Flesh and Blood, 1983
---------------------

Flesh and Bones talked to Glenn Danzig in the depths of his basement while
watching "Dr. Butcher" and "Galaxy of Terror"

F+B:  The Misfits have been touring a lot lately, is that the way?

Glenn:  It helps a lot.  You can put out a record and sell a few thousand if
you're lucky.  But if you play a lot of different places you're going to
reach more people and get more of a response and you'll sell more records
too.  Some bands say "uh, I don't want to make money, I don't care about
that," sure but if you have a chance to make money from the band, why not?
 It beats working a boring job.  There's magazines like Maximum R+R ragging
on bands because they get $ from playing, what do they want?  Do they expect
bands to tour across the country and play for nothing?  I mean, who's going
to pay for gas, the Communist Party of America or the Maximum R+R fund for
struggling artists?
And it's bullshit, that we play for large guarantees, even when we do get a
guarantee, it's nowhere near what a band like the Dead Kennedys get.  But if
they can get the money from clubs, great, but they shouldn't put down other
bands for trying to get guarantees. I'm sick of people saying what's right
and wrong.  What you should and shouldn't do, do what you want.  Personally
I'd love to be rich, wouldn't you?

F+B:  Have you played in smaller places?

Glenn:  Oh sure, we played in Akron and had no idea how big the scene was
there.  We played for 30-40 people in this place that was the size of
somebody's basement.  But it's still the same gig, you still put on the same
show....a lot of bands won't play in towns where there isn't a big scene.
 But in order for a scene to grow you have to have bands play there and get
people interested.  On our next tour we're playing Boise, ID.  I don't think
any band has ever been up there, not even Black Flag-where no band has gone
before!  If Robo and me had our way, that band would constantly be on tour,
maybe break  for a month or two.  But Jerry and Doyle have jobs and they'll
have to keep working until the band can support itself.

F+B:  Any good shows recently?

Glenn:  The Boston show the other night was a real killer, it was a lot of
fun.  At one point there were like 100 people on stage and you couldn't move
at all.  We were trying to get people away from the power amps, Doyle was
pinned against his amp, there were so many kids...Boston has a really unique
scene, it's totally crazy.  They have thse pig piles and everybody jumps on
each other and piles on.  It's so much fun you have to jump it.  After a
while with all the people it gets really wild but nobody gets hurt.  Well, I
haven't seen anybody get hurt bad at our shows.  The Boston kids are into
having fun.  There's no heavy duty politics or anything.  I suppose there's
some politics filtered in but it's basically fun and that's waht's missing
from a lot scenes.

F+B:  Did you ever get bothered by rednecks on tour?

Glenn:  Oh yeah, well I get bothered right around here.

F+B:  Did they ever try to run you out of town?

Glenn:  We got arrested in New Orleans in a cemetary, they said we were
graverobbing.

F+B:  What were you doing?

Glenn:  Oh, just hanging around.

F+B:  In the 1970s you were labeled punk, and now you're a hardcore band....

Glenn:  In the 1970s we were almost put in the punk category, but people
couldn't understand what we were doing.  Nobody knew what to make of us...we
got in at the tail end of the punk movement, we were playing in the basement
for a while, and the punk bands gave us the motivation to finally go out and
do something.  So by the time we started playing out people were saying that
we were too late, and also we were too much, we took the ideals of punk and
carried them out.  We were what the punk bands were going to be, it was
totally-all hell breaks loose-we would play and things would go wild, tables
flying and stuff.  Club owners couldn't handle it and started banking us. It
was really good when they started getting rid of tables and having space in
front of the stage because people could crazy and not fall over the chairs.

F+B:  Has the hardcore movement helped?

Glenn:  More people are into the band now, but we're still misunderstood
especially by the political punks.  They're looking at the music as "what can
punk rock do to further my political beliefs?" and we're looking at it as
"yeah, let's have fun."

F+B:  Do you think that there's a different attitude among the kids that were
into the music in the 70s and today?

Glenn:  There's a big difference in the energy level between the bands and
the crowd.  There's people diving off the stage and singing along and just
going crazy...that's what's good about hardcore, the kids get involved and
have an outlet for their aggression instead of just standing there like
zombies and just watching the bands they're taking part.

F+B:  Do you look at it as a form of positive violence instead of doing
something like breaking a window?

