Hit Parader    May 1994   
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Danzig: Feeling The Heat

   Danzig have received some unexpected heat from the release of
their latest disc, thrall-demonsweatlive. It seems that certain
conservative action groups have targeted the band, and their new
release, for attack. Does this bother Glenn Danzig? What do you
think? "We welcome their disdain," the hulking vocalist said. "We
present the dark realities of America - perhaps those people
don't want to face that kind of reality."

HOBBY SHOP
By Anne Leighton

   Glenn Danzig isn't the the kind of guy most people would think
of as having a hobby. Unless, of course, that hobby happened to
be performing cult sacrifices or ungodly rituals. Actually, Mr.
Danzig has a more "normal" side to his personality, a side he
chose to reveal to us in this month's HOBBY SHOP.

GLENN DANZIG
   Glenn Danzig stands five foot six inches tall. But on stage,
he casts an awe-inspiring presence that makes him look like
metal's answer to the Terminator! This bigger-than-life image is
in part due to Glenn's love of physical culture--body-building
and the martial arts. So HOBBY SHOP decided to ask Glenn about
his body and how he made his muscles so big! But first Glenn
proclaimed, "I'm not pro-steroid. A lot of people will say to me, 
Were you on steroids?' No, I just don't sit around on a couch and 
vegetate. I work out. If I did steroids, I'd be massive. I don't
think people understand exactly what steroids can do to you.
DON'T DO THEM. A lot of people who did steroids a long time ago
are sweating it out now."

Anne Leighton: Did you ever try steroids?
GD: No. Never. It's the same kind of thing with any drug, it's
not really you that gets built up. Whatever my body looks like is
because I did it myself. I didn't use any steroids. I do take a
lot of vitamins. The closest I ever came to steroids was similax
(officinalis--sasparilla root). It's not a steroid. You can get
it in any health food store. But it made me very violent. I tried
it for three or four days. I didn't like the effects and
subsequently, gave it back to the person that said I should I
should try it.

AL: What initially attracted you to bodybuilding?
GD: Having a picture in your head of what you look like, and when
you look in the mirror, it's not the same. I still have a picture
in my head of what I want to look like. I like to bodybuild. The
thing for me is I really thought a lot about what Arnold
Schwarzenegger would always say, and it made a lot of sense to
me--it's like building blocks. He says that it's not so much how
much weight you're lifting but what the weight is doing to your
body. It has to do with sculpting your body to make it look how 
you want. If I was a weightlifter, I'd lift a whole lot. People
don't slam on a lot of weight especially if they want to have cut
striations and have their muscles to show.  They do a lot of
reps. When I went to the gym in New Jersey, people would be
putting on as much weight as they could, but their bodies would
look like crap--flabby bellies, flabby chest muscles. All they
had were biceps and they didn't look like real biceps. The
steroid crew would come in at night. We'd always come in early
morning to avoid the steroid guys. With a lot of the guys it's
competition. The steroid guys who were serious about training
were working hard. But there are people who work out a little and
do steroids and want to achieve that look. If they do--fine. I
just don't do them and I wouldn't recommend kids doing them
either.

AL: What shape do you have in mind for yourself?
GD: Just very symmetrical. I work on my shoulders a lot because a
lot of times I see bodybuilders and their shoulders aren't big
enough for their biceps and triceps. Their shoulders and delts
are tiny. To me that doesn't look right. Square shoulders are
good. I recommend that you read a lot by people who know what
they're doing and then decide what goal you're gonna set for
yourself and how to go about achieving that goal. Or get someone 
you respect to give you a few lessons or train with you for a
week or a month--however long it takes for you to absorb it. Diet
is really important in order to do it correctly. I still like
candy and cakes--that's my problem. I stick to a lochicken--never
fried--always white meat.

AL: Do you remove the skin from the chicken?
GD: No, I like the skin (laughs). The way I see it, as long as
it's good for me and healthy and I have a lot of chicken skin,
then I have to stay away from the other oily stuff. I'm not
bodybuilding for competition so I don't have to be real strict. I
do have to eat a lot of fruits and salad. I'll eat fruit instead
of candy. I don't drink any soda at all--occasionally if I'm
dying for a Coca-Cola, I'll have a Coke. But that's once every
three or four months. It's either Iced tea or juice or lemonaid.
Lemonaid is very good for cutting down on calories.

