W.A.S.P. will take off on an “Album One Alive” tour in less than a week, performing their Hall Of Fame-inducted eponymous debut. Just a few years ago, this would have been unthinkable. Frontman Blackie Lawless, a born-again Christian, said 15 years ago that he would never play the band’s best-known song “Animal (Fuck Like A Beast)” again. The song, however, was added back into W.A.S.P.’s set when they returned to the United States two years ago.
W.A.S.P.’s debut was a musical statement and a touchstone in the culture wars, like fellow Hall of Fame inductee Frankenchrist’s (the third Dead Kennedys album). W.A.S.P. and their best-known songs—“I Wanna Be Somebody” and “Animal”—were targeted by the Parents Music Resource Center almost four decades ago.
While recovering from back surgery, Lawless thought it might be time for fans to hear their entire debut in full. Lawless talked to Decibel about revisiting his band’s formative years and how his thoughts on censorship led him to reconsider his old material.
First off, how are you feeling?
It’s been challenging, but I will be good by tour time. A doctor in Europe effectively ruptured a disc. My back muscles weren’t talking to my front core muscles. We want them to talk to each other and work together.
When the injury happened, getting the muscles to work together became important. I’ve had my shoulders done five times from all the years of being in the gym and playing football as a kid. It takes a year for something to become relatively normal after surgery. Provided you did the therapy, getting back to normal takes more like three years.
The last time I talked to you was about Golgotha (an album based heavily on faith). You didn’t seem interested in revisiting old material. Why did you decide to play the debut? Fan demand?
It was a gradual process. Maybe I developed an appreciation for the material again. When you work on new material, it requires all of your focus. We’ve toured constantly, but it wasn’t until we toured America two years ago that a different light went off. Americans have a different perspective than the rest of the world. America is unique. Just being out there and getting a feel for the fans again reintroduced me to some things I haven’t felt for a while. It was a process of discovery.
The debut’s impact was momentous. It was such an important album in people’s lives. How did you feel as you relearned this material?
The first five years of any band is when you make your bones. Everything is determined in the first five years after you make your first record. It’s a make-or-break time. After the first five years, things are different. You’ve changed, maybe been around the world. What you start out being isn’t where you will be in five years.
It was an angry record, and when you are pissed off at the world, it’s all-encompassing. You’re doing what you think is natural. You believe the rest of the world feels like you do, but they don’t. It can take a while to come back to a sense of reality. But I think that is what attracted a lot of the fans. Many bands try rock theatre, and it comes off as amateur. But when you looked at us, there was no pretense. I had to reacquaint myself with who I was. You need something to trigger you to revisit things to see how you’ve grown. You need to go back and dig.
I understand a traveling exhibit will be going on the road with you this fall.
It’s part of the VIP package and consists of four large road cases. They are 16 feet long and six feet high when assembled next to each other. The wall will contain gold and platinum records and rare memorabilia—things the public hasn’t seen.
(The exhibit contains) private photos, rare guitars, and the first two Widow basses made for me before the first tour. There are even things like dolls fans made for us and vintage posters. We are assembling it now as we speak.
Many of these VIP packages only include laminates and soundchecks. I understand some fans also get a chance to talk to you.
We did that on the last tour. These conversations would sometimes go on for an hour and a half. We looked at many VIP packages and thought: “This is all people get? That’s not a lot.” I thought people would want to get to know me.
The real value comes from the dialogue and the one-on-one. I think I got as much out of it as fans did. It is a two-way street where you can sit and have honest conversations without pressure. Everyone learns. It was one of the greatest experiences in my career. It’s hard to express. After doing that the last time, we just thought, what more can we do to make it a great experience?
You’ve talked a lot about your faith and its importance. How have you squared your faith with performing this old material?
When we played “Animal” two years ago, I thought a lot about censorship. These issues have to be reviewed by every generation that comes along. That’s how I squared it. It’s a trip down memory lane for fans, but I also thought about using it to say something. We had a video playing behind “Animal” about the stink the song created and the concept of censorship. That’s me telling you need to pay attention to this. The First Amendment is not designed to protect popular speech. When we start silencing or canceling people, it’s censorship. I thought that needed to be addressed.
Some younger people might know the song but not the historical context.
It was about the idea of the song. These things have been going on since the invention of the written word. I don’t care if something is liberal or conservative. You need to sample everything you can. When you only listen to one source, it’s not news anymore. It’s an editorial. We are living in a dangerous time.
What is coming up for W.A.S.P. next year?
We’ve been working on stuff for about a year and a half. We spent about three months last year on new music. We had a lot of roughs and demos. While recovering from surgery, I decided that the material wasn’t close to a record. It’s on the back burner because of touring.
What have people shared with you about this record? Did you think of that when you decided on this tour?
When someone tells you something you did changed them, and you see tears coming down their face, how can you not be moved? You are alone and cut off from the world when doing a project. You are assembling it, and you might get feedback only when you go public. It was humbling, eye-opening, and emotionally moving. It’s humbling when someone tells you that something you did saved their life. It stays with you the rest of the day. These people’s words often rang in my ears after the shows.