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September 3, 2010 |
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KING DIAMOND - Part II
October 28, 2004
By Tony Antunovich
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The King has returned - AGAIN! Back by popular demand, KING DIAMOND has once again graced METALEATER.COM with his presence. If you read our first conversation back on October 8, you will definitely want to tune in to this second part of the interview. I sat down for another lengthy discussion with King via telephone from his house in Dallas, Texas. This time around, we talked about the upcoming second leg of "The Puppet Master" tour, the band's current lineup, the follow-up to "The Puppet Master", the future of MERCYFUL FATE, past band members, crazy rumors, and many more topics that will undoubtedly grab your interest. Speaking with King again further proves just how much of a class-act he really is. So, without further ado, here is KING DIAMOND Part II.
How have you been doing since we last talked, King?
Everything has been fine.
What has been going on with you?
Business - different things. I have not started writing music because we're not done with the interviews yet. So, I need total focus on that. It will happen in another two weeks, and then both Andy and I have full plans to write for the next studio album. But in the last two weeks, I've just been getting ready with things. I took the Naturalization test (the test to become a U.S. citizen). I don't think I had taken that when we last spoke, had I?
No. I don't think you told me that.
I've been studying hard for that. I had that test come up in the middle of everything. I started that process in March 2003, and I got the test date scheduled for November last year, but we were on tour. You are only given two weeks notice, and we were in the middle of the tour. I had to tell my lawyer that he had to reschedule it and I expected it would be rescheduled for December or something because we were finished touring somewhere in the middle of November. I just had the test a week or so ago. It takes a long time. There are a lot of checks they do. In these times, they are much more thorough - whereas they should be - and that takes time. So it finally came up. Had I not been present on the second rescheduled time, I would have been thrown out of the system and would have to start all over again. That's part of the reason why were are not actually touring in Europe as we speak, because we would have been there otherwise.
But we've had to reroute our priorities, so we're doing other things now.
I don't know how far we got last time, but I got an e-mail from Ole Bang just today, whom you know is doing business with me and is also our functioning tour manager. He said the shows are being confirmed now for the second leg of "The Puppet Master" tour, which will start April 14, I think. We're doing another leg where we're hitting a lot of cities that we didn't hit last time - quite a few actually - and some that we did hit last time. We had decided that we were going to try and do it that way - especially for the U.S. because I would not need to have an actual passport at that time - cause we didn't know when I would suddenly get this test here. In the meantime, we're going to start writing a new studio album and hopefully be in the recording phase before we hit that tour.
Then also work on those two retro DVDs that you might have heard of - one for MERCYFUL FATE and one for KING DIAMOND, which are mainly consisting of old bootlegs, but bootlegs that no bootlegger has ever seen before (laughs). We have the only masters. There is some very rare stuff there - very good picture quality I think, and the sound quality is absolutely acceptable in my mind - you can hear all the instruments that everybody is playing. I received 35 DVDs from this guy in Europe that has all of our masters and the majority of that was seen before, and that's not interesting to me at all. But there is a big bunch of them that have never been seen before by anyone. For instance, there is one from Copenhagen '92 - MERCYFUL FATE live - before Michael Denner was even in the band.
There is also one from early '84 before we recorded "Don't Break The Oath", but we are playing songs from "The Oath" in Amsterdam, Holland. The place was called The Paradiesel, which was a church converted into a concert venue. The picture quality is very good, and with the technology today, they can clean up some of the video. I was really surprised when I saw that old stuff before (Michael) Denner was in the band. It really had an impression on me. I couldn't believe that it was that good actually. I'm waiting to get a load of KING DIAMOND stuff to go through and figure out which things would best fit the format we're going for.
So, that will be a lot of work for us to do up until the time of the second leg of the tour. Then, when that's done, I am sure that we will mix the new album in the summertime, if everything goes according to plan. As soon as the summer is over, and if was can do it business-wise, we will be touring Europe for "The Puppet Master". Shortly after that tour is over - two or three weeks later - I think the label should be ready to release the new studio album. Then we'll be touring again, I guess. It's a long plan for us.
So you expect the follow-up to "The Puppet Master" to be out before the end of 2005?
I certainly hope so. Yeah. There is a good chance of that.
Will it be a continuation of "The Puppet Master" or something entirely new?
