All I want to say

And all I gotta do

Who'd I do this for hey, me or you?

Excerpt from "Astro Zombies"

A mysterious figure stands in the shadows of the doorway, his stocky frame

reflecting light from a flickering candle in the distance. Long, pitch black

hair shrouds his face from view, hanging down to a tight point meeting the

chin. Eyeing through strands of hair, he looks out across the room with a

menacing glare. His arm reaches up and points at my presence. A deep voice

echos against the murky walls, "What do you want?" I tremble as I stand

alone in this cold crypt of an atmospher, staring at this human dressed

entirely in black. "U, u, u, uh, uh, uh, G, G, Gl, Gl, Glenn?" I stuttered

as small dribbles of sweat head down my forehead. "Yeah?" he quietly asks.

The lights suddenly flash on making me jump and illuminating a room full of

movie paraphenalia, comic books, skulls, horror related items, and hundred of

Japanese toys standing at attention. I am stunned for a moment by the

collection that fills the room. "Oh, it's you," he shouts outward.

"Welcome"

You might know him as the singer/songwriter/musician of Samhain, or perhaps

better yet as the main man behind the legendary Misfits, a band still rising

in cult following three years after its demise. Either way, 28 year old

Glenn Danzing who resides in a small township in New Jersey, is a man of

remarkable talents who uses his creative juices wisely.

Besides his famous crooning/composing with the Misfits or Samhain, Glenn is

also an aritst who designed bot Misfits and Samhain logos, plus all the

record artwork. Utilizing an old horror movie character "The Crimson Ghost",

he added the right touches of horror to the Misfits, making it their

trademark. He started a label for the Misfits that he still runs today

called Plan 9 Records. You may not know that Glenn in an avid collector of

comic books (expecially Golden Age comics), Japanese toys, books, and videos

which (amongst his favorites are Astro Boy, Captain Harlack, Devilman, Black

Jack, and many more), horror related articles like B-movie posters and

videos, and just vintage figure model kits, are just a few more of the items

in his mass wasll to wall collection. These things have been a major

influence on Glenn and his approach to both the Misfits and Samhain. He

silkscreens all the Misfits/Samhain shirts int he basement of his house by

himself. And recently he talks of releasing a line of Misfits/Samhain

skateboards. Glenn is definitely one busy person

Pushead

Pushead: Let's start at the beginning. What did you do before the Misfits?

Glenn: Got drunk a lot, went out, went crazy, got in a lot of trouble, did

some artwork.

P: You said once that took your artwork to Marvel....

G: That was while I was in the Misfits. The stuff before I just showed to

people, gave it away as presents, that kind of junk.

P: What got you to start a band and call it the Misfits? The first record

is so different than what you did later.

G: It wasn't that much different, because if Cough/Cool would have had a

guitar it would have sounded like that. As a matter of fact, Bullet predates

Cough/Cool by three years. But it didn't come out until way after.

P: How long before you came into the conceptual aspect of the Misfits? On

Cough/Cool you guys are just standing there, there's no guitar and it has

this real kind of sound, but the concept didn't appear until Night of the

Living Dead, which showed you were into horror stuff.

G: Well, the Horror Business came before that. Our records were basically

what you got to see, the Bullet 45 showed the violent side, the death,

accepting death, maybe even the political side, but more on the violent side.

That was the side of us that was shown.

P: Why did you want to show the violent side?

G: I like violence, I think it's part of the world. It's only normal to

write about things that you see a lot of and that you experience a lot of, so

that's what I like to do.

P: So is your stuff pro-violence or aware of violence.

G: Yeah, like that. What I am is a survivalist, and a realist. I basically

just come up with an idea. If I want to write about it, I do. Usually I

just start writing lyrics and they'll take me where I want to go.

P: How did you come up with the concept? Did you do the music first or the

lyrics?

G: I don't have any set standards. Sometimes I come up with great lyrics.

Sometimes the stuff is like poetry and I just work it in, like Bullet. That

was all poetry.

P: What about the Teenagers From Mars 7". You made five, right?

G: Yes, five acetates of Static Age/Teenagers From Mars.

P: Why didn't you ever put it out?

G: We just didn't really like it at that point. We were very picky about

the records we put out, which may sound weird now when you hear them, but at

the time we were real picky about what came out and how it sounded. There's

also a Who Killed Marilyn/Where Eagles Dare 45 that never came out.

P: But you ended up doing Who Killed Marilyn on your own.

G: Yeah.

P: What was the Static Age album, the one that never came out?

G: A lot of stuff that was on Legacy of Brutality and a few songs that

aren't. And, actually, Cliff Bernstein was the one who lined that up. We

sold him Blank Records because we owned the name and they came out with Blank

Records from Polygram.

