With Moe Wyoming
He's a man of many faces, the king of an Empire and a hip Spy. He's even been a devilocked Misfit; but all his faces are undeniably Hideous. I had the opportunity to chat with Myke at length about the many projects he is/has been involved in. He sports a casual, cool, demeanor but his character ignites with passion when it comes to his music. After a long hiatus, Myke has decided to reawaken the beast that is the Empire Hideous and unleash it back into the music world. He's also involved in a band called Spy Society 99, as well as the Bronx Casket Co. Aside from that, he's working on having his mammoth 365-page autobiography published. It was an honor to chat with Myke. His drive is undeniable, and that very drive will no doubt lead him to whatever ghoulish destination he so desires.
-MW
Moe Wyoming: Why don't we start with talking about the Empire Hideous…
Myke Hideous: Alright. MW: Last time we talked you told me you're doing their first show in four years? MH: Yes, technically it would be four years February 15th. MW: So why now? Why not two years from now, or a year ago? MH: Well, I actually did start trying to do it two years ago. Somewhere in late 1999, the idea was posed to me. Someone said to me, "let's do it." In fact, that someone was my old drummer, Rafael. I said alright, I'll do it. But I want everything to go right. And of course that's like Murphy's Law, nothing goes right. Unfortunately, there were a lot of dilemmas and problems that took place between the initial posing of the question up until right now. Everything from myself having to go into the hospital, my drummer quitting, three guitarists coming in-and-out of the band…It's been nothing but chaos. Which is one of the reasons I quit the band in the first place. There was just too much bullshit going on. But, I chose to take on the challenge of re-doing HIDEOUS again and I suppose I'll just have to deal with the pressure. I try to keep my word when it comes to doing things I say I'm going to do. I really do. Provided, it's not financial burden and there isn't clumps of money that need to go into it. But here we are, three months after the Trade Center catastrophe that took place and I feel there is not a better time than to bring it back than now. The EMPIRE HIDEOUS is all about the destruction of the world - bringing down of picket fence that has protected for so long. That's always been the view of EMPIRE HIDEOUS, bringing forth the truth from what lies behind closed doors.
MW: Now you said you were in the hospital. I did not know about that, what happened?
MH: Yeah, in December last year I had to go in for surgery on my chest. I had what they call a nerve tumor and fortunately (for me) it was benign. I was lucky enough that it didn't cause any serious problems. But it did catch me off-guard and laid me out for a couple of months. I wasn't allowed to sing or exert myself in any way.
MW: Now the show you have coming up. What venue is it gonna be at?
MH: It's on January 19th and it's gonna be at a club in NYC called The Batcave.
MW: So anything special planned for it? MH: Well it's the first sonic show that HIDEOUS is doing in four years. I've done a couple of acoustic gigs since I got the band going again, but the acoustic gigs are nothing compared to the live, sonic gigs and the concerts we used to perform. As far as what I have planned for the shows, I'm not really sure just yet. There's a couple of things I'd like to do, but I'm kind of limited due to the fact this club is not as big as say, The Limelight or a venue of that size. In order to do large and spectacular performances I need a large stage. I need room. This club only holds about 350 people, it's a rather small club. But I've chosen it because it's something we can get started with.
MW: Now are you planning on doing a large-scale tour? Across different states…
MH: You know, anything's possible at this point. I'm not really sure. I deal all the business for EMPIRE HIDEOUS. I always have. With the exception of when I had managers working, but even then the decision always came down to me. My point being is that anything can happen. I don't really know. I'd like to get it going again. It seems there's people that want to see EMPIRE HIDEOUS.
MW: Yeah, I've never seen you guys I'd love to see you. I know you guys were in Chicago before.
MH: We were there twice. It's all about finances. We came out there and all of us had full-time jobs. We all had to take off from those jobs in order to get out there. Now, my primary function has been to get myself to a level where performing is my full-time job. It just doesn't seem to come to that final level. It's a bit of a fucking hassle, you know?
MW: I'd imagine so!
MH: It's always something!
MW: So how come Empire was never signed to a major label?
