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By Tom Lanham photo by RKH Images
hen you ’ ve been consistently composing rabble-rousing metal anthems for several decades – like brainy W . A . S . P . bandleader Blackie Lawless has , to the point where he ’ s currently on a prestigious 40th Anniversary Tour – it helps to set your standards impeccably high . Which , for this Staten-Island-bred shock-rocker – who ’ s not claiming his method would work for every artist – meant tapping into the elevated vibe of a certain longtime corporate mascot . Songwriting , the 66-year-old authoritatively explains , “ Is a lot like being the RCA dog , Nipper . You look at him ( the famous fox terrier in that later-licensed original 1899 painting , “ His Master ’ s Voice ”) with his head cocked sideways , trying to figure out what ’ s going on , and I constantly do that myself – like , ‘ How did this work ?’ And I can ’ t tell you everything , but I ’ m just trying to convey some human emotions .”
In the mid- ‘ 80s , the powerhouse vocalist ’ s material – memorable chant-alongs like “ Wild Child ,” “ Blind In Texas ,” “ I Wanna Be Somebody ,” and “ Animal ( F *** Like a Beast )” ( many of which invoked the advisory-sticker wrath of Tipper Gore and her then-new PMRC ) — were bolstered by Alice-Cooper gory concert theatrics , which included smudge pots , fauxbondage enactments , raw meat being tossed liberally into crowds , and even a serrated saw blade codpiece that shot flames . You didn ’ t just hear W . A . S . P . numbers – you felt them like multi-sensory explosions , as well , with the always kinetic , Native American-descended Lawless simultaneously summoning his indigenous heritage , as in the tribal cover shot of the group ’ s Gold-certified landmark sophomore album , “ The Last Command ,” which still
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holds up today . And along the way , Lawless had so many paths not taken – where he could have ended up in Motley Crue , The New York Dolls , and even on-screen playing a cyborg in “ Terminator 2 ” — but . He stayed focused on W . A . S . P ., and given that a lot of his old stage exploits would no longer go over in our obsessively PC era , he ’ s updated his show from the carnal to more cerebral , using many of Guillermo Del Toro ’ s “ Nightmare Alley ” art directors to create the shadowy aura of a 1930 ’ s carnival , all the way down to popcornand-cotton-candy-scented fog . “ No one ’ s ever done this before ,” he swears , promising a truly unique spectacle for all ticket holders .
Expanding on what still motivates him , Lawless – who speaks slowly , concisely , in a deep , resonant voice that wouldn ’ t sound out of place on a late-night NPR broadcast – adds that initially , outsiders often initially dismissed “ I Wanna Be Somebody ” as a mediocre ditty . He gets that ; he really does . “ And there are other songs like that , like Johnny Paycheck ’ s “ Take This Job and Shove It ,” back in the ‘ 70s , or Merle Haggard ’ s “ Okie From Muskogee ,” which he called a ‘ Place where even squares have a ball .’” He sighs contentedly , happy to be a similar Everyman voice . “ And all those guys ? It ’ s just magic !”
IE : While watching an old Drive-In Classics film series on cable recently , I stumbled across this vintage ' 80s horror film called Ghoulies 2 And this great metal anthem was playing over the closing credits called " Scream Until You Like it ." And Lo and behold , it was W . A . S . P .! A perfectly-timed little reminder of just how great your songwriting was and is . Was it composed exclusively for that movie ?
BLACKIE LAWLESS : Oh , you ' re far too kind ! And it was for the movie – we had worked with those people once before on a thing called Dungeonmaster , so we had known them from a few years earlier .
IE : How does it feel , being in W . A . S . P . after all this time ? Has the energy changed ? BL : It ' s pretty much the same , really . I mean , we ' ve been blessed , you know ? And there ' s really not much that I can add to that , in the sense that any band that survives …. well , most bands , if they ' re successful , will go for four or five years . But trying to go ten , twenty years ? It ' s impossible . So for any band to do what we ' ve done ? It ' s almost non-existent .
IE : Has anything new been recorded since ( 2015 ' s ) Golgotha ? BL : We ' ve got stuff in the oven , cooking right now . So we ' re looking , hopefully , for a summer release .
IE : What ' s sustained you , musically , over these past four decades , and all these different phases like grunge ? BL : Well , like any creative person , you don ' t just stop being creative . Creative people have their filter for what they do , and I don ' t think that ever goes away , you know ? So my job and your job is basically the same thing – we ' re both reporters . I just make mine rhyme . That ' s basically the difference , so I just write down what I see . And make it rhyme . I live about an hour north of Los Angeles , and the only kids I have is the band .
IE : You actually did throw raw meat into the crowd on early tours . So I suppose you were never hurting for steak on the tour bus ?
BL : That would be the general gist , yeah .
IE : You also used to sport a saw blade codpiece . What mishaps did you have with such stage props back then ? BL : Well , it makes life difficult to sit . So you ' ve gotta be careful with that . But I think that any band that does things theatrically if you have a mishap , it ' s the kind of thing where people don ' t know if it ' s part of the show or not . I mean , we had a situation once in Dublin , Ireland , where I used to have a flamethrower that went out from that codpiece that I was wearing , and it would shoot flames twenty feet . And it blew up on me one night . It burnt all the hair off my legs , and , quite honestly , it was bad . So things like that happen from time to time .
IE : Just to regress you back a bit further , you grew up as a PK , right ? A Preacher ' s Kid ? BL : No , well , it was my uncle . But close enough .
IE : Did you start singing in church ? And is that where your voice first got noticed , when someone pulled you aside and said , " Kid – ya got something here !"? BL : Yeah , yeah . And for me , it was probably the same as it was for everybody else that was doing it . It ' s what you know , and it ' s what you did . There was nothing particularly different about it , and like I said , when it ' s all you know ? It ' s all you know . And I don ' t know if anybody ever told me that , to be honest . I could always carry a tune , but I never heard that from anybody . My whole thing – especially when we started making records – was
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