JDØS (Jablka Daleko Ød Stromu // Joy Destroys Øur Solitude)

In order to commemorate the legendary Drab Four, I will be publishing series of blogs dedicated to them. No copyrights, only good intentions to share the stuff with the TON fans. I've purchased Type O bootlegs and dug old interviews from dusty corners of the internet so you didn't have to. I'll be publishing them in this blog including credits as much as possible (if I miss any credits, just send me an e-mail), then continue with the official releases and all the interesting Type O stuff I've collected since 1995. If you have suggestions, old interviews or content you'd like to share with me for this blog series, feel free to e-mail me: jablkadalekoodstromu@gmail.com

Part#1 ⏭️ Part#2 ⏭️ Part#3 ⏭️ Part#4 ⏭️ Part#5

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**Interview#1995/9: "Interview With the Vampires" LIVE WIRE (Peter Steele, July 1995)**

Bootleg#13: Danish Rust (CD Live 1997 // 2022 Wolfmoon)

Live at Vega Hall, Copenhagen, Denmark (15th April 1997)

Type O Negative are traveling through the night putting the bite on new fans across the country. Live Wire's Tomas Pascual gets his own coffin space on board the vampire express as he spends three days on the road with the kings of gothic metal. Sink your teeth into it!

Dark shadows illuminate their destiny as they travel through the artery of rock n' roll lore. Waves crash and a melancholic melody echoes through the great house at Collinwood, as a reflection of the tristesa that accompanies passionate love lost. No more nights of blood and fire. Envision a promenade overlooking the New York harbor in an affluent section of Brooklyn. A peaceful park full of life, trees, and birds surrounded by a decaying urban jungle. A place to reflect on prior distress and disorder. A cross road for Peter. The calm before the storm for Type O Negative.

The release of Bloody Kisses was followed by rumors of a breakup, no live shows, and the departure of original drummer, Sal. A few months following the album's release, Johnny Kelly joined and Type O played their first show since the album's release at Brooklyn's L'Amour. A sold out venue with heightened expectations witnessed Type O at their purest. The show was submerged in feedback and aural disarray. A total disaster, insuring the band were at the doorstep of success. In line with Fredrich Neitzche's philosophy, from total destruction comes triumph. There is no birth without blood. That night, backstage before the show, Peter assured me that "touring for this record will be as little as possible within the five boroughs of N. Y." So why am I en route to Reno, Nevada to meet up with the Type O guys, who have been touring nonstop for about 15 months, as Bloody Kisses approaches gold status? Is it because, as Peter would say "all men are liars?" That's a cool line, but honestly I believe it was in the cards.

Day I:

A municipal of slot machines encompasses the Reno airport. It is REALLY tacky. At the hotel I meet up with the Type O tour manager, Mike Amato. He was asked to be Type O's tour manager after the band saw his cunning while working with Motley Crue, when they were on tour with them. "When they first asked me, I wasn't sure if I should do it because I didn't know them. But even though I was not from Brooklyn (like the rest of the Type O tour squad) they made me feel completely welcome right away. It was only supposed to be for a couple of months initially, but here I am long after that. I've been offered to work on other tours but I've turned them down because this is a band that deserves that type of loyalty," Mike explains. Mike is cordial but assertive, someone the band clearly places their complete confidence in. As we chat in the hotel room a clearly hungover and somewhat dazed Kenny walks in and protests "That old bitch at the front desk yelled at me when I asked her where i could get coffee."

Shortly after Peter comes in, and in no time Peter and I are on our way to the Z-Rock studios for his interview promoting this evening's headlining show at the Fallout Shelter. The station announced the gig on the way to the studio after which Pete, while gazing out of the car window, remarks, "This looks like Staten Island," as we drive through downtown Reno. At the station greeting the receptionist Peter introduces me as "his body guard." His naturally dry sense of humor carries the interview, to the chuckles of the in-the-studio bystanders.

Later at the venue, Mike Amato informs Pete of another interview that needed to be done later that afternoon. A remark to which Pete replies by sarcastically showing his teeth in a vampire-ish hiss and flinching mannerism, similar to the way Christopher Lee reacts to a crucifix when portraying Dracula. The crew soundchecks and the band wallows in "dead time," the aspect of touring that devitalizes and provokes restless anxiety. How does the band cope? Peter strums a new song, "Green Man" on his unplugged bass in the dressing room. Johnny, while defiantly drinking Bud, in contrast to the band-favored Heineken, explains, "I like to read, usually books on the Mafia, serial killers, or dead rock stars. I'm over halfway through a book on John Gotti." He proudly notes that an incident (from another book) where Mafia hit-men hung their victims like meat and elicited their blood into their bathtub, "happened right by where I live in Brooklyn." I'd be less than honest if I didn't point out that I found that cool.

After sound check, Josh and Pete go to nap, Mike gets concerned about security, Kenny disappears and Johnny and myself begin boozing it up. The local openers go on an hour early. Pete returns shortly prior to having to go on stage and opens his customary bottle of red wine. Tonight it's Seghesio red, "vintage Tuesday," Pete points out. After two prior cancellations in Reno, that were beyond Type O's control, at long last they played tonight.

After the show, it turns out that there is a gay bar by the upstairs club bathroom, by which some girl instigates a bewildered Mr. Steele on an unreasonable impulse. "She punched me." Pete explains in disbelief, before reminiscing about his days as a New York City Parks Department worker. "A day does not go by that I don't think about it. I miss it extremely. I loved my job. But the city is not what it used to be and I feel it is collapsing on itself. I also left because I had never taken a chance at anything in my whole life, and I wanted to just really try something." Johnny and I hop around the nearby casinos with a couple of guys from the road crew, while everyone else goes to sleep. Over a late $1.99 steak dinner, the conversation centers on trying to figure out who had left a 'mess' on the crew's bus. I'll not comment on what the nature of the 'mess' was...

Before long into the first day, it was apparent that this was a close knit family touring unit; despite that the band members often go their separate ways, they are all in synch with each other and conscious of their individual bounds.

Day II:

I check out of the hotel room close to noon and meet up with Peter on the band's tour bus. We will soon be on our way to Sacramento, CA for the next Queensryche date of the tour. As the sun shines, my head pounds. Peter and I talk while he eats Granola cereal. He tells me about his childhood living in Brooklyn. "I was an average kid. I did well in school. I was raised in a Russian Orthodox and Roman Catholic family. So I got it from both sides. I went to a Catholic school for eight years. My parents were not strict in making me do anything. They were strict in the way that if I didn't do what they wanted, they attempted to make me feel very guilty about it. So I wasn't forced to go to church every Sunday, but if I didn't there would be mind games played about it. Parents aren't perfect, and I'm sure they thought they were doing the right thing. I don't blame them. I have five older sisters, great parents. I was a very fortunate kid. I was introverted, did not have much self confidence. I was into science fiction and horror movies a lot. I always had free reign of my basement as a kid. I always had fish tanks, cats and dogs. I love animals. I didn't have too many friends so I spent a lot of time in the house."

"Carnivore was a way of attempting to deal with my masculinity," Pete says referring to his pre-Type O outfit. "Everything I wanted to be I threw into that band. The violence, the testosterone rage, and so on. People always tried to throw us in with Venom a lot. That was a huge compliment for me. But between the first and second album, I was going to a lot of hardcore shows and hanging out with Agnostic Front and this and that. It definitely rubbed off on me. Today, as opposed to back then, I don't think there is a hardcore scene anymore."

When it came time to form Type O, Pete didn't have to look far. "I've known Josh since I was 12, since he moved on my block. Kenny and Johnny I've known since the time I was 18 when I first met Louie from Carnivore, and he was from that neighborhood, which was about a mile from my house."

As we talked, Kenny was passed out in the bus. Then like a sudden crackle of thunder, Mike A. Comes into the bus announcing, "Show's canceled, we're going to Vegas!!" As my jaw drops, Pete moans, "Oh no, how long is this drive now?!" I came along for a tour story, I sure as hell got one. Time to re-plot the course. Back in Mike's hotel room Pete lounges on the bed, Mike hits the phone, and I'm momentarily stressed. What about the plane tix, hotel reservations, etc.? Pete assures that, "anything you might be thinking Mike is already doing, so don't even bother saying anything." The crew's bus had already left for Sacramento and after answering a string of 6 consecutive 911 pages was informed to head for Vegas. Within half an hour everything had been taken care of and we are on route to Vegas.

The tranquil scenic beauty of the Nevada desert and thin rocky Mountain air is naturally intoxicating. But as hour upon hour passes by, the dead-time anxiety begins to sink in. This is where nerves of steel are tested for endurance. Deafened by the surrounding solitude of the rocky Mountains, Josh breaks the silence by remarking, "Now you get the real taste of the road-the suffering. It's a thrill a minute." Although this is a significant drive, he points out, "There have been times when we have spent 24 hours driving on this bus." Pete reads a chemistry text, and Johnny gazes at a video of Plant/Page on MTV. "Do you really find this interesting?" Pete asks him. Kenny eventually wakes up, thinking we're en route to Sacramento. "Kenny, sit down, we have to tell you something," Mike says.