AL: Lemonaid's got sugar in it.
GD: Yeah, I believe you also need some amount of sugar and salt.
I know some people worry about water retention with salt. But if
I have an exausting workout and then gotta go on stage, I sweat
so much on stage that unless I replenish that salt, I'm dead; I
can't even move. I know some basketball and football players take
salt tablets. Don't OD on salt though. I'll have red meat and
pour salt on it and people go, "You're gonna die." No, my
metabolism is different. You have to know yourself and what you
need. What I'm doing might not be good for somebody else. 
This goes back to Arnold--get in front of a mirror and look at
yourself at what you want to change. What did you eat--did you
like what it did to your stomach or the way you felt afterwards?
Do you feel sick or healthy? Get in tune with yourself.

AL: What other sports do you like?
GD: I like martial arts. I used to do Muey Thai kick boxing. I
especially like Jeet Kune Do which Bruce Lee invented. It's too
violent; the fight doesn't last long. You don't compete in
America cause it's so dangerous. I'm learning that just to be a
killing machine, to be honest with you. I'm very into defending
myself. I always like doing physical stuff like that. It's not
like I'm a sports person. I never was, really. I like playing
basketball but it wasn't my life. But the martial arts is
different cause while you're learning to be coordinated you're
also learning to defend yourself especially with Jeet Kune Do.
You can end a fight before you start it. I don't know if you ever
saw Bruce Lee fight in his movies--that was just the tip of the
iceberg. If you actually saw him in a real fight, he was
devastating. Jerry Poteet's my teacher and he was one of Bruce
Lee's five students. He gives private lessons. He trained Jason 
Scott Lee for the movie, DRAGON. Jerry picks who he trains. If he
doesn't like you, you're out.

AL: As in "You're no good--chop! chop!"
GD: There are no karate chops in this. It's basically boxing and
kicking. There's more than that. But it's very simple and right
to the heart of the matter. Martial arts are good for everyone.
If a girl is alone and guys are giving her this hoot and hollar
crap, it's really disrespectful. It's one thing to go up and talk
with a woman, and if she's not interested, she's not into
it...just like if a girl goes up to a guy and he's not into it.
And if she's gonna be accosted by somebody, she's gotta be able
to defend herself. She could end up in jail if she beats the crap
out of a guy or another girl. My teacher has a good saying, "It's
better to be judged by 12 than carried by 6." When I was in Muey
Thai school, I saw a lot of girls come in and out of there--some
overweight and some not, and they get into shape if they're
dedicated to practicing the martial arts.

AL: What does "jeet kune do" mean?
GD: It means "the way of the intercepting fist."

AL: Our spies in Europe heard that you weren't able to defend
yourself against Def Leppard's guitarist Vivian Campbell. They
said he punched you backstage at a festival, and you cowered and
hid from everybody.
GD: That's a joke. I'm actually responding to it. Here's my take
on it. Basically we got in a confrontation when I was coming from
catering. Basically everyone jumped on one of my friends and me.
There was about 20 of them and two of us. And basically house
security was holding us back, and there was me and my friend
telling them "we're gonna kick the crap out of you, and if you
want to go, let's go now." And then they declined. We saw them
later--they wandered into our area. I guess it was the singer and
someone else--I don't even know who Vivian Campbell is. Does he
have brown hair or blonde hair?

AL: Vivian's got brown hair. Phil Collen's got blond hair.
GD: It was him, then. We saw them wander in and we said, "Let's
go now" and they said, "We'd rather not..." And that was the end
of it. We didn't feel the need to tell anyone what happened
because nothing happened. If any of them say I punked out of a
fight, it's bull. These guys say I've actually turned down a
fight. We gave them the benefit of the doubt this time, "you
don't want the fight--fine." Then next time they will not be 
given that respect. The martial arts is "You've walked away clean
this time. You're shooting your mouth off. They're not gonna walk
away next time." I guess they're on a decline--all the hairspray
bands are on a decline and I guess, maybe they thought this would
be good publicity for them. I was never punched. I was never even
touched. And these guys--even with all their back-up there--they
didn't want a piece of it. I don't know what fairyland they're
in.

AL: What similarities are there between muscle-making and
music-making?
GD: A lot of dedication. Definitely you have to be focused. If
you're a pro-bodybuilder or even working out on a regular basis
or in a band, you definitely have to be focused on what your goal
is. Dedication means "Don't quit." Some people in music think
they're gonna be stars overnight. Same thing in bodybuiding and
weight training. People come in and think they're gonna be Arnold
in two or three months. I see people who think that after a week
or two of working out they're gonna be this new body. It's not
like that. I think you have to be realistic about it. It's the 
same thing with music. It's not gonna happen overnight.