W.A.S.P.’s Blackie Lawless said that he is not using backing tapes during the live performances and clearly denies it. In a recent interview with The Metal Voice, the vocalist said:
“The conclusion that I came to was this. Up until about five years ago, we did everything, it was literally a four-piece band; what you heard is what you got. And I came to the conclusion that we did the anniversary tour for ‘The Crimson Idol’.
”We then brought in all that orchestration. And I stood in the middle of the room and I listened to that in rehearsal for the first time. It was like an out-of-body experience. I mean, it was unbelievable. And I remember thinking, ‘I’ve never heard this sound like this other than the record.’ And I thought, ‘this is what I wanna do from now on. I want it to sound exactly like the record. […]
Blackie Lawless added:
“Now as a singer, I take a lot of pride in what I do. When you’ve been given a gift like I’ve been given, most singers I know wanna show that thing off, and I’m no different. So, yeah, that’s me singing out there. But as far as any other orchestra tracks or backing vocal tracks, I’m sorry, there’s just not enough of us on stage to make it sound like that record, it’s impossible.
”So, again, the artist, the individual artist has to make the decision of what do they wanna sound like when they go out. And from that first time, like I said, I stood in the middle of the room, and I listened to that orchestration, it blew me away.
”And I thought, ‘This is what I’m doing from here on out. Now I know why The Who do it, or other bands like that. They want them to sound like the record.”