JDØS (Jablka Daleko Ød Stromu // Joy Destroys Øur Solitude): JDØS Specials: Type O Negative

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#1: RAW Magazine (Peter Steele, March 1994)

Bootleg#1: None More Repulsive (Comp. 1990-1991, 2CD, Vinnlandia)

Repulsion - Live at L'Amour, New York, USA (29th March 1990)
Repulsion - Live at L'Amour, New York, USA (3rd May 1991)

Full name and nickname
“Peter Steele. Some people in Brooklyn call me Lurch, after the Addams Family character.”

Date and place of birth
“4 January 1562. Somewhere in Southern Europe.”
(Interviewer notes he doesn’t look a day over 300.)
“Well, thank you, brother.”

Current home
“Brooklyn, New York — the epitome of urban blight. Do I plan to leave? Yes. My main goal in life is to get out of the city.”

Previous bands
“Most people know Carnivore. We mixed Hardcore, Thrash, and early Heavy Metal. Carnivore broke up because Mark, our other guitarist, wasn’t thrilled that some of his songs didn’t fit what we were doing. So he left, I got bored, and we packed it in.”

Favourite drink
“Skimmed milk. I do drink alcohol, but only with women — usually red wine. Why only with women? Because I have no use for men whatsoever.”

Three words to describe yourself
“Tall, White and Ugly.”

What car do you drive?
“A modified 1985 Grand Prix. Half car, half truck — something out of Mad Max. Not fast, but in its current shape everyone has more to lose than I do. I barrel through traffic, ignore red lights, stop signs, pedestrians…”

Childhood career dream
“I thought about being a doctor, until I realized how much work it would take.”

If your house caught fire, what would you save first?
“My girlfriend.”
(Interviewer notes feminists might object to the word ‘possession’.)
“OK, but I consider her mine and she considers me hers.”

Relationship with parents
“Very well. Did they encourage my music? It kept me out of jail, out of the hospital, and out of the morgue.”

Best thing about being in Type O Negative
“There is no best thing. My ultimate goal is to move out of the city. Money represents independence. If I can make some, I can achieve my goal.”

(Interviewer expresses surprise at his honesty.)

“It’s becoming more of a full-time job every day. I’ve started to dislike playing live, and the rest of the band wants to be rock stars. I don’t. I’ll make an asshole of myself onstage just to keep the band together, in the hope that someday I can make that dollar and move out of New York.”

Last thing you do before going onstage?
“Sometimes I take really long shits. If I needed to go during the show, I’d have to stop the song and announce it. We’d put on some doctor’s-office muzak, and half an hour later I’d come out like a new man.”

Where and when did you lose your virginity?
“In my parents’ basement. I was 14 and it was with my first girlfriend, who was also a virgin. I was lucky — I didn’t have to embarrass myself with an experienced woman.”

Which historical event would you like to witness?
“Any battle between two barbaric tribes.”
(Interviewer asks if he’s into the bloodshed.)
“Not really the bloodshed. But that’s man’s real nature — nature’s way of solving problems. If men have problems, they should fight it out instead of taking each other to court. That’s too costly and time-consuming.”

Strangest request from a fan?
“Female fans have asked me to have sex with them.”

Favourite person in the world
“My mother.”

Least favourite person
“Myself.”
(Interviewer suggests low self-esteem.)
“No, I’m just objective.”

Most peculiar place you’ve had sex
“Under my back porch while my family was having a barbecue. I could see them through the cracks in the wood — they had no idea.”

Which part of your body would you change?
“I’d swap my face for my ass. Then I’d be better looking.”

Worst thing about being in Type O Negative
“Having to play live.”

Worst thing ever written about you
“I’ve had them all: fascist, racist, sexist, satanist, communist…”
(Interviewer assumes he feels misunderstood.)
“Extremely. In the States, the right-wing thinks I’m a communist because I have long hair; the left-wing here says I’m a Nazi. I must be balanced — I’m hated by all.”

(Interviewer mentions the LP that had to be sold by mail order in the UK.)
“That was because I put my ass on the cover. Most chains thought it crossed the line. Or maybe it was too beautiful for their stores.”

Views on groupies
“I pity them. I have no interest in groupies, drugs, or fame. I just want to make a few bucks and get out.”

If you were a fly on a wall, whose wall?
“I’d find the nearest window and fly out.”
(Interviewer suggests he’s antisocial.)
“Actually I’m a-social. It’s not that I don’t like people — I just don’t care about them.”

Proudest moment of your life
“A couple of years ago, when I realized I no longer had to ask anyone else for anything. It just happened. I’m glad, because I don’t like people asking me for stuff. I believe in self-subsistence.”

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Interview#2: MEAT Magazine (Josh Silver, November 1994)

Bootleg#2: Beginning of an Era (CD Live 1990 // 2025 The Peter Steele Appreciation Society)

Repulsion - Live at L'Amour, New York, USA (29th March 1990)

Type O Negative has always thrived on fear, hatred, anger, lust — and complete indifference toward whether anyone likes them or not. Yet somehow, the Brooklyn gothic/metal quartet — Peter Steele (vocals/bass, ex-Carnivore), John Silver (keyboards), Kenny Hickey (guitar), and Sal Abruscato (drums) — still managed to claw its way into the music industry.

Silver himself can’t quite explain why the band exploded the way they did after the release of Bloody Kisses — an album that came out more than a year before this interview and has since become their breakthrough. Bloody Kisses is a long step away from the pure hatred and raw suffering that shaped their 1991 debut Slow, Deep and Hard and its follow-up The Origin of the Feces. Instead, Kisses weaves a hypnotic, almost ritualistic flow of grief, darkness, and twisted romantic despair — like a storybook documenting the band’s heartbreak and loss.

“Writing-wise, Bloody Kisses is written more from depression and sorrow than the anger Slow… was written from,” Silver says, who co-produced the record with Steele. “It’s basically the same emotions — depression is just anger turned inside out. We’re not afraid to grow. We know we’re going to change the way we think. We’re just giving our opinion.”

Despite surfacing during the explosion of 90s alternative rock, Type O Negative wants nothing to do with that movement. Their credibility rests on doing things their own way — even if that means leaving enemies behind.

“We’re not huge supporters of people who once weren’t our friends but suddenly are now because the album sold so many copies,” Silver says bluntly.

So who does the band credit for their success?

“Certainly not the intelligence of the human race,” he laughs. “Maybe somebody’s bribing someone, or maybe Roadrunner is buying all our albums back. Success is not worth anything if it means giving up artistic value or control for any amount of money. And we don’t feel like being role models. We’re just doing what we like. I’d rather get a bad reaction than no reaction.”

When asked whether they will someday look back at their work with pride, Silver dismisses the idea:

“What’s the point? There’s no reason to look back — you can’t change what happened. You learn from the experience and continue on.”

As expected, a lot of things bother Type O Negative. One of Silver’s biggest frustrations is watching struggling bands work hard while mainstream acts blow up overnight.

“That affects me because it’s my career, my business. I don’t like it, but that’s human nature. The media shoves something down someone’s throat and they take it. That’s the unfortunate nature of man.”

Regardless of how one interprets Type O Negative’s worldview, it’s hard not to feel at least a spark of compassion for a band that insists on reminding us that everyone — including themselves — is deeply flawed. Disturbed? Maybe. But their negativity is exactly what fuels them. Corporate control or mainstream success would only extinguish that fire.

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Interview#3: “Be Careful What You Wish For” - Aquarian Weekly (Peter Steele, Josh Silver, 8th February 1995) by Robert Makin

Bootleg#3: Live In Querfurt (CD Live 1991 // 2021 Wolfmoon)

Bootleg#4: Send More Bomb Threats (CD Live 1991 // 2025 Vinnlandia)

Bootleg#5: Alive and Sucking (CD Live 1992 // 2023 Wolfmoon)

Live at Querfurt at Klemme, Germany (14th December 1991)

Q: Comment on the recent concern about violence and injury in the moshpit.

PS: When you go out to have a good time — like playing football or racing cars — there’s always an element of danger. Just because somebody gets hurt playing football doesn't mean you're going to ban football games.

Kids go to a club to have fun. I think it should be known that if somebody gets hurt at a club, it's their own responsibility. It’s not the club's fault. The club shouldn't be liable unless there's some goon throwing kids off stage or some kind of hazardous condition exists. But otherwise, if a kid gets up on stage, jumps off and gets hurt, that’s nobody's fault but his own.

We live in a society where everything's a lawsuit. Everybody else is to blame except the person who has the problem. People should really start taking responsibility for their own actions.

Q: Do you think there is a problem between some venues and patrons when it comes to moshing?

JS: There are some overzealous security guards who are a little too sadistic and enthusiastic, but that's an individual problem — just like there are overzealous patrons who go a little too berserk.

PS: You see a lot of fucked-up stuff from the stage. You see security whacking people, throwing kids down real hard. That’s something I don’t go for. These security goons just don't understand that they’re kids. It’s not that serious to them — they’re just there to have a good time. I don’t know what the solution is.

Q: What made you do a Carnivore reunion?

PS: Money — but primarily it’s fun. I get to see the guys I haven’t played with in a while. I get to see some of the people who used to go to Carnivore shows. It brings back good times.

Q: Does some of that same crowd come to see Type O?

PS: Very few.

Q: That surprises me, because the first two Type O albums were an obvious evolution from hardcore. I would think that the crowd would have evolved, too.

PS: The band has a lot of different influences, not just hardcore. It’s true that I have hardcore roots, but I was much younger — and definitely a very different person — when I was into that stuff.

Q: Is the hardcore scene dead?

PS: I would say so. There are a few hardcore bands now that I like. The band Shelter, that we're playing with tonight, really brings me back to the old days, because they have a very go-for-the-throat style — very unpretentious, very real — which is what hardcore was about. There really aren't too many bands like that now.

Q: Type O got their start in the metal scene, yet you — among many other heavy alternative acts — have evolved away from that scene.

Given that evolution, plus the recent cancellation of MTV’s Headbanger’s Ball and the closing of clubs such as L’Amour, is the metal scene also dead?

JS: The term is outdated. What is metal? What is alternative? Alternative is just everything that can’t be — or is hard to — classify. I think just the word metal is dead. There are bands that are heavy and have hard edges; it doesn’t mean they’re metal or not metal.

Q: Music seems to be harder and heavier than ever, yet it doesn’t sound like metal.

JS: There’s a lot more melody as opposed to five or six years ago.

Q: There’s also a lot of vocal harmony — such as on Bloody Kisses. How much do you think that has to do with your burgeoning commercial breakthrough?

PS: A lot. People want to be able to hum a song after they listen to it. I've had people come up to me and say, “You know, Pete, I hate you and your band, but I can’t get your fucking songs out of my head.” I’m like, “Thank you very much.”

Q: How much do you think Q104.3 has affected your career?

PS: A lot.

Q: Do you owe them a lot?

PS: Owe them? I don’t know, because it's like tit-for-tat. We provide something that keeps them in business, and they're doing a service for us that keeps us in business. I don't think we owe them anything except thanks.

Q: Comment on the fact that alternative radio stations — such as WHTG 106.3 — have gotten a lot heavier. This time last year, WHTG weren't playing bands like you and Danzig, and now they are.

PS: We're a commodity now.

Q: Has there been a unification of punk and metal — not only in the sound of the bands but also in their presentation?

PS: Maybe people are getting a bit more open-minded than in the past. I'm definitely finding that. I think it's a really good thing. There's not one pure type of music now. Everybody has so many different influences, and there’s so much great music out there, that it's like trying to paint a painting with just one color — it gets really boring. You need a whole palette to work from.

Q: That’s what Bloody Kisses is — a real diversification with elements of gothic, industrial, punk, metal, pop. You’ve worked really hard this past year. Roadrunner has worked hard with you. Probably your next record will come out on Roadrunner, but one day, do you see Type O Negative on a major label?

PS: Do you want to answer that, Josh?

JS: No, ’cause I’m scared of the answer.

PS: For me, I don’t mind being on a small label, because I have a lot of control. I’m afraid that if we get picked up by a larger label and I start having tantrums, they’ll just say drop dead and put the band on the shelf. Right now, I can just walk up to the office and threaten somebody and get my way. If I were to go to Warner Brothers, they’d just have security come. Roadrunner doesn’t have security.

