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W.A.S.P.
frontman Blackie Lawless has come a long way from the 1985 PMRC
censorship hearings and his band’s notorious single “Animal (F***
Like A Beast), and his crazed stage shenanigans from the mid-1980s,
including tossing raw meat into the audience, pouring blood on
himself from a skull and displaying a bound and gagged woman on a
torture rack.
It’s amazing to think that he got away with more on stage back then than rockers do today. |
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“Animal” was clearly the filthiest song of the PMRC’s hearings “Filthy Fifteen” list, and while it certainly caused a stir at the time, the W.A.S.P. frontman now regrets it, especially as he has renewed his faith in Jesus Christ and has repented of playing many of his old songs. “Words are the most powerful things we possess,” stressed Lawless. “They shape our very lives and determine who and what we are. Some may find it remarkable, but I was born again when I was 11 years old. I was very active in my church until I was 18, and when I left the church, I went about as far away as a person could go when I then studied the occult for three years. I wrote that song a couple of years after I stopped that study. I went for 20 more years before I returned to my Christian faith, which is where I am now." 
W.A.S.P.
circa 1984."That song was put into my life for a reason. I was talking to Alice Cooper, who is also born again, earlier this year, and we both feel the same about our early work. Although a lot of the music we did early on was as diametrically opposed to the way we had been brought up, a lot of the early songs we did were laced with those Christian valves. He and I were talking and said, all we need now is Marilyn Manson and we could start a band. The world would never believe it! I said all that to say this: I renounce, denounce and pronounce that I will never play that song ['Animal'] live again. Actually, I’ve not played it live for several years.” |
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WASP's newest album
"Babylon" has been hailed as "The Best Christian Apocalyptic Metal
Album of 2010" by Burnside Writers Collective, and has more positive
Christian lyrics than most Christian metal albums in the genera.
When asked if he thinks that rock stars can be as controversial today when less things are shocking, and when fans often act in equally shocking ways as their idols, he replied: “Sure, people can still be shocked. |
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It
all depends how far society degrades itself and
then how far bands are allowed to push the
limits of what’s considered outrageous. All
so-called shock bands are only a reflection of
the culture of their time. The degree that
people are willing to allow themselves to become
desensitized is a direct result of how the sub
culture of Shock Rock presents itself. They hold
a mirror up to the world and say ‘Take a good
look, if you don’t like what you see, don’t
blame us.’ Today we like to think of ourselves
as modern and cultured and that the days of the
Roman Coliseum are over. Are they? In the last
50 years we’ve crossed a vast chasm from Elvis
to the Ultimate Fighting Pay Per View. All of it
is Shock Rock.”
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