No. I think it will be entirely new. Continuations are something I have really only done once from my own initiative - on "Them" and "Conspiracy". It was during the tour for "Them" that I realized that that story was not finished. I had so many more ideas that I had to finish it and continue on with all those ideas. I didn't know there would be a continuation when we released "Them", but during the tour and all this stuff, the ideas just came flying. The only other time was on the demand of the fans. We got too many requests for an "Abigail II". So, it would have to be something like that that would make me do something like that. I don't want to do that on my own because I feel that both fans and press might think that I'm out of ideas or something like that, which is totally not the case.
Now that we released "Abigail II", why not do a part 3 of "Them" and "Conspiracy" and call it "Grandma"? I would personally love to do it. The character "Grandma" is one of my favorite characters and I could turn her into the most evil bitch you've ever seen. But if I just did that, I'm so afraid that people would just think "He's out of ideas and now he just takes an old story and builds from that. That's the easy way out." That's also why there was nothing done like that after "Abigail II". "The Puppet Master" was an absolutely totally fresh story. It would be on the demand of fans if we did a sequel to any of the other albums. There were so many with "Abigail II", it was stupid to ignore it.
It was good that you continued on with the "Them" story in "Conspiracy".
Awesome, man! It's one of my favorites. When I look back at everything, there are two albums that I would not change because they fit perfect for the time and everything else, and those are "Abigail" and "The Puppet Master". On all the other albums, I know I can find things I would want to change - like a hi-hat is too loud in general, or the written guitars are not beefy enough, or more bass guitar – things like that. Maybe parts of my backing vocal setups where the first harmony should have been a little louder at one point, and had it been like that, it would have the right feel - those kinds of things. But that's because if you're very self-critical and you are so much a part of the whole procedure of recording, mixing, and mastering as I am now. So, you listen to yourself in a different way. I wouldn't touch a thing on those two (albums). I definitely think that "Conspiracy" was one of my best.
There have been quite a few lineup changes in the past. Are you happy with the current band lineup?
It's the best lineup I have ever played with in my career. There's no doubt at all. It's so solid, man. It even plays a role in the performance from my side too. For instance, on this last tour, I don't think I've ever done such a good job vocal-wise on any tour. This last time, I felt like my voice was still getting stronger and with even more control than before. I got that response from the other guys too. Almost every night they were saying "Man, I can't believe you're hitting all this and that and you have not been singing this good before." - not that they were saying "You sucked before; now you can sing." I'm very self-critical, I can tell you that. There might be four shows on a whole tour that I would say I did alright because I hit 95% of the notes I should hit.
This time, it might have been 70% of the shows where I hit maybe 98% of it, to what I feel I should do. So that is quite a step for me. I don't worry about the other guys. They know their stuff. They are so good and solid. If something goes wrong from that side, it's not the band members not knowing their parts; it would be an amp blowing up or something like that. It's the same thing for the crew, which you heavily rely on for setting things up right and making sure everything works throughout the show. We have one of the best crews I can imagine. They are so pro and we go on stage feeling 100% confident. It makes you able to concentrate on what you're there for - to go there and have fun, entertain, and have the two-way build-up between us and the fans. That's what it's all about. I have a very good monitor system that has been designed and developed specifically for me by our sound engineer.
There is only that one system in the world. Those four speakers at the front of the stage are so powerful. There is nothing but my vocals coming from them. It's a totally separate monitor system from the normal house system that everyone else uses there. There is not a drum or guitar note or anything coming through those speakers but my vocals, and it is blistering loud. It's all I feel in my chest and I like it that way. I know that if I get in a situation where it's getting a little hard to hear because of where I am on stage, those speakers are so loud that I can feel it in my chest so I can feel the vibration and tell whether I am in pitch or not.
So it gives you a lot of confidence when you get to the long high notes in "Eye Of The Witch", for instance, or these very high passages in "The Invisible Guests", or something like that. I look forward to it. A lot of those things play a role and I think you can also hear them on the live album. I mean, it's not perfect. It can't be.
Well, we hope to see you on tour in Canada, King. Any chance you'll be making it to Vancouver?
They've talked about Canada. We'll have to wait and see. I don't know the routing of it yet. I just heard today that the first show of the second leg should be April 14th. So, we'll have to wait and see. Those things are not in our hands. We play anywhere, of course. The promoters and our booking agent set all that up. But it shouldn't be too much longer before those details are out.
I read the news this morning and I see that you're going to be playing in Seattle in the first week of May.