As we drive, Pete explains some of the lessons he's learned about traveling extensively in such close proximity, "What I learned was that no matter how much you love somebody, and I l love the guys, it is hard to spend that much time with anyone, no matter how great your feelings are for them. I think we just became a lot more tolerant of each other. I didn't really learn anything bout them being that I've known them for so long. I'm the only member in this band that doesn't smoke so we had to lay down some rules, because I felt it unfair to me, and Mike, who also does not smoke. So we compromise. Nothing drastic, we all have a lot of respect for each other and that goes a long way."

"A lot of people think we're rich, very glamorous, and there are women every night, and we have drugs shoved up our noses and our asses, and it's very different from that. Josh, Mike and I have headaches every single day. I can never plan a day, like what happened today for instance. Things like this happen almost everyday. I spend a lot of time on the phone. I call my mother, I talk to Louie and Mark from Carnivore a lot. I don't want people to think that I think I am superior. Like last night that girl told me to my face that I was full of myself, then punched me in the stomach. Good thing I've been doing a lot of sit ups lately. I don't know what her motive was."

We saw enough of Beatles video footage to choke Yoko with, but the Little Rascals livened the mood significantly. I had forgotten about Farina. Eventually ears popped and drowsiness takes its toll. The bus stops in a miniature town whose sole life force was built around a McDonalds (I'm totally serious). The drive continues. And then trough the vast desert a city of lights flickers in the distance. Civilization? Mecca? "This is the white trash leg of the tour," Pete proclaims. Oh...

Shattered are my images of high rolling Mafia bosses and James Bond playing poker with KGB agents. This is really white trash hell. Waiting on line to check into the hotel Pete's expressions are subtly vociferous. As he observes the infinite rows of slot machines clammering he asks, "What you mean the disgust I have on my face?"

Pete, Mike, and I go to dinner, where a Delta Burke look-alike waits on us interrupting our conversation every 3 seconds. Pete reflects on the band's early days. "When I first formed Repulsion (Type O Negative) after Carnivore broke up, I had a totally different concept in mind for the band. The whole concept of it mutated and it just became what it is now. About five years ago I had hit a critical period in my life, where I changed very much as a person. I consider the person I used to be dead, and I'm glad that he is. Insecure, frightened, confused, much like a lot of people I know today. Breaking up with that girl was a catalyst. It was the straw that broke the camel's back. I was with her about 2 1/2 years and it got to the point where I couldn't even talk to her anymore 'cause she was going to do what the hell she was going to do, no matter how I felt or what I said. I couldn't live with her or without her, so I was in limbo. I broke up with her, and she went crawling, but not back to me. So that hurt a lot." But in the end it was a positive experience, I add. "Definitely, I could not have stayed with her anyway, it was just a matter of time."

"The best reward for me is when people tell me the songs I wrote helped them through a hard time, or they were happy to know they were not alone in this world with their feelings. And that someone else felt the same way they did," Pete reveals.

The rest of the band and crew has scattered. Johnny and Kenny were at the Hard Rock, and Josh was up $300 at the tables. After dinner Pete and Mike, evidently the two mature adults of the caravan went to sleep, while I set out to try and meet up with the rest of the band.

Day III:

Meeting up with the band on the bus about five minutes late that noon, they informed me of the $50 fine for being tardy. Pete reveals, "I got up early this morning and stood in line with the old people at the hotel for breakfast." Did thoughts of euthanasia creep in perhaps? Certain members of the crew wrote 'I will not gamble' about fifty times on a black board that is in the backstage dressing room at the Las Vegas arena. Immediately upon arrival at the arena, the guard sitting at the door remembers Pete and co. "You're sitting right where I left you." jokes Peter to the old guy. It so happens that Vegas was the last date of Type O's tour with Pantera, where a notorious toilet paper incident had taken place between Type O and the Pantera guys while they were onstage. Pete explains, "We had a lot of fun with Pantera. Phil would come out and do songs with us. The whole idea was to disrupt each other's show as much as possible. They would try to lasso us on stage. They would constantly fuck with Kenny. They were throwing rubber animals out for him to trip over. It was all fun. It was the best tour we ever did, and I doubt any tour will ever come close."

They get a sound-check tonight, which is uncommon. The enormous 'green-dusk-around-trees' backdrop is simple yet effectively atmospheric. The Queensryche guys are private, and their audience is older, in parallel contrast to their previous tour with Pantera. The set list on the Pantera tour catered to a harder audience, with some faster cuts. The set tonight went in the opposite direction. Diversity of emotion, a distinct advantage Type O have over most all other bands. The tour is over for me, I would be flying home the next afternoon, but the routine continued for them. The Hammergear keeps spinning for them. Soon Type O would be off to do European festivals and then back to the US to polish off the second leg of Queensryche dates, possibly with one day off in July. The seemingly infinite tour continues for Type O. Pete departs with one final thought, "I used to think that I didn't have a life, now I know I don't have a life." Leben Heit Leben-Life is Life.

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**Interview#1995/10: "Pantera Are Like the Brothers I Never Had" METAL HAMMER (Peter Steele, July 1995)**

Bootleg#14: Stone Flowers (CD Comp. // 1998 N/A)

Pete Steele might be said to be a man who prides himself on his hnoesty and forthrightnes. Last time I interviewed him was two years ago, in Brooklyn, just at the time the album `Bloody Kisses' was released. Seated on the hood of a huge, military style car - a Pontiac, I think - in a nice residential street, Steele was articulate and, so it seemed to me, honest. He even told me how much money he earned from his band's activities - roughly $3,000 after tax.

Two years on and things have changed. Type O Negative have now sold somewhere between 3 and 4 hundred thousand copies of `Bloody Kisses' in the US alone, placing them behind only Offspring in the list of the world's most prominent independent bands. They hope to have a Gold album - 500,000 units - there by Christmas. In the UK the album steadily, with figures in the region of 25,000 (SOMETIMES IT FEELS LIKE I BOUGHT ALL OF `EM). This, in anyones book, is money. Recently, at the Dynamo festival, I put the same question of earnings to Steele, just to see how far this honesty would stretch.

"The more money I earn, the more money I spend," he says. "What I can tell you is that right now I have $20,000 in the bank; but I've just been hit for a $13,000 tax bill, so you can figure the rest out from that. You know, I still owe people money from when we started out, and we have a huge crew now, lots of equipment, so it's vey difficult to tell just how much we earn. It's true that we do get cheques for a hundred thousand dollars, but then we sit down with it and figure out who needs paying, and before you know it there's $2,000 left. That's $500 each way; that's not even enough to cover my phone bill."

Nobody could really have predicted the way Type O Negative would take off. Who would have thought that "four knuckleheads from Brooklyn" on a small label (Roadrunner) would be in the position, two years after the release of their third album, of having toured with the likes of Motley Crue, NIN, Pantera and, at the moment, Queensryche? Or that they would have been on their way to a Gold disc in that most major-label friendly of markets, the US? Not Pete Steele. He'll tell you that much right now.

"No, we were not ready for what happened to us. Two years ago I was employed as a maintenance worker for the city of New York. But then the city ran out of money and I was offered a severance package: I could either quit and take the money or I could stay, but if I stayed and was laid off later then there would be no money. So in the band we made a collective decision, almost communistic decision to put all our energies into Type O Negative. We would divide the money equally four ways(even publishing royalties, despite the fact that Steele is the bands songwriter), with the understanding that if anyone quit or walked away then that was it - goodbye, no more money. Also, when the band is through then all the money comes to me. But until then, you know, we all work as hard at this, we all miss our families just as much, we all miss sleeping in our own beds.... I'm trying to build a strong foundation, a framework here."

But it hasn't always been this easy. Three years ago Steele was hounded out of Germany by protesters claiming that he was a nazi. the charge was grossly unfair, but mud like that tends to stick. Many people pull a face should you mention Type O Negative (HAPPENED TO ME LAST WEEK), saying something to the effect that whilst they like the music, the band's politics leave much to be desired.

"I'm an isolationist," explains Steele. "There's a saying that no man is an island, which I comletely disagree with. I believe that a man should be self-sufficent. What I propose is almost socialistic, almost communistic: Each person should have his own plot of land and grow their food. They should each have a civil service job and contribute equally. If you don't contribute then you don't eat and you die. Don't be a burden on those people that are breaking their backs to work."

(I might have been a little slow on the uptake here, but I am not sure that this system would allow a band like Type O Negative to even exist, let alone tour the world and sell records.)

Many of Steele's proclamations have a libertarian ring to them. The militias who planted the Oklahoma bomb also had a libertarian ring to them. I tell Steele that I thought of him when I heard the news of the bombing.

"You mean that I did it?" he laughs.

No, but that a lot of sentiments expressed by the culprits echoed ideas of your own.

"I must say something: As a publicity stunt we were going to claim responsibility for that incident. But when we found out all those people were killed, all those women and children, and suddenly it was an entirely different thing. When it was just a building, who cares? But then we found out about the dead and it became murder.

