Type O Negative's career came to a halt after the 2010 death of frontman Peter Steele, and every so often the idea of a doing something to honor the singer is broached. Former Type O Negative drummer Johnny Kelly discussed the possibility once again of doing something with Sonic Seducer during an interview, making one specific qualification about it.
"I don't know if I would ever wanna do something like take it on the road or… It could never be a reunion; Peter's not there, so it's impossible to call it a reunion," says Kelly (as transcribed by Blabbermouth).
Kelly is open to celebrating the band's music, though he's not exactly sure how to do that. "I think that Peter's work deserves some kind of celebration. And how that can happen, I really have no idea. But we've never seriously considered doing any kind of reunion or putting something out there as Type O Negative without Peter. Peter, his musicianship, his character — without him there, you can't call it Type O Negative."
Steele also played bass in the band, so not only would the group need someone to sing, but a bassist addition would be needed as well.
That is a topic Kelly ventured into in greater detail in an interview with the Loaded podcast earlier this year. While stating that discussions of a special show had only been "coffee talk" amongst the surviving members, he did lay out what he would hope would occur if they were able to pull something together.
"I'd want a girl to do it. I'd want a female vocalist — like [Heart's] Ann Wilson or something like that. But even so, that's the first thing. When you think about doing some kind of tribute show, you're just gonna get all these people… Yes, Peter was very highly regarded by our peers and stuff like that, and you'll just get a bunch of dudes up there just trying to sound like Peter. And you can't do that," Kelly explained.
"And it's, like, all right, so what's the most remote thing from Peter? You'd have to do something completely abstract. And I would say get a female vocalist," he continued. "I think Peter would get a kick out of… He would get off on seeing a girl sing his songs, seeing a female sing them. And it would really stress the point of doing something as a tribute instead of trying to recreate something."
But within the same interview, he stressed that there had never been any "serious consideration" as to whether they should do something to honor Steele. "People celebrate [Steele] all the time. They do it daily. I see it online all the time and the impact that he had."
As things currently stand, there has been some celebration of the band's music through reissues of late. Just last month it was revealed that the group's second album, The Origin of the Feces, would be reissued with a scratch n sniff cover. The band's Dead Again album is also getting a reissue for its 15th anniversary on Nov. 25.