P: Blank Records, now that's the one that Cough/Cool was on, right?

G: Yeah, we had to get a new label so we came up with Plan 9 for the Bullet

label.

P: You toured in England, how did that go?

G: It went well, but Jerry didn't get our contract signed before we went

over, and the management, which is Motorhead's management now, screwed us

over and told us we were only getting paid for half the shows we were

supposed to get paid for, and we were only getting L50 a night ($125), so we

just walked off the tour.

P: Who was in that band when you did that tour?

G: That was the Night of the Living Dead band. Jerry, me, Joey Image on

drums, and Bobby Steele on guitar. After that came a long break in vinyl.

We were recording but we never came up with anything we liked. We played

live sporadically.

P: What was the crowd response at that time?

G: It was good. New York was going through a lot of changes, there was that

Scar bullshit going on. (Dec-Jun 1980). We didn't play for a long time

because we didn't have a drummer. We got back from England in January 1980.

We hung out there. We had an agent and a deal from CBS. The drummer was

supposed to come back over and we were supposed to go on tour with the Clash.

But our drummer never came back over so we didn't get to tour and we didn't

get the contract with CBS. So we came back, we looked for a drummer, and

about April we found Googy. Then we were ready to do a tour of Texas, which

fell through. We just started playing around New York in about June or July

with a benefit for a magazine and a few other shows.

P: How long after that did you record your next record, Three Hits From

Hell?

G: We started recording that in August. Eventually we kicked out Bobby

because he wasn't showing up at rehearsals or studio sessions. He was just

saying, "Well, have Doyle play for me, 'cause I can't make it." He was

really involved with drugs and that, so eventually we just said, "This is

bullshit, let's just get Doyle and kick Bobby out." Three Hits From Hell

came out in April '81. And then Halloween came out in October. In between

there was the Who Killed Marilyn 45, which I put out myself on the death

date, August 5th.

P: Why did you do that yourself, without the Misfits?

G: Because we had stopped doing that song and none of those guys were

interested in doing it, and this guy, who was one of the original helpers and

organizers of Plan 9 had approached me and said 'I really wanted this record

to come out and I want to do it now.' I told him the other guys didn't want

to do it. So he said, do you want to do it? We weren't doing anything, and

it wasn't because me and Googy didn't want to do anything with the Misfits.

It was Jerry basically who didn't want to play or do anything.

P: So it was a stagnant period for the Misfits?

G: Yeah, and I had done the record and it was doing well, so Googy and I

both went down to the band and said 'Look, if we don't release more records

and start playing live more, we're leaving. And that's it. Me and Googy

were going to start our own band'. So those guys said okay, okay because the

Marilyn record was doing really good and....

P: You played all the instruments on that?

G: Yeah.

P: How did this all lead up to the contract with Slash or Ruby Records?

G: Slash is who we contracted with. Ruby Records was basically a label that

Slash had for bands who didn't want to do a three album contract, only wanted

to do a one off deal. That's all we wanted to do with them, thank God, or

we'd still be screwed up. I had gotten in touch with people at Slash to find

out about where we could play out in L.A. They said they'd heard we'd done

an album and were planning on putting it out on IRS. They said they'd give

us a fair deal and that IRS was the worst label and stuff like that.

Eventually we put out Walk Among Us out on Ruby rather than waiting for IRS,

who we had heard a lot of horror stories about.

P: What kind of deal did Slash offer you?

G: At the time it seemed like a really good deal. They paid to remix it,

which wasn't that much. They gave us a good promo push, it was okay. I

would have like to have gotten paid.

P: They haven't paid you at all?

G: $400 for 500 records. Total records sold though, and I think this is a

conservative estimate was 35,000, that includes the overseas pressing.

P: Did they license it out to somebody overseas?

G: Yeah, they licensed it out to a record label in Italy. We signed

contracts for the foreign thing, but they just basically wouldn't get on the

phone with us and we eventually had to get a lawyer to sue them.

P: So, is this matter solved yet?

G: No, it's going to be solved. We're going to get the rights back and

hopefully put out Walk Among Us as an American release again.

P: Same cover?

G: No, the cover will come out right this time, because they fucked it up.

Originally the whole sky was suppose to have black, and there was supposed

to have benn and red and blue touch to make it purple. Now it's come out the

right way.

P: When did the cult following start?

G: That had happened when we put out Bullet and Horror Business. Our

violent reputation had preceded us.

P: What do you mean by violent reputation?

G: Well, for crazy shows and stuff like that. Our shows weren't normal punk

shows. They were violent. They were shows where people could really go off.