"You know, I can't agree with violence. If you don't like the way something's done, then go out and vote to change it. We have the right to vote, that's what it is for. What these people did was definitely wrong. And you know what should be done about this punishment stuff? We should lock these people away and let them rot in jail, we should give them to the families of the people they murdered. The government shouldjust turn its back. If they're tortured to death, or ripped apart by dogs, who cares? Let the punishment fit the crime. Whether left or right, when views get that extreme then they become warped and open to the sickness of the person holding them."

It is this unequivocal nature that put Steele in dispute with his record label last year. Type O Negative were touring the states and turning a good profit. The fall out was simple: the band wanted to tour Europe, where they might lose money, whilst the label wanted them to remain at home, where they wouldn't. The result: Type O Negative toured Europe but funded the jaunt themselves.

Steele recounts: "We put $27,000 of our own money up to do that tour, to bring over our own gear and production. It was the company in Holland that made the decision for us to stay at home, and then they had the balls to say: `Oh, since you're over here you might as well do press, make us some money.' And I'm like, Excuse me? Could you place your lips around the mouth of my penis?.... We wanted to talk to the press, but it was just a point of screwing the label in the same way they were screwing us."

.

Type O Negative also toured the US as support to Danzig. There were all sorts of ludicrous stories coming out aat the time: stories such as Danzig becoming enraged when found Type O eating fish, another stated that none of the band were even allowed to look at the Dark One. And know what? They're true!

"I believe that Danzig - Mr Danzig - has it written into his contract(that noone is allowed to look at him)," reckons Steele. "But I've had no
conversations with him about this. You know, if I can't look somebody in the eye when I talk to them then I wont't talk to them. It's pretty much just propaganda, just more shit."

(Type O Negative were on the Danzig tour for the first leg. They were also promised the second leg, but this option was removed. That Type O were selling as much merchandise as Danzig on the tour is the suspected reason for removal).

A far more boisterous time was had when Steele and the crew opened up for Pantera on the second leg of that band's US tour.

"Pantera was the best experience we've had on the road." is Steele's line. "You know I'm no party guy, but they just forced you to be out every single night. They were pouring liquor down your throat, there were women, laughs... They were incredibly supportive, gave us everything we asked for. Pantera are like the brothers I never had."

Perhaps it was in this spirit of party frivolity that Steele has agreed to appear in an issue of Playgirl magazine. Pete has already graced the organ (pun intended) on the occasion of the publication's annual `rocker' issue, but that was just a topless shot. Next time it's full frontal.

"Apparently the editor was so impressed with what she saw that she asked for nudes," comes the story. "So I said: `Well what's it worth?' They said they'd give $2,000. I thought that would certainly buy groceries for a week. But I said I would only do it if it was an erect penis; who wants to see a flaccid penis? It's like a cop walking with an unloaded gun; it looks like a fuckin' mushroom. And they're like, `Do youthink you can do it?', I'm like, `Are you trying to intimidate me? Look, you take care of your end and I'll take care ofmine.'So in August you'll see if it can be done. I have eight pages and the centrefold."

Pete Steele's erect penis will be on public display in Playgirl this month. The follow up to `Bloody Kisses', as yet unrecorded and untitled, is set for release on Valentine's Day 1996.

SHOW REVIEW FROM SAME MAG.
RATING : 5/5

AWESOME. Type O Negative are gods. By the time they arrive on stage, the sun's gone down and the lighting and dry ice create the perfect atmosphere for a band that feeds on shadows. Pete Steele is the last person you want to meet in a dark alley. On stage, he's just as terrifying, possessing a prescence akin to pure evil. Glen Benton could never be this scary....

`Black #1', `Summer Breeze', `Unsuccesfully Coping With The Natural Beauty Of Infildelity'.... They're all here, balancing huge melodies with headbanging riffs. It's amazing to see a band go from playing gigs to a handful of people a few years ago to playing in front of 100,000 people who all know every word, every chord and every beat. This in itself is quite spooky. A hundred thousand people shouting `I know you're fuvking someone else~' is totally weird.

Come on everybody: "He knows you're fucking somebody else."

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Interview#1995/11: PLAY GIRL (Peter Steele, August 1995)

Bootleg#15: World White Slavery (4CD Live 1998, 1999 // Vinnlandia)

Live at The Odeon, Cleveland, US (29th September 1999)

Live at The Rave, Milwaukee, US (5th October 1999)

We met with Peter Steele in the hectic days just prior to Type O Negative's 10-week stint on the road with Queensryche. When he walked though the door, we couldn't help but hold out breath. At 6'6" and 220 pounds, Steele commands a room like a comic book hero come to life. His long, jet black hair streams down his broad back as his eyes -the unreal green of a living forest- survey the studio where we are setting up the photo shoot for this month's cover.

In our first and subsequent conversations, the nature of his sexuality becomes defined by three recurring images-fire, wine and blood. Fire is the lust, wine is the communion, and blood the danger-and ultimately the fun- in the ceremonies of his desires. He tells me about his fantasies: satisfying the lusty cravings of a maiden clad in rubber lingerie and spike heels; his favorite, making love-surrounded by a ring of flames- to a woman so hot her passions alone could set the bed on fire and consume them both; and of course the one about...

playgirl: If I were to write down your sexual fantasy, do you see a story? Does it have a plot-a beginning, a middle and an end?

PETER: I like the woods. I love autumn. I would imagine that this fantasy would take place in that environment, perhaps under the light of a full moon; a nice big fire.....I imagine we're by a pond, surrounded by the elements. I suppose that she would be having my way with her.

playgirl: What does she look like?

PETER: Tall. I don't want to have bend down too much. I've got back problems.

playgirl: Is that from your days with the Parks Service?

PETER: (laughs) No that's from incomplete evolution I would imagine. From what I understand, man is not quite ready to stand upright; which is why we have back problems. We're not really meant to walk on two legs. There are times we should be walking around on all fours....But maybe we should be getting back to the bedroom scene.

playgirl: Or the forest scene...OK, she's tall...

PETER: Her hair color is inconsequential. I do prefer light eyes.

playgirl: So you're in the forest minding your own business, when....

PETER: Here she comes like Little Red Riding Hood down the path, and I guess I'm the Big Bad Wolf?....This is hard.

playgirl: What else is she wearing?

PETER: I like latex. I like leather. I like fur. I like sensuality...things that have a very nice feel to them. Regular clothing is fine,too, of course. I wouldn't expect her to be wearing a latex outfit in the woods.

playgirl: This is your fantasy.

PETER: True, but I'm so rooted in reality that I have a difficult time fantasizing because I put so many mental limitations on things. It has to be within reason for me to get excited about it.

playgirl: If it isn't realistic, do you start to laugh?

PETER: If it isn't within reason, the fantasy ceases at that moment. It has to be attainable.

playgirl: OK, you're in the woods, the woman is coming toward you. She's tall, and she's pale?

PETER: I would say she's pale.

playgirl: She has light eyes, and for the sake of argument, we'll say she has black hair...

PETER: And very full lips.

playgirl: What does she say to you?

PETER: "Get the hell out of my backyard?" I'm only kidding. Maybe she doesn't say anything. She just sits down right next to me. Maybe, by some chance, I have a bottle of wine with me, the fire's already built, the flames are reflecting off the pond, and without saying a word, I give her some of the wine from my glass-or my mouth.

playgirl: Then what happens?

PETER: Touching...maybe she puts her hand in mine.

playgirl: What part of her do you want to touch the most?

PETER: Her face, very gently. So I can fully absorb her contours. I want every sense to be excited. I want to smell her. I want to touch her. I want to see her. I want to hear her voice and I want to taste her. I want every sense to be captivated.

playgirl: The fire is burning...you're sitting down...touching her face.

PETER: She's touching my face now. There would be a lot of touching. Like I said earlier, I would pass wine from my mouth to hers.

playgirl: Does that have anything to do with all the blood in your lyrics? Blood is very sexual...

PETER: Blood is sexual. Blood is violent. Blood means something extreme to everyone.

playgirl: It's life, isn't it?

PETER: And it's death. It can mean pretty much whatever you want it to mean. It's the ultimate symbol....But as far as the wine goes, it's a very sensual drink. It's sensual to give somebody wine from my mouth...as long as I've brushed my teeth within the last couple of hours.(laughs)

playgirl: What is feminine to you?

PETER: High heels, skirts, not a lot of makeup, but some. It doesn't really latter if she wears makeup or not. It doesn't change her psyche. It just appeals to me. I like long hair. It doesn't always have to be long, but that's what I prefer. There are some women who know how to smoke and some women who don't know how to smoke....

playgirl: Do you smoke?

PETER: No. I think that smoking is an extremely feminine thing. When I see men smoke, it's very effeminate to me. It's like a man walking around with a dildo in his mouth. It's the same thing.

playgirl: What about kissing women who smoke?

PETER: Sexually speaking, I like to watch women smoke. It's very sensual. If I'm going to kiss a woman who smokes, it's probably because I'm attracted to her, first off, and the act of smoking just augments that. So even though I don't like the taste, I can overcome it.

playgirl: So, when I go back to my office to write your "as told to Playgirl" fantasy, I'm going to have to have this high-heeled babe in the middle of the forest smoking a cigarette.