Q: A lot of success has come your way. The perception is that you're an overnight success — but of course that's not true. In reality, your success, just like your debut album title, has come slow, deep and hard.

PS: I never thought of it like that, but it’s very true.

Live at Röhre, Stuttgart, Germany (15th December 1991)
* Live at L'Amour, New York, USA (5th April 1991)

Q: Compare that to bands such as Green Day or Candlebox — who explode from obscurity to overexposure.

JS: I think bands that come up that fast also go down that fast. Bands that take a lot of time and build up their followings — fans who are going to stick with you through musical changes and grow with the band — last over a period of years rather than on two radio singles. I think there’s a lot less longevity with a band that burns that bright too fast.

PS: Everything is pretty much formulated. There’s a business strategy involved. It’s like war — it’s the same thing. You lose, you lose everything.

Q: When the Pantera tour is done, you'll have been on the road almost a year straight. Does that feel like a war sometimes?

JS: All the time.

PS: With each other, yeah. More than anything else, I'm at war with myself, because I still don’t know if I’ve made the right decision yet by leaving my job and dedicating my life to the band. But we'll see. Anybody who’s ever made anything out of themselves has always had to take a huge chance. Failure is actually a really good thing if you learn from your errors. I don’t think I’m a stupid person. I learn from my mistakes.

Q: There's still plenty of opportunity at this point.

PS: Sure there is. There are lateral things that can be done as well. We've had some other interest. I just wrote a song for a movie called The Addiction. And there’s movie interest — parts in films for us, things like that. So it leads to other things.

Q: You can’t tell me you miss your day jobs.

PS: I do, yes — because I like routine. I like waking up at 4:30 a.m. I like being home from work at 2:30 p.m., so that I have the whole rest of the day to do the things I like to do. Money to me represents independence. Once I make enough, I won’t have to make any more, and I can kiss the whole world goodbye.

Q: What kind of toll has being on the road taken on your psyche?

PS: I think we're all just hanging on by strings right now, trying to be as patient and tolerant of each other as possible. We all miss our friends at home, our families. Hopefully it will lead to something better down the road. It’s an investment. We suffer now for some greater good.

JS: I just hope we don’t all lose sight of the fact that we were friends way before this band ever existed — and that before this much business got into it, it was a lot more fun.

PS: Definitely. When we all had day jobs, we didn’t have to take the band seriously. But now, this is what we live off of. If the band collapses, it's going to mean hardship for us. It’s a risk, and it’s become a bit more stressful.

Q: Is it still fun?

JS: It has its moments.

PS: Yeah — when we're having a really good show or when there’s funny things going on.

JS: But when you have nothing, you have nothing to lose. You don’t care. Now it’s our job. I’ve got to pay bills. I’m 32 years old. I’m not a child; I don’t live with my mother.
It’s a real concern, unfortunately.

PS: It’s a job. Full time.

Q: But if you compare your job operating heavy machinery for the city parks department to doing the band full-time — which is more like a job?

PS: The parks department, because I had a routine. This is different. They’re both a job, but it's like comparing apples to oranges.

Q: Josh, compare your old job to the band.

JS: It was very similar, because it was a lot of music. I was self-employed — running a recording studio — and had to always motivate myself, just like a band. If you’re not willing to really work hard, you're not going to be shit. I did always want to take a stab at this, but I gotta say: you gotta be careful what you wish for, because you might get it.

PS: And we do, usually. We get exactly what we want.

Q: You've already started to write your next album. What is that like compared to your previous releases?

PS: Stuff like Black No. 1, Christian Woman — heavy, melodic. I think I'd like the next album to be a bit more psychedelic, actually. But we'll see what happens. We had very different plans for this last album. It turned out radically different. Even though it didn't turn out like we expected it to, it turned out pretty well. Josh is really good in the studio. I tell him what I hear, and he's able to take those ideas and make them happen. So we're a good team in the studio.

Q: It's great that the band is so self-contained and you don't need a lot of outside influences.

JS: Only the pharmacist.

PS: I have to give him a call too.

Q: I wasn't going to ask you any Prozac questions, but since you brought it up…

PS: I'm still on it.

Q: [to Josh] Are you on it too?

JS: Valium.

Q: It helps?

PS: I don't want to find out that it doesn't by stopping it.

JS: He's depressed. I'm hyperactive. We have a pill for every occasion.

Q: Yin and Yang (laughs). Do you have any idea when your next album might come out?

PS: When this album stops selling. When we have exhausted every trick in the book to get the public to buy Bloody Kisses. As long as the album keeps on selling, why not support it?

JS: The problem is that it was out for six months and we didn't do anything.

PS: I didn't know what the hell I wanted to do with my life, because I had a great day job. I really didn't want to tour. Ken (Kriete), the band's manager, asked me if I could take some time off of work to do a six-week U.S. tour. I said fine, that's cool. The tour was so successful, I figured this could work. It really showed me that the band had potential. I said to the band, “I'm going to quit my job. Is everybody into this 100 percent?” And they said yeah. I quit my job and that was it.

Live at L'Amour, New York, USA (12th December 1992)

Q: Are you going to continue on past the Pantera tour?

PS: If the album still sells, yes — but I'm anxious to get back in the studio and make another album.

JS: We all are. We're sick of playing the same shit over and over.

PS: Even if it's an EP or a single. We like to be in the studio. We like to be home. We like to work like that, so the sooner the better. But I'm sure after Pantera there’ll be some festivals in Europe that we'll be asked to play.

Q: What is the best part of being this busy and what is the worst part?

JS: The best part, for me anyway, is achieving something that so few can do. So many try and so few succeed. I'm just happy with my own personal goals that I've set in my life.

PS: I think the best part is giving people pleasure with the music. The worst part is not being able to see the people you love. My parents are in their 70s. I'm horrified to call home every day, because I'm afraid of what I'm going to hear — or whom I'm not going to hear — when I call home. So things happen from time to time and I have to go home to take care of them, and that's added stress on me.

Q: It's good to see you're so tight with your parents.

PS: I love my parents. They've always been behind the band, always been behind me and Josh in local bands as kids. They never gave me a hard time about having long hair or spending thousands of dollars on basses and keyboards and all this other stuff, because they figured I could be doing a lot worse. I could be out doing drugs or some other shit — which we were never really into. We were actually good kids. We never got into any trouble.

Q: You've earned this success by not only being a good band but good people besides.

JS: I don't even think it's a matter of being good, because I'm sure there's plenty of pricks making tons of money in this business. But I think it just takes a lot of dedication. I've been doing this for 19 years. Pete and I have been on stage together for 19 years.

Q: What was your first band?
PS: Aggression. We played in the lunch room of P.S. 193 on Avenue L in Brooklyn, and I was hit with my first missile — a half-eaten apple, right in the head. It was a kind of look into the future for me.

Q: Comment on the irony of being tagged fascists by the European press, when Josh is Jewish.

JS: Well, there are Jewish fascists, but I'm not one of them.

PS: I think the basis for this was my band Carnivore. We had a symbol that some people said looked like a swastika. It was actually based on a radiation symbol — on three triangles — because there were three members in the band. It had nothing to do with fascism or anything like that. During the course of an interview with the German press, I had said — trying to emulate that John Lennon comment about the Beatles being more popular than Christ — that at the present time I felt that Type O Negative was more popular than Adolf Hitler. I learned from that interview that when people don't have a complete grasp of the English language, they do not understand sarcasm. So now, when I do interviews with Europeans, I don't try to be funny. If they ask me a question, I give them a direct answer that cannot be misconstrued.

Q: So the misconception of the band as Nazis was the result of a language barrier?

JS: Partly, and I think it's a guilt problem. I think they feel real guilty over there for World War II. They should stop inflicting their guilt onto others and worry about what the important issues are. They really have serious stuff going on over there. If they have nothing better to do than bother with four assholes from Brooklyn, then that's pretty sad.

PS: What’s really sad and ironic is that they would use Nazi tactics against us. They were calling us fascists, yet they were protesting our shows, calling the club owners at home, threatening their lives and their families, breaking windows — like Kristallnacht Part II. I thought it was hypocritical.

JS: It was. They had to use total propaganda to accomplish that. They wrote that when we play in New York, we play with a swastika behind us, we have white power guards lining the stage, and the audience Sieg Heils us. They made up a complete science fiction story, just like Hitler did, and all these radical, so-called liberal people became exactly what they were fighting against — which is Nazis.

PS: But something wonderful came out of it. These people stirred up so much controversy for the band that we sold thousands of albums we normally could not have sold, because they generated so much curiosity about the band. They cut their own throats. So now I look forward to making comments to these people, because I know it will sell albums in the future.

Q: Another thing that ties into Josh being Jewish… do you ever get sick of Pete’s lyrics about Christianity?

JS: No, because growing up with Christians and going out with mostly Christian women—just because that's the environment I'm in—I have as many opinions about Christianity and Catholicism as any Catholic would. Probably more, because I'm a little further back from the situation.
I think it’s a completely destructive institution. I think Judaism is too. I think Catholicism is worse, but it’s shades of grey. Organized religion in general is a nightmare.

Q: I'm fascinated by the way your lyrics point out the negative and destructive aspects of organized religion. It makes me curious as to how you incorporate spirituality in your lives.

PS: I have no spirituality. I am completely rooted in science. I'm 200 pounds of walking meat. The idea of God to me is attempting to put a face on physics that we have yet to understand. God, to me, is a physics book.

JS: I completely agree, 100 percent. There was nothing before life, there is nothing after life. People have to answer all questions. People are terrified to say we just don't know, but we just don't. To make up a bizarre explanation that 80 percent of the planet believes is horrifying. They're just deluding themselves. They have to have some form of denial in order to continue existence.

PS: Religion is just mass psychosis.

Q: But outside of religion, apart from a god, do you have any spirituality?

JS: The word spirituality has to be more clearly defined. It conjures up images of supernatural things. I think my spirit is an electro-magnetic field in my brain that makes up my personality. When my heart ceases to beat and no more oxygen reaches that brain, that's the end of it. That doesn't mean I don't think I have a soul so-to-speak. My soul is my personality, but it's not magical or mystical or amazing. It's not going to float through the universe forever after I'm dead. That's just my opinion.

Q: Why then does religion play a part in your lyrics?

PS: It's something that most people can relate to. It makes an interesting topic to write songs about. I was raised Catholic. I am no longer Catholic. I went to the Catholic school where I had to deal with nuns and priests and all the bullshit that goes with that. Christianity is just really hypocritical. More people have died in the name of God than under any and all totalitarian regimes. It's ridiculous.

Q: Explain what inspired Christian Woman.

PS: Religious repression. The song is partially autobiographical. When I was growing up, sex was never discussed. Masturbation was never discussed. I had to repress sexual feelings, but, as you know, these feelings come out in many other ways. Some of the ways they came out were through dreams. Basically, that's what the song Christian Woman was about. But my life's really boring, so I'm not going to write a song about nocturnal emissions when I was 13 years old. So I projected myself into this teenage girl, who's so repressed. She goes to sleep looking at the cross every night, and when she closes her eyes, her fingers do the walking.

Q: What subjects will your next album concern?

PS: The next album is more based on paganism. More songs about women, of course.

Q: Isn't paganism a form of spirituality?

PS: Not the way I define it. I have the ultimate respect for nature. I consider myself an evolutionist. I find beauty in all things natural. My girlfriend and I like to go to the woods and look at leaves, almost like neo-hippies, getting into everything around us. That, to me, is paganism—respecting life. Everything has a right to live. In this band, we don't think that respect has to be earned. We think that respect should be given—until you realize that you're dealing with an asshole. Then you either try to walk away or break their legs.

Most ancient cultures—Nordic, Native American, Orientals—all have the same beliefs. As we get further and further away from our animal nature, we start to lose touch with the id and become a species that thinks we're better than anything else because we walk on two legs. For everything we create, we destroy 100 times.

JS: The planet will go on happily without us. I'm looking forward to it. Some people say that's a really negative attitude. That's not negative, that's totally positive.