MH: That's a good question, I've often asked that myself. Labels have always felt that we were too much. And that's a quote from a very well known label out here.
MW: Not naming any names?
MH: Well, I'll just say it. Roadrunner Records said we were too much. I don't understand why. We were. As I was doing my own bit of outrageousness, so was Marilyn Manson who was doing his thing and breaking bottles on his chest and cutting himself up… That's all been done before too. It's just an ongoing thing. I've never broken bottles on my chest, but I've been whipped. I've worn crowns of thorns. I've had hypodermic needles stuck in my head. I've had imitation babies brought up on stage and I've sucked the blood out of them. It's all performance. It's all part of the art and I respect anybody that does it. But for a record label to say to me, "You're too much," well, they can go fuck themselves. People like Marilyn Manson brought it to a whole new level…
MW: Of course he toned it down over time, too.
MH: Right, but I still respect him for what he's done. I still give him lots of credibility to the actions and controversy he has created over the years. I must give him that. I can't say I was very happy with Mechanical Animals when it came out, but Antichrist Superstar was the biggest middle finger that somebody could put up to the world since Ozzy Ozbourne's Black Sabbath. It's just a kick in the face and I love that. I think that's great. It makes people think. It's freedom of speech and freedom of expression and your own actions. On the other hand, when people say to you it's just too much. I don't know what they mean. I think we [HIDEOUS] were ahead of our time maybe. I don't know. Maybe they just didn't understand what we were doing. I don't know. I've been personally asked by Peter Steele from Type O Negative to go on tour with his band twice. And twice I was rejected by Roadrunner Records and a few of record labels that knew we could have had the gig all set up. All these bands who know who I am; know what I've done; have my CD's, they're like, "Oh wow, this is pretty cool." With proper financing, EMPIRE HIDEOUS could be what some of these bands are now. I'm not taking anything away from or saying that I'm better than anyone else. It's just a whole different cup of tea. There's only so much I can do with my finances. I can't tour if I don't have a road crew and someone to drive a bus. It's gotta be done right, or it's not done at all. I'm sick of fucking going state-to-state in a fucking van that I had to drive. I mean it sucked. I mean I drove across this whole fucking country in my van. It cost me lots of money. We weren't getting the guarantees that some of these bigger bands were getting, and it's all part of the game. So after fourteen fucking years, I'm tired of it. I want it done the right way or I don't want it done at all.
MW: I totally agree with you there. So are you guys working on any new material for the show?
MH: The important thing right now is to get EMPIRE HIDEOUS back on the scene. So what I'm doing is I'm utilizing all the old material. We've been practicing fourteen or fifteen songs. EMPIRE HIDEOUS songs are not short; anywhere from four to ten minutes long. We've been practicing as opposed to creating new music, which I would love to do. I'd love to start coming up with new music. But again, just to do new music for the sake of doing new music and not releasing it, is kind of a waste of time. If I don't have somebody say to me, "Here's your contract. Go into the studio and release a new EP," or something like that. I'd love to do it, but there's no way at this point in my life, being in three bands right now, that I'm going to be able to finance my own next record. I can not do it. I did it for ten fucking years with EMPIRE HIDEOUS and I can no longer carry on alone. I think I proved myself, not only with EMPIRE HIDEOUS and being in an unsigned band and pulling in crowds of up to 1,000 people, but I've also proved myself by being a performer for the Misfits and being appreciated by those who appreciated what I do.
MW: Now in the liner notes on Victim Destroys Assailant, there was mentioning to the fact that you guys had gone into the studio and did this huge recording session. Now wasn't there some covers that you guys did during that time?
MH: Yeah, we always did a cover of the Cure's "All I Want," from the Kiss Me, Kiss Me record. We also used to cover Alien Sex Fiend's "Gurl At The End Of My Gun." We also used to cover Paul Ankah's "My Way," a-la Sid Vicious style. We did them in the January sessions, which is what I call Victim Destroys Assailant. We recorded Victim January 1st, 1998. We recorded just about every song we had ever done. Both new and old. I think we recorded "God of Thunder" from KISS too.