PETER: That's pretty much it.

playgirl: So, one more time, tell our readers what your ultimate sexual fantasy woudl be.

PETER: An old mansion in the dead of winter, in front of a huge fireplace, on a bearskin rug, surrounded by a circle of black candles...just having foreplay for hours. I would be working my way along her body from top to bottom-extremely slowly-over the course of days maybe...until she passes out.

playgirl: From pleasure or exhaustion?

PETER: Pleasure....or maybe lack of food.(laughs)

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Interview#1995/12: KERRANG (Peter Steele, October 1995)

Bootleg#16: Love Eternal Lust Infernal (CD Live 1999 // Vinnlandia)

Live at Cirkus, Stockholm, Sweden (5th December 1999)

Live at Avlon, Boston, US (30th October 1999)

k> When were you first aware of the birds and the bees?

p> I was about 12 years old, I had a very outgoing older friend who had no problem any time he was excited to take his penis out and masturbate. So i had a go- and sure enough, I came!

k> When did you lose your virginity and what was it like?

p> I was 18 years old and she was 16 we were both virgins. The only problem was her hymen was still intact and I had some difficulty inserting myself into her. I was downstairs in my parents' basement, and I ran upstairs and got some corn oil- that's all we had- and as I lubricating myself I dropped the bottle on the floor! I didn't want to lose my erection, so I ran downstairs covered in corn oil, leaving the glass on the kitchen floor. The sex was almost over as quickly as it began!

k> Do you pratice safe sex?

p> Yes I do. there have been some accidents of course- things split- but i think I get an A for effort.

k> Do you get off on pornography?

p> Not really. If I'm going to get excited, there are plenty of women that I like to spend my time with; I don't have to look at books. (k> why did you pose for playgirl magazine then and what gave you that enormous hard-on?!) I did it to further Type O Negative's career. I figured I would be exposing myself- no pun intended- to a whole new audience, and sure enough it definitely affected record sales. I had some manual stimulation and a catalogue of erotic thoughts I can easily access that keep me going.

k> your todger looks enormous in playgirl- were the photo's retouched?

p> Rumour has it that my penis is not real in those shots- which is a compliment and an insult at the same time. there were no tricks. I'm 6'6'' and I'm proportional. Everything on me happens to be long and thin - My fingers, my ears, my toes and of course what hangs between my legs. it's like a package deal.

k> Right then, get out the tape measure!

p> Okay.(pause).. It's nine, Ten inches!

k> Are you a whips and chain kind of guy?

p> My only rule is never to say no- unless it includes excruciating pain or long lasting damage. I like latex and fur, things that feel good to me sexually. I was always turned on by rubber- the feel of it, the smell, even the taste.

k> are you a considerate bed partner?

p> I'm a pretty good playmate. I don't mind if I don't come- it's not a big deal to me. I've come about 10,000 times already, so my partners pleasure comes way before mine.

k> How does that go with songs like 'jackhammer rape'?

p> It probably doesn't. Of course it's not about raping anyone with a jackhammer, it's just screwing someone so hard. When I wrote that, I was really really pissed off at somebody, I'm also into shock value.

k> Have you ever paid or been paid for sex?

p> I have never paid for sex and never will. I definitely think there are trade-offs though. If you want to be physical with somebody, you pay them with other things- by caring for them. But I've had offers from women to pay me. When I used to work with the New York City Parks Department as a maintenance worker, this woman I had seen there every day for about 2 weeks came up to me and asked how much money I made in a year and I told her $40,000. And she said, "How would you like to make that in one night?" I said, "what do I have to do?" What she wanted was a sperm sample."

k> You took her up on it?

p> Yes I did. But I haven't seen the result.

k> do you know where a woman's G-spot is?

p> Well to be honest I don't know. But I think I've found points A to F!

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Interview#1995/13: PRIMAL CHAOS (Josh Silver, November 1995) by Wendy Van Dusen

Bootleg#17: Alive and Coming Down (CD Live 2000 // Wolfmoon)

Live at The House of Blues, North Myrthle Beach, US (24th March 2000)

Intro: I recently got a chance to talk with Josh, the keyboard player to Type O Negative. I must warn you, some of what you're about to read might be offensive. (I hope!)

PC: How did you get hooked up playing keyboards with Type O Negative?

JS: I grew up with Peter, so I've known him a long twenty odd some years or so. Our first bands were together. When we were 13 we were playing together.

PC: And what bands were these?

JS: Nothing I'd ever want to mention. Local bands, that type of thing.

PC: And this was in New York? Was it in the city or suburbs?

JS: Oh, I wouldn't call it a suburb but there were a lot of people, so...

PC: Was it in Brooklyn?

JS: Yeah, it was in Brooklyn. It's not considered the city if you're in New York, the city is Manhattan. But there's so many damn people it's a city in its own!

PC: Did you take any kind of training?

JS: I was forced to as every child. Actually it was a request and I decided to take piano lessons when I was eight. Then I tried to bail but I wasn't allowed to bail out. And I actually used to play well, then I took a year off and forgot everything I ever learned from classical and decided I was really less concerned with actual playing than I am with how the overall band sounds. So eventually I think I'm going to go back and attempt lessons again and just try to better my playing for my own personal satisfaction.

PC: Do you actually do any of the composition and writing of the music?

JS: I donate things like leads and make suggestions about the little parts. Peter is the writer.

PC: So he primarily writes the music?

JS: Right, and we do the production together.

PC: I see. Are there any side projects that you would want to do in the future, as far as anything more keyboard-oriented goes?

JS: I think that's probably the way Type O Negative will end up going.

PC: There's something that I really noticed about Type O Negative and I don't know how much of it was serious. I know some of the songs lyrically are very satirical, especially towards the "Death Rock" scene. So listening to that I noticed there's some very strong emotional music. But where is the line drawn?

JS: I don't think we worry about that. You're right, there is a lot of humor in the music as well as emotion. I think the humor comes from just growing up in Brooklyn and being four sarcastic assholes!

PC: I think that definitely helps with any type of music. If you don't have a sense of humor you're pretty much going to bury yourself.

JS: I don't think of myself as some "Rock Star," I'm a fucking asshole like the rest of the world, I realize that! It in fact bothers me when other people put musicians on great plateaus. It's ridiculous! They're just doing a job and they're doing what they like! And if someone else is building a house and he does that great, then he's probably just as worthy of praise as that musician! But people are always desperate to latch onto things...

PC: What do you think that is?

JS: Now you're getting into psychology!

PC: Or possibly religion!

JS: Right! It's the same thing, basically. People are always looking for the answer. They want a divine purpose. In my mind, and it's only my opinion. I'm not preaching, because I do not try to change peoples' minds about their personal business, there is no divine purpose. We're a bunch of animals trying to rationalize why we are here, and what things we do, and why we do them. You can beat yourself up on the side of the head, and I'm a victim of this myself. Just because I know it doesn't mean I can stop it! People are just constantly searching for things to latch onto for a reason to live and for explanations of why they "Feel This Way"...the explanation is pretty clear.

PC: Do you think that's because we don't have to struggle to survive anymore? We're just sitting around with things being handed to us. We don't have to kill prey, "Here we are, what do we do, our imaginations are eating ourselves!"

JS: Right, absolutely! In my opinion society has destroyed the essence of the human animal. The whole socialization of human beings has not been improvement! Humans used to once live with the planet, now we're destroying it. And you know what? We'll get nature's foot up our ass one day for doing that! I look forward to it.

PC: Do you see the planet being saved eventually or do you say "Destroy it All," and let it sort itself out?

JS: Absolutely. I think it's both. I think the savior, is the destruction of Humanity! People say, "Oh, you're such a negative asshole," "You're a pessimist," you're this, you're that...that's not pessimism to me, that's optimism! When human beings are gone, this planet's going to continue long after...in geological time we are fleas. There are other things that have been around for billions of years and they make us look like shit! It will again be that way one day and I don't think of that as a bad thing...I think of that as a good thing. I think of that as the savior of the planet. Human beings are not a necessary animal of the food chain.

PC: No, I think ants are more important than humans.

JS: Yeah, I'm sure they are.

PC: That's a scientific fact that is kind of frightening to think about.

JS: No, it's not frightening at all. I take a lot of comfort in that to be honest with you.

PC: I know within the last few years there has been a huge popularity with "Serial Killers," or basic destructive forces in the media that are deemed as being "Rock Stars." What do you think about that?

JS: I don't blame the media because it's the demand of the pathetic human that makes them do that. If no one wanted to see it, they would not be doing it. So it's peoples' fault! When people bitch about what they see on TV it is because their instincts tell them that it is "Time to get off on this!," and "I like this!," and "I want to see this!" It's like walking over to a car wreck, you don't want to see it, but you go over and look. It's the same thing. So if people want to get off on mass murderers I don't blame the media for that. I blame stupid people for it.

PC: What do you think about murder?

