PUMPING IRON WITH JERRY ONLY :

Ahh, the Misifits what can you say about them? Legendary? Innovative? A band that were truly way ahead of their time. A band who’s music will live on forever. A band that’s music recorded in 1978 sounds just as good twenty years later as it did the day they put it to tape. So you thought it was over when the band split up on less than friendly terms in 1983? Founding member Jerry Only didn’t see it that way. While working on gaining rights to the Misfits name Jerry and his younger brother Doyle (also a former Misfit) kept busy. The formation of the Doyle Fan Club in 1988 as well as their short lived band Kryst The Conqueror only fueled their desire to get the Misfits back in action. As of January 1, 1995 the brothers had regained the band name and by mid ‘96 the Misfits were touring again. The only hitch: original vocalist Glenn Danzig refused to be a part of the Misfits rebirth. So to make a long story short Jerry and Doyle along with new singer Michale Graves, and new drummer Dr. Chud tour and sign to a major label (Geffen Records). They release American Psycho, an album of all new originals and set out for more touring. Being a fan of the original Misfits I went back and forth on whether the new band was such a good idea. American Psycho turned out to be a very good album but it’s still hard to compare the new band with the power and intensity of the old days. Either way you look at it the Misfits are back. You can hang with both versions or stay loyal to one but you must admit the Misfits are something that has made it’s way to a whole other level than those four boys from Lodi could have ever imagined. Interview by
Mike (FB) & Bo (FB2) Watts.

Fungus Boy: Lets start off with your priority on regaining the Misfits name?
Jerry Only: Uh, well that's priority number one, I think. In order to move forward you have to have the tools to do the job. So with out the name there is no more Misfits.
FB: You guys didn’t even consider going on with out the name?
Jerry: Well we considered it, but I mean the thing is when you develop something thats just right for you why have to develop something else? You know I heard Glenn lost his name Danzig, he can’t go under the name Danzig anymore. So I don’t want that to happen to us. You know why should we have to go out and dream up a whole other thing to have somebody wreck it for us—that we enjoy doing.
FB: I know you were involved with Glenn in a lawsuit to get the name back. How long did that process take you?
Jerry: Forever, forever.
FB: When did you actually file the suit?
Jerry: ‘87, something like that. Eight years.
FB: That’s a long time. You also had a dispute with Caroline Records due to the fact that they were releasing stuff with Glenn that you guys did not receive any money from?
Jerry: Well that was one problem. The other problem is that if you look at all the Caroline releases from Plan 9 they have nothing but Glenn all over them. I mean as you can see today it’s very obvious that Glenn is not the Misfits, so. That was the impression that he was doing. He was using the Misfits to further his solo career and to me that’s just a blatant disregard for the truth of the matter of the real artistic level of the band. In my opinion most of that stuff was pure shit, so we had to fix that. The box set was really what I was striving at. If you want to compare the box set and the quality of those recordings to the quality of say Legacy Of Brutality, or something like that, I think the difference is very obvious.
FB: I’ve read a lot of interviews that you have done lately where you’ve said that, and that is the truth.
Jerry: Well yeah it is. The music speaks for itself. I’m not just sayin’ that ‘cause I got nothing better to say. It’s just of matter of—in pursuit of money people will screw things up and one of the things that was gettin’ screwed up was the Misfits. Nobody knew it, but I mean that was half the battle. That was why we couldn’t go in there and get our money and say, “Oh the hell with it. Thats the end of it”, because in my opinion our name was gettin’ tarnished. Nobody saw that but I did. I knew that we could do more than we were doing and what we could do wasn’t what was coming out.
FB: So all the stuff he was putting out was done with out your consent at all?
Jerry: Well the thing was we had, like for example we didn’t get called in on any of the re-mixing or the order of—in other words what was gonna go on the records and what wasn’t gonna go on the records. I mean I would never put out a record with out lyrics ‘cause to me that seems like a stupid thing to do. You know, why? Why do you gotta make people sit there and try to figure stupid shit out, ask me stupid questions. Everywhere I go, “Does it say this? Does it say that?”, I don’t know! I don’t know what it says, that’s why we should write ‘em down.
FB: So who owns the Plan 9 name and label?
