This Music Leaves Stains: The Complete Story of the Misfits

by James Greene Jr.

  Amid his eponymous band’s rise to glory Glenn Danzig found the time to write and record of all things a classical album, Black Aria, a 1992 album the singer issued himself via Plan 9. The driving, gothic platter of stirring instrumental orchestrations partially inspired by Milton’s Paradise Lost shot up to number one on the Billboard Classical Charts shortly after its release, though this may have been due to fans of Danzig’s primary band mistakenly purchasing it. Clearly few heeded the written warning from Glenn himself on the cover of Black Aria that read in part: “This is not a rock record. It does not sound like anything I have done previously. Some people won’t get it. That’s o.k. I’m used to that.”[41]

  Also taking note of Danzig at this time—specifically, his physicality—were some of Tinseltown’s biggest players. Various producers and executives had begun the lengthy process of setting up a film based on Marvel Comics’ popular X-Men series; Glenn, with his short muscular stature, perpetually furrowed brow, and Idaho-sized sideburns, struck the Hollywood types as a natural selection to portray the most championed X-Man of all, the hot-tempered super soldier Wolverine. Danzig took a meeting with 20th Century Fox to discuss the role when legendary Superman director Richard Donner was attached to produce.[42] Comic fans in general were pleased when news leaked that the brooding rocker was being courted for Wolverine. In the end, however, Danzig couldn’t commit himself to the nearly year-long shooting schedule, fearing it would derail his presence on the music scene. It didn’t matter anyway as the X-Men film languished in development hell until the new millennium. Commenting years later to L.A. Weekly on Hugh Jackman’s performance in director Bryan Singer’s finished X-Men film, Danzig said his interpretation of Wolverine would have been “less gay” and expressed relief he wasn’t involved in the movie (one of 2000’s most popular) as it was “terrible.”[43]

  Breaking out of the underground gutter to claim these larger stakes of American pop culture did little to alter Glenn Danzig’s basic personality; his gruff, loutish demeanor led to memorable altercations with journalists who tried to pry into his past (notably MTV’s Headbanger’s Ball host Rikki Rachtman), club owners who provided substandard equipment, camera-happy fans, and other musicians who got in his way. One of the more famous incidents occurred at Germany’s Rock Am Ring festival on May 30, 1993, when Glenn, mingling near the festival’s food tent with a bowl of soup, made a rude remark to Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell’s wife. It incited another member of Def Leppard to violently kick Danzig from behind, spilling his meal to and fro. A donnybrook seemed imminent, but the warring parties eventually cooled down and went their separate ways.

  This heavy metal gossip took on a life of its own in the days before Internet message boards and twisted into one of two variations: Danzig beat up Def Leppard or Def Leppard beat up Danzig. Def American later issued a press release stating only that Glenn had “challenged” Def Leppard and that no one had put their foot near anyone’s posterior; an employee of the record company was quoted at the time as saying, “Glenn tells us there was, you know, he did run into them, and there was kind of a little huff going back and forth, but nothing really happened out of it. No one punched anyone and that whole big thing.”[44] Danzig himself would eventually echo these claims, explaining to an interviewer that the consternation arose when Def Leppard and their entourage absent-mindedly crowded near the entrance to the festival’s catering tent. Unable to get through the crowd, Glenn raised his voice with one or two expletives; Glenn deemed it “a bunch of bullshit [where] nothing happened” and said “nobody threw any punches.”[45]

  A slightly more serious incident alleged to have occurred around this time found Danzig arriving late to a radio interview in New York City, delayed by a traffic jam stemming from the presidential motorcade. Once on the air, Glenn made some remark about maiming or killing Bill Clinton for delaying him. As the tale goes the FBI caught wind of Glenn’s tossed-off threat and opened an investigation on the cult heavy metal star. Documents released under the Freedom of Information Act since this rumored incident have yet to yield any concrete proof of the government’s interest in Glenn Danzig. The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence, though, and this story helps explain the photo included in Danzig’s fourth album showing a Bill Clinton impersonator congratulating a sniper in front of the band’s four murdered bodies. But the story of the FBI investigation could simply be a dash of myth-making to explain an otherwise odd artistic decision).[46]

  Contentious altercations aside, in 1993 Danzig achieved something nearly as unexpected as his conquering of the classical music charts: Glenn’s band scored themselves a bona fide pop hit that came within a chest hair of entering the Billboard’s Top 40. Granted, a number one hit or even a top twenty hit would be more impressive, but considering “Mother” is, at its heart, a snarling manifesto about killing one’s parents, that it rose above the two hundred mark is a wonder in itself. Add in the fact that the song in question was no less than six years old and the version that charted was a canned live rendition, and the success proves itself a true anomaly.

