W.A.S.P. 30 Years Of Thunder - Part Seven The New World Disorder About 3 weeks before the first tour was about to begin, Rod came to Chris and myself and said: “we’ve got a problem”. Apparently Capitol/EMI were becoming extremely concerned with reports about drug abuse and erratic behavior with our drummer Tony Richards. Rod says to us: “he has to be replaced….Now!! Both Chris and I felt, if we could just get out on the road, whatever was concerning the label would go away. We both put up a fierce defense for Tony. For 2 hours there was a lot of screaming and threatening to leave the label, but at this point Capitol/EMI had so much money invested in us there was really little any of us could do. I remember sitting there, having this sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. It was like a bad dream where I could see it happening right before my eyes like it was in slow motion and there was nothing I could do to stop this tidal wave from coming down on us. It was the first time I remember thinking, “they (EMI) own us now”! In my mind I thought back to something Ace had told me years earlier. He said: “when you sign that dotted line, your life doesn’t belong to you anymore”. I would later write about it in “Chainsaw Charlie”, “sign right here on the dotted line”. This was the first time for us that monster would rear it’s ugly head. Nobody outside of our immediate circle understood that trying to replace Tony was a MAJOR problem. This guy could do it all, he played great, he looked great and there was something about his personality that definitely jumped out at you in photos. This combination in people is almost impossible to find and I knew it all to well. It took me years to find this magic combination of personalities to create this Band and we’ve not even played our first gig outside of California and now this Behemoth of a label is telling me I can’t have my hand picked starting lineup. Furious…to say the least! Looking back it was at THAT moment that we were nearly fatally wounded. For years, and I mean years later, Chris and I would talk about “what if”. What if we could have just got on tour with him. What if we told EMI to go screw themselves. What if, what if… even now it’s haunted us throughout our careers. You see, he COULD NOT be replaced, not the way we needed it to be. Whoever was going to be picked to take his place was going to have a really unenviable task. On the front cover of the first album you saw all 4 of us. Never again on any album would you see that from us. Reason? We felt that all four created this “Thing”. Something that was greater than our individual selves. With him gone, we were never the same, and that ‘Thing” had been severely wounded so we never again had the confidence to ever put the Band on a cover again. We used me on the next 2 album covers but after that it would be conceptual art covers. Something that continues to this day!! Enter Steve Riley. Steve was a good drummer but he was being dropped into a no win situation. No matter how good a new member is, he still has to deal with the ghost of the previous guy, and sometimes that “previous guy” casts a giant shadow. As was the case here. But we licked our wounds and carried on. It was like cramming for a big test with only days to go before our first World tour, but Steve was good and we got through rehearsals OK. So, off to set the world on fire, and with our flaming W.A.S.P. sign….we meant it literally!! Banned in Ireland, Preachers following us around to shows and picketing outside and inside the gigs, kids using enamel paint to put white streaks in their hair, protesters at most of the shows…and this was only the first month!! The U. K. as a whole didn’t really know what to think of us at first, but the kids loved us!! It was the Lyceum show, that’s now famous for the “Live at the Lyceum” video”, that helped create the buzz with the press. Rod had done such a good job getting them ready for us that by the time we got there the press all believed we were Elvis and Attila the Hun all rolled into one!! We showed up and did not disappoint!! Looking at that video now I can see why it scared the hell out of the whole country. Some people were expecting us to be like cartoon characters but when you look at that video its clear to see, we meant business. You could see it with the look in our eyes… we were not playing!! I remember going into a club a few years later when we were recording “Headless” and seeing it for the first time since we filmed it. I could then see what scared parent so bad about us. I watched it like I was watching someone else. Those guys up on that screen were a SCARY bunch!! We were young and hungry and MAD at the whole world and it showed in abundance!! That anger was dripping off of us. I had never seen it before. I never really knew until that moment what we truly looked like. Because of where my head was at the time we were making “Headless” I was watching somebody else and I saw it with a completely different set of eyes. So after we permanently scarred the U.K. we went on to mainland Europe. Sweden was so enthused with us they had a debate about us on National TV that went on for 3 days. Norway didn’t even want to know about us and wouldn’t let us in to the country. Finland loved us from the very beginning but at the first show in Helsinki I introduced a song that Chris was supposed to start. I said the name of the song but there was no Chris. I said it again, still no Chris. I looked over and he’s laying on the stage. He’d been knocked out cold!! In those days we were doing the “raw meat” so some of the fans thought they would help us and brought meat of their own. Somebody had smuggled in an entire rump roast and threw it at the stage. It hit Chris in the head…oops…THE SHOWS OVER!!! He was out for several minutes. It was very close to the end of the show anyway so it really didn’t matter that we didn’t finish. This kind of stuff was happening everyday everywhere we went. It was INSANE…but it was great!!! We went on to destroy Japan and the returned home to start the U. S. tour. We did tours with Krokus, Kiss, Quiet Riot, Metallica and Iron Maiden. There was a 3 Band bill that we did that was Armored Saint, Metallica and W.A.S.P Anyone who was lucky enough to have seen any of those shows really saw something special. All of those bands in the early stages…WOW!! Usually, when Bands are just starting out is when they are at their best. They’re raw and unrefined and have zero polish on themselves. These 3 Bands were no exception…Rude, Crude and Lewd!!! Those shows are now considered legendary. There was a tremendous amount of competition between us but we had major Fun!! It was one of those special times. I remember it with great memories. Once we were playing in Indianapolis and we all got there late from a long drive the night before, and nobody got a sound check that day because we were so late. Metallica and us would trade off every night closing the show. One night they would close, the next night W.A.S.P. would close. This night we were closing and everybody was rushing around trying to get everything ready before the show. It was an old type of theatre and the backstage was like a cavern with a million hallways and VERY easy to get lost in. None of us had even been on the stage so if you didn’t have somebody with you who knew where they were going show you how to get there, then you had no chance of making it on you own. Well, I’m in the bathroom getting ready to shave and as Metallica’s getting ready to go on their intro music starts playing. The bathroom door flies open and there’s Cliff (Burton) standing there, by himself, and screams, “BLACKIE, WHERE’S THE STAGE”!!! I had just put the razor up to my neck to shave and saw him in the mirror and I said, “Cliff, I really don’t know”. He shouts, “SCREW YOU BLACKIE” and storms off. He thought In was messing with him but I honestly wasn’t. I really didn’t know how to get to the stage. It was a true Spinal Tap moment!! I started laughing so hard I was about to cry because he was so mad and he was about to have a major panic attack. He thought I did it on purpose but I really didn’t. The Band was about 2 minutes into the first song before I heard the bass come in. Man those were fun times!! We finished the rest of the U.S. tour and were getting ready to start rehearsals for our next record. That’s when we first started to hear murmurings from back east in Washington D.C.. Something about this thing called the PMRC and some woman named Tipper Gore. Apparently, it had something to do with us!!! I wonder…what could it possibly be? More Next Month!! B. L.
Posted on: Thu, 17 Oct 2013 23:28:56 +0000
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