Right! I heard that it's going to be at the Fenix there and I think Portland is in there too. That wasn't there last time. I think it's called the Roseland Theatre or something like that. It's a pretty cool place. They can definitely put the production on, but we didn't play there last time. There are a lot of shows that we supposedly didn't play. I know that they're working on all kinds of shows and they're starting to confirm them today - not the whole tour because it's not set up yet, but they're working on it. I know that there is Orlando - we're playing at House Of Blues. We were not in Orlando at all last time - I don't think so. There are a lot of new ones coming this time as well, which is cool.
King, do you stay in touch with any former band members like Mikkey Dee or Snowy Shaw?
It's rare. I haven't talked to Snowy for a long, long, long time. I know that he lives in Gothenburg so he is close to Andy (La Rocque). I'm sure Andy runs into him and talks to him now and then because I think he also recorded some of his stuff at Andy's studio. Mikkey Dee - it happens. Maybe it's rare that I have the opportunity to just run out the door and go to a show on short notice, but he will call me when he's in town with MOTÖRHEAD and will ask me if I can come down or whatever. It has happened where we run into each other. We don't keep up with each other but if we're close by or run into each other, that's always cool. It's nice to see old guys. There is no one that I wouldn't want to run into. There is not one single member I have ever played with that I would have a problem running into today.
I would love to meet everybody. Pete Blakk - I would have no problem running into him - none whatsoever. When he was in the band and on top of his game he did a killer job, you know. Then something happened and he had some trouble with alcohol and things like that. He has gone into the other camp now. Don't hold me to this, but I think he actually gives speeches on how to combat alcoholism and stuff like that. I don't know if he's actually playing in a band now because I haven't kept up on anything in that department. Kim Ruzz comes to some of our shows when we play with KING DIAMOND in Copenhagen. It's cool to meet those people and say hi, man.
One of your former guitar players, Glen Drover from EIDOLON, was in the band for a brief period. How was it working with him?
Very easy. It was a great experience and that goes in all aspects. Glen is an awesome person. He's an easy person to get along with and he's a great guitarist. So, both on a personal and a professional level, I have only good to say about him. On stage, off stage, in the studio - always cool, you know.
His style of playing is similar to Andy's, I think. You can hear a lot of it on the EIDOLON albums. I don't know if you have listened to them or not.
Some of them I have; not all of them. But I heard that already. He knew that himself. He was the first to say that the inspiration comes from Andy. In the studio he tried to veer off from Andy's style a little bit, if he could, because it could get too obvious that he was leaning heavily against Andy's style. No matter what anybody says, there are no other "Andys" in this world. That's a fact. I don't care who the guitarist is. That's my opinion. No one does the things that Andy does and the way Andy does them. No one could copy him to the "T". That is impossible. It doesn't matter if you're Steve Vai or whoever; Andy has a touch and a feel and if you ever experience seeing him recording in a studio, you would know what I'm talking about.
You would just be blown away. It looks like he is playing a game - having fun! It's way too easy. The craziest stuff that he is doing looks like he's playing a Monopoly game for fun. It's mind-blowing to see that. He is unique and is in a class of his own. He is so underrated in the music business, in my opinion again. That's me speaking partially. If I could get any guitarist in the world that I wanted to play with or get them to come and play in the band, I would say to any musician "I've got that lineup right now." That's the lineup we have here. There is not one of those guys in this lineup that I would exchange for anybody else in the world. It fits so well. I mean, Neil Peart might be a better drummer than Matt (Thompson), but Matt is an amazing drummer and his style fits perfectly. Neil Peart is probably THE best drummer that ever lived maybe.
Even if I could get him, he might not work in this environment - in this style of music. You know what I mean? Matt has that right attitude, the style, the technique, and everything. Hal (Patino) is my all-time favorite bass player, and I know why. His inspiration comes from Gary Thain - the late bass player from URIAH HEEP, when they were at their best. He used to be my favorite bass player - now it's Hal. That's the way it is. Andy is my favorite guitar player and Mike (Wead) is #2. That's not because Mike is less skilled - I think it has to do with Mike being a late addition to the lineup. I'm so used to Andy's style and I've played with him since '85. Mike is recent to the KING DIAMOND style, but he fits in so perfectly. I would not choose anyone else but Mike to fill the other spot. No way!
Andy just recently finished recording the drums tracks with Glen's brother, Shawn, for the upcoming EIDOLON album.