PS: It's nature's way.

JS: We'd be doing the planet a favor by getting rid of all the people on Earth. It knows what to do. It's doing the right thing, and we can't stop it no matter how hard we try.

Q: Unless humankind changes its destructive ways.

JS: Yeah, can you imagine that? The common man changing his viewpoint? One hundred percent of humanity cooperating to make the world a better place? That's a great fairy tale, but it ain't gonna happen, man. Sorry.

PS: People will not change, especially when the media dictates values. That's really scary to me.

JS: What's even scarier is when they allow it to happen. It's one thing to be told what to do, it's another thing to be quiet and doing it.

Q: Like sheep.

JS: Exactly. Human nature is to destroy. If everyone was the same color, there'd be a new reason to kill each other.

PS: It would be, like, how a person smelled differently. There is always some reason to fight. My family comes from Brooklyn, where there is Irish, Italian, German. All these people look the same, but they fought every day, because they were from a different part of Europe.

Q: While touring, have you encountered any culture or society that comes close to an ideal?

PS: It seems like Scandinavia has it really together.

JS: The reason I think is because they refuse to let anybody in. Everyone has the same beliefs and culture, and they will not let you in. You can't go and live there if you wanted to.

PS: Everybody works, everybody contributes. That's what makes a society strong.

Q: If either of you were president of the United States, what would be your first course of action?

JS: I'd resign, because I don't want the job of herding ridiculous people to do what I consider to be the right thing. I want nature to take its course. I want man off this Earth, and I don't have to do a thing to accomplish my mission, except sit back and watch it happen.

PS: I think I would send all the white people back to Europe, all the Black people to Africa, all the Orientals to Asia. I'd just leave the country to the Native Americans and let them decide who's allowed back in. Then I would leave.

Q: When Valentine's Day comes around, you'll be in Michigan with a day off. What do you think you'll do?

JS: Masturbate.

PS: Probably playing a headlining show somewhere. We don't like days off.

JS: They're torture.

PS: If we don't play a headlining show, I would like to spend the day with a special lady.

Q: Who would be your first choice for a valentine, and what would you do?

JS: I'm glad I don't have that choice.

PS: Every woman is beautiful. Every woman is like a flower in a junkyard to me. I don't know. I like to please women, so it's not so much what I would do, it's what they want me to do to them.

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

Interview#4: Alternative Press (Peter Steele, Josh Silver, March 1995) By Jason Pettigrew

Bootleg#6: Bloody Kisses - The Demos (CD Comp. 1993 // 2021 Carnivore Fanclub)

If you cloned Type O Negative's Peter Steele several times and put him on THE DATAING GAME, you'd have a ratings sweep. Bachelor Number One is Petey Steele from the Brooklyn 'hood who used to clean parks for the city. He loves doting on his mom and five sisters, and going out for a couple of brews with the locals at night.

Then there's Bachelor Number Two: Peter, the sad, dark, introspective romantic yearning to travel back in time and help Emily Bronte proofread WUTHERING HEIGHTS. When THIS Pete gave AP his TOP SENSORY PERCEPTIONS for 1992's Top Ten Lists, he included "how blood and dry red wine complement each other" and "the howl of a winter wind through the branches of dead trees." This Peter will readily admit that he should have been born a thousand years ago when his six-foot-six, 220 pound frame would have been better suited for protecting his village from a Mongol horde than playing bass in a rock band.

Then there's Bachelor Number Three: that fuggin' dick Pete, the former lead shithead in Carnivore, the mid-80's hardcore thrash trio. This Pete pissed lyrical venom like "We fell from different cunts and your skin's an ugly color."

So which is the real Pete Steele? And which bachelor will be my escort as I join Type O Negative in Texas during their tour with Danzig and Godflesh?

"I think I'm a blue-collar worker from Brooklyn," Steele says quietly in his Noo Yawk accent. His piercing blue eyes and sharp cheekbones that seemingly stop at his cerebrum contribute to his intense persona as he winds down on the tour bus. "This thing just fell into my lap and it is an opportunity to escape urban blight. I'm a social retard, and I have a hard time dealing with people. I don't like crowds, I don't like noise, I don't like people, I don't like being questioned. I just want to be left alone."

You made a fine career choice, Mr. Steele.

"It's an investment." he volleys back, adjusting his tied-back hair into a more comfortable position. "Anybody who has gotten anything out of life has had to work for it."

How uncomfortable are you?

"I'm ready to walk off this bus right now."

Type O Negative's weird synergy of metal, gothic and industrial rock elements is stomping down modern rock's well-established parameters. The band's recent Roadrunner album, BLOODY KISSES, bridges so-called exclusive musics in a swirl of sonic schizophrenia. Keyboardist Josh Silver, guitarist Kenny Hickey, drummer John Kelly, and bassist frontman Steele are merely a bunch of Brooklyn louts who create compelling music for fans of various musical subgenres who once jeered at each other. Now these factions link arms and bang their heads. In the past two years Type O have opened for the likes of Motley Crue, Nine Inch Nails, and most recently Danzig. Okay, so they don't have the universal appeal across the musical map like the Beatles. But the quartet successfully fulfills the expectations of the fans of the bands with whom they've toured.

Steele's first serious group, Carnivore, broke up just as its momentum was escalating. He then went to work as a heavy-equipment operator for the parks department of the state of New York. He took the entrance exam to become a police officer and scored high but did not pursue it. ("When you're a cop, you're a cop 24 hours a day. Plus, I realized that I'd be locking up most of my friends and family.") He stayed with the parks department, wrote songs and formulated Type O Negative with longtime friend Silver, guitarist Hickey and drummer Sal Abruscato.

When Roadrunner released Type O's industrimetal debut album, SLOW, DEEP AND HARD, Steele was at a low ebb in his personal life. He was depressed, reactionary and had attempted suicide. Art does imitate life, and songs like "Unsuccessfully Coping With The Natural Beauty of Infidelity" (a.k.a. "I Know You're Fucking Someone else") branded Steele as a misogynist, while "Der Untermensch"--the term the Third Reich used to describe certain "inferior" racial groups--was the metaphor Steele used for people who sell drugs to children. The band got their fair share of bomb threats when touring through Europe, and traveling through America with the likes of cartoon punks the Exploited made Steele wonder if the parks department was the way to go after all.

"Some of the things I said on the first album were taken out of context and often misconstrued," explains Steele, playing with an ashtray. "We were labeled fascists because of 'Untermensch.' 'Unsuccessfully Coping...' was about one woman, not all women. I have five sisters and I live to please women. That really upset me."

While Steele was deliberating about Type O's future, Abruscato left to join Life of Agony after agreeing to record BLOODY KISSES. When Steele realized that there was a positive response to his work, he kept the band together and enlisted Johnny Kelly in the drum chair. The scenario of being "that close" to success was happening again, and Steele had the wherewithal to get his act together.

"I've never taken any of my bands seriously." he candidly admits." I've been sitting on the fence for ten years now. I don't blame Sal for leaving one bit.

"For a long time, I did not know who I was, I did not know what I wanted. I was crushed by peer pressure, and I listened to a lot of people because I was told by a lot of people around me that I was a moron. And now I've realized that it's not me that's fucked up. It is the rest of the world. I'm certainly not a genius but I believe I've found myself."

BLOODY KISSES explores themes of dark sensuality and fatalistic romance, all cloaked in carefully orchestrated keyboard atmospheres, Black Sabbath dirge speeds and Steele's alternating somber/psychotic vocal. He will talk enthusiastically about all types of music, having a strong appreciation for much of the ethereal goth on the Projekt label, Dead Can Dance, Cocteau Twins, Curve and the like. (On a recent trip to the AP office, he discovered the languid pop of Low.) Steele also thinks that the band should be made up entirely of electronic keyboards because the scope of mere bass/drums/guitar is too limiting. He smiles casually at the juvenile comments of reactionary hard-line metal fiends who deem TON positively wimpy compared to Carnivore.

"I refuse to take the same path [as before]," he calmly states without any sign of rancor. "It's boring. I don't watch MTV, listen to the radio and I don't care what the Joneses are doing. Unless of course, it's Jim Jones [insert rim shot here]. One of the things this band has going for it is its brutal honesty. I will tell people immediately that we all suck in this band. When someone compliments me, I can't respond, I can't agree
with them."

So if I were to tell you that your record is a complete turd...

"I'd shake your hand and say that I have the utmost fucking respect for you being an honest person. Then I'd punch you in the mouth!" he says smiling enough to reveal a set of fangs. "Seriously though, people have done that to me. 'Pete, you suck, and your band sucks.' And I'm like, who the fuck cares what YOU think? I WOULD be an idiot if I cared what YOU thought."

He begins to play with a note from a fan that was left on the table. "I'm just enjoying the ride. Anybody can do what I do. If you were born in my household, I'd be on the other side of the table talking to you."

You're just a lovable old fuck from Brooklyn, aren't you?

"Something like that. That may be a compliment, so I won't respond to it."

At the Bomb Factory in Dallas, the band does its thing. Steele is front and center with his bass strapped on with several feet of heavy gauge link chain. His long black hair, and opened white shirt make him a shoo-in for a cover appearance on a Danielle Steel pulp romance novel. The fans are headbanging and crowd surfing and several "rock babes" are on the catwalk screaming "Talk dirty!" and "Fuck me, PETERRRR!" (When informed of this after the set, Steele deadpans, "Are you sure they didn't scream 'Fuck YOU, Peter?'") A mad dash for the t-shirt stand follows the set's end, and by the war whoops and smiles all around, the crowd are going to merely "stick around" for the headliners, much like an exhausted lover lies back smoking a cigarette or searches for a cuddle.

"I'm into the orchestrated metal sound of [Type O]," says Bill, 28, a Dallas native who punctuates his comments by spitting tobacco juice into a plastic beer cup. "It's really musical and not like that kind of shit that's real popular where they just pound out riffs. It's real songs and real lyrics. As far as talent goes, I think they're going to be around for a while."

"I couldn't describe Type O to anybody," says 24-year-old Caroline, sporting a form-fitting Damned t-shirt. "I'd just play them the tape. I like a lot of old metal and punk, this is something much cooler."

Scott, 25, looks like a Skinny Puppy concession stand with a pulse. He adjusts the badges on his leather jacket and says, "I think that most metal bands are boring. The singer's voice is really cool, and I think that they're way beyond grunge or most of that headbanger shit."

"I like the darkness of it all," says Joseph, 25 (who, it should be noted, corrects me when I call him 'Joe'). "I don't think they are particularly industrial sounding, but definitely dark like gothic and metal."

April, a 22-year-old housewife dressed in layered black lace offers, "I like that the singer's voice sounds like that guy in SILENCE OF THE LAMBS that kept the girl down the well. It's really evil. I'm a housewife and mother, go figure!"

Later when I tell Steele that last comment, he rolls his eyes and smiles. "I'm glad she paid her money to come see us!"

Walk into a room with Steele, and people notice you. Heading toward the catering area at the Houston venue, Steele is flanked by three fans: two males, and one female all in search of autographs, a handshake, a hug, a nanosecond of attention, ANYTHING. So Steele, the complete antithesis of the character in the third paragraph of this story, hugs the girl, autographs one guy's t-shirt and happily gives up his last bass pick when the other guy sheepishly asks him for one.

"Sometimes when somebody asks me for my autograph, I ask the person for theirs," says Steele, munching on some spaghetti. "They immediately think I'm fucking with 'em, but I'm really sincere. That person has a job, they make money, and they want to give it to me for some reason.

"I think Carnivore was trying to prove to the world everything that the world thought I was not. How many people get paid to make fools out of themselves? There are times when I really like to be sarcastic onstage. At times people expect me to be a really nice guy, and then I'm a cocksucker. And vice versa.

"When I was eight, I used to paint my face green, get on my bicycle, light a smoke bomb under the seat and fly down the street, screaming as loud as I could just to make heads turn. I thought it was really funny how something out of the norm could make people stop and look. So long as nothing is affecting me, I don't care. I don't care what people look like, it doesn't matter. My parents were quite conservative and everything had to be a certain way. When they'd go to my aunt's for dinner, I'd change the furniture around. Just to see them react. I was harmless, but it really pissed them off."