JS: I personally don't condone it. I think in this society it is big news. But again if there wasn't a society I don't the delusions of morality would be affecting people as much as they are. And if a killing did go down, in other words, if two males challenge each other for territory and one of them died, the other guy wouldn't go back to his cave with a guilt complex. He did what he had to do to protect his wife. He didn't consider it murder, there was no bible to tell him what he did was wrong, he didn't give a shit, he was challenged, it was do or die, and he did what he had to do. Again, I'm not condoning murder.

PC: Murder it seems to me is a moral or legal term.

JS: Exactly!

PC: When one kills another it is a truly natural act. Unless someone puts you in jail for it, then all of a sudden you have to rethink your situation because survival is freedom in a way.

JS: It is absolutely! If somebody put my life on the line, I would without a minute of guilt, shoot them in 2 seconds. I have no desire to go out and kill people that live their own lives and don't bother me. But if someone comes into my house, even though New York City law states you still can't shoot a guy coming into your house...I would.

PC: Oh, really!

JS: That's right, they have to be threatening your life or the life of a family member. But if somebody comes into my house that's enough fo a threat for me and I'm going to kill them.

PC: Then you think people arming themselves is okay? I know that seems to be a hot topic right now.

JS: No, if I had my way, when Waco happened I would have leveled that house in 30 seconds! I would have gave them 12 hours to come out and said, "Listen, this is your choice, this is America, you cannot build a fort in America. It's illegal, it's a danger, it's a bad example, and if you let it go on, it's going to lead to more shit!" Which it obviously has. Look at how it ended anyway.

PC: I think that you would save this country a few billion dollars a year!

JS: Yeah, but then you have the moral majority screaming at you, "How could you do that?" How could I do that? This guy set up a damn fort in the middle of the United States: you can't let them do that. I am law abiding, I do believe that I want to have the right to be armed, I went through Hell to have that right. I went through FBI fingerprinting, I have no records, I've never been institutionalized, I am pro gun control and I don't think any asshole should have a gun. But if you're a responsible citizen, and you're willing to go through the shit they put you through to get a gun, then you do have a right to carry one.

PC: Exactly. I think that's the main problem that's happening now. It's the little boys who decide that they want to be cowboys. They get into guns because they can't get laid.

JS: I want to carry a gun but I don't ever want to have to use it!

PC: So what do you think about Satanism?

JS: I think it's as big of a joke as Christianity! I don't believe in Satan, I don't believe in God. I think if you want to worship Science Fiction what do I give a shit!

PC: So primarily your belief is that of the flesh. Obviously, there's no omnipotence.

JS: Right, nature. The science of nature. All of this society and things that have been dealt over a thousand years is all part of a plan. Humans will have their reign on Earth and they will disappear just like the Dinosaurs, just like whatever was before that that we have no knowledge of. I don't think we can know everything.

PC: We think we do. I've heard a lot of people say that Type O Negative is misogynistic. What do you think about that?

JS: I think they are out of reality to tell you the truth. I love women. I have no problem with them. I think that "Brain-Wise" they are completely equal. I don't want women fire-fighters, not because I don't think they are not smart enough, but I don't want to be carried out of a fire by a 110 pound girl. There are stupid women and stupid men. I think there are smart women and smart men. I don't judge a person by their sex.

PC: There seem to be a lot of Affirmative Action laws now being reconsidered. What do you think about that?

JS: The quotes are totally "anti," they go against what they stand for. If a man regardless of what color he is has the ability to do a job, the fact that he is a certain color or race should never even enter the decision. I understand the laws are trying to compensate for peoples' prejudice, but the real problem is peoples' prejudice and these laws are not going to stop us!

PC: Do you think there is something that could?

JS: No. I think that if everyone were the same color they would find a new reason to hate each other. I think that people are hating animals, they love to hate. They are never going to change. 5,000 years ago when people were stuck on their own continent they were still killing each other. They just came up with new reasons.

PC: I noticed that you thank Dr. Kervorkian on your CD. He's a personal favorite of mine, I'm all for him!

JS: I think he's a nut personally but I believe in what he represents. If you're terminally ill you have every right to commit suicide assisted if you're in the frame of mind to decide.

PC: Has the cover of your CD with two women kissing caused a lot of problems?

JS: It's a joke! To me it's so fucking stupid I can't even deal with it! I won't even answer people that ask me dumb things like that. It's so dumb! If you're that terrified, then go live in a cage.

PC: I didn't know anyone actually opposed to it outwardly.

JS: We're not allowed to sell our shirts in Utah and Iowa.

PC: I noticed your video is pretty sexual.

JS: America's terrified of that. In Europe they have no problem whatsoever. But America's too scared shitless of getting an erection.

PC: And you guys are going to keep daring everyone too!

JS: Well they are getting off and that's why they are getting pissed off. The guy who wouldn't sell our shirts probably had the biggest hard-on of all. That's why he was so scared Shit! He didn't know what to do with his own feelings.

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Interview#1995/14: "Blowing Out the Rust" (Peter Steele, Kenny Hickey 1995) by Frank Moriarty

Bootleg#18: Suck With Full Force (CD Live 2003 // 2021 Wolfmoon)

Live at the "With Full Force" festival in Löbnitz, Germany (5th July 2003)

In a control room at Brooklyn's Systems Two studio, Peter Steele and Kenny Hickey of Type O Negative brace themselves for the question that any band playing hard, dark, and dense rock must eventually face: Are you guys a metal band?

"I don't think we can really be thrown into any one genre," guitarist Hickey begins. "We spread out and diffuse into a lot of things. But overall, it seems that our basic image is connected with metal."

"People do seem to need those generalizations," adds bassist/vocalist Steele. "They need to know where you belong. I don't mind being labeled metal. It doesn't bother me, because the band was definitely influenced by bands like Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, and stuff like that, but also by The Beatles, The Cars, Cocteau Twins, My Bloody Valentine.... So I guess that out of all the different genres of music, we would be closest to metal--but really on the fringe."

Those who like to categorize music will face a difficult task when Type O Negative's next release hits the stores in August. The follow-up to the surprisingly successful gold album Bloody Kisses is being recorded under the working title October Rust, and it is an intriguing project. A listen to the work-in-progress reveals a dense production that contains absorbing melodic textures while retaining Type O's characteristic heaviness, with Steele's deep lead vocals often supported by waves of harmony.

"We really didn't have a goal as far as what we wanted the final product to sound like," Steele reveals. "We figured this album could sound great a thousand different ways, and we spent a lot of time working with the material in the studio. Sometimes things occur to us where we think that maybe something else might sound better, and we'll go in and play a part over and it totally changes the song."

Type O Negative's exploration of new directions is being colored not only by the usual tuning down but also through the use of a variety of open-chord tunings. While Steele is using German Esh basses built to his specifications, what has Hickey excited is the use of the Fernandes Sustainer guitar to augment his customary Gibson SG crunch. "They designed it where you can get feedback anytime you want on a clean tone, without blasting," Hickey explains of the Sustainer system. "I tuned them to open positions, and I could get clarity and sustain." With studio work near an end, touring beckons. And after opening for bands ranging from Pantera to Queensryche, as well as headlining their own shows, Steele and Hickey have learned well the demands of the road.

"When you're playing every night for 18 months, that puts the equipment to the test," Hickey points out. "There's bound to be something that goes wrong some time."

"We have three of everything," Steele notes. "So if something gets broken or has to be sent out you still have one backup. We've gone through speakers and amps like crazy. You could cook bacon on top of my amp! You'd turn around and think that the fog machine must be on, but it's not--it's your bass amp on fire. You think, `Wow--there goes another one!'"

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Interview#1995/15: "Tone Zone" LIVEWIRE (Peter Steele, 1995) by Eddie Malluk

Basking in the success of Bloody Kisses, Type "O" Negative's bassist, frontman and six-foot-plus vampiric stud Pete Steele bares all for Livewire. We didn't ask him to get as revealing as he did in a recent issue of Playgirl, though, we just wanted to know about his equipment. No, not that equipment! Pete graciously took the time to speak to us about the gear that the band use to create the monstrous Type "O" sound....

LW: You and Kenny certainly have some unusually decorated guitars...

Pete Steele: I painted my bass and his guitar the same way. Kenny uses Gibson SG's. They're spray-painted flat black. Everything in this band is flat black with green trim. I use this glow-in-the-dark paint, so that when my stupid light man shuts the lights off during my bass cues, the frets are glowing. So I can see where to put my fingers.

That's pretty convenient.

Yes. It's convenient, and that stuff is really cheap. And as far as I know, it does not cause cancer. But if it does, I guess I'll be finding out pretty soon.

Did you guys paint them yourselves?

Yeah. We have this in with Rustoleum, and they just send us all their flat black paint. Everything in this band, keyboards, drums, even cymbals are sprayed flat black.

So you have a Rustoleum endorsement?

Yeah. And Boarshead cold cuts, and a tool endorsement from Craftsman Sears. That's all that really matters. Paint, food and tools. I happen to love tools myself. I refuse to have to pay someone to fix something for me that I could eventually learn to fix myself. So what I do is buy a book and go out and buy all the tools. Even if I screw the job up and have to do it again, it still comes out cheaper than if ! have to call someone in here to do a job. And I get a free education.

