FEH #12, p.24-27, Sept/Oct '94
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If you need an intro to this article, you're reading the wrong magazine...

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Since you guys are the mystery band of the planet, my knowledge of one of
my all-time favorite bands is pathetically limited.  I do know that you
and Glenn Danzig formed the Misfits around 1977.  How did you two meet up?

JERRY ONLY: We met through a drummer who was a mutual friend, Manny
Martinez - he played on the Cough/Cool [7"] record.  Soon after that we went
on to the Static Age lineup and picked up a guitar player.  For six to
eight months it was a three piece and after that it became a foursome.

Was it a band decision for the Misfits to get harder-edged as time
progressed?  There's a colossal difference between the Cough/Cool and Static
Age stuff.

JO: I think that what you're hearing more of is actually the presence of
guitar.  The cutting edge was there, but it needed to be developed.  It was
developoig on its own.  I nthe beginning, the New York scene was very
artsy, Talking Heads-type stuff.  The Ramones was about the hardest thing
at the time.  We weren't tryin' to pick off and steal the Ramones' sound,
but at the same time we were tryin' to move away for the avant garde sound
and move towards more of a metal sound.  Once we added Franche' Coma on
guitar, well, that's the whole Static Age album.

Did the Ramones really have a big influence on you personally?

JO: No, not really.  I'm a big Ramones fan, I like Dee Dee a lot and I did a
photo shoot with Joey Ramone one time.  I kinda thought they were a little
light, that they weren't really focused on what they were tryin' to present
with their music.  Their music was what it was and what they said didn't
matter - it was kind of a goof.  They're still one of my favorite bands.

How did Plan 9 Records get started?

JO: In the beginning on Cough/Cook, we called the record label Blank Records.
During that era, Mercury Records was tryin' to get involved with the New York
new wave stuff and they came rollin' in and signed Pere Ubu and they put it
out on a make-believe label called Blank.  They didn't research enough to
find that three months previous, the Misfits had put out Blank Records.  The
way the law states is your actual product becomes your copyright.  So if you
put out a record, say, Cough/Cool on Blank Records, we were basically the
copyright holders of the name Blank.  We traded it off for studio time to
record the Bullet, Beware, and Static Age tapes.  We changed it to Plan 9
soon after the exchange.

One of the things that's made the Misfits immediately recognizable is the
long lock of hair in your faces.  Whose idea was the "devilock"?

JO: That was something I came up with.  Actually, when I began to grow it,
my hair was blue.  I had the spkiy, Sid Vicious haircut, choppy on top, and
it was this new denim jean blue color.  It wasn't turquoise, that limp color.
As it started to grow longer, I didn't cut it, I just started combin' it up
into a wave.  I called it a "tidal" wave, but a friend of mine called it
"pterana-do" (laughs).  It eventually became the widows peak, the devilock.

Do you still sport one?

JO: Umm, yeah.

How long?

JO: Not very long.  Actually my hair is real long in the back, but we got a
photo shoot comin' up and I'm takin' it off.  I'm gonna dye it black again.

I saw Doyle's [ Jerry's guitar playing Misfits bro] in the fan club poster
and it looked three feet long!

JO: (laughs) Yeah, it's not that long now.  Those posters are from around
88.

So the song "Devilock" is about hair?

JO: It might be, I don't know.  Those were Glenn's lyrics so I don't know
what he had in mind.  I can't understand half the stuff he said on the last
album [Earth A.D.] (laughs).  He slept through the recording of the song and
came in later and added the lyrics.

How did you meet up with Bobby Steele?

JO: Bobby Steele.  We ran into him because he used to hang out in NY where
we used to hang out.  We were looking for another guitar player because
Franche' Coma wasn't road worthy, he wasn't into touring.  We thought the
best thing to do was to get a guitar player already into this kind of music,
rather than turn around and try to turn someone onto it.  It was kind of a
spontaneous thing.  "Bobby knows what he's doin'?  Okay, Let's try him."  We
didn't think it was going to be permanent, just something we needed to get
done.

How was the songwriting divided up back then?

JO: Basically Glenn would come down with the skeleton of it and the band
would throw it around and put the meat on it.  Usually the lyrics were
already written like "Some Kinda Hate," "Last Caress" [without pause] col,
my brother brought me a top for the Allen head, the clear dome.  I got an
Allen doll at home with no head (laughs).

I got one of them myself.

JO: Do you?