But isn't being in a band an extension of that? People are transfixed for those 44 minutes to see something, whether or not that qualifies as "entertainment".

"Being in a band is a useless occupation," he continues, back on the bus. "If there were a group of people on a desert island--a carpenter, a doctor and a bass player--and there's only provisions for two, who's going to get the food? Not the bass player. I have a very strong work ethic. This," he gestures at the interior of the tour bus, "is not work to me. This could be a very long party, but I don't like parties."

Later after Type O's lugubrious yet intriguing set, chants of the band's name echo through the cavernous room, which looks like a gutted Kmart. The t-shirt stand is quite busy. All of this is lost on Steele, who's backstage listening to Godflesh's Justin Broadrick enthuse about "some really sick ambient music" that he promises to tape for him.

Heading back to the bus, the two of us are intercepted by two beautiful nubiles. The spokesperson of the two is about four-foot-seven with long permed blonde hair and is using a black lace bra as a blouse in the chilling night air, while her red-haired, black-laced confidante is nervously silent.

"We came to see you," says the blonde to Steele.

"Why thank you."

"We want to party. Can we come on the bus?"

"Well, actually I have to talk that over with that guy over there," Steele says, motioning at the three bands' respective drivers talking by the stage door. "Hey how much do you weigh?"

"Why don't you pick me up and find out?"

"Okay," he says picking her up by the armpits. "Wow! 80 pounds?"

"78," she responds proudly. "Can we hang out with you? We can't get back in."

"I can get you back in, but I have to talk to this guy here," he says nodding at me. "He's from SPORTS ILLUSTRATED and they want me to pose with a fig leaf for a different kind of swimsuit issue. They've been getting a lot of complaints about being sexist. So me and him are going to go over fig leaf designs."

"Oh, okay," she replies, knowing that her shtick is not going to work tonight. "Maybe later?"

"Maybe. Hey, thanks for coming."

Back on the bus, I ask why she didn't qualify as a participant for dark sensuality.

"I want to be with somebody who appreciates what I am internally, " he says digging into a pie provided to him by the catering crew. "Not just someone who thinks I'm a cool pair of testicles.

"Girls ask to suck my blood," he continues nonchalantly. "They aren't too shy about asking me. I can easily show you scars all over me where I've taken razor blades and opened myself up and let them stick their tongues into me. Which is no big deal, because essentially my only role in bed is not to say 'No.'"

How does one perceive the true Pete Steele? Not as the locker-room goon; not as the prince of dark rock whom crowds go nuts over; not even as the guy who's saving all his money from this rock and roll circus so he can move to Iceland and build a dream home with his bare hands. Will the "real" Pete Steele ever make an appearance?

"Not unless you come to my house and see me in the corner sucking my thumb in complete darkness.

Josh Silver has known Steele since they played in cover bands at the ripe old age of 13. Although Silver has a definite stage presence with his hair flying around his bank of keyboards, he is loath to play into the image of Rock Star. He's a triple threat player/engineer/arranger and he doesn't need the role-playing attitude that goes with the territory.

"There's a lot of bullshit everywhere you go," he says, dragging off a smoke. "No matter where I go, I'll always be going through bullshit. It's undeniable. This is just chosen bullshit. If you're alive, you're suffering. I may as well choose my own suffering."

Isn't that sounding like a war story cliche?

"It's like a minor war, totally. When I watch a war movie now, I think, 'Hey that's the situation we're in.' I feel for vets, I'll tell ya. When you go out on the road, you are wrecking your life. A lot of people don't recognize that and I hate to burst their perceived rock star bubble, but it is rough. You leave family members, friends, former girlfriends who would understandably never stand by you to do this. A band is always a path of destruction. What has saved us is that we, as a band have dropped all our mental barriers that are supposed to be there. They have been stripped away. I think other people's optimism is merely being in denial."

Does all this work out if the music?

"I just think we made our won thing. I tell people we're gothadelic or to look in the 'T' bin. Personally, I want to do something that leaves its mark on music any way whatsoever. Damage it. Help it. I don't care. We're going to fuck something up. That's my goal."

Point blank, Josh: are you happy?

He looks up and takes another puff. "Let's say I'm less miserable."

Another day on the planet has expired. A tired Steele accepts an offer from Roadrunner's radio director Mark "Psycho" Abramson for a trip back to the hotel. We swerve around broken bottles and other crowd debris to get out of the parking lot. People see Steele in the car but are unsure what to do. So they keep on drinking, smoking, making out, and playing well-worn BLOODY KISSES cassettes on cheap car stereos.

On the trip back, Psycho puts on a tape of "Haunted," and eleven-minute Type Opus penned by Steele for the soon-to-be-released movie THE ADDICTION. Psycho has to make a stop at his hotel for a brief moment to pick up messages. While we wait in the car, I ask Steele what he's going to do for Valentine's Day.

"I hope I'll be spending it with someone I care about very deeply. I hope I will not be spending it with myself alone."

How have you celebrated in the past?

"As romantically as possible, getting the person I was involved with an appropriate piece of jewelry, a dozen roses, some real nice wine, a nice dinner perhaps. Which is how I like to treat women every day of the year."

As he finishes the last sentence, he looks out the windshield towards the traffic and the street lamps, as if he's thinking about Valentine's Days gone by, or desperately anticipating ones to occur. Until...

"And I make sure I have a big bowl of those heart-shaped red hots," he offers, adjusting his policeman's cap. "You know, those cinnamon candies? Without those, it's just not Valentine's Day.

End of Interview....But wait, there's more!

Perfume Like burning Leaves
Pete Steele Ruminates on Type O Negative

Slow, Deep and Hard (Roadrunner, 1991)

"The whole thing was written in one drunken, feeling sorry-for-myself Friday night when the record company found that I had put a new band together after Carnivore and they were really eager to hear some product as soon as possible. So I came up with these pathetic songs just to give them something and they liked the recording so much they bought the demo off of us for $31,000. Unfortunately, it was branded as 'this is what Type O Negative is' and there really wasn't too much forethought given to those songs. I can't listen to it--I think it's terrible. People liked what they heard and they were willing to come and see us."

Origin Of The Feces (Roadrunner, 1992)

"We had caused so much controversy over in Europe that the record company wanted to ride the wave of all this free press. They said, 'Here's X number of dollars, go do a live album and we'll release it as soon as we can.' I think we're a pretty lousy band live. I'm a very conniving person and I realized that we could never pull this off live. Josh has a recording studio in his house and we went down there and played the songs live. Then we had our friends come in and we tried to reproduce all the lousy things that happened to us in Europe; bomb threats, police raids, people jumping onstage and attacking us. Rather than most bands that do a live album to show that they're God's Gift To Music, why not blatantly sound really bad? Not just that, but we got to keep all the money. The original cover had a big picture of my asshole on it, which of course, is my best side. That kept it out of Kmart and toy stores."

Bloody Kisses (Roadrunner, 1993)

"There was a three-year gap between SLOW and BLOODY KISSES, so I had a lot of time to think about what I really wanted this band to sound like. Everybody's trying to play really fast, or to be trendy, hip and cool, and all I wanted to do was to do music that I wanted to listen to. I think this album is an accurate representation of what Type O is about, which is dark sensuality. I consider this to be the first Type O Negative album. The other things I consider a mishap of fate."

Bloody Kisses (Roadrunner, 1994)

The album was reissued with slightly amended cover art, while two tracks, "Kill All The White People" and "We Hate Everybody," were removed and a new track "Suspended In Dusk," added. "CD manufacturers guarantee a length of 74 minutes and we had 85 worth of material. Unfortunately, I succumbed to peer pressure and we left on what were actually two joke tracks that were only there to annoy people. When the record company wanted to release the digipak edition, they asked me to supervise the art changes and I said, 'Well, I'd like to do some sonic changes as well.' I took those songs off and put 'Suspended' on. It flows better. It flows better. I'm trying to get the label to discontinue the first version because I'm that dissatisfied with it."

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Interview#5: "Too Late, They've Already Quit Their Day Jobs"

Live Wire (Peter Steele, March 1995) by Sharon Kaufman

Bootleg#7: Bloody Stockholm (CD Live 1994 // 2022 Wolfmoon)

Live at the Gino Rock Club, Stockholm, Sweden (2nd October 1994)

Somebody, anybody!!! Tell Peter Steele that he and his band TYPE O NEGATIVE, wouldn't sell over 300,00 copies of their latest album, BLOODY KISSES; it wouldn't climb to #6 on BILLBOARD magazine's HEATSEEKER'S chart; it would never receive heavy radio airplay in major cities; and they would not have toured with the likes of Nine Inch Nails, Motley Crue, Jackyl, and now, Danzig, unless they had SOME sort of artistic talent! Oh, yeah, and assure him that nude women don't try leaping onstage while you're performing unless they find you somewhat physically appealing.

And for Pete's sake (no pun intended),if you haven't listened to the blackly-sensual BLOODY KISSES yet, go out and get it, because it surely isn't like anything else out there. But for right now, read this exclusive interview with Steele, done minutes before he made his dark presence known onstage at New York City's Roseland theater.

What was the first sign which made you realize that BLOODY KISSES was on its way to becoming a successful record?

I don't know if your readers know this, but Type O Negative actually broke up for a while last year, primarily because I could not make a choice between my day job and the band. However, I did have some vacation time coming to me, and our manager came to me and asked if I would utilize five weeks of it do a small U. S. tour, with Life of Agony. The tour was extremely successful. That's when I really started to think, "You know, maybe I have something here."

Then did you immediately quit your day job with the New York City Parks Department after that tour?

No, then I went back to work and we were asked to go on tour with Nine Inch nails for two weeks. It was after I came back from that tour that we were offered the Motley Crue tour, and I knew at that moment that I was definitely going to have to make a decision. I realized that anyone who's ever made anything of themselves has always had to take a chance. I don't want to be some old man on his death bed with tubes going down his throat and up his ass, saying to myself "I should have gone on tour. I should have seen how far I could have taken myself." I just wanted to do something--I mean, I hate to say reckless, but I've never taken a chance like this before, and it's actually quite thrilling. So I have officially resigned. We've all (the band) said goodbye to our day jobs.

That must have been a pretty scary step.

It is very scary, and to be honest with you, I miss it greatly. I liked working with the city; I liked knowing that I was going to be paid at the end of the week, I had really good benefits, I liked operating heavy equipment, I liked working in parks, I liked dealing with the public. But, I don't like where the city is going, and I don't like where my tax dollars are going.

Has your perception of the music business changed?

Not at all. I still cannot say a single good word about it. That just sums it up.

When you're onstage, how attentive are you to the crowds' reaction? Or, are you even concerned about it?

Well, when I sing songs about women, I always try to pick one out and address the song to her so it comes across a little bit better. If somebody is being an asshole in the audience like throwing stuff or heckling or carrying on, I try to memorize his face so that after the show I can go have a talk with him.

Any interesting, uh, "talks"?

None that went past "Oh, I'm sorry, man!"

What would you consider as some of the more memorable moments on tour?

Some of the more memorable things, first off, are women jumping onstage naked--TOTALLY naked. Also throwing underwear onstage. I just can't believe that this is happening to me, because I've never really thought of myself as an attractive person. What's even funnier is when you get men jumping up onstage naked. Normally, I don't do too much moving around onstage, but when I see some fat, smelly, sticky bastard jump up there shaking his ya-balls all over the place, generally try to move away from him.

From seeing Type O Negative shows quite a few times, I recall the way in which you introduce the band, as the "punishment for the evening." Do you still do that?

I'm quite a moody person, so if I'm having a really good day I'm a nice guy onstage, and I'm Mr. Cordial. But if someone's giving me a hard time, or if it's a "bad hair day," I'll take it out on the audience.

I always interpreted your introductions as the evening's "punishment" as your being insecure about the band's performance--as if you were covering for yourself and the band should the shows go badly.