Our music was real fast and real loud, in NY at the time the only other punk

bands were like the Dead Boys or the Erasers, who weren't even a punk band.

They were like an imitation Voidoids, but with girls. We were the young,

little snotty kids who came on the scene and were totally irrelevant to what

they were doing. Loud and fast, screaming and yelling.

P: Did you have the whole stage presence yet, and the image?

G: Yeah, I was wearing the bone shirt. Jerry used to spike his hair, but it

kept falling down, so I said why don't you just slick it up...and he kind of

had a cockatoo haircut, right in the middle, and it came down into a small

devil lock right under the ear. And I was already doing my hair into a point

to be kind of like Eddie Musnter-ish, and it was getting longer and longer.

It was down to about the bridge of my nose, that was like '78.

P: Where did you come up with the name Devil Lock?

G: Somebody's mother actually came up with it. She said "Oh these are those

guys, that band with the Devil Locks on their heads." We thought it was

pretty funny. Actually it turns out there was some African tribe that wore

their hair like that, and they called it a devil lock.

P: So when actually did the Misfits start?

G: Misfits started in '77.

P: So with the big punk rock explosion came the Misfits? And, by the time

Doyle came along you were putting out stuff that was totally your own...

G: Totally ours. We were totally ours in '79. A lot of stuff from Walk

Among Us was written '79. Stuff like Demonmania, that's like 1981. Earth AD

was written in '81. It just took a long time to get stuff out.

P: So once the record came out on Slash it brought the limelight to the

band, 'cause basically you were an underground band. What happened to the

band after that?

G: We got a lot more shows. We got to tour a lot more.

P: So that's when you have the legendary San Francisco incident?

G: Yeah, Slash set up a California tour for us, and they booked us in the

Elite Club as opposed to the On Broadway, and there was no security. It wa

just total ridiculousness and so basically you had that incident that night.

P: It seems a lot of people in S.F. won't forget that incident because it's

been so blown out of proportion.

G: Well that's why. It's been blown out of proportion. Didn't Johnny

Thunders kill somebody with his guitar in San Francisco?

P: I don't think anybody remembers that.

G: Yeah, okay, also the guys in Fear said they hit somebody with their

guitar and I know Flipper used to regularly hit people. I found out a lot

about that incident also...Bobby Steele had sent a few of his friends to fuck

with us. He was still mad because we kicked him out of the band for being a

drug addict and being a total fuck up. Everybody...every band that played

that night was being pelted with cans. It was the thing to do at that time.

All the other bands put up with it, and we didn't. We said 'This is

bullshit, quit your stupid punk routine. You're being exactly what all these

stupid magazines want you to be....stupid idiots.'

P: How did the crown respond to that?

G: You know, one thing that's funny is that Maximum Rock n Roll and Rippet

or whoever was doing it at that time, also failed to stated that one of the

reasons there was such a riot was that half the people there wanted to see

our band play and didn't want this bullshit to go on. They wanted everybody

to just calm down and let us finish our set. They paid to see us. They

wanted to see the fuckin' Misfits. And that was never publicized. I don't

think that was fair at all, but then again, I don't think that a lot of what

was going on was fair.

P: The argument on the other side would be that its not necessary to hit

what they call young kids. I their words he was under 18.

G: Well, why was that kid throwing full beer cans at Doyle. Hey people

under 18 in New York slash people's throats for a dime. That doesn't cut it

with us. I don't want to hear that. Basically, I can't condone what Dyyle

did, okay, and I can't say that he was wrong in doing it either. Because,

also, don't forget Doyle was 16 at that time. So you have an underage kid

throwing something at Doyle and you have another underage kid hitting another

in the head, so it equals out.

P: So when you came back to San Francisco again was the animosity still

there?

G: We never played Frisco again. But most of the people I knew from Frisco

and most of the people who wrote to me, and that's quite a few, had stated

that thy wished we'd come back because they thought what we did was

fantastic; that no one had ever stood up to these totally Marxist nazi

punks, and we were the only band to ever do that bad put our foot down.

They'd go to shows and they hated it because they couldn't get up front

since these people always bullied everyone anyway. Also, I'd like to state

that our t-shirt and record sales in San Francisco picked up dramatically

after that incident.

P: I was told that if you wore a Misfits shirt that certain people would

beat you up.

G: Certain people, that's a group of like ten people that would do that.

Don't you think that's kind of fascist?

P: That is. When you get into the kind of political realm, where you're

preaching one thing or the other, you forget that other people do exist in

the world.

G: And have right themselves....well there you go. Wll that's one of the

arguments I've always had with Maximum Rock n Roll. I would never tell them

what to do and I don't think they should tell other people what to do.