Jerry: Glenn’s Plan 9. He was Plan 9 when he dealt with Caroline and we didn’t want to go under the Plan 9 name because that just associated us with him. Plus it was capital, so that was one of the things we let go to get the name. You know we gave him pretty much everything he wanted, which was him making a lot of money and we took the name and said, “Well, we’ll go make our own fuckin’ money”. (Jerry laughs)
FB: I don’t think he even uses the Plan 9 name anymore.
Jerry: I don’t know what he does. I know he was workin’ under Evilive Music and he was workin’ under things like that. You know I’ll be honest with you I really don’t follow him, I’m not a fan. I’m not a fan if you know what I’m sayin’. (more laughs)
FB2: Have you ever heard his albums?
Jerry: No, I heard they’re bad but I can’t draw a conclusion with out hearing them. I don’t have enough data.
FB2: Did you ever listen to any Samhain?
Jerry: I don’t like the Samhain stuff. I thought it was shit.
FB: Weren’t there a number of projects that were scheduled to come out like at one point you were talking about a singles box set?
Jerry: Yeah well the thing is that’s why we’re leaving Geffen. Uh, we’re not getting the real personality feel, you know, the personal level that we’re looking for between the audience and ourselves. You know one bar code on a big label a year isn’t to me doing anything, it’s just being a commodity, and we’re not a commodity. They tried, we tried, they just, we’re not seein’ eye to eye. And it just seems that the best thing for us to do is just start putting out singles ourselves. I’m considering starting our own label to be honest with you, because you know the Plan 9 thing went very well for Glenn, he made a lot of money with it. And he didn’t have to do big numbers to do it so he was able to keep things in perspective, the only thing he was real cheap on the quality of his releases, but that’s his own doing more than mine.
FB: What was the reason that you guys didn’t decide to put out a full length album back when Static Age was recorded. Because you guys were obviously doing the singles, was it more expensive to release a full length back then?
Jerry: Well the only thing that you’ve got to understand is that it was cost effective, that was number one, number two we were hoping to use the album as a lever to get where we were going. And days rolled into months, the months rolled into years and the Walk Among Us stuff came out, so why would you want to be trying to sell off Static Age product when you had something as good as Walk Among Us? I mean Walk Among Us is in my opinion the next notch in the gun. (Jerry pauses to lift weights) All right where were we?
FB: Walk Among Us, were you disappointed that it wasn’t included on the box set although the songs appear in different forms?
Jerry: Well there was nothing they could do about that because it’s under a different company. We signed a really shitty deal back in the day and lost it, I mean just totally out right...We got ten points on our record which is bullshit and uh they were paying us for LP money instead of CD money for the last ten years, those fuckers took. So the record company business is pretty cutthroat, artist unfriendly.
FB: What is the reason that the wrong band photo is included in the CD re-release of Walk Among Us?
Jerry: Uh, that I don’t know. That’s Glenn’s doing I think. Or it might have been that they just bought a promo picture of us and used. Once again record companies dictating, uh, stuff to a band with out really getting consent or approval or input. Thats another cheap way of doing things. They don’t even put the picture on the whole fuckin’ cover! Its like in a frame. Big fuckin’ deal, what the hell is that? (Jerry laughs) What do you say? It just looks like shit.
FB: Why did you guys decide to put a live track on Walk Among Us?
Jerry: Uh, we wanted to sell the “London Dungeon” records, the EP.
FB: You didn’t have a studio version that you liked so you put a live one on the record?
Jerry: No, no. It was done directly to sell the Three Hits From Hell EP. When you heard it go from “Mommy” into “London Dungeon” the reason was we wanted to have everybody hear the beginning of “London Dungeon” and say, “Oh, what the fuck is that?”, and then back track to us and find out that there’s a single of it. It was a propaganda move I guess you could say. A promotional tactic.
FB: I’ve noticed that on the box set and the Static Age album Lyle Presslar’s name mentioned. He was the executive producer of the box set.
Jerry: Yeah.
FB: What involvement does he have with the band? Is he friends with the band?
Jerry: No, he’s the President of Caroline.
FB: Oh.
