Frontman Dani Filth talked about Cradle of Filth’s infamous “Jesus Is a Cunt” t-shirt, telling Metal Hammer:
“I think it’s hilarious. It was an anarchic statement.
“We never thought we were Satanic, we thought it was funny.
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“We were crying when we thought of it and when the guy printed it up we cried even more.
“My wife used to work at a t-shirt printers in my hometown, they printed the original one up, and she got fired for it.”
Back in 2015, Dani told Rolling Stone about the tee:
“It was all very silly, I suppose. It was 1993, and we were about to go on tour with Emperor.
“We had a different t-shirt at the time – it had a picture of my wife, who was all done up in black metal regalia, and it said ‘The Black Goddess Rises’ on it.
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“We needed to get a new shirt done quickly for the tour; we’d already come up with the ‘Vestal Masturbation’ image and phrase, but we still needed a back print for it.
“We all were laughing about it, like, ‘Oh my god, that’s so anarchic – can you imagine that on a t-shirt?’ We looked at each other conspiratorially, like, ‘Shall we?’ And yeah, we did it. Even at the time, we thought, ‘Well, this is pushing the boundaries a little bit.’
“I’d have to be an idiot to think that the shirt wasn’t offensive. It’s a dangerous t-shirt to wear, full-stop. Personally, I wouldn’t walk around in it now.
“I did walk around in it back in the day, but people don’t understand that there’s a time and a place for this sort of thing. Going to a gig? No problem. But some of these people are all like, ‘I don’t understand, I was in a mall and got arrested for wearing it!’ It’s just poor judgment on their part, really.
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“‘Cunt’ is still the granddaddy of swear words, isn’t it? It’s like one further than throwing out a ‘fuck.’ But mostly, I think it’s the subject matter. It’s a very anarchic statement – not Satanic, anarchic.
“It wasn’t really aimed at Jesus in particular; it was more the fact that it was rebellious and going against something. It could have been anyone, really: Elvis, or Hitler…
“When I actually do get dragged before the pearly gates, I would like to defend myself on that one, and say, ‘Well, to be fair, it could have been anyone. You’re lucky we chose you!'”