P: Is it true that you were charged off the stage and that a big fight

started afterwards?

G: A big fight started. The whole audience was fighting each other over

what was going to happen. The Misfits were going to play or they weren't

going to play....It was total chaos, there was no security, but we got Doyle

off the stage. Me and Googy were still playing, and we just said, this is

bullshit. People in the audience were killing each other. We said "we have

to get your guys out of here." It was just too crazy. And so, we just

walked off the stage.

P: Did you get paid that night?

G: No, we didn't get paid. Nobody got paid that night, though. It was just

a total fiasco all the way around.

P: So you went back to New York. There was a long period where nothing

happened after Walk Among Us came out.

G: You mean record-wise? Well, we were playing a lot. We'd done two more

tours. We did the Walk Among Us tour. We only had time to put out the

Evilive thing.

P: Now, you originally did that just for the Fiend Club. Why did you decide

to make it publically available?

G: Because I didn't want to do it anymore. Those were for the Fiend Club.

We sold as many as we could through the Fiend Club and it was a thing to

prove I didn't need distributors. I sold those records through the Fiend

Club and made twice as much as I would have made if I sold them through

distributors.

P: Why do you have a beef with distributors?

G: I just didn't like the way they were taking a real long time to pay us

and they were selling our records all the time. They'd call me up and say

"We need more records," and I'd say, well you haven't paid me for the last

ones. "Okay the check is on the way so sen us..." I would stupidly believe

them and send more records and never get paid. I'd have to dick with them

all the time about money. I just wanted to do it on my own. I wanted to do

it through the mail. We had a very big Fiend Club.

P: How did you start the Fiend Club?

Glenn: We just put the little insert inside all the 45s. We wanted to get

more feedback from our fans and wanted to get a little closer to them to see

what they liked and didn't like and offer them stuff like t-shirts and

stickers. It didn't cost anything and we always sent out free stuff. We

were the only band giving away a lot of free stuff. And a lot of bands

followed suit but it was the younger bands who weren't signed. Any

established band never gave anything away free. With the Misfits it was

always kind of a fun thing for us. We liked doing that kind of stuff.

P: You weren't recording, so basically you were doing the Fiend Club thing

making shirts and stuff.

G: We were trying to generate some money because Jerry and Doyle were going

through so much money it was ridiculous. They were destroying guitars at

every show. It was getting into a big show thing. They would break guitars

and spend money on that and that and getting involved with drugs. The band

never had any money, so what I did was make the side money that nobody could

touch.

P: When was the last show as the Misfits?

G: October 31, 1983 was the last show but the only show before that was in

August in Boston. Our last west coast tour was in Santa Monica.

P: Are you going to put out any more Misfits records?

G: There may be more, we'll see. I know I'm going re-release Beware, maybe

a singles album with all the stuff you can't get anymore on singles, and a

few tracks that have never been released.

P: Out of all the Misfits stuff, what's your personal favorite?

G: I like Walk Among Us, 3 Hits From Hell, and as crazy as it sounds, the

Night of the Living Dead 45 is my favorite Misfits thing.

P: What happened after the Misfits?

G: There were various things I was doing at that time, but basically Eerie

and I had decided to start a band which was going to be called Samhain or if

we came up with a better name, we would come up with a better name, but we

had a song called Samhain. We were already doing The Shift and Black Dream.

I had already started working on Archangel, with Al Pike from Reagan Youth

in August. Eerie was learning drums for a lot of the stuff then. He was

drumming for Rosemary's Babies then. So basically what happened was Al Pike

just wasn't happening because he was a nice guy but he couldn't go on tour

because he had a steady job and he didn't want to lose it. So it was me and

Eerie. We were going to do Samhain. I told the Misfits the last show I was

going to do with them was the October show and that was the end of the

Misfits. I got a call from Lyle and Brian Baker (of Minor Threat). They

wanted to start a band and they wanted me to be the singer. They wanted me

to come down to DC, so I went down and we did two rehearsals with hem, and it

wasn't happening. It was costing me a lot of money to fly down there to just

dick around, so I said, 'look, just forget it'. Lyle said he still wanted

to work with me and Eerie so I said, okay, if you want to come up we're going

to do a show as Samhain, and we're already recording the album. But it just

didn't work out with Lyle because he didn't fit in with us personality-wise.

P: He wasn't into the image, or...

G: Well, at first he was, then he started getting shit from people down in

DC or something, I don't know. That was the end of that. We just said

"look, this where we're at. We never lied to you, this is Samhain, this is

what it's all about." And, that's how it went from there. We got Damien

after that.

