Blackie Lawless will soon release his autobiography

W.A.S.P. frontman Blackie Lawless stated in a recent interview with Eonmusic that while new music is “on the back burner,” his autobiography will be released shortly. Speaking ahead of the 40th anniversary “Album ONE Alive” tour, which will travel to Europe in June, Lawless expressed his remarks. The “Kill Fuck Die” (also stylized as “Kill.Fuck.Die.” and abbreviated as “KFD”) album from 1997 was one of the most creative periods of his career, and the follow-up “Helldorado” was the necessary detox to the darkness of its predecessor. The mind behind W.A.S.P. also discussed how grunge and Napster changed the face of music in the chat. He discussed how “The Crimson Idol”‘s commercial success was impacted by the shift in the music industry.

Well, the timing is everything, right? I remember from the time I started recording that record to the time I had done the promo and done, literally, two world tours to support it, I came home, and it was early ’93, and I remember I picked up Billboard magazine, and I was looking at the Hot 100 singles, and in that list there was myself with ‘Hold On To Your Heart’, Sammy Hagar had a song, and Mötley had a song. The other 97 artists, I did not recognize one of the names, not a single one, and that stunned me because I thought there’s been some sort of seismic shift that has happened in the time since I started making that record.

He also spoke about his point of view of KFD and his attempt to out Marilyn Manson.

I would say throughout the history of my career, that’s the most creative record I’ve ever made. The imagery of that record is pretty remarkable. I can talk about it now as it’s been so long, I can look at it with a more objective perspective, and I see it as if it was someone else; like some other artists that had done it, and I listened to it, and, like I said, I look at the lyrical imagery of it, and it’s pretty it’s pretty amazing. I mean, like I said, I think it’s far and away the most creative record I was ever part of.

Eonmusic interviewer Eamon O’Neill wondered whether the 1999 follow-up album “Helldorado” was a case of “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” and implied that it was viewed as a “overcorrection” in some places.

Well, you are correct in that sense. What you do is you make records that reflect who you are at the moment, and if you capture that. They’re little snapshots in your life. So if the world sees it as an overcorrection, okay, fine, but you know, ‘KFD’ was a very, very dark record, and if that’s what it takes to create that kind of artistry, I don’t want to do it again, because to = have to go to that space and live there for the year that it takes to make that record? No, I don’t want to go back there again. So ‘Helldorado’ was a rebellion, if you like, against what we had just gone through. It’s like we don’t want to go back to that place, we don’t want to go back inside that pit, it’s, like, “We’re out. We’re going to have a celebration.’ And so that’s really what ‘Helldorado’ was — it was a celebration of getting your freedom back, getting your life back..

And of course, the future for W.A.S.P..

Well, we were working on stuff a couple of years ago during COVID and then we did the European tour two years ago, and the whole thing happened where I broke my back. It was just one catastrophe after another, so the whole idea of recording at that point just got pushed way on the back burner, and we’ve been touring ever since. So yes, there are ideas rattling around, but you know, when you could suspect to see it, I really couldn’t say. I’m working on a book too, so it’s, like, you know, I’ve been kind of busy. It’s about halfway done now, and I’m hoping [to put it out] sometime next year.