MW: Really, I'd love to hear that.
MH: Yeah, I'd love to hear it too. I hope to actually release it someday. Off the top of my head I can't think of any other covers that we did. That session was the longest, most tedious live recording we had ever done. Eight hours, nonstop. I mean everybody was on edge. The band was like, "Hey you're playing that note wrong, Fuck you! Fuck you and your mother!" It really got bad. It was a trial. It was tough things like that that broke up EMPIRE HIDEOUS. No one was as motivated anymore as I still was, except for Jeff maybe. Jeff was the only one who wanted to see it go on. But the others were missing rehearsals, too tired to play. It just got to the point where it was like I don't even want to deal with this anymore. I don't want to deal with babies.
MW: Now, have your lineups been pretty consistent over the years?
MH: God, no.
MW: I've read in an old interview with you, I believe 1998 or 99, that you said in the past you used to be really hard to work with?
MH: Yeah, in the early years of HIDEOUS I was a real tyrant. Very dictative. But that's how I got where I am. I wanted things done properly and I had a vision. Those who did not see that vision were just not meant to be in the band. It's nothing personal against them, they knew that when they stepped into HIDEOUS that it was my dream.
MW: So they should know what to expect.
MH: Right. Let's say you're a guitar player and you come to me and want to audition for the band. Okay, you get the part and I say 'this is what you need to learn-this way-in this manner-how it was recorded, so that's duplicated. Now if they started slinging solos in there, that's not what I wanted. So I would get really aggravated and pissed off. But I've calmed down a lot since then, I really have. I'm working with new people now and those people are very headstrong individuals and we've had plenty of conflicts, but I respect them, they're good musicians and as long they're dedicated, that's all I care about.
MW: You said Jeff has stuck with you most of the time?
MH: Jeff is back with me, Jeff was out for two years I think. Just recently we lost another guitar player in HIDEOUS so I asked him to join both HIDEOUS and SS99.
MW: Very cool, so who else is going to be in the lineup at the upcoming show?
MH: Well, basically everybody who is in HIDEOUS is in SpySociety. It's Byron Barberi on drums, Daniel Esser on bass, J-Sin Trioxin from Mister Monster is also on guitar and Jeff Austin on lead guitar.
MW: Have you ever had any vocal training?
MH: Yes I have. I studied vocal lessons in '91 or '92 for a short time. I also did some reading on vocal warm-ups around the same time to '93-'94, and then I was trained by Don Lawrence. He's trained Joey Ramone, the guy from Skid Row and I think Bon Jovi, as well as others.
MW: Looking back at your time with the HIDEOUS from when it started till when it ended, how did that experience help you mature as a businessman and as a musician, and how did that help you take on the SpySociety project?
MH: With HIDEOUS, I started printing my first T-shirt's. Then I did another T-shirt, then I had voodoo dolls I had made, Then eventually I did a record, then a cassette, then a video and all this stuff just started to emerge, so I opened up my own business called Horrible Artwork. Horrible Artwork basically financed everything that I did for HIDEOUS. I didn't have to pay for anything. I didn't make any money out of it either. Almost anything I had to do for HIDEOUS was financed through Horrible Artwork. Eventually I came up with eight or nine designs for HIDEOUS T-shirts. I had cassettes, records, all this other stuff. I registered the name and started a mail order. It got to the point though, that I couldn't handle it in '95. It became very tedious, you know? I'm trying to run a band, book shows, write songs and deal with all this other shit. Plus I gotta send out tons of merchandise to people who want to buy my stuff, plus I'm printing all the shirts. BTW, I print every T-shirt of Empire Hideous. I tried to do that, and it was too much. I couldn't do it all. So I turned over my business to Kevin of Middle Pillar distributors. And that's that. I feel strongly that it's time for someone help me out here. I needed to focus solely on being the musician, rehearsing/recording/playing out. For example, SpySociety its still a very small band compared to HIDEOUS. Nevertheless, I love SpySociety. I think it's a great idea. I mean the whole spy vs. spy thing. I think it's like "now man." What else could it possibly be? Even though it's totally different from HIDEOUS (a dark, brooding, heavy gothic rock band) it's nothing like pussy goth. It's something very strong and powerful. There's bands like the Fields of The Nephilim, Sisters of Mercy, Star Industry, or Lost Paradise who have a little bit more substance to them than just some band that's coming out with a drum machine and is trying to be the Sisters of Mercy. There's just no comparison. With SS99, it's just a different piece of pie for me.
