a real, you know,
06:20it can become a real, you know,
06:22it can become a real, you know,
06:25It can get in the way if you let it, because it can become a real pain,
06:30like the lawyers and the, you know, like you said, the BS and, you know,
06:35like here in Canada, you're lucky you have much music,
06:38which is an awesome show. I mean, awesome station.
06:41And in America, we have MTV, which is like in one sense,
06:46they'll say we can't play this video by this band or that band,
06:48and then they'll throw on a rap video with guys shooting each other
06:51and all those butts bouncing up and down.
06:53And it just doesn't make any sense.
06:55And it's hard dealing within that system, you know?
06:58Now, though, there's a great Danzig video where if you take a look at it,
07:01it's guys nailing their penises to tables.
07:03Yeah, well, that we never offer to MTV.
07:13What were you thinking behind a video like that?
07:16Basically, at the time, it was just what was going on, you know?
07:24Well, Fetish Clubs were just, you know, everywhere,
07:26and it was part of the people that come to our shows.
07:28And it was, you know, it was the whole song,
07:31It's Coming Down, which we did the video for,
07:33was about this whole world no one knows anything about.
07:37And not just that, but everything.
07:39I mean, this whole world is just like a very intense place.
07:42And when you look at the news,
07:45it doesn't really reflect everybody out there.
07:48It reflects what they want people to see the world as.
07:53Because, you know, you take a look at being out of touch
07:55and how a lot of people don't really know what's going on.
07:58And you find a way, how do the kids get the information?
08:00How do we, as fans, find what we want
08:02without having to go through all the other crap?
08:04And the Internet is a great way now where that's sort of breaking some barriers.
08:07And we've got Glenn Danzig here.
08:08We're going to talk about the net and what you can do.
08:11The powers of the web when Loud continues.
08:13But here's more Danzig on Loud.
08:15Glenn Danzig is here on Loud.
08:16We're talking about making money.
08:18The comic books, for you, are successful, but...
08:20They don't make that much money.
08:22Tell us about the comic books.
08:23It's more like, it's more like, you know,
08:26I do it for the love of it and to piss off Marvel and DC.
08:32Actually, once in San Diego,
08:33it was the big comic convention in, you know, America.
08:36It's like 40,000 people over three or four days.
08:38That's huge.
08:39So once they put our tables right by image.
08:43And so here's the big, black, monster, verodic, you know,
08:46next to image.
08:47They actually...
08:48Sleeping time in a car.
08:49Yeah.
08:50Everything, Death Dealer, you know.
08:51And so they actually told the convention
08:53they didn't want us by their tables
08:56and they would pay for our tables if we moved two aisles down.
09:00So we said, sure.
09:01We took the money and we moved two aisles down.
09:03Why are they afraid of you?
09:04They just can't stand what we do.
09:06We changed the rules.
09:07We all, you know,
09:08they were playing that whole, like,
09:10nicey little comic book, you know,
09:12guys in underwear saving the world.
09:14And you read the comic and you're like,
09:16this is for geeks.
09:17This is an idiot comic, you know.
09:18I can't be around this.
09:19And we came in and just changed it all
09:21and made comics for young adults and adults.
09:25And, you know, they have it in Europe.
09:27They have it in Japan.
09:28They don't have it here in America.
09:29And we just hired all the best artists, the best colors,
09:32and came in and turned over the apple cart and just said,
09:35Oh, yeah?
09:36Here it is.
09:37It seems like you took the idea behind a lot of the D&D stuff
09:40and you didn't lose any of the aggression in the transfer.
09:44It's, uh, the art is great.
09:46And the storyline of the concepts are so intense.
09:49Incredibly violent, some of them.
09:51Yeah.
09:52And easy to offend a lot of people.
09:54Yeah.
09:55Good.
09:56Because I'm not selling to those people, you know.
09:59I'm selling to the people who have been disenfranchised for so long.
10:03Do you ever worry that a comic might fall into the hands of somebody,
10:06like a kid who may not be able to?
10:09That stuff's always going to happen.
10:10You know, there's always going to be kids outside a liquor store
10:12offering somebody five bucks to buy them liquor.
10:14There's always going to be a kid who's going to go and, you know,
10:17get drugs and his mom's not going to want him to get drugs.
10:19I mean, you can't stop that.
10:21That's growing up.
10:22That's what's called growing up and finding out about the world.
10:25You can't stop it, you know.
10:27If you're a parent, you can try and, like, be involved in your kid's life,
10:30which is what parents should be doing.
10:32You're supposed to be helping to raise your kid.
10:35If a kid has a comic book or whatever it is, you know,
10:38even if it's a book, a paperback, or if he's got a video,
10:41you know, a porno video or something,
10:43maybe you want to sit down and talk to this kid
10:45and explain what it's about instead of freaking out
10:47and then calling a lawyer or something, you know.
10:50It's the world. It's not going to change.
10:52Bands that you love to date?
10:55Bands that I, well, I don't know about love,
10:57but bands that I listen to right now,
10:59I listen to some Cradle of Filth,
11:01some stuff by Korn, a song here and there,
11:04just various stuff, whatever is really good.
11:16There's so many Korn imitation bands now.
11:19It's like, it's funny, I mean, but...
11:22There's lots of dancing imitations, too.
11:24No one will cop to that, though.
11:26But we usually see it on a local level.
11:28You know, every city's got a bunch of people
11:30that were so influenced by you.
11:32Do you ever feel like, oh, man, this is all right?
11:35I've said it, like, ages ago, I say it all the time,
11:39and people are like, well, now, you know,
11:41you've influenced this or that, how does that feel?