Yeah. I don't know exactly how it turned out. I haven't talk to Andy about the experience, but I knew that he was coming in. The last time I talked to Andy was the day Shawn actually came into the studio. Did you hear anything from that session? Did it go well?
Well, I read a little report on EIDOLON's website and Shawn was saying that the recordings went very well and I think he was in Gothenburg for a week or two, I think.
Yeah. 10 days I think it was.
Yeah, something like that. He said the experience was good. He was just focusing on how good it was working with Andy. Actually, both Shawn and Glen are touring with MEGADETH right now and they're going to be here on November 26. So I'm looking forward to seeing them when they roll into town.
That's going to be very, very interesting, man.
It is.
It's a great opportunity for them. It could also bounce off in a positive way to their own EIDOLON project, you know. Have you heard anything? Has that tour started now?
Yes, it has.
Have you heard any reports on how it's going?
I haven't really heard anything yet.
In some ways it's weird to only have Dave there - if you're a die-hard MEGADETH fan, you know (laughs)? At some point Nick (Menza) was drumming, and he is one of those amazing drummers. For whatever reason, he is not there, but I heard that he was suddenly back in the lineup after he was not. So it's shifting back and forth. I'm very interested in hearing if you knew anything about how this is being received from the MEGADETH fans.
I'll be at the show. Naturally, if you will be gracing us with your presence here, I would be covering your show as well.
Yeah. That's one of the few places we have not been to. It has been in the plans many times, and it fell through because of a promoter.
King, I wanted to ask you about your make-up. Do you always put your make-up on yourself or do you get a make-up artist to help you with that sometimes?
No. I have always done it myself. Only once in my life there was someone helping - or should I say TRYING to help, because it was a disaster. There was one time during a photo session in England for Kerrang! I think it was - for the front cover actually - where I was sitting there pretending to be handed a skull or something like that. It was a real big shot photographer that Roadrunner had set up this photo session with and they had hired these two make-up girls so they could come and put my make-up on. They said it could be really perfect for this photo shoot, and I just didn't get it. I didn't understand it, but I got there, sat in this chair, and they started putting this on my face. I was like "God! How uncomfortable!" First of all, I had no control of myself - sitting there with people painting on your face, man.
At some point it was like "Can I...." - and I looked up. When I looked up that first time I said "No! No no no no! You know what? You two are going to take an hour coffee break and I'll be done. This is ridiculous! This line here is totally not the same as it is on the other side." It's very hard to put make-up on another person's face. It's probably harder than when you do it yourself because they don't know every little bump you have on your face. Around your eyebrows you have the little bumps on your forehead going into your eyebrows. It varies from person to person. It's very hard to draw a straight line over that when you look at it straight on. I know every little bump and contour of my face. Of course, I know it from all those years. But that thing completely didn't work, man. I'm used to taking my time. I have a cup of coffee and a cigarette and I just do my stuff. I start and it takes me an hour and then I'm done. That's exactly like it should be. So that's how it ended up.
That was the ONLY time. The label didn't have a problem with it, of course. They just thought it would be extra cool. For me it was like "Whoa! What a nightmare!"
I painted my face for Halloween once before.
Yeah? Like KING DIAMOND?
Not entirely. It was more like the guys from IMMORTAL.
How did it turn out?
It turned out great (laughs)!
Did you feel different?
Somewhat. It was just for Halloween.
You see what your face looks like in the mirror and then you meet people you know and they see you looking like that.
Yeah. I'm sure it probably scared a few people (laughs).
Hey - I've done that a few times in elevators in hotels. I would be standing there waiting for an elevator when I go to the show and suddenly it opens and there is a family with little kids. You feel so bad in some way when they hide behind their mother's skirt and it's like "It's okay. It's okay." The make-up I have has to be very specific so that the sweat can breathe through the skin without taking the make-up off with it. It's vitamin enriched so that you don't destroy your skin from using it much (laughs).
Do you have any plans for this Halloween?
Not relating to parties. I do have a special thing I want to do. There is a guy in London that I've started working a little bit with. Maybe I shouldn't even mention it because who knows what's going to come of it, but he's a screenplay writer. I don't know if I mentioned that to you before, but I know that nothing is going to come of my dream of seeing some of the stories on the big screen. If I don't kick this ball that's lying somewhere, it's not going to come rolling to me on its own. So I'm starting with a screenplay writer in London. He was very taken by "The Puppet Master" story and he wants to try and put that together with me into script form. I received an e-mail with a 15-page treatment that he's now finished with, but I've only read the first paragraph. That's the first stage of it. We are going to discuss that treatment and then adjust it.