Glenn:  I believe in violence.  I'm a firm believer in any kind of violence.
 You have to realize that if you want to take out your violence on somebody
then they're going to have to take it out on you.  Sure you might get a wimp
who'll stand there and get beat up but on the other hand you might get
somebody who'll whip out a 6" blade and slit your stomach open.  Violence has
always existed and it's not going to go away.  This is a violent
society...also in the music, for the level of energy that a band like us puts
out there is going to be a certain amount of violence.  It's aggessive music
to begin with.  It's not laid back music.  People are going to react to it.
(Glenn puts on "Galaxy of Terror" and the credits come on)

F+B:  Oh no!  Eddie Albert is in this movie?!

Glenn:  Eddie Albert...oh you mean the old Eddie Albert from Green Acres. It
would be worth seeing him get his head split open.

F+B:  Yeah, did you ever see the episode of "The Outer Limits" where Eddie
Albert gets chased through the desert by killer tumbleweeds?  Wasn't that
cool?

Glenn:  What?  Most of the time "The Outer Limits" is cool, but that episode
is so stupid!  You liked it?!...The Killer Tumbleweeds are upon us.

F+B:  What about older movies?

Glenn:  Well, there's a lot there (points to lobby cards on the wall)...the
one that I really want on video is "The She Creature".  I haven't seen that
since they'd put it back in syndication.  "Invasion of the Saucermen" "I Was
A Teenage Werewolf". all the A.I.P. stuff is classic, the monsters are so
funny.

F+B:  What do you think about the debate that says violence and gore is more
effective if it's happening off screen and left to the viewer's imagination?

Glenn:  I don't agree with that at all....I think that you can make a very
scary movie and if you add gore in the right manner you can make it even
scarier.  "Evil Dead" is a good example of that, a lot of people put it down
for being yet another horror film, but it's not a slasher flick.  It may be a
takeoff of "The Exorcist" and "Night of the Living Dead" but it does have
some very scary moments.  For me to flinch during a scene with all the movies
I've seen, it has to be effective.  Most people who are really into horror
are past the stage of actually being scared, so you watch the film and
think--"now she's going into the bathroom, now he'll slit her throat" or
"good scene, good fx" but I actually flinched once.

F+B:  Aren't there movies that use gore just for sake of using gore?

Glenn:  Sure, there's moives that use sex for sex and stupid comedy.  Just
look at "Three's Company", real television history is being made there every
week....just because there are movies that are bad and only put the gore in
there to gross you out doesn't mean that all movies that use gore are
bad....The problem is that a lot of people aren't intelligent enough to
decide what's good and bad, they spend two ours watching a movie and then
look to the critics to see if the movie was good.

F+B:  What about movies that are so bad, they're good?

Glenn:  "Horror of Party Beach" the uncut version is really
funny..."Bloodfeast"...(points to screen)...watch this part, this monster
grabs the guy and holds him down and pulls the top off his head and his
brains pour out.

F+B:  When does Joanie Cunningham get her face blown apart?

Glenn:  That's coming up...the thing squeezes her and all her insides come
out and her face explodes--BLOOSH!--and her eyeballs shoot at the screen,
it's so cool!

F+B:  And Howard runs out with a Hefty trash bag and scoops her up.

Glenn:  The first 2 seasons of "Happy Days" are great, Fonzie never talked,
Ritchie and Potsie are jerks, and Ralph is a funny guy. My new idol is Bill
Murray.

F+B:  I saw him in New York at Gem Spa buying cigars.

Glenn:  Was he talking like in "Caddyshack" in his demented Mister Magoo
voice?...He's so cool.  Brian Hyland is practicing to be Bill Murray but I
think that I have him beat.

F+B:  There used to be a lot of haunted houses in New Jersey but...

Glenn:  They're all gone...there used to be one down the street, this guy
blew his brains out and they carted the body away and condemned the building.
 The never cleaned up.  We went in there and saw bloodstains on the floor.
 If you went by there after dark you would run past!...A lot of haunted
houses are gone today because real estate agents don't care they just plow
them down and build over them, they don't have to live there.

F+B:  They build right over graveyards too.

Glenn:  That happened at the school I went to.  There's still all graveyards
across the street, when they built the school they dug up all the coffins,
the bones were popping out, they didn't care...so anybody that's planning on
getting buried, you can imagine what's going to happen to you when there's a
shortage of land.
(Glenn describes how he cleans skulls, cutting and cleaning away the skin and
muscles and insides and boiling them on the stove)

F+B:   But doesn't it smell?

Glenn:  Oh yeah.

F+B:  What if some Chinese people walk by?

Glenn:  They'd probably say 'Yum, smells good!  What's cooking?"...there was
this Chinese restaurant that got closed down.  They broke in and found all
these skinned dogs and cats hanging in the back room.

