REBEL IN THE F.D.G.

KNAC Interview with Blackie Lawless 10 Agosto 2001

	W.A.S.P. Ringleader Blackie Lawless Speaks Exclusively To KNAC.COM Correspondent Daniel Hohr At The Wacken Festival In Germany And Discusses The Exit Of Guitarist Chris Holmes, The Ups & Downs Of Festivals Shows, And The Sport Of Competition Taking in Germany's Wacken Festival can be a daunting task for any metalhead, least of all a KNAC.COM reporter sent in to review the bands, snap some pictures and cruise backstage for some exclsuive interviews. But our pure rock pal Daniel Hohr is no average heandbanger. For the last two years, Daniel has covered this prestigious for the loudest dot com in the planet and this year is no exception. Check out his monstrous coverage of the 2001 metal event and some quick interviews he nabbed with Doro, Kamelot, and Nighwish to get a glimpse of what this massive three day metal onslaught is all about. However, in addition to the brief backstage chats with these European metal luminaries, Daniel managed to snake some time with notorious W.A.S.P. frontman Blackie Lawless and get a cool one on one pow wow with the master shock rocker. Blackie is busy touring the world behind the latest W.A.S.P. stinger Unholy Terror and gives the KNAC.COM community a glimpse inside the electric circus that is a working metal band in the year 2001. Take it away guys!!!

	KNAC.COM:	What's your impression of the show last night?
	Blackie of WASP:	We are so used to doing shows that are inside. When the rooms are full, they're really hot, but the temperature was perfect out there last night for doing a show. That's the first thing we notice, it may sound like a small thing to you, but as a band it's a big, big deal to us. You can perform better when it's cooler, you don't get as hot, you don't get as tired, everything is better. So the first impression is the temperature and then you notice the crowd second, you know, 'cause, sometimes in an indoor arena, when you come out of the dressing room and open the doors, you can feel the heat and it's like a microwave. You just wanna cry, because you know you're gonna hurt, it's gonna be painful, but that was perfect last night.

	KNAC.COM:	Why was the Wacken show the only one in Germany?
	Blackie of WASP:	Because we decided we were gonna do the festivals just this year. Last time we toured we did individual shows, but we will come back next year and tour again.

	KNAC.COM:	You didn't use a lot of special effects last night?
	Blackie of WASP:	For festivals the coordination of something like that is really difficult, it's really hard to do that. A lot of the props or something like that don't translate well live in front of real big audiences and, as I said, the coordination is as much as anything, 'cause you're dealing with a lot of crew here you that you don't normally use. I mean, the pyro was a good example last night, it went off in the wrong places. I mean, they are professional pyro technicians, but they just know our show. When you're dealing with a company that has never worked with you before, the chances for things going wrong become much greater, so it's always better to keep it simple.

	KNAC.COM:	Why did you part ways with Chris Holmes?
	Blackie of WASP:	Chris wants to do his own career. What are you gonna say when somebody says that that's what they wanna do? You can't say no. I wish him luck, whatever he does. But this guy, his name is Darrell Roberts, he's a star waiting to happen. Well, you saw him last night, he is really good. I think what you don't realise about him is that he had a band back in Los Angeles where he was singing lead. He's a lead singer, he sounds a lot like me. He's good.

	KNAC.COM:	Hi blackie ! Roy Z is really amazing on unholy terror.. will you work together once again ?
	Blackie of WASP:	hard to say, it just depends on what the situation calls for, it's not something that we consciously think about or try to predetermine but I love Roy to death; there's nobody that's more fun to work with.