P: So where did you come up with the name Samhain?

G: It was just something I was into. It was real tough getting information

on it. I'd been into it for a while, it wasn't just something that popped

into my head. I had written a song called Samhain.

P: Was that originally a Misfits song?

G: No, it was a song that I had written. There was lots of stuff I'd

writting you just couldn't give the Misfits because they couldn't do it. I

had a song, The Crystal Waltz, that I brought down to rehearsal and those

guys butchered it. Most of the stuff Eerie plays, Jerry could never play in

his wildest imagination.

P: Basically then, is Samhain what you wanted the Misfits to grow into?

G: Samhain, basically for the lack of a better description, is the Misfits

with a new name, where they'd be right now if Jerry had practiced and we grew

as we were supposed to. A lot of people don't realize that it's a whole

different band and it still has its own sound because there are different

people in the band and different personalities, different ideas coming in,

too. But, song-wise, a lot of this stuff I had written (The Shift and The

Howl) was written in '83. Archangel, I wrote in 1981 for Dave Vanian (of The

Damned).

P: Are you happy with the way Samhain is going or do you want to see them go

another step?

G: I want to see it go as far as it can go. I'm never happy with anything

and I get bored with stuff real easily. You do something and you just

over-do it, and once it's done you go onto something new.

P: So you like the way to progression of Samhain is going now that there are

three releases out?

G: Yeah, I think the new one is the best one. All the other albums

represent the band, but this one is more...if someone said to me "Which

record should I get that really portrays Samhain?" I would have to say the

new one.

P: Do you think it's going to take as long for people to pick up on Samhain

as it did to get into the Misfits like they are now?

G: No. Because already we're drawing about the same amount of people as the

Misfits were drawing. Some places, we're drawing more. There are a lot of

new people, alot of people who used to be into the Misfits have just dropped

out of the scence totally or switched to heavy metal, like AC/DC type shit.

We just played up in Boston and had a totally different audience then we did

before. In fact, I don't remember many people who used to go to our Boston

shows being at that show, except for the promoter and a few photographers.

P: So what is the crowd like now?

G: It's young. It's a lot of kinds who don't even know who the Misfits are.

There are a lot of people who do come because they're interested in my

career or whatever. They just like my songwriting, and that's cool. I have

people come up to me and say, "There'll never be another Misfits" and then

walk away. But then the other people come up and say to me "Misfits were

never this good."

P: Do you still get people asking for Misfits stuff?

G: That's going to happen wherever it goes. I'm not going to deny my

musical heritage. I wrote those songs. For the most part, most people now

don't even compare Misfits to Samhain even in a breath. Samhain is just too

unbelievable for them. Vocally and lyrically the new band is so much heavier

than the Misfits it's ridiculous. Even musically, it's so much more together

as far as doing different parts and compositions.

P: Are you really picky in the studio?

G: Yeah, I'm real picky. I know exactly what I want, and I'll go do it. If

someone in the band can't do it, I'll do it.

P: How does that make them feel?

G: It doesn't matter how that makes them feel. This is a business. There

is a budget for everything. The record has to come in under a certain

budget. I'm pretty lenient with that stuff, but basically, I don't even have

to say anything. If Damien can't play a guitar track, he'll come in and go,

"I can't do it, so will you do it?"

P: How did you get into all this Japanese stuff?

G: First, with animation when I was a kid; 8th Man, Kimba, Astro Boy,

Gigantor, all that stuff. After not collecting for a long time I started

collecting comics. I was at this show and there was a guy selling Japanese

books and toys, but basically paperback books. There's this character called

Captain Harlock. He had a skull and crossbones shirt, a big massive scar

down his face, an eyepatch, hair hanging in his face just the way I was

wearing my hair at the time. I immediately identified with all these heroes.

He rides this space ship in outer space, as a space pirate, and tries to

stop greedy enterprising corporations which have taken over the earth by

exploiting it and other planets. They are hoarding all the stuff which only

rich people can afford. Like super rich. I'm talking people who control

worlds. So it's a pretty cool story, and he thinks nothing of blowing people

away. Blowing their whole bodies to pieces. He doesn't care about his

reputation, he's really taking care of business and I respect that and I'm

really into the Harlock thing. And then I got into finding Astro Boy books.

These Astro Boy cartoons are really good animation. This is really good

stuff, it has personality too. Look at a cartoon right now and you'll see

they have no personality. The budgets on American cartoons have been slashed

so much and the work force on them has been cut so drastically that there

isn't a semblance of what they used to be like in the 50s or 60s. While the

American animation companies were getting worse, the Japanese were getting

better. The Japanese had a sense of honor, sense of pride, bravery was shown

in every cartoon, a moral, emotion... Things you could use in your daily

life. Like the old Bugs Bunny cartoons had a sense of realism.