Not many people paint their own guitars? They'd hire somebody.

Yeah. It's not like a nice paint job either. It's haphazardly sprayed on all the chrome and parts, including the neck.

How does it effect the guitar?

Surprisingly, it really doesn't effect the sound at all.

What kind of bass do you use?

Currently I'm being endorsed by this German company called Esh. I play a custom-made Stinger model. It has one pick-up by the bridge, and it has a tone, volume and kill switch. They were kind enough to give me three of those, so that when I whack someone over the head with one, I have a spare. They make great weapons.

I noticed that you have an unusual strap, too...

That's a galvanized chain. Of course, I had to spray it flat black to match not just the bass but my heart.

You went to the hardware store and picked up some chains?

I live in hardware stores. As a matter of fact, it is in my will that when I die, I am to be buried in the basement of a hardware store. Preferably somewhere in Brooklyn.

So while you're out on the road instead of checking out the local strip clubs, you're in a hardware store.

Fuck that shit. I'm in like Home Depot, or little mom and pop stores on the corner, where they cut keys. I go in there and bullshit with these people, and they wind up making me lunch.

Did Kenny want to do that too, or did you say, "Kenny, paint that guitar black."

I didn't even tell him, I just did it. One day the band came down to rehearsal and everything was sprayed black. They were pissed off at me at first, but then again they realized they'd never have to shine anything up ever again. So they were like, "Cool." When things get dirty, or sweaty, or somebody throws fruit or vegetables at us, you just spray right over it.

So one day Kenny came down and his SG was black.

Yeah. Actually there was one show that I did not tell him I was going to spray his instrument, and we were having some unusually humid weather. This was his only guitar for the show, and it didn't dry. So he had to go on stage with this wet instrument and he got it all over himself. And everybody thought that Type O Negative got this new black guitarist in the band. He kept on touching his face and getting paint on it.

What kind of amplification do you have?

I finally squeezed some free stuff out of Peavy. I use their old 3620 bass cabinets. Each cabinet has two 18's and two 10's. I also put these little Piezo's in there. It gives it a nice sizzle. I've got four of those bottoms. I also use four 412 tops to bring in mid-range feedback frequencies. I use 1200 Power Amps. I've got like eight of those, and these things weigh like 90 lbs. each. So my rack is incredibly heavy. I use Peavy Pre-amps. I have four of those. Kenny and I both monitor ourselves. We have these wedges that we keep right in front of us, because we like to use feedback extensively 'cause covers all of our playing errors. We have these low wattage power amps, that are 200 watts each. That way we can adjust the feedback when we're a hundred yards away from our amplifiers when we're on these giant stages. We don't have to yell at mr. deaf monitor man trying to get the sound we want. And I use some pedals-Boss Distortion, Boss Chorus, a volume pedal and a Digital Delay pedal, in that order.

It must be cool to be getting to that point where you're getting lots of endorsements.

Yeah. It seems like Peter Steele is now spelled with a dollar sign and everybody wants a piece of the pie. Everybody wants to be my friend all of a sudden. Whereas this time last year, these same people wouldn't even talk to me.

Who's the lucky guy who gets to hall your rack off the truck?

We have about six guys that are working for us, that each draw straws before a show. They just take care of it that way.

They carry it in like a coffin...

Yeah. This thing is savagely heavy. What I do is, I keep all the amplifiers in the back by the speakers, and I take all the pre-amps and put them in a separate smaller rack that I also use for my wine table.

You have a wine table on stage?

Yeah. The rack also acts as a wine table. It's just the right height. It definitely kills the stagefright a little bit. After about three or four gallons of it, I really don't even care what people think or like anymore. I Just go out and make a fool out of myself.

Who are your influences as a bassist?

Undoubtedly, Paul McCartney is number one, and not just because he's a great bassist, but because he's a great songwriter. A great musician. After that, Geezer Butler from Black Sabbath, Roger Glover from Deep Purple, John Paul Jones from Led Zeppelin, and some of the otherwise unknown bassists whose names I can not even recall. Like the guy from Judas Priest and AC/DC. That's what I grew up with. Now, I don't really listen to so-called rock music too much.

Type O has made interesting use of keyboards in a guitar-oriented band.

What we do with the keyboards is, Josh doubles my part and Kenny's part with distorted organ sounds. His favorite keyboard player happens to be John Lord from Deep Purple. So everything in this band is reinforced. We pretty much know exactly what we're going to play, and God forbid if someone plays something that they're not supposed to. You will hear it in a second, because it's completely out and it just sounds horrible.

I almost forgot to ask, you must use some weird tunings...

We tune way down. It's gives more of a slushy-type sound. Thus I have to use heavier strings. I use a 1/10 for the B string, 90/70/50. As a pathetic seventeen-year-old sitting down here in my basement trying to figure out Black Sabbath songs, I would always have to tune the guitar down to C sharp or D. I figured, let's go one step further. So I go all the way down to B. It's low and also wrecks speakers like crazy. That's why I have to use 18s. Peavy has to send me them out every other week. I'm blowing these things out. Which is not to say bad things about Peavy. It's just to say bad things about me. I don't use Peavy equipment, I abuse Peavy equipment.

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Interview#1996/1: (Peter Steele, 1996) by Sean Palmerston

Bootleg#19: Barely Alive In California (CD Live 2003 // 2025 Wolfmoon)

Live at The House of Blues, Anaheim, US (23rd August 2003)

Over the past three years, New York's Type O Negative has risen to international prominence. That rise may be as related to non-musical achievements as it is to musical ones. The band's 34-year-old singer/bassist Peter Steele has proved to be a magnet for ongoing controversy. It started with earlier songs such as "I Know You're Fucking Somebody Else" and "We Hate Everyone," which had several major music magazines branding him as racist and misogynist. Steele later helped fuel the fire himself by agreeing to pose naked in the August 1995 issue of Playgirl magazine as the "sexiest man in rock."

All this publicity has done wonders for the band's profile, and Type O Negative's new record, October Rust, nearly lives up to the hype. Gone are the NY hardcore elements that were faintly present in older material, and in its place are much more lusciously crafted songs like "Love You To Death," "Be My Druidess," and "In Praise Of Bacchus," linking the band to '80s goth like Bauhaus, the Sisters of Mercy, and the Mission. I recently had a conversation with the Pagan Love God Peter Steele himself. While I must say I did find him to be very charming in his ways, I admit to feeling very doubtful as to just how sincere Steele is, in general. It is one thing to be polite to everyone you meet, but it is an entirely different thing altogether to mean it.

!*@#: October Rust is a much more symphonic sounding record.

Steele: Well, two things might account for that. We had a much larger budget to record with, which allowed us to experiment a bit more — to texture and structure our sound to a new level. The other thing is, we used a total of 56 tracks on each song, as opposed to the sort of usual 48.

!*@#: In the past you have always said you never felt your studio records lived up to your own expectations. Would you say the new record has finally managed to live up to the standards you wanted?

Steele: I think that October Rust is about 95 percent accurate. But when I listen back to it myself, I hear nothing but errors — things that are out of tune, musical mistakes, vocals that could have been better — so it is really hard for me to put the disc on and say that I am proud of it. I can live with it.

!*@#: How do you feel about the negative way the press likes to portray you and your band? It seems to me when your last album Bloody Kisses was released, there was a lot of uproar.

Steele: I actually find a lot of it quite funny. When we played in Toronto on the last tour, there were a bunch of people harassing our fans outside of the venue, and so Johnny [Kelley] and I decided to go and hang out with the protesters, and none of them knew who we were. We went and stood across the street and started chanting "Fuck Type O Negative" and started throwing bottles at the club. These people came over and started joining in, they did not even know who we were.

!*@#: How much of an impact do you feel you posing nude in Playgirl last year has had on the success of the band? Have you picked up a lot of new fans since then?

Steele: I really do not think it has helped us get any new fans. As far as the whole Playgirl thing goes, from what I understand over 90 percent of their sales are through direct home subscriptions — whether the people who subscribe want me in the centerfold or not, well they got me. When the thing came out last August, there was a slight increase in album sales, so I mean it did what I hoped it would do — expose us to a new audience.

!*@#: The band seems to be a lot less serious live than on record.

Steele: We are definitely not serious. We are just a bunch of clowns that are paid to entertain. After the show we take our make-up off and we shit and bleed just like anyone else does.

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Interview#1996/2: "Q&A with Peter Steele" (Peter Steele, July 1996) by Sheila Rene'

Bootleg#20: Ich bin ein Vinnlander (2CD Live 2007 // 2023 Blood Moon)

Live at the Columbiahalle, Berlin, Germany (15th June 2007)

Sheila Rene': Hello Peter

Peter Steele: (low sexy voice) Sheeeela

SR: It's a pleasure to be talking to you again.

PS: Likewise.

SR: Where do I sign up for the overthrow? Are you going to lead us? (This is in reference to the song "Wolf Moon." Steele is a firm believer that this country should be overthrown and renamed Vinnland which is the name the Vikings gave the U.S. many decades past)

PS: I'm going to have to give it some more thought. I think it might be an error. I expect the F.B.I. to be waiting outside my house any day now.