Jerry: And he was the guitar player for Minor Threat, I guess you know that. Me and him had a couple flurries of arguments over the thing. But it’s my job to get in there and argue for what I think is right, as far as the band goes. ‘Cause with out Glenn’s input I guess my input’s the one they gotta go with.
FB: Here is a question about Collection 2, the version of Cough/Cool on it sounded as if it was just recorded...
Jerry: A week ago.
FB: Yeah.
Jerry: (Busts into laughter) I don’t know, Glenn put together Collection 2, I have no idea what he did. But I know “Mephisto Waltz” is not us, and I don’t think thats us doing “All Hell Breaks Loose” or “Hatebreeders” either. I think thats him and Eerie in Samhain. You know but Glenn, you know he insisted that Collection 2 came out and its the biggest piece of shit in the world. Thats just his way of continuing to put out shit. (more laughter)
FB: I’m glad that “Return Of The Fly” came out in proper form.
Jerry: Yeah, yeah. Agreed.
FB: A lot of people have said that the Misfits weren’t exactly that popular back when you guys were playing. So I wondered if you weren’t that popular then why are there so many tapes of your live shows out there?
Jerry: Uh, supply and demand. OK, Dead Kennedys sold like 80 thousand copies of “California Uber Alles” and we printed like 2 thousand copies of the “Bullet” EP, so I mean thats why people want to hear our live stuff all the time.
FB: Do you think that if you and Doyle weren’t brothers that the Misfits would have ever gotten back together?
Jerry: No.
FB: That played a lot into it?
Jerry: Oh yeah, its me and him. So I mean, it’s just a matter of finding two other guys who are as dedicated to the music as we are. You know thats not hard to find. It took—we did it relatively quick, I’m happy about it. I wouldn’t want to have to go through that process again but at the same time it’s just a matter of getting competent musicians in there doin’ the job. You know this is what we like doin’. We used to spend our paychecks every week to do this, so now we get paid to do it. So in my opinion we’re doing better than we did. (more laughs)
FB: I know that you asked Glenn to come back and he turned you down, but do you think that if he had came back that any new material would have come out of it at all?
Jerry: No, no I refused to really move forward with him. You know he fucked me, but what I figured was for the kids I would deal with it for one more tour. Just to put it to rest. If he was a strong man in his career and just the way the world views things he would’ve wanted that bond to continue and just step in and do the job and have it behind him instead of dealing with it every day of his life. See I don’t have to deal with it because I asked him if he wanted to play. That’s the difference. I don’t gotta deal with it, because every day I’m sure somebody says, “Oh, you shoulda sang for the fuckin’ Misfits”. I think he’s gotta deal with it more than me.
FB2: Did you approach any of the old drummers?
Jerry: No, no. None of them could do it. We’re beyond that now, much beyond that.
FB2: Where did your new drummer come from?
Jerry: Lodi, the same place the rest of us came from. His dad and our dad use to play little league baseball together so I mean, it goes back a long way. It’s a good situation, we’ve got a good line up. We’re gonna keep the line up we got and just continue to write really great songs. I think thats the one thing that—uh, the only thing that could really slow us down is the lack of song writing time together, which touring takes away from that. We try and go home for the holidays, so when you’re home for the holidays you really don’t focus too much on work. You kinda try and spend some time with the family. So I think that’s key. So I think in the next stage of our career we’re gonna start putting out 45’s. We’re gonna go back to vinyl whether the world is ready for it or not. You know just substantiate that too, because as you know we’re probably one of the most collected bands out there and everything’s on vinyl and the kids collect the vinyl and they love it. So it’s just a matter of us really catering to our fans and not worrying what the rest of the music business is doing. A hundred years from now who’s gonna give a shit?
FB: How do you feel about making videos?
Jerry: Good. We’re actually very good at it, we found out not too long ago. The “American Psycho” is gonna be really big. Who’s up? (he wanders back to the weight bench) Me? (Jerry’s turn once again). How we doin’?
FB2: Do you have any idea on how many T-shirts the band has sold over the years?
Jerry: I would say, T-shirts? Close to a quarter of a million, I would think. That’s countin’ bootlegs and shit too.
FB: I first read about you wanting to get the Misfits back together in ‘94, was that when it basically happened? Around that time?