That is quite true; it's definitely a defense mechanism. But is also shows the audience that we don't take ourselves as seriously as maybe they think we do. It's always been an honor to share the same stage with Nine Inch Nails, Motley Crue, Jackyl, and, now, Danzig, but it's really tough to open up for these bands. Sometimes you get these knuckle heads who just want to hear the headliner, and you have to deal with them. I try to be semi-comfortable at times.

Do you feel that as the tours go by, you're gaining more of a sense of self-confidence?

There is never a show that goes by that I am not terrified to walk out onstage. Maybe terrified is too strong of a word. It's not so much that I'm afraid of what the audience is going to think or that I'll screw up onstage, but that my equipment, or the rest of the band's equipment will. The worst thing in the world is to have something blow out onstage, then the song stops and you have people getting restless. I as the frontman have to pacify the audience, so it's like, "Oh, fuck! Now I have to go out there and calm all these people down." Hopefully, it'll be a minor problem. There have been shows where my bass amp blew up twice in one night, where I had t do half the show with no bass and wing it. It's like, sometimes I feel like a complete dick onstage and I'm standing there in front of the whole world thinking, "Oh, god, I'd like to be any other place but here right now." But you can't let the audience know it. You just have to continue with it, and make the best of it.

Are there other bands you'd be interesting in touring with?

I'd like to tour with Curve, but I understand they've broken up. I'd like to tour with Lycia. They're a really dark, almost trance-dance band. Also the Electric Hellfire Club. I think this Danzig tour is really good for us. I thought that the Cult might have been good, or maybe Siouxsie and the Banshees. Anything that's dark but sensual, heavy but melodic.

How was it to go back to your hometown after touring recently, and do the two shows that you did at the infamous "Rock Capital of Brooklyn," L'Amour?

As I was away for the whole summer, and there was a lot of hype growing on the band, when I came home, people started to treat me totally differently. Yet, I didn't feel any different. When I got onstage, I felt like it was going to be really hard to live up to the audience's expectations. We're still the same band, we just had some really good luck for some reason.

Do you feel uncomfortable with that special treatment possibly because you may not feel worthy of it?

Exactly. I don't think that I deserve this. I don't think we're a good band.

Do you think you'll ever consider Type O Negative a good band?

I don't know. This is something very personal to me. It's like when someone is depressed or upset and takes a pencil and doodles something. This is what I do when I'm upset--write these songs. It's like someone taking this doodle and putting it in an art museum, and now everyone wants your autograph because this thing is hanging on a wall. I can never think that this is something special. This is my pain put on paper, this is my pain put into someone's ear.

So you almost resent your success?

Yes, I mean, this is private to me. I think one of the best compliments I've gotten is when people say that I've helped them through hard times because they now know that other people feel what they do, and that's great, I'd like to be helpful. I just don't like to be exploited by these so-called indusrty people, or prostituted. Somebody's making a lot of money, but we're not. I don't know who it is, but if I find out, I'd like to ask that person for a loan.

In regard to your contribution of the track "Black Sabbath" on the NATIVITY IN BLACK tribute album, were you given a choice of which Black Sabbath song you could cover?

We were one of the last bands approached, so it was first come, first served. Doing "Black Sabbath" would not have been my first choice; it probably would have been "Paranoid," maybe "N.I.B." But like I said, we were asked last. On the album, all the bands were fighting on who would be listed first; I REQUESTED that we be put last so that I knew exactly where we were going to be. No one want to be put last, and we always try to do the un-cool thing. Whichever way the sheep are running, we run the other way.

Any further musical aspirations?

The only other thing that I'd like to do is write film scores for horror and/or science fiction movies. That could possibly really interest me.

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

Interview#6: Seconds (Peter Steele, March 1995) by Michael Moynihan

Bootleg#8: Four Idiots Live in Amsterdam (CD Live 1994 // 2022 Wolfmoon)

Live at the Melkweg, Amsterdam, Netherlands (11th October 1994)

After years of being maligned by liberal critics, feminist agitators, and other shit disturbers, PETER STEELE finally has the last laugh. His controversial band TYPE O. NEGATIVE has slyly slipped into the mainstream, riding on the spiraling success of their magnum opus, BLOODY KISSES (Roadrunner). Sure, the record's a few years old, but it's still blowing away ninety-nine percent of the competition, who can't hold a thin, black candle to its power, majesty or production values.

Despite Type O's courting of the Goth crowd with the MTV friendly BLACK NO. 1 and CHRISTIAN WOMAN videos, don't expect any androgynous, wan faces in their camp. Instead you'll be met by the towering Mr. Steele and his wisecracking Brooklyn buddies Josh, Kenny and Johnny. On stage Peter's massive six-foot-seven frame exudes a magnetic energy, not unlike Glenn Danzig, with whom Type O and Godflesh recently spent a few months on the road in one of the best tours of 1994. Just one indication of the band's versatility can be seen in the fact that, just a few months earlier, they were equally well-received by the suburban kids attending Motley Crue shows. Hunted by female stalkers, attacked by ornery goons at Nine Inch Nails gigs, Steele and Co. just keep plowing ahead, crushing the hapless debris in their path.

But even with newfound audiences and a steady sales record, Peter still hasn't shaken his notorious reputation as an intolerant advocate of grim genetic prerogatives and social Darwinism. Much of this rap stems from his previous stint at the helm of Carnivore, the apocalypto-pagan barbarians whom he's brought back together recently for occasional reunion shows in his home town. Try as he might to adjust to the shallow muck of the Pop Music cesspool, Steele can't help but keep pushing his luck. Is he the closet Hitler some have accused him of being? Or does he have a more ominous Gulag planned for your future? Frankly, we here at SECONDS don't care what he wants to do with you, as long as he's gracious enough to provide the right soundtrack.

SECONDS: Why haven't you begun recording a new album?

STEELE: The record company likes to use Type O Negative like a strap-on dildo, and they're going to keep on masturbating us until there's no more semen left. As long as this album continues to sell, and they can trick the public to keep buying it, they will do that. As it stands now there are no plans to record a new album; however, I do have the whole next album written.

SECONDS: How has the success of BLOODY KISSES affected you?

STEELE: I would like to say that I think someone down there likes me, because I don't feel that I deserve it. So many good things have happened to me in such a short period of time that I've actually developed this guilt complex about it. I feel that it's just not right. There are so many great bands out there that don't experience one tenth the success that I do, and yet they're a hundred times better.

SECONDS: Are they really?

STEELE: Yes, I think so. There are a lot of bands I listen to, that I love, and I think, "Why aren't they more popular? Why doesn't their record company get on them and just shove them down people's throats?" Right now I'm listening to Red House Painters, and how come nobody knows about this band, yet they're so wonderful? And then bands like Lycia, Blood Axis, the Hellfire Club--all this other stuff. I don't know what the fuck is up.

SECONDS: How were the responses to the different bills you've been on over the last year?

STEELE: Nine Inch Nails liked us a lot. Trent Reznor is a great guy, but their audience sucks. Ninety percent of them hated us and the other ten percent that showed some kind of support were automatically booed into submission or somehow subdued. So for two weeks, every night, forty-five minutes on stage, I just became Andrew Dice Clay. I would pick somebody out of the audience that was throwing something or yelling and being an asshole, and I would have direct verbal contact with these people. The rest of the band was standing around, twiddling their thumbs and shuffling their shoes, and I'm jumping into the audience and fighting with people. There were one or two times where I actually saw somebody wing something -- this one guy, I don't know how he did it without cutting himself, but he had the serrated top of a can, like a catfood can, and so you have this thing like a little saw blade winged at you. I ran to the side of the stage and jumped off, I'm making my way through the crowd as this guy's heading back, and there were people taking shots at me as I was going after this guy! But I wanted him, and then security caught up to me first -- they didn't do anything to me, but they let him get away. It's just a scene I'd rather forget.

SECONDS: Wasn't a result of your banter on stage that you were asked to do the Motley Crue tour?

STEELE: That's actually correct. We played a show in Los Angeles and one of the Motley Crue guys happened to be there, and he really liked my sarcasm -- just the way I was being myself onstage and doing pretty much whatever came naturally, dealing with situations as they came up. I guess they thought that I was funny and I'd be entertaining for them.

SECONDS: Any other stories from the Nine Inch Nails shows?

STEELE: When we were on tour with them Fem 2 Fem was also on the bill -- they're like a lesbian dance act. Guys loved them -- five really hot girls who did nothing but get off on each other onstage. It's great! Some capitalist just made this thing up, and I think only one of the five women was actually even gay, and the other four were just hired hair. They were on first and we came on second, and every night I'd say, "Wow, this microphone smells like tunafish!" Every night it was a different type of fish. Then the very last night of the tour somebody had actually snuck up and ground a can of tunafish into the microphone, because I'd been saying this every night. So it was like, great, they got me.

SECONDS: How did the Motley Crue affair go?

STEELE: At first we were kind of skeptical, we didn't know what to expect. But it worked out well for us. There were always a handful of people who were there for us, but we were accepted really well. There was almost no heckling, and I think that was due to the fact that most of the shows were outdoor venues -- even if somebody was heckling there were so many people there it didn't really matter. The band and the crew treated us really well, though, and turned out to be great guys.

SECONDS: It must've been somewhat surreal touring with these aging teenybop Rock Stars.

STEELE: It was kind of strange, but looking back at it I think there may have been one other factor why we were asked to go on tour with them. I think they realized that maybe they weren't as popular as they once were, and they knew controversy stirs up free publicity. During their set, in the course of the light show, they had a lot of swastikas that would rotate, and of course I've got this reputation of being a Fascist. So I'm thinking that maybe they felt as if they associated themselves with us, and I've got such a bad reputation, and now here come these swastikas, that the press would jump all over it and ask what the hell is up. But that could just be my paranoia...Anyway, then we did a short tour with Jackyl, which was also kind of strange, but they were really nice guys too, very down to earth. After that came the Danzig thing.

SECONDS: How did that go?

STEELE: I think as far as the fans go, that was really a qualitative bill to have Godflesh, Type O Negative and Danzig. This was a show that I would have probably gone to see, and I don't go to shows. It simply meshed really well -- each band was different from one another, but at the same time we had a lot of similarities. Overall, there were no problems, the tour ended and we all bid one another good luck, and that was that.

SECONDS: How do you amuse yourself on the road?

STEELE: When I'm on tour I feel like I'm there to do a job, not really to party and have a good time. I have my weights set up in the back of the tour bus, and while everybody else is in the front lounge smoking pot and playing video games, I'm in the back working out. They're my prime motivation for working out -- the rest of the guys in the band -- because I look at them and I say, man I don't want to become like this, like a sack of mashed potatoes, with huge atrophied eyes from playing video games twenty hours a day. That fucking TV is always on, and there's always some moron glued to it -- why don't you go out and toss a football around, or get some hockey equipment -- I figured a sound body/sound mind type of thing, get out for an hour or two a day. We make fools of ourselves onstage everyday, why not on the street as well?

SECONDS: Has your previous dread of touring lessened a bit?

STEELE: When you first start touring and you have twelve or fifteen guys packed on a bus, you start to get stir crazy and you hate everybody. But now we have two buses, and with everyone spread out we don't even see each other anymore. It's great, we're all isolated and everyone is on a totally different schedule. And of course there are some fringe benefits that go along with touring -- I'm never at a loss to justify my testicles, which is a pleasant thing. So if a genetically superior specimen comes my way, then I follow my program.

SECONDS: I wouldn't think that it would be easy to work out with weights in a tiny room on a bus.

STEELE: It's hard to stay fit. Not to sound vain, but I'm trying to sell myself here. Music isn't just a sonic thing, it's a visual thing as well. There's nothing worse onstage than an aging, fat, bald Rock & Roller. But it's really hard to work out, especially when you're 6'7" and weigh 220 pounds, trying to do heavy squats in the back of the bus. I found out the hard way that the floor was mad out of half inch plywood, when I went through it doing bench presses. Then I had to pay to get the bus repaired. There's always the problem of unlevel parking spaces, and I'm shimming up the weight bench with my carpenter's level, trying to get it right. But when I lose motivation I just peek into the front lounge and then I'm ready to work out.

SECONDS: Who were those "stalker" chicks on your bus when I saw you in Denver?