P: That started what you have here, the giant collection of toys...?

G: The toys, I just really got into the toys. It started with the books and

then, "Wow, look at this, a toy of such and such. I'm gonna pick it up." I

love this old animation stuff. Cyborg 009, Astro Boy, Gigantor, Mazinger Z,

Getto Roboto, Captain Harlock, Captain Future...what else...

P: Devil Man?

G: Devil Man is my favorite character, again that's all good versus evil. I

can relate to him on a personal basis, it's a on a parallel to something I'm

doing.

P: Toys are big again, like in the '60s.

G: I think its good, I'd rather see kids buying toys than drugs. That's

just my opinion, basically I think drugs are for jerks. I don't care, if

someone wants to go out and kill themselves with drugs, fine, go do it. Toys

are happening, if you want to get 'em, get 'em. If you don't, you don't.

P: The big question is, aren't you a little too old for this?

G: I don't think in terms of age. If I want to buy something I don't care

what someone says to me. I'm buying it for me, not for them. If I cared

what they thought, I would say to them before I bought it, "Do you think I

should buy this?" and in that case, I'd be a moron. I don't care about other

people. Basically, I give two shits about people. I'd just as soon kill the

whole human race right now. Because I have no great love fro humanity,

especially now. It just grows worse and worse everyday. The more and more

things I see humanity do....it's like if someone said "Here's the button,

this will blow up the whole world." I would press it right now. And that

would be it.

P: Well that's basically what most people are doing now, they're all

fighting and bickering...

G: No, but they're doing it in a stupid way. I'm talking about nobody would

survive, okay. I'm not saying, "OK, you'll survive and you'll have your

little blah blah and everybody else will go." I'm saying everyone would be

dead. Everybody. I don't think this whole planet deserves to live. I think

it's all scum. If you want to really get down to it, I think everybody

should live whatever kind of life they want, but if someone gave met he means

to end it, I would do it.

P: Do you think that would be a better solution than trying to work it out?

G: It doesn't matter, it's not going to work out. How many years has this

been planet been around, huh? How many wars have there been? It's not so

much the wars either, it's like just assholes. People are...they've been

given a body, okay. I mean there's a lot of intelligent people around and

they're not using their brains. Also, not everyone is given a perfect body

and there's somebody crippled, in a wheelchair, or missing an arm, born

fucked up...and here's these other people complaining about their lives.

Shut the fuck up. They don't want the crippled people around because it

makes them think about how much they have, and they don't want to do that. I

never get bummed out, at anything, anything at all. Because I look at myself

and think, look at how lucky, look at how well-off you are, you could be like

this, or this could happen, you know what I mean? As bad as something is

that happens to you, it could always be worse. Always.

P: So with that idea in mind, are all the toys and the comics and things an

escape from humanity for you?

G: Maybe not so much an escape, but I have my own world. That might be an

escape from humanity, my own world, but I like having my own world. And I

let the people I like into my world, and that's it. When you get a Samhain

record there's a view of my world. I'd like to have my own world where

assholes couldn't come into it.

P: What would happen in something happened and all this was destroyed?

Would you rebuild it again?

G: Sure. It would only be destroyed physically. That's life, you know what

I mean? Nothing's forever. You can't count on anything, because

everything's up for grabs in this world, in any other world really. I can't

see it any other way. Everything could be destroyed at a minute's notice,

seconds notice. Nothing is here forever, it's just here and enjoy while it's

here, because it can be gone tomorrow. That's the way your life is, and

that's the way your health is. So that's why I think people dwell on the

negative too much. Of course there's negative, but you can work off the

negative. I work off the negative better than the positive. Positive is

easy to work off, anyone can work off positive. But people get so bummed out

and scared of what negative is that they don't deal with it. And you have to

deal with everything.

P: So do you think that you're a positive person?

G: Sure.

P: Do you spread that positiveness towards other people? You don't go out

on the corner and go, "listen, here's my positive world."?

G: I don't care about other people. I don't spread my philosophy to

anybody. If they want to know about it, if they're friends and they're

asking me this or that I'll say, "This is my opinion. You do what you want,

but this is how I approach this problem or certain subject or situation or

whatever. And I have success with it." Basically, it's just common sense,

it's no big deal. Common sense, which most people do not have because they

don't use their intelligence, they don't try and cultivate it. Its much

easier being stupid in this world than it is to be smart. Because if you're

smart, there's a certain amount of responsibility that you have that goes

along with being that smart. You're intelligent and you can't act like an

asshole or a dumb person. You can't go "Oh, I didn't know, I'm sorry. Gee,

you know, I didn't mean to do that." That's the dumb person's typical

excuse.