  Danzig’s 1993 concert EP Thrall: Demonsweatlive contained a true live version of “Mother” along with three other tracks recorded during a 1992 Halloween gig at Irvine Meadows, California. Def American, still committed to this fist-clenching anthem that was buried on the group’s first record, tacked a remix of the original studio version on the end of the EP (as the hidden ninety-third track). That July, the label cobbled together a music video for what would come to be known as “Mother ’93” comprised of live footage from the Irvine Meadows show. Fake crowd noise was dropped into the clip and the whole thing was sent to MTV.[47] Incredibly, the clip went into heavy rotation. The following March, “Mother ’93” was released as its own single and quickly shot up the charts to 43 on the Billboard charts.[48]

  “Mother” is a song that walks a precarious line: Mick Mercer drew attention to this in his original Melody Maker review of Danzig when he singled out the song as both “hair-raising” and “moronic.” Mercer offered a rather airtight metaphorical defense for these contradictory notes when he rhetorically asked, “Did you never thrill to the sight of William Shatner trying to run?”[49] Indeed, one man’s treasure can also be that same man’s grime-streaked trash, gloriously so, without question, without guilt. However you feel, one cannot deny that “Mother” is the song on Thrall: Demonsweatlive (or any other Danzig release, for that matter) with the greatest pop sensibility. It’s a straightforward swagger that simmers with moderate intensity, a concise prideful boast that offers Glenn’s most memorable melody, and cache of quotable lyrics. To this day, it remains the only sure bet for a Danzig composition at any karaoke bar.

  The original 1988 black-and-white music video for “Mother” kicked up a small controversy for its depiction of a live chicken being torn in two as part of a vague pagan sacrifice—a clear nod to one of Danzig’s forefathers, Alice Cooper. Danzig was adamant the animal was in no way harmed during the filming of the clip (“We had a chicken handler there and I like animals a lot,” the singer told Concrete Foundations at the time[50] ) but that mattered little to MTV: The footage looked too real, so the networked censored it by literally placing a giant black “X” over the entire scene. The fact that “Mother’s” lyrics outlined the potential murder of a mother and father by their only child apparently was of no concern to the massively successful cable network . . . just so long as the video did not depict a chicken being maimed.

  The success of “Mother” inched Danzig toward more media exposure, including an AOL Internet chat (where fans asked him questions about how much he could bench) and profiles by catch-all rags like Entertainment Weekly. The exposure had to be slightly bittersweet if only for the fortuitous timing of Jerry Only: a year earlier, in September of 1992, Only, along with Doyle, Frank LiCata, and Julio Valverde, filed suit against Glenn Danzig, Plan 9 Records, and Caroline Records over the copyrights and publishing royalties pertaining to their former o
utfit.[51] Now, just as Danzig was moving forward with his greatest success, he was being dragged back to his past life by a cadre of rightfully angry ghosts. The singer had to decide how much the Misfits were worth to him, both literally and figuratively. The battle would stretch on for several agonizing years, yielding results that no Misfits fan could have ever foreseen.

  1. The Misfits, “Die, Die My Darling,” Plan 9 Records, 1984, vinyl record.

  2. “Samhain Time Line,” Misfits Central, http://misfitscentral.com/samhain/timeline.php.

  3. James Greene Jr., “Lyle Preslar Sets the Record Straight about U2, MTV, and Tesco Vee,” Crawdaddy.com, April 16, 2010, http://www.crawdaddyarchive.com/index.php/2010/04/16/minor-threat-s-lyle-preslar-sets-the-record-straight-about-u2-mtv-and-tesco-vee.

  4. “Samhain Time Line,” Misfits Central.

  5. “Samhain: ‘We Don’t Want to Be Called a Hardcore Band,’” Hard Times 1, no. 1 (August 1984): 1–4.

  6. Pete Marshall, interview with the author, February 10, 2011.

  7. Eerie Von and Steve Zing, “Liner Notes,” Box Set, Samhain, Evilive Records, 2000, compact disc set.

  8. Robert O’Driscoll, ed., The Celtic Consciousness (New York: Braziller, 1981); Anne Ross, “Material Culture, Myth and Folk Memory,” in Celtic Consciousness, 197–216; Kevin Danaher, “Irish Folk Tradition and the Celtic Calendar,” in Celtic Consciousness, 217–242.