STEELE: They're two women who want to know us better and for some reason have become fixated on this band. They're from Texas and they followed us all the way back to Brooklyn. When we came home during a break between two tours they were here looking for us. I had my friends calling me, saying there were these girls here from Texas who pulled up in a limousine looking for us. Luckily they didn't knock on my door, as my girlfriend wouldn't have been too happy about that. But when I went back to Texas with Danzig, these girls were of course there and they handed me a photo album that said on the front, "Peter Steele, This Is Your Life." When I opened it up they had pictures of my car parked in front of my house. Every person and place that I had thanked on the SLOW, DEEP AND HARD album, they went and talked to these people about us. My friends at the gym. My friends at the bagel store. My friends at this auto body shop. And they had pictures of them! Really crazy stuff. "This is where you rehearse", "This is where you went to school", and I'm thinking, this is really scary. Thank God we didn't have sex with these people! Then it would have been like the pied piper, leading the snakes, or rats, whatever he had running after him. I think Josh actually threatened their lives. He's a very private person, even more than me, and he doesn't want anyone to know where he lives. But they found my house and my car, and the proof was in the book, sad to say. Scary.

SECONDS: Do these kind of things happen often?

STEELE: I have a lot of odd things happening outside my house. My car gets vandalized at least once a month, or somebody's putting a scumbag on my doorknob -- typical elementary nonsense.

SECONDS: You've returned to Europe again, after all the previous trouble you had there.

STEELE: Yes we did. There was only one minor incident in Holland where some group said they were going to protest and then they didn't even show up. All the shows in Germany were sold out, though we didn't play in any of the left-leaning cities like Berlin or Hamburg. The only shows that weren't sold out were the ones in Scandinavia, but that was often due to the fact we played during the week. Scandinavia is unbelievable -- the women there! Finland is incredible, that language --

SECONDS: I've heard stories about Finnish women.

STEELE: Yeah, I know first hand! It's great. The only place that I got laid in Europe was in Finland! Fucking unreal -- the scenery, the people. I think maybe they feel that since they are such an isolated people and they really don't fit in with the Scandinavians, because they're not Scandinavian, and the Russians hate them, that I guess maybe they feel they have to reproduce, to make more of themselves. They've got a strange and yet fascinating language -- the only one similar to it is Hungarian -- and it's really cool to see all those double vowels and consonants pushed together. I was trying to learn some Finnish when I was hanging out with this one girl, and she got a big kick out of my attempts to pronounce what I guess she felt were really simple words. It was completely alien. Great place. I was hoping we'd get to Iceland, but that wasn't on the schedule.

SECONDS: Are the Europeans up in arms over your opinions?

STEELE: Some of that stuff still comes up. I try to keep away from making comments unless I'm asked directly. If somebody asks me a question, I will give you an answer, but don't question my answers. Don't argue with me -- interview me. I wind up about ten percent of the time arguing with people during interviews because they're these PC assholes and I'm not as empathetic to the human race as they'd like me to be. I didn't volunteer this information -- I'm not wearing a shirt that says this is what I think, this is what I believe. You asked me -- don't argue with me. If you want to argue, I get aggravated enough for fucking free on this tour bus -- I don't have to waste my time with you, so leave.

SECONDS: Do you think the political climate has changed? For example, Danzig has made some pretty illiberal statements recently, without people trying to crucify him.

STEELE: Well, I think he's in a position where he can say these things because nobody can really touch him, nobody can hurt him. I'm just coming up now out of the mud, and all it takes now is someone to kick me down back into the mud, then I have to get back up again. But he's out of the muck and can stand on his own two feet, basically for financial reasons. So I have to watch what I say, but I will speak the truth if I'm asked. It takes a lot of balls, but much better men than me have died for much lesser causes than I speak of.

SECONDS: Do a lot of people approach you who agree with some of your more compromising opinions?

STEELE: There are a lot. I saw this great shirt with a Confederate flag and on the top it said, "It's a White thing, you couldn't understand." This redneck comes up and says, "Yeah, I like what you're about, boy." I don't turn people off to that, I'm not going to deny it, I think in this country, especially out West, the nation is really right wing and they realize they can't open their mouths too freely, but they seem to know who they can be open with. I don't mind having conversations with people, as long as they're not too drunk and they don't repeat themselves too often. That's fine with me.

SECONDS: What prompted the Carnivore reunions?

STEELE: Primarily because it's fun, and I miss my friends. It's also easy money.

SECONDS: Describe the last Carnivore show.

STEELE: We made it into a Communist propaganda show -- we had these huge Russian flags on stage and we were handing out brochures from the American Communist Party. Kids were like, "What the fuck is this?" -- ripping them up and throwing them at us. It was at the Limelight. I had about forty-five minutes of ethnic Russian music that we played before coming on stage. Hammer and sickles were everywhere, we came out in red shirts with "CCCP" on them, and there was no English spoken on stage -- just a barrage of feedback between songs. To someone who did not know the band it must have looked really fucked up and crazy. We had an eight foot by twelve foot Soviet flag draped over the band, plus smaller flags everywhere. I came up with this symbol which I call a Swasicle, which is three hammer and sickles joined together in a triskelion type of thing. This shirt I made up has this symbol on it, and it's all in Russian. The shirts didn't sell until we went onstage because nobody knew what the fuck it was, and when they saw the whole thing we sold about eighty shirts is fifteen minutes, but other than that no one knew what was going on. It was a lot of fun, and it's legendary now. People are going to be talking about this for months, simply because they don't understand it. I can't wait for these pictures to appear in Germany -- there were lots of people taking pictures at that show and I know they're going to wind up over there. So now they see Pete Steele, the big Nazi, wearing a CCCP t-shirt with a huge Soviet flag behind him. What the fuck can they say? May their heads spin.

SECONDS: How many Carnivore shows have you done?

STEELE: About six or seven, not too many. There are always lots of skinheads who come to see us, and motorcycle guys, cops -- it's a really weird cross-section. The shows are always really violent amongst the audience themselves. There are always fistfights breaking out, but there's no trouble.

SECONDS: Carnivore had a large police following?

STEELE: Yeah, there are always tons of these crazy off-duty cops in the dressing room, talking about roughing people up and this and that. And I think. Man, I should've been a cop! A South African riot cop. Might makes right.

SECONDS: Aren't you worried about people dredging up the more unpleasant aspects of Carnivore?

STEELE: That happens all the time. When the shit does come up, people always bring up Carnivore. All I can say is, that's the person that I was -- I still am that person, I just changed form slightly. I stand behind what I've said. If people want to continually question things from fifteen years ago that I said, or they're confused about symbols, I'll answer those questions once. After that people are just badgering me, and they'll get a kick in the face. But you know, it stirs up controversy, which they need. So I'm just performing a service, doing God's work.

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Interview#7: EYE WEEKLY (Peter Steele, April 1995) by Marc Weisblott

Bootleg#9: Marching Over Germany (CD Live 1994 // 2024 Wolfmoon)

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Live at the Rockfabrik, Ludwigsburg, Germany (16th October 1994)

Being struck down by the flu wasn't gonna keep us from coming face-to-face with the towering titan who helms Type O Negative. After all, this is the guy who, just one year ago, told us: "I just want to live in an isolated area where I never have to see another human being again."

With a reputation like that, we figured our aching desire to spend the entire evening curled up in isolation put us in the perfect mood for an interview with the vampiric Peter Steele.

But, whereas the malevolent Brooklynite we met via telephone last March was just another egregious goth-metal demigod working days for the New York City Parks Department, he's since become one of the most sought-after orators around. A year later, incessant MTV airplay for Type O Negative's dyspeptic dirge "Black No. 1" has won them a place on a vigorous 10-week arena tour with Queensryche. Steele is also slated for the cover of an upcoming issue of Playgirl -- cited as "The Hottest of the Hottest" among "The Hottest Men In Rock," he nixed their idea of posing as an unravelled mummy in favor of a more traditional au naturel pictorial.

Hey, you'd probably be in a more charming mood too, if all this was happening to you.

The last time Type O Negative swung through Toronto, though, they were met with a maelstrom of postered opposition from "anti-racists" for reasons never quite made clear -- although, if it had anything to do with the pugnacious punk-rock parodies on the album Bloody Kisses, "Kill All The White People" and "We Hate Everyone," Steele has yanked those songs off a subsequent pressing because he only put them there to annoy the audience. Presumably, the only people who still have an axe to grind with Steele are Seals & Crofts, who demanded the original lyrics be reinstated for Type O's forthcoming single release of their elegiac Count Chocula-esque interpretation of "Summer Breeze."

In last Wednesday's twilight, we hunkered and hacked behind a tour bus at the rear of the Opera House to get an update on Steele's state of mind. A more gregarious rock-star-in-the-making you couldn't imagine -- he may be misanthropic, but he sure ain't mean.

eye: Did you ever find out the problem all those protesters had?

Steele: Nope. They never bothered to tell us. Maybe I once stole one of these guys' girlfriends or something.

eye: What was the scene like the last time you played here?

Steele: Well, because it looked like nobody else was going to, our drummer and I showed up outside the club wearing different clothes -- we were wielding rocks and bottles, screaming and swearing at the front doors. We ended up getting chased down the street by our own fans.

eye: All that stuff about hating everyone, though -- now that the group is always under the microscope, do you regret anything you've said?

Steele: Not really, but while my opinions haven't changed, my acceptance of humanity certainly has. I've realized there's no such thing as perfection. Now, when I make mistakes, I've found those around me are much more forgiving.

eye: But what about those who still want to paint you as Peter Steele, fascist or Peter Steele, asshole ... ?

Steele: Just don't call me a Christian.

eye: How have things changed for you in the past year?

Steele: I'm more stressed, I'm more high-strung -- see, nine months ago, we made a collective decision to quit our day jobs. Suddenly, there's more pressure if we screw things up -- our album sales suffer, our royalties go down, we have less to eat. At this point, I figure every blown chord is like losing a McDonald's hamburger. Maybe even a Whopper.

eye: What about the audiences?

Steele: Yeah, in the past few months we're seeing crowds of up to 70 per cent extremely attractive females -- something which, as filthy heteroscum, pleases me tremendously.

eye: And the hangers-on?

Steele: Definitely. People who refused to look at me six months ago now want to shake my hand. I've come to learn that the word "pals" is spelled with a big dollar sign at the end.

eye: Motley Crue dragged Type O Negative along on tour last summer. Were they just trying to be pal$ of yours, too?

Steele: Actually, we were opening for Nine Inch Nails for a while, and most Nine Inch Nails people have a tolerance problem -- we'd be heckled off the stage almost every night. Tommy Lee witnessed this and hired us for some Crue concerts, and their crowds were even more hostile. We'd end up playing one song and I'd spend the next 45 minutes insulting people. I was like Andrew "Dice" Clay, a complete wiseass. A lot of people complained and stuff, but Tommy loved every minute.

eye: When we spoke last you said it felt like being a circus animal up there every night.

Steele: Now I feel like a higher-paid circus animal. But, along with all the pressure, I've realized that I don't want to waste anybody's money and I don't want to waste their time.

eye: What are the rewards?

Steele: I still wanna live out my years in the woods in a house I built myself with a beautiful, intelligent woman with a sense of humor -- and she'd better have a sense of humor if she wants to hang around me.

eye: So, all of the adulation, all of the attention, doesn't it have anything to do with your own natural charisma?

Steele: I have no personality. I am a social retard.

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Interview#8: "Peter Steele: Gothic Sex God" Live Wire (Peter Steele, March 1995) by Tomas Pascual

Bootleg#10: Light My Fire (CD Comp. 1994, 1997 // 2020 N/A)

Type O Negative Frontman Poses for Playgirl and Pumps Iron while Touring the Country with Pantera

After successfully completing their first arena tour, opening up for Pantera, Type O Negative did a string of headline dates before beginning their tour with Seattle's falsetto forefathers, Queensryche. "Immediately after this phone call I will be heading over to the venue," explains frontman Pete Steele, on the debut date of their tour with Queensryche. Keeping a tight schedule these days, Pete still likes to find time to pump iron every day. Did he enjoy pumping iron on the Pantera tour? He says, "I really didn't know what to expect [playing in an arena], so it was loaded with surprises for me. It really didn't make that much of a difference playing in an arena, as opposed to a club, simply because with so many lights in my face I can't see past the first two or three rows anyway. I think the main difference between playing in a small place as opposed to a large one, is that in a large place you just get hit with more projectiles. Pantera are great guys, we have been treated no better by anyone else so far. They are like the brothers I never had. They're just really down to earth, great people. But I think at some of the gigs, their fans were a bit confused with us. I don't know what they expected, but I don't think they expected dinosaur music. I don't think we lost any fans along they way, but maybe their people would have preferred more of a hardcore oriented band than a dirge rock type thing."