Yeah, I really do.
JO: I bought one for Dave Vanian when we went to tour with the Damned in
England.  I had two of 'em and now I'm down to one with one arm.  I thought
my son was playin' with it in the sandbox, but my brother had it in his desk
drawer for years and years.  The clear plastic dome.  Now I'm just an arm
shy.

I colored my head like a dumbass and now it don't glow no more.

JO: (laughing) I'll send you the head off mine.

I'll trade you for the arm!

JO: I don't need an army, mine's dead (laughs).

Why was "Rat Fink" chosen as a cover tune and did you do others?

JO: We were into the Rat Fink artwork more than the song.  We were collectin'
these Weirdo models, they've come back by the way.  We were into that
bastract monster looking thing.  We did more based upon that because the
song sucks (laughs).  Bobby Steele always liked it, maybe that meant
something.

Yeah, like kick his ass out of the band!

JO: Yeah (laughing)!  It was a goof.  We used to play "Rise Above" by Black
Flag and "Search & Destroy" by Iggy Pop.  Glenn never liked to do covers,
he'd make a face.  I don't think we ever did "Rat Fink" live, but if we did,
I'm sure it sucked then too (laughs).

Is the song "London Dungeon" about your experiences in England.

JO: Yeah.  We had the opportunity of opening for The Damned at a place called
Hurrahs in Manhattan.  I told their singer [Dave Vanian], "If you guys are
gonna do a tour of England...", y'know?  That was around Halloween time and
their European tour started off right after Thanksgiving.  Dave gave me a
handshake and that was good enough for me, but he didn't tighten things up
the way he should've.  If I tell ya it's gonna be black, it ain't gonna be
red or green, y'know?  We got passports in two weeks and got over there.  It
was  my fault - w didn't have any contracts signed.  They loaded us up with
shitty equipment, the stuff was literally falling apart.  We did three shows
with them.  The deal was we were supposed to play 23 shows in 28 days and all
we were gettin' paid was $100 a night, and they didn't pay us.  They said
"Hey, half the bands in England would give their left arms to open for The
Damned!" (chuckles) "Yeah?  Fuck you.  Fuck you, really."
We walked off the tour and here we are, no place to go and no money.  We
were in London walking around and this guy - a little guy, he looked liked
one of Herman's Hermits - runs up.  He had a fashion magazine and wanted to
be our manager.  He put us up in his brother's hotel by Hyde Park for three
weeks.
At one point, I was gettin' really bored.  In England they had only two
channels on TV which they turned off at 12 o'clock and the bars closed at 1.
If you're wakin' up around noon, you're stir crazy by midnight.  Ann Beverly,
who's Sid's [Vicious] mom - I'd helped her out when Sid had his misfortune
in the States - she called me up and said, "Hey if you're not doin' nothin',
let me show you around."  She came and picked me up and we went to
Canterbury Cathedral, her friends' up in the hills, all kinds of shit.
Now, meanwhile, while I'm gone, Glenn and Bobby decided they're gonna see
The Jam play at The Rainbow.  In England they had all these skinheads who'd
fight the mods who'd fight the punks who'd fight the rockers kinda shit.  A
bunch of these guys start in with Glenn and Bobby ran away and left him.
There was a broken window and Glenn grabs a piece of glass, and he's like,
"Okay, you guys."  The old Bills (police) see Glenn with the glass and they
throw him in jail.  So Glenn's in jail and they're all bustin' his balls
'cuz he's an American.  When he came out, he had "London Dungeon," so I guess
that musta occupied his time to sit and hum it out rather than argue.  He
said they didn't have fences or barbed wire like a regular jail.  They had
trenches with badgers or wolverines (laughs).  They figured "G'head, go for
it."  Glenn was ready to get the hell out of England.

How did English crowds respond to the Misfits at those three shows?

JO: Uh, I don't like the English crowds.  They were spittin' on everybody.
The thing that astounded me were the kids at the halls were like 12 and 13,
extremely young.  At the time, I was only 17 and they seemed young to me.
They were the personification of the word punk.  There's no glory in playing
to people that treat you like that.

You mentioned running around with Sid's mom.  Were you and Sid friends?

JO: I had the pleasure and misfortune to meet him on the night he died.

Wow.

