Meeting the Misfits

A Macabre Monday Special

While Glen Danzig’s ego is inversely proportionate to his height, the Misfits remain one of the most popular and influential punk bands of all time.

That’s how my interview with the Misfits begins—at least my introduction to said interview. The first page of the conversation is currently lost, but that intro speaks volumes to how I felt in that moment.

It was 1996, and I had been living in Richmond for about a year and a half now. I moved to RVA for the punk community, at least to some degree.

As you can probably infer from my opening statement, there were some unanswered questions going into both the show and the interview.

First and foremost was how this new kid, Michale (not Michael) Graves would fit into his role as lead singer. Glenn (not Glen) Danzig had moved on from the Misfits around 12 years ago to form Samhain (a metal band) and then Danzig (a much more famous metal band), but his role in the Misfits had been paramount.

Danzig was a crooner, through and through. He could sing like Elvis, but with punk backing, and it made such an amazing and unique mix of aggression and syrup, all with a very macabre twist. The Misfits paid homage to the pop culture they grew up in, but they largely focused on the countercultural elements. These elements included a lot of horror films, and they wrote lots of songs dedicated to (or inspired by) these old films.

Walk Among Us may be their best album (fight me in the comments). Here’s a good example of a recorded song:

I had also heard some live music from the Misfits, including their Evilive album, and I had scored a rare VHS tape of Misfits concert footage with Danzig from a show in 1983. Still, I didn’t really know what to expect with a much, much older—presumably rusty—touring band with a brand new lead singer.

I wish I could say that I wasn’t disappointed, but that’s just not true. This was a good Misfits cover band to me, but it wasn’t really the Misfits. Graves was a good singer, but he was no Punk Elvis. Side note: he and I are the same age, which doesn’t seem right in my memory as I look back, but there it is.

Nevertheless, it was really, really fun to hear these songs played live, and two of the original Misfits were still in the band, performing on stage with their full Halloween garb, devillocks included! Jerry Only played bass, and Doyle was on guitars. They played well and knew the songs, and they looked like a million bucks. Here’s a pic of Jerry from 2008, 12 years after I interviewed him:

Adriano Agulló from Elche, España, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

I’ve written a bit about my compulsion to write and create. That’s not new. 20-year-old me needed to have projects going all the time, even as I was struggling to make sure I paid for college as I attended each semester—it was a great deal easier back then, but I’m really not sure how I did it—50 hour work weeks and a full college semester somehow left room for stuff like being in a punk band and working on a zine.

I can’t remember if this interview was for a zine I created and published myself, or if it was a part of a larger, more collaborative effort. I did lots of both of those back then, too.

I was stoked to be able to interview the Misfits! I understood how big of a deal this was for the local punk scene, so I was excited. I did my best and asked some silly questions, a few softball ones, and even a couple of legitimately tough questions.

Silly questions:
What do you think of goat cheese? Is goat cheese good?

Softball question:
What kind of stuff do you put in your hair?

Tough questions:
How much criticism have you heard about something like the “old Misfits”, or "not sounding like them, or whatever?

What do you think of what’s happened to Glen Danzig over the last few years?

That last one really speaks volumes. In the punk community, Glenn Danzig had become something of a caricature. First, he had attained some commercial success, and if you were anti-system, that probably made you pretty mad. I was pretty mad!

Well, not mad, really, but Danzig was a sellout as far as I was concerned. This is long before the internet showed him getting knocked out after picking a fight with a much bigger man, but long after stories like that had spread as urban legends.

Misfits Macabre Monday

I hope you’ve enjoyed my contribution to today’s

Macabre Monday

celebration. Every Monday, a growing group of writers gets together to celebrate the creepy season (even if that’s all year long for you!). Horror punk felt like far too good of a fit for me to keep this story under the vest, and I’ve enjoyed reminiscing more lately anyway.

Thanks for indulging me, and for coming along for the ride!

If you’re looking for something to watch within the horror genre, tune into

Jeff Kinnard

’s Notes on Substack, and follow the

Macabre Monday

page Jeff created. He’s a clever writer and a good steward of this community, and I’m happy to be a part of it!

If you’d like to check out (or revisit) my own horror genre recommendations, you can find Horror TV from the 80s, this list of great horror shows, and some really creepy movies I recommend. Also, last week I wrote a creepy little ditty about the tree in my back yard.

One more thing: if you’re interested in stories about music,

Kevin Alexander

and

Brad Kyle

spend time and energy on pieces like this (and plenty of other music related works), and they do a great job of amplifying unusual musical artists. I’m just pretending to be one of them today!

Are you interested in seeing more of my interview with the Misfits? Have you seen any shows that disappointed you?