P: Do you think that drugs are the same kind of escape from responsibilty

and is that why drug use is on the rise?

G: I don't know if drugs are an escape from responsibility. I think drugs

are used because people are bored with life, and there's not much to do.

P: How do people get bored with life?

G: Maybe a kid can't get a girlfriend or a kid can't get this or that or he

sees all his friends doing this and that and he's left around on his own,

nothing to do....he might start reading books or he'll start doing drugs to

pass the time, to get a thrill or something. A lot of people get involved

with drugs through peer pressure. A lot of people get involved with drugs by

just sheer bordemn. When I was living in New York a lot of my friends would

just do drugs because there was nothing to do that night, and that was

something to do. At first it didn't cost that much. It cost about as much

as going out to see a band. But there were no bands playing so they'd go

shoot heroin or do ludes and just zong out somewhere. And eventually it

wasn't that cheap anymore, and also, eventually they had to do it. And

that's how it starts. So that's why I say out of boredom a lot of people do

drugs. The people who get really fucked-up on them and reliant upon them.

It happens wherever you are, nothing to do, "What are you gonna do, lets get

loaded, lets get fucked up, all right." And that's what they do. Go to any

heavy metal show. I'm talking about say Ozzy, I'm not talking about the new

speed metal, any of those shows, and most people are so fucked-up they don't

even know what they're seeing. Go to a Journey show, those people are so

loaded.

P: It's like a party.

G: Exactly. I don't like parties. If it's people together at your place

who you like and enjoy company with, that's a get-together with friends. I

don't like to just mingle with people. That's why the Misfits were never

ones to like be seen at the right place and the right time with the right

people. Record company parties we'd always be invited to and bullshit like

that. I wasn't into that scene like the scene makers. Let other people do

that. We still get invites for a lot of stupid shit that I don't care. I'm

not your Mr. Scenester. If that means we don't get as much press, that's

fine, cause I don't kiss somebody's ass or something. It doesn't matter to

me. The press never mattered to me. It never will.

P: You want to make Samhain and Misfits skateboards, right?

G: Yeah, there's going to be two different Samhain boards and two different

Misfits boards. Basically the reason we're doing it is because we have a big

calling to do it. A lot of kids have been asking about them. It's the same

thing with the videos, a lot of people want Misfits and Samhain skateboards

and videos. So we're going to try to accomodate them. It's very expensive

to do, especially the skateboards. The video thing we can get happening

pretty quick, but the skateboard thing seems more expensive than the video.

P: Are you going to use the existing designs for the boards or will you make

new ones?

G: Well, the four designs will be the Crimson Ghost skull and a logo for one

of the boards for the Misfits. Then we have the Evil Eye design. Then we

have the Human Scarecrow (cover of November-Coming-Fire), then we have the

other Samhain thing which is the Skull Girl holding up the cars (back cover

of Initium). Hopefully we'll have them out by summer. I think that's a

reasonable projection. I'd like to have them sooner.

P: This is a question I'm asking a lot, but I'll ask you, what's the

fascination with skulls?

G: I just think they look cool.

P: People say to me "But, it's a death symbol, do you believe in death?"

G: I believe in death, death is part of life. Without death there would be

no life.

P: Are you afraid of death?

G: No, actually I'm kind of looking forward to it. I'll wait till the time

comes, but I don't see anything wrong with suicide, though. I don't think

suicide should be illegal. I think if someone wants to kill themselves, if

someone really hates life that much than they should be able to die.

P: What about people who are irrational at the time, and they really don't

know...because they just broke up with their girlfriend?

G: That's the problem. That's another thing I don't believe in. I don't

think that everyone should be a protector of someone else. Everyone has a

responsibility to themselves and that's about it. You can be nice to other

people and stuff, but you can't control someone else's life. That's a form

of fascism.

P: That's being God...

G: That's right, you're not God...

P: Is God fascism?

G: I don't know. I don't know what rules we have about God. God is not

man, okay, not a man or woman. He's a power and entity unto Himself, and he

also has laws unto himself. You are talking about man over man and not

imposing your will upon someone else. That's the whole deal, you cannot tell

somebody, "don't do that," without being their little dictator.

P: But isn't that what religion is doing?

G: Not religion, the people who control organized religion are doing that.

You read the Bible and stuff like that and nowhere does it say, "You have to

pay me such and such amount of money so that we can continue to do this and

wait a minute, let's have a Pope, and let's have this and that." That's

nowhere in the Bible.