JO: Yeah, it was a real bummer and I regret it to this day.  He was hangin'
out with the New York Dolls, who acted as his back up band and they were into
junk.  He had been in jail for three weeks since it'd happened [the murder of
his girlfriend Nancy Spungen].  He acted like he should get his shit
together, but I didn't see the spark that said he was serious.  He kept
noddin' out and shit and that was rubbin' me the wrong way 'cuz I'm not into
all that.  I said, "What the hell kinda crap is this, he's gonna kill
himself" and they were like, "Oh naw, he's like that all the time."  I
shoulda picked his butt up, dragged him into the bathroom, put him under
cold water, and slapped him around.  If I'd had done that, there might be
a different story for the guy today, so I really regret not overstepping my
bounds.  I shoulda said, "Fuck you, this is not how people are supposed to
live."  I shoulda took control, instead of the back seat.  The next day I
had to go to Connecticut to deliver some parts and I heard over the radio
that he'd died.  Sometimes it doesn't pay to be polite, it pays to be
persistent.  It bothers me to this day.

Why don't you talk about Arthur Googy coming into the band and the
departure of Bobby Steele?

JO: Arthur came along when we got rid of Mr. Jim, who was really more of a
rock 'n' roll drummer.  He wasn't into the leather scene or the image.  He
thought we were out of our minds (laughs).  We had auditions and for the
most part, they were bad news.  Googy came along and said, "Look, I really
wanna be in this band.  You teach me and I'll put in all the time I gotta
to learn."  I said, "Look I practice every night, are you sure?"  And he
sez, "Yeah, yeah, yeah!", so I sez "Awright, good enough."
At the time, Doyle was probably around 13 and me and him used to play every
day.  Bobby'd show up maybe once, twice a week and Glenn mabye once a month
(laughs).  Googy did it!  He made the grade, showed up every night, and the
beauty of itw as, he was the virgin vinyl, brand new tape.  When we started
teachin' Googy how to play, he played like us.
Doyle was 12 when he started playin' guitar and before that he used to roadie
for me.  The problem was, Doyle was just way too young.  I couldn't get him
outta school to go on the road.  My parents were goin', "Oh, you can't take
him outta high school.  You played footbal, you did this and that - you
can't take that away from him."  That's my brother and, in a way, they're
right.  You look at it now, 15 years down the road, you go, "That's shit.
Fuck school" (laughs).  Anyway, Bobby was not the guitar player we needed.
His sound was inadequate and he didn't have the balls we were lookin' for.
He had the attitude that if he came out and spit on everybody and threw
stuff, that would make up for the other end.  Bobby would show up for
practice and not bring his guitar, or forget his cords.  He was always usin'
Doyle's stuff and breakin' it.  It finally came to a head and I said, "Look,
Bobby can't make it, but Doyle can."

What are you feelings for Bobby's band The Undead?

JO: Y'see, there was a time [after Bobby left] when I thought I'd be friendly
with Bobby.  I'm not the guy's biggest fan, but we can be friends.  I told
him I wanted to work on a project with Dave Vanian, do a solo thing like
Billy Idol and pull him out of The Damned a little bit.  I said we could
call it the 1980 Undead and Bobby ripped it off.
He sent us a tape, Act Your Rage.  We were workin' at the machine shop and
Doyle was out back.  I sez, "Here Doyle, Bobby sent this.  Check it out and
let me know what you think."  Doyle comes walkin' back up to the front about
two minutes later and the tape's hangin' in his hand drippin' oil.  I said,
"What happened, ya drop it in the oil?"  He sez, "No, it SUCKED so I threw
it in the machine." (laughs)

I was wondering, who actually "owns" the Misfits?

JO: Basically, Glenn and I have a hold on it.

Is that what your problems with him have been about?

JO: The problem is that anything released since 1983, when we left, is
unauthorized.  He can't use our faces or our name without consent.  When he
makes money, he's supposed to dibby it up amongst the people on the project.
You can just guess at what kind of money that was generated over the Misfits
over the past 11 years, and Glenn's been keepin' it all.  Well, I don't know
he's paid anybody else, but not me and Doyle.
It started over t-shirts.  We have a mutual friend and when we first moved
here with the machine shop, all these kids were like, "Wow, you guys were
in the Misfits?  Can you get me some shirts?"  Now I paid for all the
silkscreens.  This buddy of ours came back to me and said, "Hey, Glenn said,
'If you want shirts, go buy 'em'."  I said, "Whoops, bad thing." (laughs)
There was original Plan 9 stuff sold, there was a company called Taang
Records, they've got 37 Misfits bootlegs.  If you bought one of each, it
would cost you 1,800 bucks.  That's about $45 per 45.  Where'd the tapes
come from?  Glenn's the only one with the tapes.  I'm not drawing any
conclusions...