  9. Marshall, interview.

  10. Glenn Danzig, “Liner Notes,” Box Set, Samhain, Evilive Records, 2000, compact disc set.

  11. Samhain, Initium, Plan 9 Records, 1984, vinyl record. Samhain, Unholy Passion, Plan 9 Records, 1985, vinyl record.

  12. Samhain, Initium. Steve Zing, telephone interview with the author, March 15, 2003.

  13. “Samhain ‘Initium,’” Flipside, no. 44 (Fall 1984): 31.

  14. Marshall, interview.

  15. Kaufhold et al v. Caiafa et al, Case No. 11–cv-01460–WJM-MF, originally filed June 11, 2010, 7.

  16. “Samhain,” Your Flesh, vol. 1 (Spring 1986).

  17. Martin Eric Ain, e-mail interview with the author, March 2012.

  18. Marshall, interview.

  19. Mark Kennedy, telephone interview with the author, October 20, 2011.

  20. “Glenn D,” Black Market, no. 6 (Fall 1986).

  21. Christy Marx, e-mail interview with the author, September 2010.

  22. Tim Bunch, telephone interview with the author, April 2, 2011.

  23. Harald Olmoen, personal interview with Cliff Burton, transcribed by Corrine Lynn, 1986. Pushead, “James Hetfield and Kirk Hammet,” Thrasher (August 1986): 69.

  24. “The $5.98 E.P. Garage Days Re-Revisited: Awards” AllMusic, http://www.allmusic.com/album/the-598–ep-garage-days-re-revisited-mw0000196847/awards. “Master of Puppets: Awards,” AllMusic, http://www.allmusic.com/album/master-of-puppets-mw0000667490/awards.

  25. “Jerry Only Interview,” YesZista (Spring 1989).

  26. The Misfits, Misfits, Caroline Records, 1987, compact disc.

  27. The Misfits, Evilive, Caroline Records, 1987, compact disc.

  28. “Jerry Only Interview,” YesZista.

  29. Kryst the Conqueror, Deliver Us from Evil, Cycoplian Music, 1989, cassette tape.

  30. “Kryst the Conqueror,” Doyle Fan Club, no. 6 (1989).

  31. “Jerry Only Interview,” YesZista.

  32. Geoffrey Tilander, “Bobby Steele Interview,” MaximumRockNRoll (1992).

  33. Bunch, telephone interview.

  34. “Jerry Only Interview,” YesZista.

  35. Sal Cannestra, “Kryst the Conqueror: Ex-Misfits Metal Meltdown,” Jersey Beat, no. 40 (Summer 1990).

  36. “Letter #10,” Doyle Fan Club, no. 10 (January 1990).

  37. Kim Neely, “Danzig—Danzig,” Rolling Stone, November 17, 1988. 152. Mick Mercer, “The Dead Zone,” Melody Maker (October 22, 1988).

  38. “Discography of Official Misfits Releases,” MisfitsCentral, http://misfitscentral.com/misfits/discog.php.

  39. Robert Palmer, “Danzig III: How the Gods Kill,” Rolling Stone, July 9, 1992.

  40. Danzig, Danzig III: How the Gods Kill, Def American, 1992, compact disc.

  41. Jeff Kitts, “The Dark Knight Returns,” Fluz, no. 1 (September 1994): 50.

  42. “Glenn Danzig Says He Oughta Be in Pictures,” MTV.com, June 3, 1997, http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1427843/glenn-danzig-oughta-be-in-pictures.jhtml.

  43. Danielle Bacher, “Danzig Says He Would Have Played Wolverine Less ‘Gay’ Than Hugh Jackman,” L.A. Weekly, May 25, 2012, http://blogs.laweekly.com/westcoastsound/2012/05/danzig_legacy+wolverine_stalker_misfits.php?page=2.

  44. Scott, “A Scary Short Guy Takes on a Dead Alcoholic, a One-Armed Drummer, and Four Other Clowns,” Genetic Disorder, no. 10 (1994).

  45. Nardwuar, “Nardwuar the Human Serviette versus Glenn Danzig,” Nardwuar.com, December 1999, http://nardwuar.com/vs/glenn_danzig/index.html.

  46. Danzig, 4p, Def American Records, 1994, compact disc.

  47. “Discography of Official Danzig Releases,” Misfits Central, http://misfitscentral.com/danzig/discog.php.

