Episode 494 of the Three Sides Of The Coin podcast is available for streaming below.
W.A.S.P.'s Blackie Lawless joins Three Sides Of The Coin this week, and talks about his friendship with Ace Frehley; when they first met, did Ace produce early W.A.S.P. demos, inviting Ace and KISS manager Bill Aucoin to an early W.A.S.P. show, did Bill Aucoin almost manage W.A.S.P.?
Blackie also talks about working for Boutwell in the mid-70s, printing and shipping KISS posters. He shares a story from touring with KISS and speaking with Gene Simmons. Blackie remembers the conversation he had the first time he met Paul Stanley. And, Blackie talks about the upcoming 40th Anniversary W.A.S.P. World Tour; the set list, what is the stage going to be like, and more.
An excerpt follows...
Three Sides Of The Coin : Are you a KISS fan?
Lawless: “I would say yes, but I would put a little asterisk next to it. Whether its me or anybody, if you’ve known somebody on a personal level, it’s always difficult to see other performers the same way. To give you an example, Elvis. I see Elvis in a totally different world because I never met him. When you get to know someone, it becomes different. Because when you are watching them perform, there’s a duality that goes on there, and when you see them performing live, the first your brain sees is ‘oh, that’s my buddy.’ But then they’ll do something every once in a while and you realize that’s how they got where they are. That’s probably like most people who know somebody that does this for a living.”
Three Sides Of The Coin : When did you and Ace first meet?
Lawless: “They were just getting started and we met at a party one night. I was in a band called Black Rabbit at the time. And we were doing face paint and a very similar type of show. But we didn’t know who they were. We had no knowledge of them. Like I said, they were just getting started. Ace and I started talking and quite honestly it was like a meeting of the minds kind of thing. We struck up a pretty strong kindred friendship from the get-go. Everybody has probably had situations where they’d met people and there was this magnetic attraction. And that’s pretty much what it was. The first time I saw them perform live, they were opening for Blue Öyster Cult and I think their set was like 30 minutes or something.”
Three Sides Of The Coin : When you were putting W.A.S.P. together, before you got your first record deal, I understand that you guys auditioned for Bill Aucoin and Ace Frehley.
Lawless: “It wasn’t exactly an audition. It was a show we did at the Troubadour. There were two shows that we did at the Troubadour in September of 1982. On the 21st and 28th. Having known Ace for some time, I said ‘we are doing these demo tapes, and I’d like to send Bill and you one to see what you think.’ And so I did and both got back to me, and said they like them. And they came out to the second show which was the 28th. We talked for a long time after that. We actually made plans to go forward, but the thing that was making me uncomfortable was the situation that Bill had with Billy Idol at the time. Because Billy Idol’s record was tearing the charts up and I was afraid I was getting into a situation where I was not going to get the attention that a new band would need. And it wasn’t long after that that I ran into Rod Smallwood.”
Find W.A.S.P.'s complete live itinerary here.
