Blackie Lawless

Blackie Lawless
Background information
Birth name	Steven Edward Duren
Born	September 4, 1956 (1956-09-04) Staten Island , New York, US
Genres	Heavy metal, shock rock
Occupations	Musician, songwriter, actor
Years active	1975–present
Associated acts	W.A.S.P., London, Circus Circus, Sister, Killer Kane, New York Dolls, Hear 'n Aid
Notable instruments
B. C. Rich Widow B. C. Rich Warlock Jackson Soloist

Blackie Lawless (born Steven Edward Duren on September 4, 1956, in Staten Island , New York), is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, bassist and actor, best known as the lead singer and rhythm guitarist (former bassist) for heavy metal band W.A.S.P..

In an interview, Blackie claims to have been born in the kitchen of the Rainbow Bar and Grill in Hollywood, California.

Biography

Early life

Lawless was born Jewish. He lived in Staten Island, New York, where he hung out with future Kiss-guitarist Ace Frehley. Blackie was nine when he got his first guitar and in that same year he earned 16 dollars and 35 cents in his first band called The Underside. At the age of 13, Blackie was stabbed in a fight and at 14 he was sent to Military School to learn discipline. After 18 months of a two year sentence he was thrown out after beating up a Sergeant Major.

Musical career

At the age of 16 Blackie played with an East Coast band called Black Rabbit, touting his talents around local bars. Another early band was called Orfax Rainbow in which he played for quite a while. In 1975 after Johnny Thunders left glam rock band New York Dolls in the middle of a tour of Florida, the band started auditioning for guitarists. Blackie soon joined the band but only stayed for the remainder of the tour.

After the tour, he went to California with bassist Arthur Kane and helped found Killer Kane, (Single "Mr. Cool", a song which then went on to become "Cries in the Night"), where Lawless was the singer. At that time his artistic name was "Naughty Blackie Nogood." About a year later Kane went back to New York while Lawless decided to stay in West Los Angeles.

In 1976, he formed Sister, who are believed to be one of the first Los Angeles groups to use the (inverted) pentagram as their logo. Randy Piper, later of W.A.S.P., was Sister's second and longest-staying guitar player. Lawless' stage antics at the time included lighting his boots on fire (a gimmick he later gave to Nikki Sixx) and eating live worms. Around 1978, a new lineup was assembled that included the aforementioned Sixx on the bass and Lizzie Grey on guitars. This lineup tried to record a few songs, but the outcome was so terrible they decided to scrap the idea altogether. Around that time, Chris Holmes came into the picture for the first time to play guitar. According to Holmes, this lineup managed to play live at least once.

After this version of Sister failed in its turn, Lawless started his next band "Circus Circus", in 1979, with Randy Piper again appearing in the lineup. When it became clear that this band was going nowhere as well, in 1981, Lawless joined Lizzie Grey and Nikki Sixx's relatively unsuccessful London, with whom he played a few gigs and recorded two songs as demos, already without Sixx, who'd left to form Mötley Crüe. In 1982 Lawless assumed bass duties and along with Randy Piper formed W.A.S.P.. The lineup was soon completed with Chris Holmes on lead guitar and Tony Richards on drums.

W.A.S.P.

W.A.S.P. has undergone numerous lineup changes since its inception, and Lawless is the only remaining original member. He writes most of the songs and music scores on W.A.S.P.'s albums and says his favorite album to date is The Crimson Idol. Many of his songs tend to deal with religious or apocalyptic themes, due to his fundamentalist Christian upbringing and the fact that his grandfather was a deacon and his uncle was a preacher, but veer into socio-political topics from time to time. Lawless even spoke often about going into politics, but has not yet actively pursued that action.

Lawless cites influences which include AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Kiss, and Alice Cooper. His stage theatrics were influenced by Alice Cooper and Kiss. His stage shows have included throwing raw meat into the audience and flogging semi-naked women positioned on torture racks. During the 1980s he was criticized by organizations like the Parents Music Resource Center. His concerts were regularly canceled by local authorities and, in some countries, banned from playing entirely.^{[citation needed]} Lawless has sued and won a case against PMRC for copyright infringements.^{[citation needed]}

Acting

Apart from being a musician, Lawless can be seen in Can't Stop the Music (1980), a musical about The Village People, and in the 1985 fantasy/horror film The Dungeonmaster. He also had a cameo role related to the 1984 movie This Is Spinal Tap; he appeared in a mock commercial celebrating the release of the Spinal Tap recording.

Lawless was asked to audition for the role of Sammi Curr in the horror film Trick or Treat (1986), but declined the offer. The role was given to Tony Fields.

Lawless also auditioned for the role of the T-1000 in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, although his height of 6'4" proved to be a problem. The role of the original Terminator had been written for a man of average stature, who could easily blend into a crowd, and James Cameron wanted to apply that original concept to dramatic effect for the T-1000.

Recent times

In 2006 Lawless was found not guilty of criminal assault in an Arizona courtroom. The charge dated back to August 2005, when he reportedly kicked a security guard during a performance in Scottsdale, Arizona.

The band canceled its previously announced European dates in July 2006, after Lawless was diagnosed with an abnormality in one of the arteries leading to his heart. He's now fine after some rest and special treatment. Later on he announced new European dates for the same year.

In October 2007, the band announced that no recording devices, including phones with cameras, would be allowed into shows and any phones found by security would be confiscated, for the duration of The Crimson Idol tour. It is speculated that this was mostly due to W.A.S.P's decreasing record sales, but is also thought to be to protect the video footage shown onscreen during the concert. However this turned out not to be the case, as many of the audience members proceeded to take pictures of the band while they were onstage performing.

In November 2008 he endorsed John McCain in the Presidential election saying, "I will vote for McCain, not because I believe in all he stands for, but as a mandate against Obama, to keep him from becoming President. Yes, I will cling to my guns and my religion, and continue to believe in the Constitution, the Cornerstone of our society and trust that this is STILL a "Government of the People, By the People, For the People"."

Speaking about the 25th anniversary of the PMRC in 2010, Lawless stated that he has become a born-again Christian, and that he renounces the W.A.S.P. song that made that organization's "Filthy Fifteen" list, "Animal (Fuck Like A Beast)". He told Attention Deficit Delirium that he was born again at age 11, then left the church at age 18 to explore the occult for three years (two years before writing the "Animal" song), but returned to his religious roots recently. Of the controversial "Animal," he emphatically declared: "I renounce, denounce and pronounce that I will never play that song live again. Actually, I’ve not played it live for several years.”

External links

• Official W.A.S.P. website
• Blackie Lawless 2010 Sleaze Roxx interview
• 2007 Interview
• Blackie Lawless at the Internet Movie Database
• HardRadio.com interview with Blackie Lawless: Helldorado
• History of W.A.S.P. & Sister according to Randy Piper