P: So is organized religion a form of fascism?

G: Organized religion is probably more dedicated to Satanism than Satanists

are. Because they're perpetuating the myth that Satan is this and that,

they're dividing more people than they're bringing together. If that's not

evil, I don't know what is. So basically, right now if you believe in Satan,

he doesn't really have to do a goddamn thing. He can sit back and laugh and

maybe exert his energies elsewhere and let the Catholic Church just do all

their evil bullshit on their own.

P: So do you think that that makes up a lot of unhappiness in the world?

G: I think it makes up almost all of it. it's there, I don't have anything

about it, I don't have to lie about any of this stuff, it's all there. The

whole thing is that there are all these people starving and in the Vatican,

they've got all these paintings and artifacts in there worth millions and

millions if they really cared about the starving people in the world, they

could sell that shit and take care of poor people. And they don't.

P: Not just organized religion, but I think that people in general are being

raised to be more selfish within themselves...

G: But the Catholic Church is supposed to be above all that. That's what I

don't like, they're too hypocritical. They say one thing and do another.

And a lot of people buy their bullshit. They believe everything they say

and they live the way the Catholic Church tells them to live. Like no birth

control...

P: Now what about the people who are not Catholic?

G: Well, they're stuck, aren't they? Like, I said, organized religion, once

they get to the point where they say "Okay we've got to have this" then its

no longer serving the purpose it's supposed to serve. The comforter of

people, it gives them reason to go on when everything sucks, stuff like that.

I think they're just bilking people out of all their money. And I don't

think that's very conducive to the end result that they are supposed to be

achieving?

P: So now you're petting your cat, do you like animals more than you like

people?

G: Sure. You can learn a lot from animals. Especially dogs, as far as

violence is concerned. Like being gentle one second but if someone tries to

screw you snapping into your animal instinct immediately. That's what I've

come to learn and understand about my personality and my being. So in some

instances when I get in fights, I'm in a better position than a lot of other

people.

P: Do you try and avoid a fight or when the violence occurs, does it take

over?

G: I try and stay away from fight now, because my fights will be a fight to

the death.

P: Why is that?

G: Because that's what a fight is to me. If it's a no contest, for me it

obviously won't be, you know what I mean. Usually, I don't get in a lot of

fights because people know that I'm not somebody to screw with even though

I'm not as big as a lot of people.

P: So is that why now you work out?

G: No, that's just something I do for myself. I want to be at my top

physical condition. I want to take my body and my mind to the highest

possible level that I can.

P: So with all these beliefs that you have, do you fell that you are what

you called your first band, a misfit?

G: Maybe then I did, but I don't feel like a misfit now. Obviously I don't

relate to a lot of what's going on in the world. I don't relate to it and I

don't want to either. Anyone who would want to, in my opinion is really

fucked up. It seems, in this country at least, that with each president,

they get worse and worse. You know how everyone was saying, "Oh, how could

anyone be worse than Nixon, then we got Carter. How could anyone be worse

than Carter, then we got Reagan. How could anyone be worse than Reagan?"

We're going to get some other stupid moron who's going to be worse than

Reagan, and everyone's going to say "Oh God, why can't we have Reagan back?"

Because what we have right now is just a joke. What happens now is that

everyone in America, the 9 to 5ers, the consensus of America is just so

apathetic that they just don't even care anymore. The voter turn-out is less

and less every year, because everyone is starting to realize that it doesn't

matter what they vote for because nothing is going to change and it doesn't

even give two shits who they vote for 'cause they know it's not even going to

make a goddamn difference what goes on in world affairs. And even country

affairs that they're supposed to have a say in. You're voting for somebody

and that doesn't mean that they're going to do what you want to do. Even

when you vote for someone in your state that doesn't even guarantee what you

want is done. Because everybody is so vague about the issues, they don't say

what they really stand for, and they don't say what they're gonna really do.

That's why I think that they can blame violence on whatever they want to

blame it on, but there's so much violence because people fell that they have

no say in their lives anymore.

P: Is that why you don't care?

G: I don't care about politics because I know I have no say in what they're

doing. I don't know. I think that basically my freedoms and my person...if

someone really trespasses me to the point where I can't take it I'd rather do

something about it and die, than not do something about it and just keep on.

There are some instances where I use the Chinese philosophy of a willow tree

bending in the wind will survive longer than a tree that doesn't bend. You

can do that for only so long. You can only bend so far before you break, and

that's what I will do. I'll bend as far as I can before I break, but once I

break....

P: Do you have anything else you want to say?

G: I've got so much I want to talk about we could be here for 8 years.

P: Do you still get drunk?

G: Nope!