MW: Is it more like a side project, then?
MH: No. I think SS99 is the most radio-friendly, ear friendly, listenable music I've ever created, far more than HIDEOUS. But being radio friendly doesn't make difference. You can have a band with a name like Christian Death who has released plenty of records and still not get commercial airplay. Yet, they were around, whether it was with Rozz Williams or with Valor. Let's take it back even further to the 1970's. Black Sabbath. Led Zeppelin. The critics tore them apart and they never got airplay. Look at them. They're icons of rock n'roll! SpySociety is not commercial, yet I think SpySociety can fall into the veins of Reverend Horton Heat, Social Distortion, or anything in that rock n'roll era type of music. Obviously it's not pop, but it's more modern. It's something that's very listenable, and I'm not bragging when I say this, not one person has listened to SpySociety and given me a negative response. Whereas when you listen to HIDEOUS you really have to have a taste for hard, heavy, driving music. I mean that's like a Type O Negative/Christian Death kind of sound, or a Marilyn Manson meets Sisters of Mercy kind of thing, or a Fields Of The Nephilim meets Bauhaus deal. HIDEOUS didn't cross the boundaries of heavy metal, but definitely has a cutting-edge to it with a lot of heavy drums and a lot of cutting guitar. So obviously you've got to have a taste for that. With SpySociety, we've got heavy guitar and we've got the heavy drums, but it's a shuffle beat. It's like swing or lounge mixed with death rock and punk rock, psychobilly and stuff like that.
MW: Have you tried shopping it to any labels?
MH: I don't give a fuck what they think! They can go fuck themselves anyway. None of them want to give me the time of day for some reason.
MW: So are you comfortable then with the status that you've achieved with Empire Hideous?
MH: Yeah, HIDEOUS was probably, one of the most popular, underground, heavy, gothic rock unsigned bands in the metropolitan area of NYC and NJ. There wasn't anybody who was doing what I was doing. There were plenty of gothic bands out here and still are, but none of them were pulling in 800 to 1,000 people a show.
MW: Now we touched on this last time, but I wanted to know more about your book. What's the whole concept behind it?
MH: When I went on tour with The Misfits, I kept a journal. In fact, I've kept a journal since I was 18. While on tour, I had a lot of personal issues dealing with the band members of The Misfits, so I kept a journal to keep my sanity, or I would have gone insane. I wrote everything down several times a day. Every time someone turned around I was writing in my journal. When I came back from the European tour, I decided I was going to write a book of my experiences in the music industry. Shortly after I returned from the South America tour The Misfits gig was over as quickly as it started. So I made arrangements to start writing. This book is a very important thing to me. I want to let people know what I dealt with as an individual going from point A, to point B, and back to point A again. I also wanted to let people know what it was like dealing with a legendary punk band that every new kid in the "scene" seems to bow down and worship. In September of '98, I began typing the first pages of what would be titled King Of An Empire To The Shoes Of A Misfit. It took me about two years to complete. It's some of my deepest, personal writing entries ever. I've never written a book before, but I've written interviews/reviews and had an idea of what I wanted to see as a final product. However I'm still looking for a publishing deal.
MW: Poetry or verse, anything like that?