F+B:  Uuummm...Do you think that war is acceptable?

Glenn:  War is okay if it's justified.  I think that there are things worth
fighting for, not everything can be settled peacefully...if everyone in the
world was intelligent then things could be settled peacefully, but
unfortunately it's not that way.  Eventually you have to resort to violence
whether you like it or not.

F+B:  But you can try to talk things over...

Glenn:  Oh, of course I'm not advocating senseless violence, try to discuss
the problem and if that doesn't work...nobody intelligent looks for fights
but if you can't talk to somebody and reason things out then you'll have to
stand up for yourself and fight.  If you don't then you're not going to be
alive very long....Like say that you own a house and somebody comes up and
threatens to take all your possessions and rape your wife.  What do you do?
 You can all the cops and by the time they come you might be missing a few
fingers and have a slashed throat, how does that sound?...oh yeah, there's
another thing I'd like to say with all this Nazi punk shit goingon. I think
that if communists are allowed to exist in this country then Nazis or KKK or
any other group have a right to exist also.  But whether they have a right to
carry out there beliefs is another matter.  I don't think that anyone should
be allowed to interfere with other people's rights.  But they should be
allowed to exist.  Anybody--Nazis, KKK, Black Panthers, Grey Panthers, and
when it comes to the music, just go to shows and set aside your differences
and go crazy...so you can whip out your Nazi armband now, Jeff.

F+B:  What's coming out on vinyl?

Glenn:  "Evilive" is out, you have it right there in your hand...."Earth AD"
will be out soon and "Die, Die My Darling" is on hold for a while until we
get some money...oh, and we have a new song called "Wolfsblood" which we're
going to release in Germany too.  Which is cool beacuse I always want to do a
record like that.

F+B:  What about videos?

Glenn:  We did "Braineaters" and "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?" by Culture
Club.  We dressed Robo in a dress and, no, no...the "Braineaters" video has
cow brains and lamb brains in a big bowl that Robo carries out.  A lot of the
Boston kids are in it--Springa from SSD, FU's, Jerry's Kids--and In the
End...well you'll see it, it's pretty funny, the brains go flying...we have a
live video from our first Halloween show in 1979 and some shows at Clutch
Cargo, Kalamazoo, and Boston, we want to edit it together into a live
documentary.  We have some sick ideas for "Devil's Whorehouse" too.

F+B:  Weren't you supposed to be working on a movie soundtrack?

Glenn:  We're going to do a song for the "Bloodfeast 2" soundtrack.  And i'm
going to work on the soundtrack.

F+B:  Is the soundtrack weirder than the usual Misfits stuff?

Glenn:  Yeah, we have a song on the new album that is like "After Halloween
II", it's a lot sicker...I always like to outdo what we've done in the past
which is hard, that's why we haven't done as many new songs lately.  I'll
write a lot of songs but ot of them all, we've only done one or two.

F+B:  Are you writing a lot of weirder stuff?

Glenn: It's just the one song, as a rule I don't think that bands should jump
off the deep end with total experimental stuff because it might not be what
the fans want.  Some bands feel that they don't owe anything to their fans
but they do.  Not that they should write the same kind of songs forever but
you shouldn't lose sight of the people who are listening to the music.

F+B:  Are you going to do any more solo records?

Glenn:  I'm going to work on something new in a few months and this time I'll
have a hand in producing it which I didn't last time...Last time I did
everything on the record and it was two Misfits songs that a friend wanted to
see come out.  The new record will actually have a band on it--Al from Reagan
Youth, maybe Robo, and I might try to get Andy from the Necros to play
guitar.

F+B:  What are some of your favorite movies?

Glenn:  Anything David Croenberg--"Rabid", "They Came From Within", "Brood",
"Scanners", "Videodrome", and he's working on "The Dead Zone" by Stephen
King.

F+B:  There's this place that shows weird movies while you're eating dinner.

Glenn:  What's it called--The Gore Gore Diner?  Wouldn't that be a cool
place?  They show splatter movies while you're eating bloody hamburgers!
 You'd be there everyday, wouldn't you?  Admit it!  

F+B:  No well done, only rare.

Glenn:  Did you ever see "Diner of the Living Dead"? on Fridays.  It's so
cool, they bring out arms and legs and the girl goes "AAAAHHH!!"
...."Evil Dead" is good...I'm waiting for a bunch of movies to come
out--"Deadly Spawn", I hear that "Boogens" isn't going to be released in New
York...