Then, he'll start writing the real script. We'll then go over that several times and adjust and change it until WE, the two of us, feel that that's the best we can do with it. And then we'll see what other people say when we start showing it. Ron Bienstock, the lawyer I have in New York that I've worked with ever since I got here in '92, is the best business lawyer I could have ever dreamed of finding. He has a lot of connections too and he'll be helping. We'll see. If nothing comes of it - hey! What the hell! We tried! Maybe we'll try one of the other stories then. The ones that have the most potential, in my mind, are "Them" and "Conspiracy", but "The Puppet Master" has great potential too - definitely! I could see that as a very unique horror movie. So, we'll see what happens there. It's something that is a little different. I will be reading that treatment on Halloween night. That will hopefully be a good omen for that story. But we don't expect anything to come of it.
It's the same old thing. Almost every time we do interviews for an album - and if the story has turned out to be special and good - it comes up over and over, man. "Hey! That should be a movie." or "This would be great for a horror movie!" - and this and that – and I'm like "Yeah. Yeah. I wish, man." I wish for it so badly, you know, because I myself really think that a lot of those stories have big-time potential to scare the pants off of people. But you can't just hope that someone reads that or buys the CD and gets enough out of a CD to, from a professional viewpoint, see the potential in it. So, maybe it's the right way to go and try and get the script. It could be that someone is partially interested in it, but they will want some writers on their end to refine it or whatever. But - whatever it takes. We'll see what happens, you know. I have no hopes. If something happens, it would be amazing. If nothing happens, so what?
It would be. I think you could probably have a full movie with "Them" and "Conspiracy".
Yeah. You probably could. You could probably do it in part 1 & 2 if you feel that the first one is strong enough. It might sound kind of bigheaded, but it's not the way I want to say it - but I see there could be a potential for "Grandma" to become a kind of a character synonymous with "Halloween", as well as characters like "Freddy Krueger" or "Jason". I think "Grandma" could be exactly like one of those if it was treated right.
Have you ever considered doing a reality show for television like OZZY did?
No. I don't want people to get into my private life. I have kept the two very separate, I can tell you - and on purpose - because I really value my privacy. When it's time for KING DIAMOND to do this or that, I am as public as you can be and I have no problems with this or that. But when it comes to my private life, I really want to keep it separate. Other people have asked "Can we come and spend a week? Not LIVE at your house, but be there every day when you get up and just write?" - like they've done for others. They've done it for some major artists like David Bowie and other people. And I'm like "You know what. I know it's flattering and it's very nice of you to offer, but I don't want it." That part is nobody's business.
That part is nobody's business. I don't see the relevance in seeing what it's like for me to go grocery shopping or take the trash out or whatever. It's just like everyone else. There is nothing there that is interesting, if you know what I mean. It's every day life. Then other people say "Hey man. Let's get into where we do a typical day for KING DIAMOND." There is no such thing and there has never been for as long as I've been KING DIAMOND. I mean, I can't tell my best friend here in Dallas "Hey. Let's go out with our wives and eat dinner on Friday." or something like that. If he calls me and says "Hey! You guys want to go out for dinner on Friday?", I would say "You know what. It sounds interesting, but let's talk on Wednesday or something. Then I'll have a better idea of what's going on." When we started the interview run here, I didn't know from Friday until when we started the first time around. You remember when we did it too.
Yes.
I was given notice on the weekend. I think we started on Monday or Tuesday or something like that and I was notified on Friday - and I said "Sure! Of course!" This is part of my work. Things just pop up out of the blue. I got something from Monte at Roadrunner (Records), whom I have known since MERCYFUL FATE. He contacted me because they had recently signed CRADLE OF FILTH and they released a new album - their first on Roadrunner - and they now want to do a special bonus version of that album where there will be 6 additional tracks. One of those tracks will be an old Cliff Richard hit called "Devil Woman". I heard the song back then and it had a heavy guitar on it, but in the hands of CRADLE OF FILTH, it will be ultra heavy, I know. They want me to do some vocals in the choruses.