Glenn's well known for having tantrums over bootlegs.  Do you feel that
strongly about them?

JO: Not at all.  I have nothing to do with them.  My lawyer says if nothing
else they're bringing me publicity and promoting me.  It doesn't bother me
that they exist, it's that kids are getting ripped off.  If they were $2
each, I wish there were a thousand of 'em.  The fact of the matter is, when
you go buy a Beware record and the price is $500 for a boot - what the hell
kinda crap is that?

Let's talk about you and bass guitar.

JO: I didn't get into heavy metal until high school.  I was always into
oldies, doo-wop kinda stuff.  Dion and the Bellmonts.  I'm also a big Elvis
fan.  ANYWAY, as I was in high school I got into David Bowie and Queen and
I thought itw as accessible to something I could do.  A buddy of mine I sat
next to in science class used to play guitar for a cover band and suggested
I learn to play.  He said, "If you're not sure you wanna put in the time
[to learn guitar], you should play bass.  The bass has only got four strings
and you only gotta play single notes."
I got a brand new Rickenbacker and Christmas, took lessons in February, and
in March teamed up with Glenn.  I was playin' one month before we started
the Misfits.  The beauty of it was, I was like Googy, I didn't have any head
full of other people's stuff.  New slate.
Glenn came along with "Cough/Cool", "Harpies In The Night", which was kinda
fnny, and "West End Avenue", but it was Glenn playin' keyboards, Talking
Heads kinda stuff.  It was simple to learn, but once we got into "Some Kinda
Hate" and "Hybrid Moments", I found that more energetic than this "boom
BOOM boombaboom" kinda shit! (laughs)
When I started playin', I'd clean my guitar and wipe off all the fingerprints
and shit.  So we play Max's Kansas City one night and it's really crowded.
I had a special case that held both my Rickenbackers, a black one and a white
one.  I told a huge buddy of mine to put 'em in the van and cover 'em with
coats and shit and when we went out, they'd been stolen.  After that, I
never cleaned on again (laughs).  I'd go to the Wan Ad Press and see "1963
vintage Rickenbacker.  Price: $750" - I wouldn't even call this person.  I'd
see "Rickenbacker, 1978, paint's all messed up, pickups hangin' out.  This
thing's ready for the boneyard - $250."  I'd go buy it!  I didn't use the
pickups, the tuners, or the bridge - I'd use the piece of wood.  I'd buy
two or thee of 'em, go out in the backyard with the saber saw and cut bat
wings and shit in 'em (laughs).  I had a disc sander, like you'd do the
car with?  Doyle'd hold it and I'd go "vrrrrrmmmmm" and put these big bevels
in it (laughs).  I could do a guitar in ten minutes.  We'd glue the headstock
on, but after awhile, instead of gluin' it nice and neat, I'd throw a half
inch bolt through it! (we are both quite amused at this point)

What about the skull on it?

JO: The first skulls were plastic, they were cool.  Three or four separate
pieces you'd assemble.  The only problem was if you banged 'em into
somethin', the face would blow off and you'd have this hollow bowl left -
not scary at all (we haven't stopped laughing, mind you).  I was running out
and we were at Al's bar, where they made that bootleg, and this guy named
Al Skull comes up to me and complimented me on it.  I mentioned I was running
out and he said he'd make me a latex mold for it for $40.  The latter ones
are made of solid rubber.  The only thing is, it took so long to make just
one, all these layers of latex.  Each skull is like 500 layers.  At the end,
I was gettin' bored and experimenting.  I'd pour it in and bake it and shit.
They have gooey centers (laughs).

Did Glenn releasing the Who Killed Marilyn solo 7" cause tensions within
the band?

JO: Glenn drove a hard line and nobody bit it.  When he wanted to do it we
had the whole Walk Among Us album.  Why do you do "Walk Killed Marilyn" when
you can make an "Astro Zombies" or "I Turned Into A Martian" 45?  What the
hell are ya doin?  "Marilyn"'s a good song.  I wrote some of it, but there
were better songs that were all Glenn's.  [Jerry goes on about how Glenn
wanted to assert his authority and how things stagnate when one musician
does everything]  That's a lot of the problem with Danzig stuff too.  I know
from talkin' with the guys in the band that he's tellin' everybody what to
do.  What do you got musicians for?  Like Bobby Steele, he's got a drum
machine because nobody wants to play with him.  If you're gonna do that
kinda crap, why bother?