SR: We're not going to let that happen.

PS: Maybe I should move to Montana.

SR: I've been listening to this advance CD of several tunes from the upcoming album. It's killer. You had a lot of directions you could have gone such as the "Kill All" and "We Hate Everyone" route.

PS: Right.

SR: The production on this album is so rich. So many levels of sound.

PS: It's a lot more laid back and it's more sensual. Anybody can scream and have a tantrum, but that doesn't take much talent. The goal is to try to layer stuff on top of other stuff, nice and compact, but not muddy. It takes a little more effort.

SR: At 3:00 am this morning I got in from the Butthole Surfers concert and I was listening to the advance tracks...surfing through Roadrunner's website looking for more information on you. I hit upon a chat room that was asking the question, is Type O Negative gothic? I told him to put the new album on, turn it up to eleven, put on the headphones and just leave his body.

PS: (laughing) Good for you. We are maybe junk rock.

SR: Is there any significance to the album's title?

PS: First and foremost I just like the way the word sounds. I would like to conjure up an image into the minds of our fans as to what our fans may interpret it to mean. Also, I love autumn. October happens to be my favorite month. I like working with metal so I'm often full of rust.

SR: I did learn one thing from your website, your lifetime goal is to be able to play bass and sing at the same time.

PS: It's a very difficult thing to do that's why I look at Mr. Paul McCartney as one of my all-time heroes because he is such a great vocalist and bassist, yet he can do both things completely independent of each other. It's as if two people are playing his instrument. The guy is just amazing.

SR: It says here in the biography that some of these parts were written when you were 13 or 14 years of age. You remember back that far, hell I can't remember last week.

PS: That is absolutely correct. I remember these little riffs I came up with. Simple little things and then I exaggerated them on the album to make them a little more interesting but, yeah the ideas did come from when I was a post-pubescent.

SR: Is that your garbage truck that you sampled? Do you miss it?

PS: Yes it was. You're not working for the State of New York anymore. (laughing) I miss it greatly.

SR: Our last interview you were talking about how you wrote a lot of songs waiting your turn to dump your trash load. Now this album was mostly written in the back of a bus while on tour.

PS: Yeah, that was not conducive to creativity...sitting in the back of a tour bus, looking at the Martian landscape outside the window wondering where the hell I am now. So I really had to search my soul to come up with some ideas. Unfortunately, I don't have a soul so when I looked into myself there's nothing there but a black hole. So I just had to play Beatles albums backwards and steal all the riffs off the Sgt. Pepper's album.

SR: I love your sense of humor, it's so great. I consider you to be quite a spiritual person, personally speaking.

PS: It's a strange thing people have said this to me but I don't even think I have a spirit. I don't think I've lived before. I don't believe in anything after death. I consider myself to be 240 pounds of organic chemicals and that's really about it.

SR: I've always thought you would make a great runway model.

PS: I'm a lot of meat in motion.

SR: I was at the Austin show. Standing right underneath you. I loved the whole thing. Was it a memorable show for you guys?

PS: Really? I'm trying to think of the Austin show. I only recall one bad show on that tour and it wasn't the Austin show, so I'm forced to say that it was a good show.

SR: Did you have any time to spend with Ozzy?

PS: Ohhhh. Mr. Osbourne seemed to be really busy at that point. He came into our dressing room once or twice and said a few kind words to us. But, otherwise, there wasn't any mingling or hanging out.

SR: That's too bad because you have a lot in common. You think alike on many subjects.

PS: He seems to be a really nice person. He was just really busy. I pull up to the show and then I leave. I didn't want to be like every other band who's toured with him these last 25 years and who wanted to tell him what an influence he was. I just wanted to leave the man alone and have some peace.

SR: That's the way I feel about you. I was hanging around but didn't see a time when I could interrupt you with so many folks around you.

PS: You can bother me anytime. Next time make sure you say hello.

SR: Okay, next time I'll come over and say 'Hey, good lookin' what you got cookin'? What's been your favorite tour to date.

PS: (laughter) The Pantera tour was fun just because those guys are party animals. I mean I'm not really into partying, but they're just down-to-earth fun people. They treated us like brothers. It was quite refreshing and I miss them a lot. We might be touring with them in Europe around Christmas.

SR: You're leaving for Europe.

PS: Yes, we're leaving next week to play ten festivals and then we're doing two weeks of press. We're going to be on the move.

SR: I just got the Donnington Festival lineup. It's pretty impressive.

PS: Yeah, I wasn't really too happy about that, but we think that we have a lot of fans over there. We feel that they've been so supportive that we should go over and play for a while. We'll be there for a month and then we're coming back to New York, then we're going back for two weeks for press. I believe we're going back around Christmas for a month.

SR: That doesn't leave much time for your U.S. fans.

PS: Things change by the minute and I'm sure that everything I just told you will be completely different. It's just how things work.

SR: I'm glad to see that you've keep the 'thigh' thread going in this album. We had a sensual line in "Christian Woman" and now again in "Druidess."

PS: (laughter) Oh, the thigh thread. That's something I didn't even think of to tell you the truth. Thigh rhymes nicely with many words.

SR: I really, really love that "Druidess" tune. 'Smell your hair, brush my hand against your thighs." Very, very sensual. It's 7:18 of sensuality.

PS: Thanks.

SR: The "Wolf Man" brings up the new craze of beasts, warlocks, vampires, et al. All the major networks are getting to this now trend.

PS: People just love to be scared.

SR: The West Palm Beach show was a lighting scare. That show got the most mentions as being a great show on the internet.

PS: Yes, it was. That was our last show too. I wonder why they thought that was our best show?

SR: I just think they thought that God had spoken with nature's light show. They'll remember that show for a long time.

PS: I felt really bad for our fans at that show. They were really getting soaked, but there was nothing I could do about that.

SR: The guitar solo on "Druidess" is suburb. Is that Kenny Hickey?

PS: It's simple but it rocks.

SR: Has Johnny helped out on any of the writing? I see you decomposed almost everything.

PS: Not really. Pretty much like Sal he's just really good at taking orders. Not that I'm a dictator or anything. I just tell him what I'd like to hear and he just comes up with three or four different things and I choose the best one. There's a lot of cooperation that's necessary between us. There's an understanding that I write the songs and bring them down to the band; if somebody wants to add something to the song, that's fine, so long as it doesn't change the overall idea. It seems to have worked the last five years.

SR: Your production skills keep getting stronger.

PS: That's also because we had a much larger budget this time which helped. If we didn't like something that we heard back on tape, our motto was 'when in doubt throw it out.' So we just worked it out until everybody could live with it.

SR: I didn't get to see the Playgirl article, but I'm still trying to find a back issue.

PS: If you've seen one you've seen them all.

SR: I don't think so.

PS: (laughing) Why do you say that?

SR: I just think you're pretty different from a lot of people.

PS: Thank you.

SR: I don't understand this song called "Wolf Moon." It's a 'so-called song' full of marching and screaming sounds, entitled "The Liberation Of Vinnland by Pan-European Forces."

PS: That comes back to the fact that I think this country should be overthrown and should be recristened Vinnland which is what the Vikings named this land many years ago.

SR: That's not a different song, it's part of "Wolf Moon." Right?

PS: That's right.

SR: Count me in as a flag carrier. A black cross, with a white border on a green field.

PS: Okay, thank you.

SR: I know you used "Cinnamon Girl" on this album because you played it in concert. Did you get a lot of requests for it to be recorded?

PS: No requests. Actually it was always one of my favorite songs. Having been born in 1962 and having five older sisters, I was constantly exposed to all different types of music. This one song seems to have stuck out and I was never a big fan of Neil Young, honestly. I just happen to like that one song. It was easy to make heavy. It only has four chords and I only know four chords so it's the song for us.

SR: What are you listening to these days?

PS: Everything from Devo to Cure, My Bloody Valentine and stuff like that. Red House Painters is another. Since my testosterone level drop I just can't get into really heavy music anymore.

SR: What are you looking forward to with this band in the next year or two?

PS: Meeting more of our fans hopefully and perhaps finally gaining financial independence and being able to take care of the people close to me that I care about.

SR: Are you married?

PS: I have been married but I'm not anymore. It wasn't a real marriage. It was like playing house. Just the wrong thing to do. She went her way and I went mine.

SR: I don't think rock and roll and marriage mixes very well.

PS: No, it's not a good thing. There's a lot of temptation out there on the road and being human sometimes I fall into the passions of the flesh.

SR: There's a tune out speaking to the same subject as your "My Girlfriend's Girlfriend." So we've got a trend going here. Two girls, one guy and one bed.Your last cover on Bloody Kisses would have worked here.

PS: There's no doubt about that. We've got a lot of female couples that come to see the band which is not a problem for me. The more the merrier I always say.

SR: What's the new cover? I just have the advance with no paperwork.

PS: It's a picture of four, thorny stems that run from top to bottom on a black background. It pretty much represents the four members of the band. It looks very phallic too. The thorns on the stem say something about the dangers of the penis.