MH: Well not really, I can't stand poetry to tell the truth. I never got into poetry at all. I don't even feel like I'm a writer. A lot of what I write is from true-life experience. There was a local music magazine out here that I used to write for, yet I never had any experience in writing. With all the interviews I used to do for HIDEOUS, I knew what had to be done. That's how I got the job. But anyway, so I started typing the book and it eventually became an obsession to complete. Now that it's done, a very limited amount of people have actually read the book. In fact, only five individuals. I want people to see it in a finished edition. I've had people tell me to sell it online, but I could just picture putting it up and it getting spread all over the place without me ever getting any retribution whatsoever, after it took two years to write. You know, I don't wanna sound like a miser, just wanting to collect money left and right. What I'm saying is that it's time for retro return to keep me afloat. For example, the Victim Destroys Assailant CD was on Napster. Do you know how much that burned me up? That's like…stealing. Fuck. Maybe just samples of the songs would have been OK and you could say, "I like that. Let me buy the record," and support the band in that sense. That would have been great. But those people who went and downloaded every single one of my songs and didn't buy the CD…those people are not supporting their musical scene. My whole point…- I get a little excited about this subject. It's just not right. I don't think I can put my book online. I'd love for everyone to read my book, I think I have a lot to say in it. Hopefully it will not sound like I'm an idiot. My book is a guideline for those who are on the same path that I've been on for years now. I would at least like to see it as a soft cover print. I have all these ideas. I have all these pictures I want to put in it. I got classic pictures that I want to have published. It's a 365 page book and it's packed full of information and grit. I got stuff that will blow your mind. If you know anything about The Misfits…. It'll make you stop and think. I think it's important stuff. Let people read what I went through with The Misfits. Pure hell. I'd love to get this book out but I'm not putting it out half-assed.
MW: Now last we talked you said you were having some problems with your publisher?
MH: They sent it back to me and they want me to make some changes which I'm not really too sure of. I don't know, I've got to mull this over and if I can't really accommodate their needs I have to find another publisher, unfortunately, and I've been looking way too long.
MW: But since you were talking about The Misfits, and I'm sure you've been asked this question 800 times and I'm going to make it 801. In short, what happened?
MH: (laughs)
MW: I'm sure you could go on for a day…
MH: Read the book! It is a very long, complicated story to explain. In short I will try to answer your question best I can. Okay, Michale Graves gets into the band, doesn't know anything about the band. He's eighteen-years-old and you got these two guys in there 30's looking to get a singer who they can manipulate in every way possible. Now this kid is starstruck, he's like "yeah, okay great, let's do this. I'll be your singer. I'll do whatever you say." Essentially that's what he did. Whatever they said, he did. So Graves steps out of the band in 1998 and I step in. Now here comes me; a free-thinking, spirited individual in my thirties, well-set in my ways, experienced, ten years of music with my own band. I've got my own way of thinking and I walk into the band knowing about the Misfits. I knew what they were about. I knew what the whole thing was about. However, with all due respect to Graves, I have nothing against him, I was a Glenn Danzig fan, as were pretty much everybody who knows the Misfits was. Again, not to put Graves down, I have nothing against him. I want that perfectly clear. But, what happened was that I wanted to give back the ghoulish style that I felt The Misfits could have had if I was their singer. I wanted to bring back some of the traits of Danzig and also bring the traits and characteristics of Myke Hideous in as well. So I looked at Graves and he wasn't imitating Danzig. He was himself. Which is fine. I just didn't like it. It wasn't to my taste and my standards. So, I get into the band and I've got my look and I've got my idea of what I wanted to do with the band. You know, you look at the Misfits and you say these guys are creepy. They're really ghoulish…..Nah. They're a bunch of jocks. I was the truest thing they could have ever had to a real life ghoul. I lived my life everyday the way I appeared on stage; the way you may have seen me in pictures. That was me. You come to my studio where I live and you'll see my collection of gargoyles, tombstones, skulls, bones, rosary beads, candles and shellacked cats and other various dead things. You go to Jerry's house and you see posters of the Giants. You see football and wrestling on TV. You get to hang out with him while he's wearing his sweat pants and his sneakers. Now, far be it from me to judge anyone, but after living with these guys on a bus for almost forty days while on tour, I have every right to speak my mind, because I was put through hell. I tried to give them what they needed and that was a boost. They needed to get a boost back again. They had a couple of good tours with Graves. They did Japan and Europe a couple of times, all of America and all of a sudden Graves is gone. Half the audience didn't even know he had left when we went on tour to Europe. It was literally ten days that I had to get ready from when Michale quit to where I joined and had to learn 35 songs to go on tour and be ready to go for the shows. It was a lot of stress man. People wanted to kick my ass. People were cursing me out from the audience. Threatening me, throwing shit at me. Every fucking show I did, there was some son-of-a-bitch in the audience that was throwing their drink at me, giving me the finger and saying, "Fuck you. Jump into the audience so I can kick your ass." What did I do to upset this person?! Nothing! It was the same for Graves because he wasn't Glenn Danzig.