Jerry: No, it actually happened around ‘86. But like I say I had the misfortune of not having any of the tapes, I also had the misfortune of pursing, of working in our machine shop for a while there. Trying to get that established. ‘Cause we moved from one building to another, we built our own factory, so that took a while to get that settled in so I kinda missed the boat on jumpin’ on the pony first, if you know what I mean? But uh, you know lookin’ back on it I think ten years of being away from it and really on the outside lookin’ in, made me want it a lot more. And I think that if we would’ve had the success that Metallica had probably during the early eighties, because we were one step ahead of them going into the turn and then the band just went off the track. So uh, I think that if we woulda had that we woulda been—you know it probably woulda wrecked my home life I think. I think I woulda been too young to handle it, and uh a lot of different things. So you know I think in a way its better we’re back in the late ‘90s to take over. You know all the bullshits kinda sifted through by now.
FB: At what point did you realize that the Misfits were something different, that they had an impact...
Jerry: Day one, day one. The first day.
FB2: How do you feel about when you see movies and TV shows where the biker character is wearing a Misfits shirt?
Jerry: Oh, good. Good, yeah. They drag some kid out from killing his grandmother with a hammer and he had a Legacy Of Brutality tattoo on his arm, so that I don’t like. But (laughs) at the same time I know that in Men In Black they had a T-shirt on. You know there is a lot of movies they call up and they ask us for the shirts and we send ‘em because thats part of it.
FB: The Misfits name has never went away from day one when you guys started.
Jerry: No, no it hasn’t. I think it has a lot of reasons. I mean it’s very visual and it’s very real and I think thats one of the things that everybody's come to relate to is that its not a bunch of fluff created from some record company to try and woo you over. It’s not a fly-by-night Marilyn Manson kinda bullshit and it’s something that twenty years from now will still exist. So that’s why I’m very cautious on how I move and who I deal with. I try not to be impatient, I find that that’s one of the biggest faults most young bands have, is that they’re very impatient to get to places and they wind up makin’ deals feeling that they’re missing something. In the interim, day by day we get by and I think thats one of the things that I really like. We’re parting ways with Geffen, we’re moving more back into an indie kind of an atmosphere. I think that in our aspect of looking at it, it’s probably much better to set up our own label and get things going our own way. It’s no big deal, everything we do we do it because we want to do it, not because somebody else thinks it’s good for us. We tried a lot of the mainstream ways, you know Geffen came up with a lot of ideas to promote us and stuff. And they don’t work, because we’re not that kind of an animal. We’re not meant to be in a cage and thats one of the main things that you find.
FB: A funny thing I was reading about Geffen was that they wouldn’t count anything under three minutes as a song.
Jerry: (Laughing) Yeah, and I don’t have anything over three minutes, so. That’s what I told them, I says, “Well what do I do? You mean I don’t get paid for this record ‘cause everything's under three minutes?” I’ve got 18 whole songs.
FB: The big difference I’ve noticed between the band today compared to what you were doing back then is that you all collaborate on the song writing process.
Jerry: Yeah, I think that gives it a much more three dimensional feel. I think its a lot rounder. Don’t forget we worked on the other stuff with Glenn, you won’t see it in text but I’m not here for a pat on the back so I really don’t care. But you know we pretty much molded a lot of Glenn’s music and if you listen to his music after we were gone it’s very noticeable. (laughs) His music is just flat, I mean what you got one, two good songs an album big fuckin’ deal. Even assholes do that. (more laughs)
FB: He even did a few Misfits songs with Samhain.
Jerry: Yeah, see his shadow’s very big with the Misfits and it’s gonna be hard to be bigger than that. And the thing is that if you alienate yourself from that you just make yourself look stupid because all your credibility you throw it away by saying, “Oh, I don’t want to deal with that”, or “I’m beyond that”, you know you’re not, not even close.
FB2: Did anyone ever complain about the song “Bullet”?
