In a recent interview with Revolver Magazine, Glenn Danzig talked about Misfits and his return for the ongoing reunion.
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Most of your career has not been with the Misfits. So what has that band meant to you all these years as it hovered in the background?
“The Misfits was just the starting point. It was the early crazy punk stuff that led to Samhain, which then became pretty big, pretty quick, which led to Danzig.
“When I first met with Rick [Rubin, producer], he was like, ‘I don’t want to insult you, but I don’t like the Misfits.’ I’m like, ‘I don’t care.’ Then he goes, ‘I love Samhain. This is the shit.’
“Originally, I was going to call Samhain Danzig, but I thought it was too much like Billy Idol. Eventually, Rick and I agreed that it should be called Danzig.
“He said, ‘You shouldn’t have to change your name every time a band member leaves. You write the songs, you sing them, people can come and go and you don’t have to change the band’s name.’ Each record would be a different lineup of super-musicians.”
The Misfits continued after you left [in 1983].
“Once I left, the band broke up and those guys tried to do a Christian metal band called Kryst the Conqueror. So there was no Misfits until ’95 or ’96.
“Then they came back with that abomination, whatever it was, and it was really sad [Misfits released their third album ‘Static Age’ in 1996 featuring old recordings from 1978; then they released their first album without Danzig, “American Psycho,” in 1997].
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“In the meantime, I did Samhain and that blew up, and then Danzig, which blew up even further.
Were people coming to your shows in the early days wearing the Misfits skull?
“Not in the beginning. It was a whole different kind of audience. By then punk was kind of gone. Even during the Samhain days, you wouldn’t see many people, if any, wearing a Misfits shirt.”
But people got interested in them again later.
“The Metallica guys were big fans of Samhain and the Misfits: Cliff Burton used to wear the Misfit skull on his arm, and then James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett would wear the Misfits skull and the Danzig skull.
“People were discovering the Misfits. It was still a cult band, and every year it would sell – nothing major that’s going to light the world on fire or chart on Billboard – but every year it’s selling X amount of records.”
Nobody expected you and the Misfits to have a future.,
“Jerry and I resolved a lot of legal issues we had with each other. This just happened about two and a half years ago. And I’m seeing all these people die unexpectedly: Bowie, Chris Cornell, and Prince, really out of the blue.
“And I’m just like, if we’re going to ever do this, we should do it now while we’re still healthy and we still look good and can run around onstage. I take care of myself, man. And we’re all in pretty good shape. And who knows how long we’re going to be like that.
“I don’t want to be onstage with crutches or a cane singing. Fuck that shit. That’s not the Misfits.
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“Misfits are fucking take no prisoners. It’s in your face, right to the front of the stage – smash your head against the wall until we’re done and we say goodnight. That’s what it needs to be. I don’t want to go on tour. A show here, a show there, keep it special.
“I don’t want people to think we’re just milking it. We should just be selective and let people see what it really was. And so far it’s been insane.”