So, I just received an e-mail today saying that he needed the address to send their version of the song to me. I don't know when - it might be next week, in five days, in two weeks that I'll go in the studio here in Dallas and do some vocals in that. But I don't know. It's like that all the time. I mean, there is nothing that is common here (laughs). What is most common is actually when we are recording and that's when we work about 12 hours every single day - as long as we are awake almost - apart from just having to sleep a little and eat - otherwise we work around the clock. Those days are different from day to day. So, I never know what's going to happen. When I get these "What's a typical week?" things - "I'm sorry man. There is no such thing." For me, it sounds stupid to say it, but it's true. That's the way it is. Here, I'm me, and when I'm out with KING DIAMOND, then it's all public, of course. But I don't want to mix those two.
You won't see my running around through the club scene here either. It was never in my blood. You're not going to see me at the Grammys. I'm not the kind of person that is hounding my record label to try and get a ticket to get in there so I can be seen on camera walking down the red carpet. I mean, some people do that. I don't. That doesn't make anybody better or worse than the other, but that's just a simple fact. I'm just not that kind of person.
King, with regard to your website, do you have control over it or does the webmaster?
No I don't. The webmaster does, yeah. I think if he has any doubts or whatever, he bounces it off Ole Bang first, and then whenever he has doubts about rumors or things that he doesn't know of, he gives me a call and I usually repel those rumors because a lot of that stuff is nothing else but pure rumors. That's another thing that is very common. If you had to address every single rumor there is out there, you would do nothing but that. So you just let them go and take the ones that are the craziest and address them and say "Come on now you guys! If you think it's like that, don't say it like that." There are rumors like "KING DIAMOND has retired to become a fireman." Those are the kind of things that are there sometimes. You sit and say to yourself "What?!?! When the hell did that happen?"
There seriously was someone spreading a rumor saying that you were retiring to become a fireman?
Oh yeah. That was always my dream!
That's ridiculous!
But once it comes up, it spreads. It goes fast. There are the weirdest rumors, man. There was one where - I don't know if the guy was a pervert or something like that, or it could have been a girl - I don't know because a lot of that comes anonymously or you don't know where it starts - but there was this one. This is funny actually. There was someone that started a rumor that I was a very difficult person when I arrived at hotels - I demanded that the people at reception call some kind of a tool man to come and exchange the peep-hole in my door. I demanded that the peep-hole be inverted so that people could look into my room and watch me walk around naked in there. And I was like "What the fuck are you talking about??"
What?!?! (laughs) That's crazy!
Fuck, man. The guy that has that kind of imagination should write stories, man. I mean, to come up with shit like that is just unreal. First of all, what would I do? Announce it on the website - "Hey! Go find my room!" (laughs) First of all, no one knows where that is. It's just the stupidest shit I've ever heard. Believe me - I could talk for hours giving you rumors that I have heard about myself. Some of them are hilarious, some of them are totally mean-spirited, and some are just plain ignorant. Those things don't come from our fans. They maybe come from someone who doesn't like us for whatever reason and they think "Ah, we can hurt them by starting this stupid rumor." - or something like that. But it can't come from our own fans because they're too smart for having any doubt about something like that. So, that's part of the game, you know.
Yeah. Your fans definitely wouldn't come up with anything like that.
Oh no. Absolutely not! I know that. It comes from somewhere else. With some fans it's like "My band is better than yours." - and there shouldn't be anything like that because it's such a personal thing. You can't say that one painting is better than the other because it's a matter of taste. It's totally in the eye of the beholder. Here, it's about the ears and the inner feelings and what it gives YOU personally. In the same sense, it comes down to respect as well. Respect that people are different. They like different things and have different opinions. I mean, I respect all musicians as well. You never hear me say a bad word about another musician because I simply refuse to do it! - even if you might mention a band and inside I might think "Oh God man! I so can't stand listening to them." It could be a jazz band or whatever. I'm not just talking about metal bands.
I would never tell you about any artist that I can't stand listening to because I have too much respect for other people - even if it's a band or artist that has sold ten albums. Those ten people that bought them are totally satisfied with what they got. That person is an entertainer and I should respect what he/she did whether I like it or not. I will never talk badly about a fellow entertainer. That's how I look at it and it's kind of in the same vein. It's none of my business. It's not my business to talk about politics either. I stay totally away from it. I'm interested in politics big time, but you will never get which way I lean out of me. I don’t feel that that is something I should make public. I should not try and push my fans in this or that political way. I think they are smart enough to justify themselves.
They can just go by their inner feelings and what fits best for their own lives. I think this again goes back to respect. So, those are things I stay away from. Those kinds of things don't belong in public life, in my book anyway.
Well, King, I respect you for that.