11:44I'm like, I'd rather they listen to me than Journey
11:46or, you know, or Bruce Springsteen or something, you know.
11:49That's what it was all about, was changing stuff, you know,
11:52especially when we come out with the punk stuff
11:54and people were just angry and pissed off
11:56that all this corporate rock was getting so popular and so big
12:00and radio stations would play the songs,
12:02even if they were awful, you know, it was like...
12:05And, you know, we just came out
12:07and just did the full-on aggression thing,
12:10and it's still around.
12:25I think a lot of people, when it comes to dancing,
12:28forget the importance of what punk was.
12:31They forget about that it meant being an individual,
12:35and when things got boring, changing it,
12:38making it exciting again, and being on your own,
12:42not being owned by somebody, being independent
12:45and being free of all that, you know, BS, you know.
12:50And that's what it's about.
12:53Kids on the Internet are really hip,
12:57but also, you know, the Internet is like...
12:59Somebody can start a rumour, and then that's it.
13:02It's, you know, it's everywhere in, like, an hour,
13:05whether it's true or not, you know.
13:07Like, somebody started a rumour, we just heard about it last night,
13:10that we'd all gotten the flu last tour, back in the fall,
13:13and we missed our Pittsburgh show.
13:15We just made it up a couple of days ago.
13:17But somebody had said that we were all in the hospital,
13:20had to be rushed to the hospital or something.
13:22It's so funny.
13:24You know, I mean, actually, we were talking about Manson before.
13:27I heard he would go on the Internet all the time
13:29and start rumours about himself, just to get people...
13:31Sure, control the information.
13:33Yeah, just to, you know, get people talking about him,
13:35like the OG, you know, crazy stuff.
13:37Do your fans email you and say,
13:39hey, man, this is what's going on in each city?
13:41No, we do a...
13:43This website started called The 7th House,
13:45and it was just all devoted to dancing.
13:48And so eventually, we let the guy be the official dancing chat line.
13:52You know, so now, if you go to the dancing site,
13:55you want to go and do a dancing chat,
13:57we let him run the actual chat line.
13:59So you go to The 7th House, and it's just everybody talking,
14:02and, you know, people come on and talk shit,
14:04or people come on and tell you how great the shows were and everything.
14:07So it's pretty cool.
14:08Can you get on them?
14:09I haven't gone on yet. I'm going to go on in about a week.
14:11When we get to LA, I'm going to go on and talk to everybody.
14:14I mean, but even back when I was at American,
14:17we were involved in it.
14:18I would always go on AOL, like, and say,
14:20Glenn's going to come on this day, and I would talk to everybody.
14:23And I like it better that way.
14:25This way, people know, I mean, this is the other problem.
14:28People go online and say, yeah, it's me, Glenn, and blah, blah, blah.
14:31And just so you know, I don't go online and talk to people
14:33unless it's where, you know, like this kind of thing,
14:35where we announce it, and then it's me.
14:37So if somebody says it's Glenn, it isn't Glenn?
14:39It ain't.
14:41I'm burnin' diesel, burnin' dinosaur bones
14:48I'll take the river down to Stillwater
14:50And ride a pack of dogs
14:52You mentioned American.
14:54Great Johnny Cash record.
14:56He did your song, 13, which is on this album.
14:59Yeah.
15:00That's awesome to have the original Man of Black do the whole deal.
15:03You know, it was a big honor for me
15:05because I remember my dad listened to Johnny Cash,
15:09and it was one of the only records that he played that, you know...
15:13You didn't hate.
15:14That I didn't hate, yeah, and I liked it.
15:16And so when I got asked to write a song for him,
15:18I was just like, you know, I can't say what I said,
15:21but I said, yeah.
15:23Yeah, yeah.
15:24And I wrote it real quick, too.
15:26So I wrote it for him.
15:27I didn't write that for me, I wrote it for him.
15:30And he did a great version of it, too.
15:32I mean, he made it his own.
15:34So then, like, when we were doing this record,
15:36Joey and Lazer, like, you've got to break out 13.
15:38And I'm like, that's not going to happen
15:40because how am I going to beat Johnny Cash, you know?
15:43So they said, no, we've got to do it.
15:45So it was getting to the end of the sessions,
15:47and they're like, come on, we've got to do it.
15:49And I said, well, if we do it,
15:50we've got to do it the way I originally wrote it.
15:52And I wrote it as an electric song.
15:53I didn't know he was going to do an all-acoustic record.
15:55So I put all the backup vocals in there.
15:58It was an extra verse that he left out,
16:00and it turned out the way it is right there,
16:03which is pretty much the way I wrote it.
16:05The Soul of Misery, never had you in the name.
16:07Nope.
16:18There's a ton of bands that I want to sign.
16:20There's a really good band in L.A. that I want to sign,
16:22and these kids just gave me a CD the other night,
16:25and it's awesome.
16:26What's the name?
16:27I don't want to tell anyone, they'll steal the band,
16:29but they're really good.
16:31What city are they from?
16:32Huh?
16:33What city?
16:34I just have their telephone number,
16:35I can look up where it's from.
16:36But it's awesome.
16:38There's so much hidden talent out around this whole,
16:43Canada and America are connected,
16:44they're landlocked, so I'll say this whole country.
16:46It's North America.
16:48There's so much talent out there,
16:49and I don't understand why labels will sign some crap
16:53and trying to shove it down someone's throat
16:55when there's so many great bands out there to be discovered.
16:58That's your job now, man.
16:59You got a long say.
17:00Thanks a lot today, I really appreciate it.
17:01My pleasure.
17:02Cool, Glen Danzig.
17:03Wow.