started wearing that . It was his El Hombre

Lobo thing .

IE : The Cramps used to be obsessive collectors . They ’ d meet some grandmother who had a stack of obscure old 78s in her Ohio basement and gasp in awe . Were you guys like that ?

PZ : I was never really a collector . Of

course , I was into novelty hits . But I gener-

lives — he can see that tree from his win-

ally liked what I heard on the radio , and

dow , and it ’ s also in an old graveyard . So

Keith was like that — it was just what we

The Fleshtones , circa 1990

Kenny scouted that location , but that ’ s where I took those pictures . So I ’ m quite happy with the cover . But hey — don ’ t buy it for the cover ! Buy it for the mask ! IE : Where did you get the outlandish werewolf mask in the Face video ? PZ : I don ’ t know . Keith found that . I was hoping he was gonna get the typical Lon Chaney , Jr . one , but then he turned up with this wild thing . I think he got it in Spain . One day , we were playing a show , and I think it was in Spain , and we were doing our Spanish version of “ The Monster Mash ” onstage , and all of a sudden , he

heard on the radio . And we heard a lot of weird shit on the radio , make no mistake . It ’ s not like now when nothing ’ s on the radio . You literally turn it on , and there ’ s nothing . Like “ Dinner With Drac ” — that was a hit , ya know ? And “ The Monster Mash .” So I didn ’ t have to be a cultist — these things came to me , for whatever reason . Like being asked to do the theme song for I Was a Teenage Zombie and meeting the whole cast . There was a show called Forever Knight that was one of my favorite shows in the early ‘ 90s , a Canadian show about a detective who was an 800-year-old

vampire — he was a good guy who was trying to make up for his centuries of evil , so he decided to become a detective , and he only worked at night . And we were playing in Toronto , and word got through to them , and through to us , and the entire cast — and I mean the ENTIRE cast — came to see us play . So that was great , our Forever Night night ! So I guess my point is that this stuff comes to me more than anything . And we loved The Cramps , but we didn ’ t have to work at it so much .

IE : What was your mission statement

then , and what is it today ? It seems like it hasn ’ t changed that much . PZ : No , it hasn ’ t . We wanted to play the type of rock and roll that we wanted to hear . And at that point , nobody was making it , really . We were listening to old records and stuff . I remember a friend of mine saying to me back then , “ Peter , what are we gonna do when we get sick of listening to our old Yardbirds records ?” And I might have thought , “ Well , maybe we can listen to some Kinks records .” But luckily , The Ramones came along and