SR: I love your quote in the bio that goes 'We decided to follow our hearts and penises and see where they take us. That usually leads to trouble, but that's what I'm used to.'

PS: (laughing) Yeah, but trouble is fun. Fun without danger really isn't fun. You might as well go to Disneyland.

SR: Have you ever thought about doing a spoken word album?

PS: Ummm, no I haven't honestly. I don't really see people wanting to know what I have to say. My opinions are based upon my environment so those who've not walked in my shoes I don't think would really give a shit. Anything is possible. I've learned to never say never.

SR: Who was Bacchus? I looked up Bacchus and Druidess and they're not in the dictionary.

PS: Bacchus was the Greek god of wine, merriment and the woods. I came up with the Druidess word myself. I was always into druids and Celtic lore. I figured what if there was this druidess and I was her male slave and she had me do certain things to her. It's just a fantasy of mine.

SR: It's on the same plane as "Christian Woman."

PS: That song was actually autobiographical whereas I didn't want to write about my boring puberty, so I projected my body into a 13 or 14 year old girl and I exaggerated it to make it interesting.

SR: Did Monte Conner have any input on this album?

PS: He tried but there were some things I listened to him about. I'm essentially pig-headed and shut out everyone and did just what I wanted to do.

SR: How long was the recording process?

PS: Recording and mixing took about ten weeks.

SR: Back to Systems Two.

PS: Yeah, they're in Brooklyn. The whole band is from Brooklyn so it made sense.

SR: Are you friends with those Biohazard guys? They're coming to Austin in two weeks.

PS: Yes, we're good friends. When you see them please tell them I say hello.

SR: Lots of interviews today?

PS: You're my seventh out of ten for the day.

SR: I'll let you go because I know you're really busy.

PS: That's okay. This has been fun. They've got me working. They're feeding me so that's fun. They have a girl who comes in every hour and she puts a bib on me and spoon feeds me while I talk. She will not breast feed me. I just don't know what the problem is.

SR: What's been the most common question?

PS: The question about the title of the album, October Rust?

SR: We all just want to know everything about everything.

PS: Yes, yes inquiring minds just want to know.

SR: I wish the best of times in Europe and I'll track you down when you get back to Texas.

PS: Thank you sweetie.

============================================================================

Interview#1996/3: (Peter Steele, 1996) by Nikki Brooks

Bootleg#21: Vinnlandia Polka (CD Live 2007 // 2024 Wolfmoon)

Live at the Woodstock Festival, Kostrzyn, Poland (3th August 2007)

After TON had played their set I tried to make contact with Rich Koffer via the Show Sec people, but while waiting I learnt that TON were going to be in the signing tent AFTER Korn. Aha, plotted the Nik, I'll try to get an interview with Peter.

So, wearing the e-mail list t-shirt, I shoved my way through to the barrier and asked one of the Show Sec if I could do an interview. Mike Peak from Kerrang came out to talk to me and I told him I was from the e-mail list and wanted to do an interview and that my friend would like to take some photos. So, we got in at the front of the TON queue and waited. Thank you Mike.

Yes, we were first in. I asked Peter if I could do a mini interview wth him for the e-mail list. He said YES! He then said "That's a very interesting T-shirt you have there, can I have it?". My reply was "Er, sorry, it wouldn't fit you" (sorry Peter but it took me ages to get my mitts (hands) on this T-shirt and, well, English ladies don't take their t-shirts off in front of men they don't know - HA HA!).

I took my sunglasses off and gave him the benefit of the full emerald gaze, actually he seemed quite taken aback!

So here's the mini interview conducted while he was furiously scribbling on lots of free Kerrang postcards given to the fans waiting in the queue.

NIK: Your first Donington, how was it for you?

PETER: Very nice.

NIK: It was such a short set, only 3 songs.

PETER: Unfortunately we only had half an hour.

NIK: Will you come back next year?

PETER: If we are allowed to.

NIK: Will you be touring the UK later this year?

PETER: Yes, we tour Europe in November.

NIK: When is the release date in the UK for October Rust?

PETER: August 19th in Europe.

NIK: Thank you very much.

PETER: Thank you.

NIK: The e-mail list is very good, you should read it sometime.

PETER: I haven't got a computer

============================================================================

**Blog#1996/4: "Type O Bleeds Vic, Chicago" (Peter Steele, July 1995) by Jeff Pizek**

Bootleg#22: End Of An Era - The Last Show (CD 2009 // 2024 The Peter Steele Appreciation Society)

Live at the Harpo's, Detroit, US (31st October 2009)

Type O Negative's tour tee shirts may proclaim them the "Drab Four", but the atmosphere before their impending concert performance belies any trappings of melancholy.

The mood is one of passive anxiousness, both in the fans and in Peter Steele, guitarist, singer and primary songwriter of New York's premier vampire metal band. Like a few of the solemn Type O apostles sniffling outside, Steele is trying to get over a cold. Rather than canceling the show, he has chosen to go on despite his fever and clogged sinuses, and it seems as though he might be regretting his altruistic decision to please his devoted fans.

The Chicago sky is a headache- inducing shade of tombstone grey, the damn remains of a miserable drizzle painting the sidewalks with a similar dank gloom. A clammy chill wafts amidst the morosely-clad gathering of metalheads and vampires awaiting entrance to the Vic Theater, mingling with the sickly-sweet aroma of clove cigarette smoke. It seems the perfect day for a Type O Negative show, the ambience appropriately complementing the bands sensual, somber goth metal.

Inside the bus, however, Steele and keyboardist Josh Silver are warm and genial, at contrast with their surroundings and their dreary, sarcastic language. Impossibly tall and muscular, the imposing band leader transmogrifies from his convivial "average guy from Brooklyn" mode when discussing his music, proving intelligent and articulate.

Type O Negative's recently-released third studio effort, October Rust (Roadrunner) is light years away from their earliest material: ferocious, bitter doom thrash with a gothic edge and an endearing self-deprecating sense of humor. Steele sees the slow, lush, almost poppish approach of Rust as a natural progression from the 1993's cult hit Bloody Kisses. Melody has always been prevalent in his music, even in his early days with politically-incorrect thrash legends Carnivore.

"It's not really any less heavy. There are still guitar parts, it's just a lot more layered," he says, referring to the elaborate production. Steele is very proud of Type O Negative, maintaining that complied with the sex-symbol mentle provided by Playgirl last year "for the band".

As he says farewell to prepare for his pre-show workout, Peter Steele thanks his fans for their devotion while Silver offers them his condolences, for no other specified reason than that "they like Type O Negative". Nefarious bloodsuckers, these men are not.

JDØS (Jablka Daleko Ød Stromu // Joy Destroys Øur Solitude)

Pages

JDØS Specials: Type O Negative - Read Slow & Listen Hard Part.2

Part#1 ⏭️ Part#2 ⏭️ Part#3 ⏭️ Part#4 ⏭️ Part#5

Table of Contents:

**Interview#1995/9: "Interview With the Vampires" LIVE WIRE (Peter Steele, July 1995)**

Bootleg#13: Danish Rust (CD Live 1997 // 2022 Wolfmoon)

**Interview#1995/10: "Pantera Are Like the Brothers I Never Had" METAL HAMMER (Peter Steele, July 1995)**

Bootleg#14: Stone Flowers (CD Comp. // 1998 N/A)

Interview#1995/11: PLAY GIRL (Peter Steele, August 1995)

Bootleg#15: World White Slavery (4CD Live 1998, 1999 // Vinnlandia)

Interview#1995/12: KERRANG (Peter Steele, October 1995)

Bootleg#16: Love Eternal Lust Infernal (CD Live 1999 // Vinnlandia)

Interview#1995/13: PRIMAL CHAOS (Josh Silver, November 1995) by Wendy Van Dusen

Bootleg#17: Alive and Coming Down (CD Live 2000 // Wolfmoon)

Interview#1995/14: "Blowing Out the Rust" (Peter Steele, Kenny Hickey 1995) by Frank Moriarty

Bootleg#18: Suck With Full Force (CD Live 2003 // 2021 Wolfmoon)

Interview#1995/15: "Tone Zone" LIVEWIRE (Peter Steele, 1995) by Eddie Malluk

Interview#1996/1: (Peter Steele, 1996) by Sean Palmerston

Bootleg#19: Barely Alive In California (CD Live 2003 // 2025 Wolfmoon)

Interview#1996/2: "Q&A with Peter Steele" (Peter Steele, July 1996) by Sheila Rene'

Bootleg#20: Ich bin ein Vinnlander (2CD Live 2007 // 2023 Blood Moon)

Interview#1996/3: (Peter Steele, 1996) by Nikki Brooks

Bootleg#21: Vinnlandia Polka (CD Live 2007 // 2024 Wolfmoon)

**Blog#1996/4: "Type O Bleeds Vic, Chicago" (Peter Steele, July 1995) by Jeff Pizek**

Bootleg#22: End Of An Era - The Last Show (CD 2009 // 2024 The Peter Steele Appreciation Society)

Live at the Harpo's, Detroit, US (31st October 2009)