MW: Of course, he got that really, really bad. I remember going to the show and overhearing people saying "if this guy doesn't sound like Glenn Danzig we're gonna kick his ass."
MH: Yeah, well that just shows you the mentality of some of their audience. Like I said, each show I did there was some dumb son-of-a-bitch who wanted to kick my ass, but you know what? I didn't have to do a damn thing. All I had to do was look at Doyle and Doyle would walk over and say "You wanna kick his ass, you gotta get through me." I'll tell you, I would not step in front of Doyle, he's a living monster! I've seen videos of him stomping on people's heads. I wouldn't get near him. I'm frightened of the man. But anyway, I got know Jerry very well and I got to see him in his true colors and I didn't like them, because they weren't true. He contradicted himself constantly in interviews and a lot of stuff that I saw him doing made me very disappointed. Then he'd start telling me what to do like I was a kid and I said, "Look man, no disrespect, but I know you guys. I know who you are. If you guys are a ghoul/horror rock band, then great. I'm what you need. But if you're gonna sit and claim to be this great band that should be selling out arenas to 80,000 people a night, well you're not all that. You're certainly no ghoul when you sit around in your white jumpsuit and watch football. Nothing against people who are in sports, but this is not what you're portraying to your audience. Your audience thinks you're a bunch of skull-crushing ghouls. You're not. You're family guys who want to be with their families. (At least Doyle did.) And they were raking in some dough. They all bought their houses from their tours… Except for me. I was the only one that got stiffed on the whole fucking thing. Yeah I got decent money, but they never gave me a contract, they never let me know when I was getting paid. It was a fucking guess every time I got a paycheck. So all these things added up and I got very, very agitated about the whole thing and I withdrew from them. I guess it was pretty obvious, because I was really sick and tired of dealing with Jerry, as he was being an ass to me. All of them were just being complete asses to me. I don't know what they would say about me; what their story was, but this is my side. I was not having fun with them. We would play these festivals and hang out with bands like the Deftones, Primus and Coal Chamber I'd be asking myself if these bands have the same problem I do? They seemed perfectly happy. Bands like NOFX would be sitting there and having a great time. Me, I'm burning up inside because I have to get back on the bus and have Jerry's sweatpants hanging in front of my bunk because he has no regard for anyone else. Every morning I'd have to wake up at the next concert and hear him yelling, "Alright boys, everybody up! We've gotta show these guys how we do it back in Lodi!" I was like, "What the fuck are you talking about?! What is this, a battle of the bands!?"
MW: It sounds like a pep talk!
MH: That's exactly what it was! I was disgusted by it. I was really disgusted by it. We were there to have fun and support each other in this thing we call music. Not battle them and show them who's better. One thing I learned for sure is that we were no better than anyone else. Eventually, Doyle and Chud copped an attitude with me. As much as Jerry said he wanted me to stay in the band when Doyle put his foot down and said, "I want Graves back," Jerry bowed down to him and gave him what he wanted. I was like, "Whoah! Wait a minute! You're the one who's always making the decisions for this band and you said you wanted me as singer. Now, just because your brother, who doesn't even want to be in this band, says he wants Graves back, you're just gonna take him back." He said, "My hands are tied." I guess they are. He's tried to play it off so well and said, "Well, even though you're out of the band you're going to come up and rehearse with us, right?" Now why would I do that? Why would I waste my time and go out of my way to come and assist you when you just fucked me up the ass for three fucking months. Fuck you! And that's it in a nutshell.
MW: Now were you under the impression that you were going to be in the band and on studio albums?