On the NY date of the tour (at the Nassau Coliseum), a nonviolent, semi-riot broke out as ALL the kids seated in the arena ran down to the floor halfway through Type O's performance. "I think playing back in NY, which is where we came from, has to be the exception to the rule," Pete says. "This is where our fan base is, and where all the people who have stuck with us since the beginning are. So I think that is why we has such a rally food reaction, and I'm very grateful for it."

Ironically, Pete who always made it clear that he hated to tour, has been touring constantly. Not wasting time however, he has been working on new material. He explained, "I have a really cheap Casio keyboard on the back of my tour bus, along with my weights, and my chemistry books, so when I have some free time I work out some harmonies. I think it's fair to say that I have the whole next album written, however the band knows very little of it. So as soon as we get off the Queensryche tour, which will be in late July, we're going to take time off and go into the studio to start rehearsing. We're hoping for a February 14th 1996 release, which is of course Valentine's Day. [The new material will be] a continuation of dark sensuality. Topics for the next album will include paganism, lycanthropy, nature worship, Promethium gifts, social Darwinism, totalitarianism, and global acquisition. (we'll be) attempting to make the material more commercially accessible (as far as song length goes.) I'm sure there will be some opuses, like "Bloody Kisses," But I'm going to try to keep the majority of the tunes short, going for the airplay type thing. On Bloody Kisses some songs had to be edited down (for the radio) and I felt that they were mutilated when they were cut down, and I don't want that to happen. So I'm formulating these new pieces toward radio play, keeping them to a minimal time so they don't have to be lacerated. There is going to be a trade off, trying to make the band more accessible, while still maintaining the dignity and the essence of what Type O is about. It's going to be a challenge, but it's something I'm looking forward to."

However fans at shows seemingly do appreciate and sing along with the longer songs like "Too Late: Frozen," as well as the singles. So isn't is a fault of what radio believes is airable today as opposed to in the 60s and 70s? Pete explains, "I believe it was my buddy Karl Marx who said, 'who controls the media, controls the masses.' And unfortunately we have a large group of morons that are in of certain media, and they dictate right and wrong. Most fans are young and they follow what they perceive as authority and are mislead usually. I think it is the fault of the radio people. It is always good to see kids singing along and getting into the songs that don't receive airplay. But it's also good to hear some of the other songs on the radio. It's baiting the hook with the correct worm." The band was also faced recently with a similar dilemma, when confronted by MTV censors, who are seemingly trying to appease both the Christian right and more significantly, promote the PC left. "It's very difficult to please everybody, primarily we try to please ourselves first, but sometimes we have to compromise. I don't think that a compromise is selling out. It's just that we're trying to make ourselves accessible in a format that we can get to the public. If I had not changed the lyrics, this thing would never have gotten on MTV. They had brought up 11 issues in the song (Christian Woman) that were unacceptable. That was a lot to change. I did not feel good about changing it, but like I said about baiting the hook, hopefully people will get curious and buy the product, which is precisely what happened." MTV also apparently had an aversion to the video since it was done by visual mastermind John Reiss, who is very outspoken against MTV. "Yes there was some politics involved, but now that Type O has become a commodity, the pressure to play the video could be resisted no longer due to public outcry. So anything they had against John went out the window. Now it's time to make money, financial gain always comes before dignity."

Type O seemingly have shed the err...negative press of years ago. Pete explained, "Sadly we are getting very little negative press lately. So I'm going to have to say some inflammatory statements very soon and get myself back in trouble, so album sales will skyrocket again. You know why I like negative press? It's because it just shows me how stupid people are. That if you say something different, to what people believe, it makes their head spin. What people don't understand, they fear. And if people fear me that is a huge compliment. I would rather be feared and respected that loved and thought of as an idiot."

Stay tuned for next issue's on the road story with Type O on their Queensryche trek. "I have a really good feeling about this tour, simply because they seem to be quite receptive. They seem to cater to a more mature audience than we're used to, and I understand they enjoy a large female following, which is something Type O also enjoys. You know, as filthy heterosexual scum, we are attracted to the opposite sex." That's an inherent flaw in natural law, I commented. Pete answered, "Social Darwinism, what does that mean these days?"

Heterosexual women will be able to enjoy an upcoming issue of Playgirl, in which Pete has posed nude for. "I really don't know how it all came about, I suspect it has something to do with the rocker issue, that I'll be featured in. Maybe I'm the only one, out of everyone featured in this issue, that was crazy enough to take all his clothes off, for a not so large sum of money. I really don't know what to expect from this. I just hope I live up to everyone's expectations in certain areas. At first, it was uncomfortable when I'm surrounded by camera people and technicians and make-up personnel. And I'm sitting there completely naked, while everyone is working around me and stepping on my feet, and stepping on everything else that hangs off me."

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Interview#9: "Kiss of Death" GUITAR SCHOOL (Peter Steele, Kenny Hickey May 1995) by Jeff Gilbert

Bootleg#11: Danish Rust (12"LP Comp. 1995 // 2020 N/A)

October Rust - The Demos

Bassist Peter Steele and guitarist Kenny lead a black celebration for Type O Negative's first hit album "Bloody Kisses" by Jeff Gilbert.

Peter Steele, a towering man in black, looks like a not-so-distant relative of the Addams Family. But it's the bassist/singer's voice that really puts him in the company of the "creepy and spooky." As fans of Type O Negative already know, the six-foot-six Goliath's vocals are quite possibly the most cadaverous thing you'll ever hear coming out of your radio. Frankly, just listening to him makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up. "Peter has a seriously deep voice, but it's not electronically altered," says Kenny, guitarist for the Brooklyn-based group. "Sometimes it's a little hard to reproduce live because the band plays so loud."

But that same voice, which seems best suited for haunting English castles or fog-soaked moors, has oozed its way into the mainstream on the back of metal-creep hits like "Black No. 1" and "Christian Woman."

Type O's latest album, "Bloody Kisses," was released in late 1993 but is just now becoming the most unlikely hit-bound sleeper on the charts. It's the season's hottest and most refreshing slab of heavy rock deconstruction and gothic sludge, made uniquely unholy by Steele's chilling vocal chords. And there's at least three more singles just begging to be released, including a rather disturbing cover of Seals & Croft's "Summer Breeze."

"It's not dark, but it does fit with the rest of the songs,"says Steele of the hippie-rock standard. "It's one of my favorite songs. I've been talking about doing it for three years."

A taste for winsome ballads notwithstanding, it goes without saying that Type O Negative can play pretty much whatever they desire, even if that means making their fans uneasy in the process. And that, says Steele, is what the band does best. "We're four dicks and that's the way we want to be. We don't hang out, we don't party. We're completely uncool."

G: Type O Negative is one of those bands that everybody tries to categorize. How do you see the band?

P: Well, I'm on the inside looking out, so it's really kind of hard. When I write songs, I know that I'm influenced by goth, metal, industrial, psychadelia and alternative. I draw my influences from many different areas. If I had to call the band something, I guess I'd call it "gothadelic." There you go.

K: There are so many elements in our music, we can't really be tagged. But the way we do it is so intriguing, you don't get bored. Or maybe you do. Whatever it takes to get the right mood out of the album is how I see it. We simplified all the guitar leads and guitar work on this album because we wanted it to be melodic, simple, and sensual. You can't picture me flying around, playing a thousand-notes-a-second. It would ruin it. If we didn't have leads, like on the new Danzig record, I'd have no problem with it.

G: The songs on Bloody Kisses are fairly long, by radio standards anyway. Is it hard to keep track of where you are in a song during a live show?

K: We always have problems with that (laughs). Especially since we get bored of the set and change it on the road. We don't play the same set from one week to the next. Sometimes we forget which introduction we're doing or one of else forgets something else. But it doesn't matter because the sound is so sludgy, you could fuck up a hundred times and nobody would know what's going on anyhow. That's the wonderful thing about our sound -- it covers all the screw-ups. We weren't actually looking for an original sound when we came up with our sound, we were just looking for a sound to cover all the mistakes (laughs).

G: Now that "Black No. 1" and "Christian Woman" are hits, what do you think about becoming hip in the mainstream?

P: I really don't know what to think. This is not something I've worked for my whole life. Most people go bowling or play cards every Tuesday night; I write really bad songs every Tuesday night. This shit just fell into my lap, but I really don't like doing it. I don't like to play live -- I hate it, actually. I think a person who needs approval from applause is a person with a really weak ego. I don't think I have a weak ego, but I don't think I have an inflated one either. I think my ego is normal. When I'm onstage, I feel like a poodle that's made to jump through a flaming hoop. And if I don't do the right trick, I don't get a dog bone. Whether people like us or hate us, it's too bad because they already paid us. So I just go up there and do what I have to do, and if people like it, that's great, and if they don't like it, that's great too. Makes no difference to me.

G: Do you feel Type O Negative can survive without doing live shows?

P: Probably not. It's ironic; we were just on tour with Motley Crue for the whole summer, and we sold about 50,000 albums thanks to being on tour with them.

G: Isn't Motley Crue and Type O Negative an odd pairing?

P: It IS an odd pairing, but they requested us and we knew that we'd be playing in front of five to ten thousand people every night. I'm not here for my health, and I know that exposure usually translates into album sales. We'd gone from selling approximately 800 units a week to pushing 4,500 a week. We're making somebody really rich. Who that is, I don't know. I wish I could find out because I'd wait outside their house and mug them.

K: That tour was a shock to me because I didn't know what to expect. Usually we get stuff thrown at us; I always expect that. I thought we might get beat up or something, I wasn't sure. It was amazing because it went over really great.

G: Do you think that Motley Crue, who are certainly not enjoying the same kind of success they're used to, needed you more than you needed them?

K: WE Certainly didn't bring anyone in. But I think the audience who came to see them was starving for something new. And we were the only band on the bill that was playing something different, so we ended up being the only band that benefited. But we were on such a lower level, we could only benefit from it. We moved more merchandise than King's X, who were also on the bill, which was amazing. On an average, we'd sell 10, 12 shirts a night more than them. But that's the wonderful thing about not being able to label what we do. We can play with anybody and get away with it because we incorporate so many elements of so many different types of music. We all have heavy identity crises, and we don't know what the hell we're doing -- or what the hell we want to do. We just try to do everything.

P: I think Motley Crue are great guys, however, since Vince Neil left or got kicked out, whatever the story is, I really think they should have called the band something else. After Ozzy left Sabbath, it just wasn't the same Sabbath, you know?

G: Peter, at first I thought your voice was electronically altered, but talking to you now, I didn't realize you naturally had the kind of deep voice deathcore bands would kill for.

P: Many people think it's synthesized in the studio, but I just have a really high testosterone level that does wonders for my vocal cords.

K: We have such a loud stage volume that it's really hard for Peter to hear himself when he's singing that low. Plus, we don't even care about soundchecks. We're really lazy; we spend about five minutes soundchecking. Our roadies are a bunch of lazy bastards, too.

G: I hear you guys caught some flak from Seals & Croft over your version of "Summer Breeze."

K: They're a bunch of stoned hippies living on a religious commune somewhere in the middle of the country. We caught flak because we have stupid senses of humor. Peter twisted the lyrics around and made jokes out of everything. He didn't like the original lyrics. They were really happy with the music but the didn't like the fact that we made their lyrics into a circus. It's the same thing with our other cover songs. We did "Hey, Joe" which he turned into "Hey, Peter." That's on our EP, "The Origin Of The Feces." "Hey, Peter, where're you goin' with that pick-axe in your hand?" (laughs) Everything we do is classically ridiculous.

