Glenn Danzig - 1991 Interview
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00:00And this, not by any coincidence, is Glenn Danzig. I'm going to be talking to him.
00:07Basically, my rules are, there are no rules, whatever you want to do is great as long as you stay within the framework you set, you know, and that your fans, you know, also are used to, you know what I mean, that whole thing.
00:22I think if you want to explore all these areas, it's alright to do so as long as you keep it hard and, you know, not soft. Everything can be done in, you know, the right way.
00:34There is a very tense blues song on the new record. It's like, it's very tense. It's not like a sit-down happy blues song. I don't write sit-down happy blues songs even when I do.
00:48And then, hopefully, if I have the time, I'm going to write a song together with Willie Dixon, which is very cool because that's who I really like when it comes to blues, like Willie Dixon, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, that kind of stuff.
01:02Some Robert Johnson stuff is okay, but for me, like a song like Smokestack Lightning is ten times better than anything Robert Johnson ever wrote. For me, you know, that's how I feel.
01:14At least here in America, it's kind of like people like to talk about freedom and people like to talk about how wild they really are and, you know, not just, you know, bands, but whoever, you know, and how free America is and things like that.
01:30It's almost like you can be free, but only to a certain point, like especially with, like say if I put it in the context of what I'm doing both on a personal level when I just walk out in the street and live on stage and on the record, it's like there are no rules for me except the rules that I place on myself.
01:52And if I want to get as wild as I want to get, I will get as wild as I want to get. If it lands me in jail, well, then I land in jail. But others talk a good game. I'm doing it. So when they slag me or whatever they say, I just can sit back and say, well, I do it. You don't. You know?
02:09This other guy, he sits behind a typewriter or behind a piece of paper and he writes and he sits in his room at night and he writes and that's all he does. He doesn't go out there and live it. I go out and live it 24 hours a day.
02:24If they're flooding the markets with these really soft MTV pop records and here comes this maverick record producer with his own label putting out these kick ass albums that are just like, you know, forget the rules. Here's the stuff. It makes the other stuff look tame and wimpy by comparison. And that's what they don't want it to look like. But it is. It is what it is.
02:50I drive a band. Usually I look for people to stay in a band with who drive themselves. It's not so much that I have to drive them like a person like John on guitar. I mean, I don't have to say, John, you have to be the best you can be at all times because he's already doing that. And that's what I mean. It's a personal thing with him. He comes from a classical training music school. I mean, I don't even have to say that to him.
03:16I mean, I'll think he did a great show and I'll say it was an incredible show, John. He's just like, I was terrible. And I'm like, sounded good to me. I don't know. You know what I mean?
03:28This German magazine, I did an interview with him when we were just over there and they said, is it true that he was German or Italian? I forget. They say, is it true that you and Rick Rubin held Roy Orbison down and made him do the song? And I was like, I almost was tempted to go. Yeah. And then we kicked his ass or whatever. But it was just silly. You know what I mean?
03:49Because I obviously have never met Roy Orbison. He's the most gentle, he's like southern gentleman, you know. He's just like very polite, soft spoken. I mean, you would never even think of doing something like that to him. But it was just really funny. I wonder where they get their information from. It was very funny.
04:09Well, it just seems like an unlikely pairing, you know. I think most people who would be Danzig fans would probably not believe that Roy Orbison is such a big influence on you in the same way Elvis Presley and stuff like that.
04:20I don't know. A lot of people have no problem with it. It might be an American thing. I don't know. I don't know what to tell you because, I mean, I was just, you were talking about the Elvis thing. We were just down on the bayou in New Orleans shooting on the one. And you'll have like a younger person will come up and tell me I sound like Jim Morrison or whatever.
04:44And this guy on the bayou, you know, he did the Swamp Tour for us, the whole deal. I mean, it was his land for generations and generations. And he's got this Cajun accent. He said, you know, I like that song, Glenn. He said, you know, you sound like Elvis Presley.