Jerry: No, and I’m very surprised by that. (laughs) To be honest with you I am very very surprised but I understand that the Kennedy family, they don’t raise a finger against that kind of bullshit. In other words if they find it and they acknowledge it, it becomes more of a burden than it already is to begin with. So I think that’s one of the reasons. See I didn’t know they had that policy but I heard it not too long ago because when Jackie O died they were talking about how the Kennedy family policy is, how they don’t get involved. So I think that that’s probably the main reason why we never heard nothin’ about “Bullet”. But if they were gonna say something I’m sure it woulda been about that. (more laughter) That was the extreme.
FB: Yeah, even the cover art.
Jerry: (still laughing) Yeah, yeah. But that’s the beauty of this country, any body that reads your magazine should
appreciate that, is that you can go that extreme and still exist. Not that its tasteful, don’t get me wrong but. And fortunately its a good song so, (laughs) if it was a shit song we wouldn’t do it.
FB: Do you feel that what you guys were doing back in the late ‘70s, early ‘80s was way ahead of its time?
Jerry: Yeah, I still think its still out there. You know Static Age comes out today and look how it sounds today, so I mean how scary is that? (laughs)
FB: I’ve been listening to it for over two weeks straight.
Jerry: Yeah.
FB: Its better than anything out now.
Jerry: Thats what I’m saying, and when we brought that record around nobody wanted it, they thought it was the biggest piece of shit.
FB: I can imagine though, I remember when I was a kid I heard a Blondie album that said the word “ass”. When I was a kid you didn’t hear a lot of profanity in pop songs.
Jerry: I know.
FB: The Misfits were like chalked full of it (profanity).
Jerry: Oh forget it, yeah.
FB: I’m sure, plus the things you guys were singing about.
Jerry: Yeah.
FB: It had a lot to do with you guys getting turned down?
Jerry: Well no, not really. It was more that we weren’t pop. I mean that was the problem, and the thing was that I looked at the situation and thought that how can’t they see this is where this whole thing is going? Maybe it took twenty years to get there but this is where its going.
FB: Do you think a lot of bands have ripped off a lot of your ideas?
Jerry: Oh sure. Oh we’re the bands band, I mean most of the people who knew us and kept our memory alive were in bands. They weren’t the average Joe on the street buying records I can tell you that, it was the bands. Covering our stuff, playin’ our stuff, wearing our shit, you know you watch the awards and Def Leopard, the guys got a Legacy Of Brutality shirt on or some shit. Right now we got two WWF wrestlers, the Headbangers, one of them wears our shirts every night when he wrestles. One wears Marilyn Manson, one wears a Misfits shirt. And our shirt looks better ‘cause I always made the logo like fuckin’ huge at the top. So I don’t know, I really like what I’m doing. I try and live very modestly because my bills aren’t really a lot. I could probably get by, which is incredible, like maybe 20 grand a year, which I won’t eat but I’ll pay my bills. So it just seems to me that why should I really fuck this up to try and commercialize it when I can hang with it and make a decent living and do it the right way.
FB: Have you had any negative reaction to the new band?
Jerry: Very little. One percent, not even. I get the one guy, “Oh with out Danzig you guys ain’t shit!”, but then again look who’s telling me some fuckin’ jerk who’s livin’ on the street. So I mean it’s just, (laughs) it’s always some asshole. The thing is that everything moves on, and if you don’t accept that aren’t you missin’ the point of the whole thing?
FB: I read interviews where you said the new album was just a continuation of the other Misfits stuff you were doing.
Jerry: I think so, I really do. I think it progressed right where its supposed to be. I think the background vocals have gotten much better, I think the song writing has gotten much better. Its not as gory lyrically and stuff like that, it wasn’t that I tried to tone it down but I didn’t go for the extreme right off the bat. I figured we would write what came natural and whatever it was if it was good we’d go with it. And I don’t like to have to write to make somebody happy. I just think a good songs a good song. You write a good song who gives a shit? Thats it, you either like it or you don’t.
FB: I know when you first brought the band back you were playing mostly older tunes because you hadn’t wrote a lot yet. Has your set evened out now?
Jerry: Oh yeah, half and half. Thats about as even as its gonna get. From now on its gonna go the other way.
FB: What is the most requested Misfits song at every show?