G: Bloody Kisses is a hit, Now people will expect the next album to be more accessible.

P: I'm working on the next album right now and plan to make it more commercially accessible. To put it plainly, I plan on selling out. I don't care if people think I'm an asshole or what, but I'm not in this for my health. Making lots of money represents independence. I really don't like to live in the city because I don't like what it's become and I really don't like where my tax dollars are going. I want to take the people that I love with me and get the hell out. I don't know how much money constitutes 'enough money.' Who the hell knows? But when I make enough money, I'll certainly pack my bags and leave. Probably go to Scandinavia. That's where my ancestors are from. I've been living in the same house for about 30 years. Everyone knows where I live. I can't even park my car on the street anymore because people screw with it. It's just part of being in the spotlight.

G: Didn't Type O break up after Bloody Kisses came out?

P: Yeah. After the album came out in August of '93 the band actually broke up for about two months. We didn't know if we wanted to make this our full-time career or if we were gonna try and juggle our day jobs, the band, girlfriends, food shopping, and every other thing that happens in life. I pretty much held the band up because I was sitting on the fence. I used to work for New York and really liked my job. I was making about $35,000 a year hauling garbage for the city. I had great hours, I really liked my job, and I was thinking, "Can I see myself doing this in 10 years? Do I want to be stuck in this city?" And the answer was no, I had to take a chance. Anyone who has ever made anything out of themselves has always taken a chance. I'm not the stupidest person in the world, and I figure if some of these morons can open up candy stores and stuff and do well by taking a chance, I'm sure that I can make it. So far so good.

G: What's the story behind the chain you use as a strap for your bass?

P: It's regular three-quarter inch links.

G: Isn't that kind of rough on your shoulders?

P: I've been wearing this chain for about 14 years, so I'm kinda used to it. However my left shoulder is three inches higher than my right. (laughs) Actually it came from the idea that I was not gonna pay 40 bucks for a nice guitar strap, that I could take any old rusty chain and screw it right into the bass with three-inch sheet-rock screws. The first thing I do when I get an instrument is rip everything off it that's not useful, like the bridge pickup. I take out half the guts and spray paint the whole thing black, including the fretboard and hardware. Flat black. I don't like glitter. Besides, it's just something that's ultimately gonna get fucked up. Let's be real -- fuck it up now, drill holes in it. I've gone through six or seven basses already just by getting really drunk onstage and dropping them or hitting somebody over the head or some shit like that.

G: What's your bass of choice for conking someone over the head?

P: My main bass is an Alembic Spoiler. I've had it for about 12 years, and it's the best bass I have ever played in my life. It feels so good. It's a large instrument, with a two-octave neck, that has a great sound. And it's indestructible. I've thrown the thing clear across the stage. The bass was stolen one time, off the stage. A kid ran out of the club with it, and I put out a death threat. So the bass came back. Everything has happened to that bass. I went to price them again and they're close to $2,000 now. I originally paid $1,200 for it back in '84.

G: Why an Alembic? That's fairly unusual, unless you're a jazz technician like Stanley Clarke...

P: The Spoiler isn't such a fancy model, it's a modified version. But I can't have nice things because I just screw them up. It sounded really good and I came into some money and thought it was worth it. I had a BC Rich fretless Warlock, but I dropped it onstage one night and it split right down the middle. Then, of course, everybody ran up onstage and were grabbing at the pieces. I had this thing by the neck and was swinging it, using it like a club to get people away because they wanted a fuckin' souvenir. I'm looking for an endorsement from anyone who makes a long-scale bass with a two-octave neck through the body. Gibson offered me something, but none of their basses come with a two-octave neck.

K: I like Gibsons; I'm using an SG right now. I used to play a Flying V but it went out of tune all the time. It was an old one, and we tune down so low that the floating bridge was never right; it always went out of tune because there wasn't enough tension. I use the heaviest gauge strings I can buy and STILL have problems. But the SG is a workhorse; they just don't go out of tune once you stretch the strings. So now that I finally got past that problem, Peter goes out of tune all the time. (laughs) But people expect that at a Type O show anyhow, stopping the song in the middle to tune.

G: Are you as punishing with your amps as you are with your guitars?

K: My gear changes a lot because it blows up every month. Smoke onstage, flames shooting out of my amp; it happens all the time. I've been using a new ADA preamp because the first model, the MP-1 just blew up on me, so I got the MP-2. I have a Quadraverb and a MosValve power amp.

P: I have two old Peavey Max bass amplifiers, eight-hundred watts each and the 36/20 bottoms; each bottom includes two 18s, two 10s, and I added some Piezos in there because I use distortion and chorus and delay and I like that sizzle sound, like when you suck all the mids out and it's all bottom and all sizzle on top. I loaded those bottoms with JBLs which are capable of taking what I can pump into them. It's not a complicated set-up because I'm a simpleton. I can't have a bunch of pedals onstage with MIDI cables, because if one fat slob gets onstage and steps on this little piece of plastic, it's over. I use Boss boxes, which are made out of sheet metal. Even when some drunken 600-pound slob charges me onstage, all he's gonna do is turn the pedal off. I tried using those other pedals and stuff, but I'm six-foot-six and I wear size-15 boots. And with the fog machine onstage I can't see what the hell I'm doing so I just need simple stuff. Plug in, let's go.

G: Where do you see your music heading?

P: Fester is a better word. It's really diverse, but what I see happening is that a lot of bands are just jumping on the so-called bandwagon, they're not playing from the heart. They just want to be trendy, which really turns me off. Many people ask me why I think the fans like Type O Negative. I believe it's because we play what WE want to play, and I say what I want to say. I'm not trying to be one of these stupid crossover things like the thrash and rap bands that are so common now. We are the most uncool band out there.

K: We're too self-conscious to take ourselves seriously.

G: Ironically, you'll probably wind up making uncool cool.

P: I'll have to cross that bridge when I come to it.

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Interview#10: WATT (Peter Steele, June 1995) transl. from NL

Bootleg#12: Dynamo (2CD Live 1997 // 2021 Wolfmoon)

Live at Dynamo Open Air, Eindhoven, Netherlands (17th May 1997)

WATT: When do I need to be scared of you?

When you talk to me loger than 5 minutes. I get irritated very quick and I hate superficial people, like journalists who come to you with a smile on their face and say: Nice to meet you and the moment you're not paying attention they figuratively stab you in the back. Don't get me wrong: I will not avoid an intelligent conversation, but superficial bullshit is a waste of time to me.

WATT: Do you have difficulties with answering personal questions?

Absolutely not. I like personal questions, coz I don't need to think of an answer. With politically sensitive questions I have to take the consequences of my reaction in account. These days I'm in a very shitty situation: My band is doing great, but if I make one wrong remark, I destroy the base which I've been working on hard for the last year. Especially in Europe I have to reckon my words. I admit that the controversy that came with TON in the early days had a positive result: We got a lot of press. But I rather forget that past.

WATT: What does your mother see when she looks at the lines of your face?

Sorrow. In her eyes I'm a sad person, but that's because she's in grief herself. The truth is I'm very happy with everything I have: This body and my health. I have no expectations and no dreams. 'No hope is no fear' and in that way I'll never be disappointing. I take what is given to me, but I'm not afraid of losing it, coz I realize I have nothing.

WATT: When do you know you love someone?

I don't think I know think I know that. There were times I thought I loved someone, but it turned out it was only physical. There's no such thing as TRUE LOVE. Love is a need: You love the things you need and hate the things you fear.

WATT: When was your heart first broken?

I was 18. My heart has been broken 4 times, but that's just a part of growing up. Whether you're gay, bi or straight, it doesn't matter, coz one day you're bound to have a disappointing love. Love is based on trust, which I don't have. Don't think I'm paranoid, but too many times I've had to ascertain that people are not to be trusted. I try to avoid pain by avoiding uncontrollable situations, but you can't hide from certain situations, like the death of someone you love.

WATT: What's your worst habit?

My appetite. I don't seem to get it under control. I eat very unhealthy and way too much.

WATT: Where lies your interest: in life or in death?

I don't believe in reincarnation or life after death. There are no ghosts, gods or devils. This is my only chance on earth, so life is the most important thing to me. When I'm dying I want to grin and think of all the wonderful people I met and of all the great experiences I've had. Death to me is total independence: You're no longer addicted to food, oxygen and the sun. Death is total rest, a deep calm you'll never wake from.

WATT: Have you ever had the fear of being infected with the aids-virus?

I could be infected right now and I worry sometimes. A couple of times the condom broke during intercourse. I've had a test, happily I was negative, but it actually takes 6 months before it can be ascertained. It's not so that I don't get any sleep from it, but if I was infected I would commit suicide.

WATT: Did you get teased a lot during school time?

Yes, I was fat and ugly. A typical outsider. At first I had no reaction to the teasing, but if they kept on doing it I got aggressive. Sometimes I had to beat off 5 boys.

WATT: Were you ever sexually attracted to a man?

I can see when a man is attractive, but I've never felt any sexual attraction towards men. I like women very much.

WATT: Who do you admire?

This may sound very strange, but I have enormous admiration for Arnold Schwarzenegger. By working very hard he has made something out of himself. Also for Madonna I have respect: She's talented and smart. Both have used their talent to make it to the top.

WATT: What do you regret?

That I didn't go to the school of Architecture. I was 18 and didn't know what to do with my life, so I did nothing.

WATT: Is there something you want to do but can't do (yet)?

I would like to learn faster. I like languages, physics and architecture. Someday I want to build my own house, that's more or less a dream, but realistically, it wouldn't do me no harm to give up this dream.

WATT: What would you do if you saw a woman being raped by 3 men?

I would attack those men and secure the lady without a moment of doubt. Even if these men are armed. I grew up with 5 older sisters, that woman could be one of them or -I don't wanna think about that- my mom.

WATT: What's your reaction to the following theses?:

* Motley Crue asked TON as support-act by hoping for extra publicity, because of the controverse and not for the "good" music.

That's possible. Motley Crue is going down at this moment, while we're climbing.

* Peter Steele pretends to be a difficult man to seem interesting. I reality is boring.

That's true. I am boring, but the things I talk about are hard to grasp for many people. It happens all the time: I tell something and nobody understands it. But that's probably my fault, coz I use the wrong words.

* Peter Steele works better as a sex-symbol than a musical talent.

Admitted, I will be in Playgirl pretty soon, but I don't regard myself as being sexy. The first thing that comes into my mind when I look in the mirror is: YUCK!!!

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

Pages

JDØS Specials: Type O Negative - Read Slow & Listen Hard Part.1

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

Table of Contents:

Interview#1: RAW Magazine (Peter Steele, March 1994)

Bootleg#1: None More Repulsive (Comp. 1990-1991, 2CD, Vinnlandia)

Interview#2: MEAT Magazine (Josh Silver, November 1994)

Bootleg#2: Beginning of an Era (CD Live 1990 // 2025 The Peter Steele Appreciation Society)

Repulsion - Live at L'Amour, New York, USA (29th March 1990)

Interview#3: “Be Careful What You Wish For” - Aquarian Weekly (Peter Steele, Josh Silver, 8th February 1995) by Robert Makin

Interview#4: Alternative Press (Peter Steele, Josh Silver, March 1995) By Jason Pettigrew

Interview#5: "Too Late, They've Already Quit Their Day Jobs"

Live Wire (Peter Steele, March 1995) by Sharon Kaufman

Interview#6: Seconds (Peter Steele, March 1995) by Michael Moynihan

Interview#7: EYE WEEKLY (Peter Steele, April 1995) by Marc Weisblott

Bootleg#9: Marching Over Germany (CD Live 1994 // 2024 Wolfmoon)

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Interview#8: "Peter Steele: Gothic Sex God" Live Wire (Peter Steele, March 1995) by Tomas Pascual

Bootleg#10: Light My Fire (CD Comp. 1994, 1997 // 2020 N/A)

Interview#9: "Kiss of Death" GUITAR SCHOOL (Peter Steele, Kenny Hickey May 1995) by Jeff Gilbert

Interview#10: WATT (Peter Steele, June 1995) transl. from NL

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