Around the time the Halloween 7" came out, an occult interest surfaced that
stuck around for the remaining life of the band.  Revelation 13 was used to
advertise Walk..., "The Misfits 666" was sprayed on that Walk of Fame star...

JO: You saw that?  That was a marker! (laughs) We kept 'em on our guitars,
and that was one of the coolest things.  When we'd go out all dressed up,
we'd bring our guitars.  We got these tremendously great photos when we went
to Universal Studios.  We had to check in our guitars!  "You guys ain't
carryin' around that shit!" (laughs)
To answer your question, it wasn't meant to be evil, just goin' with the
flow.

Was it Glenn's idea?

JO: As you can see, y'know?  That was Glenn's angle all along  When we were
a band, Doyle and I took some of the pressure off.  You could stick Glenn
between us and you wouldn't be focusing just on him.  Our positive attitude
overshadowed his negative.  It was an underlying theme in everything, but
then again, he wrote all the lyrics.

Do you think he's gone overboard with it with Samhain and Danzig?  Do you
think he takes it seriously?

JO: Uh, I'll put it this way: I think he missed the point.  We were a team,
friends, and I think he gave that up to stress his point and you can
obviously see what that point is.  I don't know if he takes that seriously,
but I know he takes himself seriously.  I don't think so.  I don't think
at night he's prayin' to the devil.  The point is, when a lot of people look
up to you, you have to be kind of careful about what you do.  I'm not sayin'
you mold yourself what you're supposed to be...

.. but when a 12 year old kid is buying your record...

JO: ... exactly.  If my kids hurt themselves or someone else because someone
was promoting something to them, I would have a little more respect for that
person if they actually believed it.  But if they were doin' it to make
money, that's not cool - that's bullshit.
In reality, the better Glenn does, the better I do.  But if I have a strong
opinion against something he's doing, I'm not just gonna shut my mouth 'cuz
it benefits me for him to succeed.  My point is, Glenn, right now, is a very
popular individual and there's a lot of kids that look up to him and think
everything he does is great.

When did the Fiend Club kick in and what were some of the goodies you gave
away?  I also know you requested some shit from your fans.

JO: Tesco Vee from the Meatmen sent us his dead tarantula.  His package
stunk.  You get a little scared once you start smellin' shit.  We'd put in
the Fiend Club shit to send us your skulls and bones and shit.  In my
basement in Lodi, New jersey, we painted the whole thing black and I put up
all my monster posters.  I had chains comin' down from the beams holding
these huge bat wing shelves I made.  EAch section was a 4' x 8' piece of
plywood.  We had shelf space like you wouldn't believe!  We had 'em filled
with robots and skull and stuf.  That was one of the best things - going
to themailbox to see what sick fuck sent you what.  The Fiend Club came in,
must've been when were going cross country.  We'd hand out 50 page bios,
buttons, stickers.  If someone sent us somethin' cool, we'd send 'em a
t-shirt.

What are you feelings about the Walk Among Us experience?

JO: It was great.  That's my favorite album.  I thought on Earth A.D. there
was a lot of good thoughts, but we sacrificed something to do that.  Not
musically, but emotionally.
I thought we had something with WAU that set us apart from everyone else.
It built a wall around us like the wall around King Kong.  We were touring
with all these thrash bands like The Necros and the kids would go off.  We
played this placed called The Freezer in Detroit and it was about 30' wide
and 90' long.  Because it was so narrow, to have a P.A., you'd have to pile
it straight up.  There'd be a line from the middle of the club, right past
me onstage, over the drum platform, on top of Doyle's amps, then onto the
P.A. where these kids would jump off a 25' stack of amps.  It was cool.  I
think Glenn was taken by that, so he wanted to go with the new thing.  We
had "Queen Wasp" before Earth A.D. came out.  Goggy was actually one of the
creators of the trash beat with that and the one on "Mommy [Can I Go Out
And Kill Tonight]".  But why sacrifice what we had developed to try and
incorporate something that in time would flow into itself?  Why stuff it in
when we'll evolve into it?  I wanted to stick with the '50s type horror songs
and throw a thrash song or two in every dozen or so.  We jumped the gun goin'
from one to the other.  We were trying to adapt to something instead of
making it adapt to us.
"Demonomania" I still don't like 'til this day.  It's a stupid song, it
makes no sense.  "Queen Wasp" is good.  "Death Comes Ripping" is the best
song on that album.  "Devilock" is all right...