Jerry: Believe it or not everybody yells “Bullet” a lot, lets see what else? They yell “We Bite” a lot which surprises me. (laughs) Uh, that’s about it. You know “138”, which we do, “Last Caress” we do that, so. I mean there are classics there that I really like to play, that I’ll always play, “Last Caress” being one of them, “138” I like, “Horror Business” I like, “Death Comes Ripping” is a good song.
FB: The song on Static Age that really struck me as being a stand out was “Hybrid Moments”.
Jerry: It’s good, we do that every night.
FB: It’s the bass on it. You compare it to Legacy Of Brutality.
Jerry: Oh well hello, hello. That’s him trying to make me not get paid for the record. Why ruin the record? Pay me or ruin the record. (laughs) That’s the way I look at it. How can you fuck up something like that?
FB2: Because Static Age does sound way better.
Jerry: Hell forget it, and that’s off a cassette. That’s off a cassette. He told us that the tapes were lost and then when we put it out then all of a sudden he found the tapes. Too late, ‘cause Caroline’s not the kinda company that says, “Ohh we got the tapes come on lets fix it”. ‘Cause I can tell you I would have loved to remix that album with the studios they got today. I mean they’re really—oh forget it, it would sound like a million dollars.
FB: So why didn’t the song “In The Doorway” ever come out?
Jerry: It was on the tape, we never mixed it. So when he gave us back the tapes we went back and mixed it. What do you think of the quality of those three remixes versus the rest of the album? Thats a good question.
FB: I don’t know.
Jerry: OK, get back to me on that one ‘cause you’ve listened to it for a couple of weeks right?
FB: I like “In The Doorway” a lot.
Jerry: Well let me know what you think of like the guitar and the total mix versus the original.
FB: See the thing was you guys had so many different versions of songs its hard to tell.
Jerry: Well the thing was don’t forget when we made recordings it was usually a transition, we were coming out of one drummer and going into another, it just happened that way. So you would drag a lot of the old material into your new recording session. So you would do “Night Of The Living Dead” during the “Night Of The Living Dead” 45, and then Googy came you would do “Night Of The Living Dead” again with Googy on the kit for the album. So you would do it twice.
FB: I was reading something about where you would just record feedback tracks. You’d just throw your guitars down.
Jerry: Earth A.D., but I don’t know, I didn’t get to mix it. See Glenn slept through Earth A.D., me and Doyle dropped it and we know what’s on the tape and he slept through the whole thing so he has no fuckin’ idea what’s on that tape. And knowin’ the way he budgeted everything and he goes into the studio and tries to do everything in an hour instead of it taking a week like it’s suppose to be to mix it right, I know he didn’t listen to all three tracks. Earth A.D. is just a mere skeleton of what it could be. Earth A.D. could’ve been our best album.
FB2: Are there any plans to make like a documentary of the Misfits?
Jerry: Uh, I think documentaries suck so I’m really not lookin’ forward to a documentary. Uh, I like it when they cover like alien spacecraft or Egyptian tombs or stuff like that, then documentaries are fine. But for us I think it’s just an illusion, so I think our videos should be use liftin’ and us playin’ basketball and us watchin’ the football games in the sports bar on the day off. I think our videos should be like what we do, and just uh, hanging out, other than just video footage for the individual songs.
FB: What are some of your personal highlights throughout your career?
Jerry: Uh, I think playin’ with Joey Ramone the other day in Manhattan was really, really a trip for us, that was big. Uh, I think dumpin’ on Megadeth all summer was pretty fun. (laughs) I think just being back and seein’ the kids, ‘cause I really like hangin’ with the fans, I think thats the best part.
FB2: What’s your favorite horror film?
Jerry: The original Frankenstein.
FB: What about horror movie actor?
Jerry: I would say Karloff. I’m just a Karloff fan. I do like Christopher Lee, I think he’s pretty cool. I like the new Dracula, I thought that was pretty neat. Fun stuff, horror movies are great.
FB: You guys are still writing songs about them.
Jerry: Oh yes, that’s our target. We wrote a song, “Scream 2”, oh no, “Scream” it’s called, for Wes Craven’s movie. I don’t know if he’s gonna use it but it’s pretty rockin’. It’ll be on our next album. Just like with “Mars Attacks”, we wrote “Mars Attacks” and missed the boat, I think we missed the boat for Scream but I don’t care, a good song’s a good song.