MH: Jerry said to me personally, the day I called him up, "Yeah, definitely, as far as I'm concerned you're the man. I have no doubt in my mind. You proved yourself on the European tour. You're the new singer." Even though I had a few vocal problems, I wasn't used to singing 35 songs in an hour nonstop. So I went a little hoarse. But after awhile my voice strengthened itself like a weight lifter. But as I tried to explain to them, like a weight lifter, you can't just bench 150 pounds if you weight 150 pounds. You've got to build up your stamina. You have to build yourself up and get to the point where you can accomplish that. So you can't just jump on tour after just ten days of rehearsal, doing 32 concerts that are an hour to an hour and a half long and do 30 to 40 songs. You' can't just do that. He just didn't understand it. He didn't realize the sacrifice that I had put into the band; moving out of my house, quitting my job, having all my stuff in storage, having no place to live, no job when I came back, no band. How dare he? Who the fuck did he think he was? When I got into the band they thought that all I did for the past 10 years was study Misfit songs. They were like, "What do you mean you don't know Horror Business?" The fact is, I didn't study their music for the past 10 years. I was doing my own band, and doing pretty good thank you.
MW: Didn't you cut off over two feet of hair?
MH: Yeah. 30 inches of my hair got cut off. I had my head completely shaved at one point. It took me 8 years to grow back. From '90 to '98, I was growing my hair and it was a trophy for me. They didn't care. "Ah, it's just hair." They didn't quite understand, and I'm not going to go into detail as to why, but when the book comes out you'll understand the real reason of why it was such a loss to me. But I said to Jerry "I'm gonna cut my hair today. I want to know for sure, am I, or am I not the guy?" "Yeah you're definitely the guy. You are the new singer for The Misfits." Then I cut my hair. I still had the longest devilock in Misfits history. I had more hair than all three of them put together. I sacrificed so much for them that when they did finally boot me I was very, bitter and I still am.
MW: So what do you think of them now?
MH: I think they suck now. I think they sucked immediately after Famous Monsters came out. There's absolutely no originality to their music, everything is a rip-off from a horror movie. Although Danzig did kind of prompt it, but he wasn't naming songs after their previous records like "Walk Among Us!" I don't even know some of the names of their silly titles. Danzig was the brains behind the band. Jerry had this vendetta against Danzig. To get back at him and be the best thing he ever could. I've spoken with Danzig directly and Danzig has said, "I don't know what he wants." Danzig was the brains behind The Misfits and he always will be. Jerry just has this vendetta, and what I think what Jerry has turned into, is the villain that he claimed Danzig to be to him. All Jerry did was sit and bitch to me for 10 fucking years from when I met him about how Danzig screwed him over. As far as what Jerry does now, I don't give a shit. Jerry is proving himself to his audience and the people around him. I don't even have to say anything anymore because. People say to me, "Did you see that? Did you hear that? What's that about?" My story is just another notch on the events that have taken place in Jerry Only's life. I'm over it. I don't even care what he does. I have no concern in my life. What they did when I was with them I will talk about freely because they screwed me over and that's the truth.
MW: Most of that is gonna be talked about in the book?
MH: Yeah, 3 chapters are dedicated to my tours. One chapter is dedicated to the European tour. Another to the South American tour and the final chapter explains the devastation that I had gone through after getting out of the band. It was very hard for me. Think about it, you come back after singing to crowds of over 10,000 people, not having a place to live, not having a job, not having money, not having a band, everything you own is in storage. It was a traumatic blow to my ego, my confidence and my identity. I didn't even know who I was anymore. I ended up having to deal with some very serious crises in my life.
MW: But you got back on your feet.
MH: Yeah, I wouldn't say fully though. I'm still struggling. I'm still doing the grind. Working again and doing what I have to do to survive.
MW: Well best of luck to you with everything. Anything else you'd like to add?
MH: Check out my Web site's, join the email list through the contact mail. www.empirehideous.com - www.premise.com/ss99 - www.bronxcasketco.com
MW: Great, thanks Myke.
Posted by Alex Zander at November 1, 2003 12:00 AM