"Devilock" is cool.

JO: The music is great.  There's good stuff on there.  If we'd had waited
five more months, you'd have seen a hybrid between WAU and Earth A.D., which
would've been better.
We recorded Earth A.D. right after we did a show.  We did the show and went
right into this studio, no padding in the walls, just bare cement block.  We
put Robo [Googy's replacement] in the middle, turned my amps facing out,
turned Doyle's amps facing out, and played standing in the middle, facing
Robo's kit.  Glenn fell asleep.  We cut that in one night.  We were done at
7:00 in the morning, five hours, and it sounds like it.  We'd do feedback
tracks.  We'd go into the console room, throw our guitars on the floor, turn
the mics up, and let it go for a whole song while we had a cup of coffee
(laughs).

What's your most memorable live show?

JO: The best show we ever did was at the Whisky on a Tuesday night and we
headlined.  One side of Evilive is from that show.  That was probably the
best show we ever played.
One of the most memorable was the one in San Francisco where we had the big
riot and the kid got hurt.  That was kind of a bad thing.  We lost control,
the kids lost control, and something had to give.

Isn't that the show where Doyle smashed in some kid's head with his guitar?

JO: Yeah, yeah.  Yeah.  It was a tough scene.  The kid got about 102 stitches
in his head.  He was throwin' full cans of beer at Doyle, stayin' just outta
reach.  When somebody's 15 feet from you, throwing somethin' full blast at
your head, you don't have much time to react, especially when you're trying
to play.  It's a matter of time before you get whacked.  I'm hopin' that
doesn't happen anymore.

Where and when was the last Misfits show and did you know in advance it would
be the last?

JO: I was hopin' it wouldn't be.  Robo from Black Flag was in our band.  He
got left hangin' high and dry in England by the Flag.  We made phone calls
that when he landed in New York, we'd pick him up.  My mom said, "I don't
mind takin' in two midwestern bands that are passin' through town, but Robo
looks older than me."  I told Glenn my mom wasn't psyched about Robo livin'
with us, so I sez, "Why don't he bunk with you" and Glenn said okay.
In the meantime, Robo came to work for us [Jerry's family's machine shop].
Now we'd buy 45 sleeves say for 1,000 records.  We'd buy 2,000 sleeves and
they'd be 15 cents each on an uncut sheet.  For 5 cents more, they'd cut
'em up and glue 'em.  If I gotta pay $200 for sleeves or pay $250, $300 and
not have to do anything to 'em, that's for me.  Not Glenn.  Robo'd come home
at night tired.  Glenn used to get up at 3:00...

Didn't Glenn have a job?

JO: No.  I've never known Glenn to have a job.  Glenn'd get up late in the
afternoon and be like, "Hey, let's glue 45 sleeves!"  Robo'd be like "Fuck
you, I worked all day.  I'm gonna go get a six pack, watch TV, fall asleep
at 8 or 9 o'clock and do it again."  Glenn would then rag on Robo and try to
start fights.
This is what we had goin' on: the Earth A.D. album was coming out, The Necros
booked a Halloween show for us in Detroit, and two weeks later we were to fly
to Germany, get the albums and also tour Germany for $1,000 a night.
So Glenn gets this bug up his ass and starts pickin' on Robo.  Two weeks
before this is all supposed to start happenin', Robo says, "I'm outta here."
The thing that pissed me off was that Glenn didn't care.  So I got on the
phone and called Googy and there were only five new songs I had to teach him
before the tour.  "I'm not playin' with Googy," Glenn sez.  I say, "Listen
pal, who do you think on this entire earth is gonna learn our songs in two
weeks?  I can't teach 'em, I gotta work!"
Glenn picks up this kid - I've got nothin' against him, I'll say that 'til I
die, he was a nice kid and he did try - because of his haircut.  We go all
the way to Detroit and the kid sucked.  We looked really bad and it was
disgraceful  The Necros' drummer jumped on and saved the show.  Doyle and I
went back and literally sat on our amps and let Glenn do the show.  That was
it.  I told Glenn, "I do this because I like it.  When I no longer have a
good time doin' it, there's no reason to do it if it's gonna suck and be a
job!"  Y'know what I'm sayin'?