  48. Joel Whitburn, Joel Whitburn Presents The Billboard Albums, 6th ed. (Menomonee Falls, WI: Record Research, 2007), 265.

  49. Mick Mercer, “The Dead Zone,” Melody Maker (October 22, 1988).

  50. Maria Ma, “Danzig: Def New Music,” Concrete Foundations, December 10, 1988, http://www.misfitscentral.com/display.php?t=darticle&f=concrete.88.

  51. Caiafa et al v. Anzalone et al, Case No. 1:92–cv-06908–LAP, originally filed September 18, 1992.

  Night of the Living Dead

  7

  When the Misfits reunited, I was like, “Whatever. Everyone needs money.”―Brian Baker, Bad Religion[1]

  The most popular band to emerge from the late 1980s Los Angeles hair metal scene was undoubtedly Guns n’ Roses, a drug-soaked quartet who dialed down their glammy look to emphasis the wild abandon of their snarling bluesy tears. The group’s reckless spin on heavy metal’s various tropes—and at times equally reckless behavior in public—resonated with the danger-hungry public at large and by 1992 Guns n’ Roses had grossed a staggering $57.9 million for their efforts.[2] On November 23, 1993, Guns released The Spaghetti Incident?, a covers album that was the highly anticipated follow-up to their 1991 double album/career apex Use Your Illusion. Spaghetti gave the world, alongside material originally composed by obscure rabble-rousers like the U.K. Subs and the Dead Boys, their own take on the Misfits’ “Attitude”—a song that, more than any other Danzig work, seemed to provide the blueprint for both GNR’s adrenaline-heavy sound and Axl Rose’s temperamental stage persona (strangely enough, Axl allowed Guns bass player Duff McKagan the lead vocal track on “Attitude”). The Spaghetti Incident? quickly became a top five album in over nine countries, piquing a pronounced global interest in the Misfits.[3]

  Several months earlier, a landmark in Misfits-related journalism was published in underground garage rock zine Ugly Things. Mike Stax, the publication’s founder, was a rabid Misfits fan who felt vexed that so little information regarding the band’s history was available for public consumption. Thus, Stax set out to interview Jerry Only; he hesitated contacting Danzig as he had heard too many stories concerning the singer’s nasty disposition. Stax phoned a New Jersey record store called Box Shop where it was rumored Only sometimes hung out, and although he missed the bass player by a matter of minutes the first time he called, Box Shop’s owner was already familiar with Ugly Things and promised to put the two in touch. Shortly thereafter, Only and Stax connected, and the former granted the latter an unprecedented twenty-some-page interview that served for its time as the ultimate history of the Misfits. Granted, it was only one member’s side of the story, but it touched upon nearly every aspect of the band’s existence from the “Cough/Cool” single to the Detroit collapse with Brian Keats. Only, flattered that Ugly Things sought him out, even Fed-Exed the magazine several rare and never-before-seen photos of the Mi
sfits. It was a shock for those only familiar with Glenn Danzig via his Rick Rubin albums to see the singer with a Dee Dee Ramone coif and a rather slender physique. Fans were also happy to finally be able to put faces to such storied names as Arthur Googy, Bobby Steele, and Franché Coma. “Jerry was really generous with memorabilia,” Stax says. “And we actually got to be pretty good friends. At [one] point he flew me out to Jersey . . . I helped him out at the Chiller Horror Convention, and he drove me around the old neighborhood where the Misfits used to rehearse. It was pretty cool.”[4]

  “All Hell Breaks Loose: The Jerry Only Interview” ends with Only talking up Kryst the Conqueror, commenting that “[Glenn’s] problem is he’s living off his Misfits fame—he’s in his own shadow and he don’t even know it.”[5] This is a massively ironic statement given the fact at this very juncture Only was suing Glenn Danzig partially to gain his ownership of the Misfits copyrights, ostensibly so he could have the authority to reform the Misfits without their original singer if that was his wont. Most involved in this erupting legal donnybrook were more concerned with the song publishing/royalty aspect of the fight, though. Negotiations between the Caiafa and Anzalone parties dragged as the specific value of the Misfits was something neither side could agree on—nor could they agree who deserved what royalties. Up until this point every Misfits song was credited entirely to Glenn Danzig. Was that true? Was Glenn responsible for every single note and nuance of the music? If so, did the players deserve compensation for their specific performances even if they had no hand in the actual song craft? Insiders did not anticipate a swift, tidy conclusion to this litigious disagreement. A lengthy, messy trial seemed imminent.