	KNAC.COM:	How comfortable do you feel about your performance with W.A.S.P.?
	Blackie of WASP:	I don't think I'm ever really comfortable. I'm very competitive. Whatever I do, I wanna win. If we shoot pool, I wanna win. If we play basketball, I wanna win. If we play music, I wanna win. I have a very competitive spirit. That's my motivation right now. I wanna make the records I can make. When we do shows like last night, in all honesty, I'm not performing for the audience. I'm performing for me to be the best I can be, to sound the best I can sound. People say sometimes, how many shows have you done in your life, it has to be a few thousand and how can you do the same thing night after night after night. And I say, it's never the same. The challange is to get your mind and your body to be one. It's very much like being an athlete, you know, where you get everything to work in harmony together. Some nights you can do that and some nights you can't. That to me the biggest challange. If I've done a show that's not so good and people tell me later that they enjoyed it, I don't wanna hear it. It does not matter to me what they think. What matters is what I think, because if I haven't done the best I can do, it's almost like losing a game. You go home and you can't sleep at night and it keeps you awake and you think about what went wrong, why didn't I do this, why didn't I do that. For me that's a huge challenge and that's my biggest motivation.

	KNAC.COM:	How do you switch off after a show when you're on tour?
	Blackie of WASP:	It's not easy, because I'm still full of adrenalin. When I come off the stage, it takes sometimes two, three, four hours before I settle down. I lay in bed and count the bumps on the ceiling. When I'm doing the show, everything is in slow motion. Nothing's in real time, everything is really slow. When I get off the stage, then I run the film back in my mind and that's when I analyse what I've done, was it good, was it not good, so it's almost like I have to make the movie, then I can watch the movie. It's really strange.

	KNAC.COM:	You sound like a perfectionist.
	Blackie of WASP:	It can drive me mad

	KNAC.COM:	Is the European audience different from the American?
	Blackie of WASP:	You know, years ago there was a big difference. I think satellite television has started to change that, which is not always a good thing. I was having a conversation just a couple of days ago with someone about this. We were talking about how in America, like fifty years ago, there would be country and western singers in Texas and every hundred miles, they would play a different kind of country and western. But now, radio and television are making everyone sound the same, there are no more regional differences, everything doesn't have its own personality anymore. I don't like that. I like it when every place has its own individual identity. Germany has always been very much like that, but a lot of German people don't understand that America, even though we speak English, is more German than English. I've never seen that much difference, but I'm starting to see more of a difference in Japan, Italy, you know, places like that. But everything is starting to become the same now. I think a lot of places are losing their own identity. That's kind of sad. When we first came to Europe 15, 16 years ago, it wasn't like that. I don't know if Europe has changed or if America has changed or everybody's changed a little bit together, but it's started to become one thing.

	KNAC.COM:	What about your forthcoming American tour?
	Blackie of WASP:	It's gonna be big! It's the biggest one we've done in ten years.

	KNAC.COM:	What are your musical plans for the future, maybe another concept album like The Crimson Idol?
	Blackie of WASP:	I don't know. I have an idea for a concept record, I just don't know if it's gonna be the next one or not. I haven't decided yet, it's too soon to tell. I won't start thinking about that until the American tour is over and that'll be sometime around Christmas. I'm really on the fence right now, I don't know what I wanna do. I know from the way I am, normally I just do what feels right at the moment, but I've been working on a story for the last three or four years. Musically, I think it's as good as Crimson Idol. I mean there's music on this thing that'll make you cry. It's really good, but I just don't know if I'm ready to do that now, because there's some other stuff in my head. I'm not sure yet.

	KNAC.COM:	What's metal to you? Is it a kind of music or a lifestyle?
	Blackie of WASP:	It's a state of mind. Look at the kids out there, it's like a religion to them. You know, it wasn't until I was here four months ago on a promotion tour, I got sick in Munich. I was in bed for three days and I couldn't get out of it, I was really ill. So I watched TV every day. I was watching MTV every day and I was watching VIVA every day. I never understood why German kids hate disco. I understand now why they hate disco, because it's everywhere. If I'd had a gun, I would have shot the TV, but I understand now why the kids are so violently against disco. So, it's a state of mind.


		Thanks to Mark

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