It's just an opinion. That's just the way I live my life. In some ways, it's the same kind of respect that I've talked about many times before reflecting religious beliefs. I don't have a religious belief. I've seen a lot of weird stuff and I know that there are certain things around us, but I have no proof of this or that and I don't state that I have seen the light and therefore everyone else sees the same light in the same way I see it. That's not the way it is. That is not reality. There is no one on this earth that knows for sure, or that can prove to the rest of the world, that they believe in the only right God. There is no proof and there is no proof that there are any gods. There is no proof that there are NO gods at all either. That's why they are called "beliefs", I guess.
"I believe it could be this way and I believe in it so strongly that I'm going to live according to that belief being true." If one single person could prove to the rest of the world that he was right in his religious beliefs, we would all believe in that, of course. Why would we believe in something that was proved to be wrong? That would not be very smart. So, for those reasons, I do respect all kinds of religions as long as those religions don't try to force their shit on me, or judge me because I might not believe the same way they do. I think that THAT is not very smart - since you can't prove you're right. Unfortunately, that's the root of most evil.
We have so many of these different kinds of religions on this earth for the very reason that we can't prove which one is the only true one. That's the root for most of the wars too. If you look at all the conflicts going on in the world today, I'll bet you 90% of them are rooted in religious differences, unfortunately. In the end, that translates into not enough respect for other human beings. But that's life! That's the world we live in. I wish it was different.
Do you have any plans for another MERCYFUL FATE album in the future?
Well, there are no plans as to when we will record another studio album. MERCYFUL has signed a deal with Metal Blade and Massacre (Records) for a studio album and that deal is in effect. I have no clue when that's going to happen, man. After all the downloading and all the problems that the record industry had right around the time when we released "Abigail II", we didn't have any tour for it and we had to restructure our contracts and all this stuff. We had to find another way to record, which turned out to be pretty cool in the end because I think we got better product quality on "The Puppet Master" and on the live album - sound-wise - definitely! There were some things there that played a role in how we should approach the future. Since we are using my house and Andy's top professional gear, it saves us a lot of money.
MERCYFUL FATE can't do that. I mean, we can't just ask Andy "Hey! Come over here for a month and let's record another MERCYFUL FATE album for free." MERCYFUL would have to hire Andy to do that because he's not part of MERCYFUL FATE. The fact is that KING DIAMOND has always outsold MERCYFUL FATE by far and KING DIAMOND has always had better budgets. The situation right now is KING DIAMOND also has less recording expenses. There is no money for me to gain from MERCYFUL FATE. If there was only MERCYFUL FATE, I could not live from it. I would not be playing music at all. So, MERCYFUL is something that has to be treated like a hobby band, which is sad to say, but that's because of the downloading. It has turned into a hobby band because it's not part of my job anymore. Doing another MERCYFUL album would give me zero money - nothing on the table. When that album happens, it will be for the pure love of the music of that band. That album will happen whenever it happens, you know.
It is not part of my job anymore because there is nothing to gain from it as a job. It's only for pure pleasure - that's it. That's the sign of the times. MERCYFUL could not handle the downloading effects. At that stage, it was too much for a band like MERCYFUL FATE. So, it has now turned into a project that can only happen when KING DIAMOND has enough of a break where there is nothing to do. Those are the absolute true facts. That's reality. There is nothing anyone can do about it.
King, do you have anything you would like to say to your fans and our readers?
I hope they enjoy the live album. As we speak, I feel extremely good about it. It's the second best thing to being there. You can never get the sound of a PA system blowing your brains out in your own living room, but you can get pretty close if you do it right. So, I hope the fans enjoy it and for those that didn't see us, I hope we hit some of those cities on the second leg in April - I really hope so. We'll just take it from there. We're going to work full-blast on writing new material that MUST beat "The Puppet Master", of course. There is no excuse. So, those are our main goals for the future. There will be the retro DVDs coming out that we talked about - a lot of work to do. Hopefully the fans like the live album that has just come out - and STAY HEAVY, of course - that's the most important thing!
King, it's been a real pleasure speaking with you again.
Oh, the feeling is mutual, I can tell you.
METALEATER.COM supports you and we're really looking forward to seeing you on tour, hopefully.
I appreciate it, Tony. Thank you.
I wish you the best of luck in the future.
Same to you, Tony! Absolutely!
Thanks very much, King! Take care.
You too Tony! [FIN]
» Official KING DIAMOND Website
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