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