Boy, do I.

JO: That's not what it was about.  I actually gave him another shot.
Backstage I said, "You saw what happened.  Do we use Googy and go to
Germany" and Glenn said "no".  There was just too much greed and not enough
character to handle things correctly.

What was up with naming your and Doyle's band Kryst the Conqueror?  That's
quite an unusual choice in the wake of all the Misfits' deviltry.

JO: I was aggravated with the whole negative image.  I felt like I was sold
out, the music was sold out, and the kids were really sold out.  The name was
mostly to lash out at Glenn.  I saw his shirts with his demon head killin'
Christ.  The "Kryst" thing was aimed at him directly.  It's like the Misfits
meet Iron Maiden.  We hired Jeff Scott Soto to do the job, he was Yngwie
Malmsteen's singer.  A guy from Skid Row [Dave "The Snake" Sabo] plays on it
too.  It wasn't meant to be the Misfits, but it shows we can play.

How much of the Misfits' popularity do you feel is owed to Metallica?

JO: I dunno.  You can't deny the fact that they helped expose it, I'm very
surprised the Guns 'N Roses ["Attitude"] didn't bring in more.  Misfits sales
skyrocketed when Metallica did the "Last Caress" and "Green Hell" covers.
Here's something I want you to print: A friend of mine booked 'em in the
Meadowlands, right around the corner from me on the ...And Justice For All
tour.  He said, "I was talkin' to the guys in Metallica and they said, 'Hey,
do you know those guys?  Why don't you ask 'em to come down?'"  So we get all
dolled up and go to the Nassau Colisuem, a two hour drive, to see 'em.  I
bring these guys an original Horror Business drum skin from when we toured
with The Damned, I brought 'em a guitar we were sellin' in Sam Ash for $1,800
for Kirk Hammett.  I bring original Max's posters - I brought everything I
had that I thought these guys might like.  I also brought them demo tapes
from Kyrst the Conqueror with a song called "Wherever I Roam" - I want you
to write that.  Don't you know it, lo and behold, "Where I MAY Roam."
Their song is not my song, but it's my idea.  I'm not given 'em any more
demo tapes, they're shit outta luck (laughs).  Needless to say, they let
the bouncers hassle me all night and gave us tickets in the upper deck.  We'd
brought our guitars and shit, we thought maybe they'd want us to play "Last
Caress", so we got all dolled up with the makeup and spikes and shit.  They
really treated us like garbage.  I don't mind about the guitar, I'll make a
new one.  The drum skin bothers me (laughs).  I was tryin' to be cool and
they were stuck up.  Kirk Hammett's standin' there and I'm showin' him the
guitar I've brought him and this bouncer's goin', "Where's your backstage
pass?"  I couldn't believe it.  We'll get 'em back.  We'll blow the bastards
out.  That's who I'm gunning' for, it's got nothing to do with who sells
more records... it's over a drum skin (laughs).

Well, this is the moment I've been waiting for for about eight years of
Misfits fandom.  Is there gonna be a reformation?

JO: Yes there is. [I am unconscious on the floor] What it boils down to is
we are in the process of settling with Glenn and the way it looks we will be
able to play as the Misfits.  So, we are looking for a singer.  You will have
the first shot of letting everybody know. [An honor - out cold again] They
can send us demo tapes, pictures, telephone numbers, we wanna talk to people
instead of sending shit through the mail.
I've had a lot of different views on it and what I feel in my heart is we
should come back exactly where it was, then progress the way we shoulda ten
years ago.  We will have new guitars, but otherwise I'm just gonna blow the
dust off the trunk and flip the bitch open.  That's it.  The opening of the
Ark.  We're gonna start this thing and roll right over both Glenn and
Metallica - which is really what I wanna do (laughs).

Roll on, broham.

---

Geri Nible - being the happiest he's been since this thing began.

YOU READ IT IN FeH FIRST, BINKY!
THE MISFITS ARE AUDITIONING SINGERS!
INTERESTED PARTIES SHOULD SEND A TAPE, PHOTO, AND PHONE NUMBER TO:

THE DOYLE FAN CLUB
P.O. BOX 310
VERNON, NJ 07462

Incredibly huge thanks to Mo (Jerry Only) for not blowing me off on this
interview and being the man to make my entire year.  Special kudos go out
to Sentinel Steel's fine editor Denis Gulbey as well!  I owe you both!