FB: How do you feel about all these internet sites that the fans have put up?
Jerry: Good. I think the fans—I let them do what they want. I just got aggravated with them because everybody was venting their anger over the ‘net and I don’t think it’s supposed to be used as a weapon, I think it’s supposed to be used as a source of information. Once you step over that line and become nasty on it I think you just defeat the purpose of having it.
FB: I saw one the other day that had a picture of you guys and in the background was a Danzig skull with an X through it.
Jerry: No Danzig?
FB: Yeah.
Jerry: This was my Halloween joke: he’s gotta go under the name Blackacidevil now, his friends get to call him Blackass for short. Only his friends can call him Blackass.
FB: Do you get very many kids asking you what Danzig’s real name is?
Jerry: Yeah, I get the occasional Danzig follower but you know it’s funny, they usually wind up being the misfit amongst Misfits. It’s kind of—I’ll be honest with you, I think the core of the fans that he has are still our fans any ways so. I ain’t gonna make fun of them either just to take a poke at him (Glenn), they’re good kids too, what the hell. They outta like Glenn, God bless ‘em (laughs) [The tape runs out and as I flip it over Jerry is still talking]
FB2: Tell us about the Fiend Club, you’re still doing it?
Jerry: I just need the people who are in it to support it so that we don’t lose money when I do mailings. I would like the Fiend Club to at least cover itself. With the time and effort that’s put into running it, I mean, that comes with the territory. But I don’t think charging kids to be in a fan club is a real honorable way of running a fan club. (NOTE: the Fiend Club now charges a yearly due of $5.00) It just seems to me to be just another fuckin’ money making piece of shit propaganda.
FB: How many kids were in it back when you guys first did it?
Jerry: Not many. It started off with about 200 and uh, you know that’s why a lot of kids got free records back then. Now you’ve got ten thousand people sayin’, “Where’s my free shit?”, it’s quite a different ball game. So live and learn. You know it’s a good Fiend Club, I like it. I like that the kids write in. It’s a good thing.
FB: I was reading a reprint from a Touch & Go fanzine interview you guys did back in ‘81, it said that there were 500 kids in it then.
Jerry: OK, well ‘81 we probably started it in like ‘78 or something like that. I mean 500 kids you could conceivably for a thousand dollars, send them all a 45. But now you’re talking to send eight thousand kids a 45 you’re probably talkin’ twenty thousand dollars, quite a different story.
FB2: Who’s idea were the devilocks?
Jerry: Uh, mine. It just happened. My hair use to be blue and spiky and it started gettin’ real long so I started combing it into this tidal wave and then it just started getting longer in the front and I let it go. Then I switched from blue to black and there it was, staring me in the face. So it’s kind of a nice discovery.
FB: Did you have a good response when you started the Doyle Fan Club back in the ‘80s?
Jerry: Yeah I did, but then again I was pissin’ in the wind. I didn’t have anything to go with and I was just tryin’ to get out there and start establishing some type of foothold to get back into the game. I was dry docked there, I had to get the boat back in the water. With the Doyle Fan Club it kinda kept me away from infringing upon any Misfits rights or things like that, so what I tried to do was be in the game with out being in the game. That dragged on for so many, it dragged on for like—God that was a ‘88 when I started that so it took like nine years for us to get out, eight years for us to get out and get playin’. So I mean for eight years of talkin’, talkin’, talkin’ you kinda get tired.

Update: The latest Misfits album “Famous Monsters” is out now on Roadrunner Records. The band’s ties to Geffen Records were cut off & depending on whoever’s side you hear, whether they were dropped is in debate. Between albums the band released the member only exclusive “Evilive 2” through the Fiend Club. More recently the band saw the departure & subsequent return of vocalist Michale Graves. Also the band got involved with wrestler Vampiro & made several appearances on WCW. This has led to the current dispute between the Misfits & Vampiro that you can read all about on the band’s web site. Glenn Danzig recently re-united Samhain for a tour & plans on releasing a Samhain Box set. He still refuses to be involved with the Misfits rebirth.

MISFITS WEBSITE