“Album ONE Alive”, the title of W.A.S.P.’s upcoming North American Tour. August 17, 2024, marks the 40th anniversary of the release of W.A.S.P.’s first album. To celebrate this classic metal album, W.A.S.P. will, for the first time in 40 years, play the entire album from top to bottom, start to finish, on their North American tour this fall.
The Metal Voice recently spoke to Blackie Lawless about the tour. Listen below.
Asked if he will be sitting down (as he did at Sweden Rock Festival) on the upcoming tour, as he is recovering from back surgery, Blackie responds: "I told the people at Sweden Rock I'm on probation. The doctors told me you can do the show but we don't want you running any marathons. We want to make sure that this this thing heals completely and totally and you don't have any setbacks. So that was the compromise that we had to make to do it. But I'm fully expecting that they'll give me the green light anytime now. I see the doctors again this week and I'll know more then."
About the upcoming tour celebrating the release of the debut album: "The date August 17th 1984 was significant cuz that was the day that first album was released so we have not done the album in its entirety since that original tour. People had asked for it before and quite honestly you know a lot of times when you're the person that creates something you don't ever really see it like other people will see it because you're on the inside of that bubble. When I tested this idea on a half dozen people that I trust, different promoters around the country, the reaction was not just positive. I mean basically the word I kept hearing over and over was holy- [ __ ]. It wasn't just positive it was almost one of those visceral reactions. I thought, 'huh maybe we got something here.' The artists a lot of times can be naive to that as we're on the inside and we just don't see it like someone else would. I had a friend of mine who's a promoter that I trust a lot and he was telling me you know that this needs to be done or when you do it that they need to be done in chronological order the way they are the running order is on the album. And I argued him up and down on that. I go, 'well listen that means you know we need to start with 'I Wanna To Be Somebody' we've never done that before, you're throwing a monkey wrench into my whole plan here.' And he says, 'if Zeppelin got back together and they did Zeppelin 4 do you want to hear that album in it's proper running order?' So I sit there and I say, 'yeah.' I came to the conclusion if you're going to do it in its entirety you need to do it in its proper running order."
When asked the possibility of bringing former guitarist Randy Piper and Chris Holmes on stage as special guests since it is the Album ONE tour: "If the climate was right you would be correct, but that climate is not right. There's water under the bridge that I could not see that ever happening. But allow me to say this, what I'm attempting to do here with this show is create an environment not dissimilar to what we did in the beginning. I want to take you back to that moment (early touring years of W.A.S.P.) because most of the audience that are at these shows never lived through it. I don't want to just have you listen to to an older record. I want to take you back to where that time and space was and for the two hours that we're in there I want to turn that clock back to make you think you're actually living through it and with what we're doing."
Asked if they will perform any other W.A.S.P. songs on this tour along with the debut album, and where does "Animal (F**k Like a Beast)" fit in: "There'll be a part one (debut album performance) and a part two. So there'll be an intermission in between about five -six minutes and then we'll come back and we'll do the second part which will be like our greatest hits type of presentation. Now 'Animal' was never part of that debut record. I would say that any of that stuff that could potentially be done if it's going to be played it would be played in the second half, but it's not going to be part of the original album because it was never part of the original album."
The 39-city run kicks off on Saturday, October 26 in San Luis Obispo, CA, making stops across North America in Vancouver, BC, Toronto, ON, Minneapolis, MN, Dallas, TX, New York, NY, Orlando, FL and more before wrapping up on Saturday, December 14 at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles, CA.
Tickets are available at WASPnation.com.
W.A.S.P. will be again offering fans VIP tickets that give fans a chance to meet Blackie Lawless, get a personal photo with Blackie, autographs and take part in a very personal Q&A with Blackie. VIP tickets can be purchased here.
Tour dates:
October
26 - San Luis Obispo, CA - Fremont Theater*
28 - Portland, OR - Roseland Theater
29 - Seattle, WA - Moore Theatre
30 - Vancouver, BC - Vogue Theatre
November
1 - Calgary, AB The Palace Theatre
2 - Spokane, WA - Knitting Factory
3 - Boise, ID - Knitting Factory
4 - Salt Lake City, UT - The Depot
5 - Denver, CO - Paramount Theatre
7 - Minneapolis, MN - The Fillmore
8 - St Charles, IL - The Arcada Theatre
10 - Detroit, MI - Royal Oak Music Theatre
11 - Toronto, ON - History
13 - Montreal, QC - MTELUS
14 - Quebec City, QC - Theatre Capitole
15 - Boston, MA - Orpheum Theatre
16 - New York, NY - Hammerstein Ballroom At Manhattan Center
17 - Philadelphia, PA - Franklin Music Hall
19 - Cleveland, OH - The Agora Theater
20 - Pittsburgh, PA - Stage AE
21 - Stroudsburg, PA - The Sherman Theater
22 - Silver Spring, MD - The Fillmore
23 - Charlotte, NC - The Fillmore
24 - Orlando, FL - The Plaza Live
26 - Nashville, TN - Ryman Auditorium
27 - Atlanta, GA - The Eastern
29 - Houston, TX - House Of Blues
30 - San Antonio, TX - Aztec Theatre
December
1 - Dallas, TX - The Factory in Deep Ellum
3 - Little Rock, AR - The Hall
4 - Wichita, KS - The Cotillion
6 - Albuquerque, NM - REVEL
7 - Tempe, AZ - The Marquee Theatre
9 - Tucson, AZ - The Rialto Theatre
10 - San Diego, CA - House Of Blues
11 - Reno, NV - Grand Sierra Resort and Casino
12 - Las Vegas, NV - Brooklyn Bowl
13 - San Francisco, CA - The Warfield**
14 - Los Angeles, CA - Hollywood Palladium**
* No support acts.
** Death Angel not performing.
