Glenn Danzig spoke to Rolling Stone about his reunion with MISFITS bassist Jerry Only and guitarist Doyle for an appearance at this year’s Riot Fest, which will take place in Denver and Chicago this fall.
“I don’t think people should question it too much,” Danzig said. “It may have never happened, but it is going to happen for at least two shows. We’ll see how it goes. It may lead to some other work, but who knows how it’s going to turn out? I mean, I don’t think it’s going to be a disaster; I think it’s going to be incredible.”
According to Only, the reunion came about after a meeting he had with Danzig in January. The pair had gotten together with the MISFITS management in order to discuss the rights to the band’s name and merchandising with a view towards avoiding any further litigation between the parties.
“Without saying stuff I’m not allowed to say, it became a mediation and evolved from there,” Danzig said. “We put a lot of stuff behind us and resolved certain longstanding issues. It wasn’t an overnight thing.”
Asked if he and Only had always been friends, despite the legal battles, Danzig said: “No, we haven’t been friends. In the beginning we were friends but certain things happened that made it not a friendship. We’re putting that in the past.”
Regarding what fans can expect to see at the upcoming MISFITS shows, Danzig said: “I’m just going to do what I normally do, which is to go out there and try and have a great time myself and make sure everybody has a fantastic fucking time. I want them to be so blown away they don’t know what the fuck just hit them.”
The MISFITS reunion, billed as “The Original Misfits,” will take place over two shows in September. The first concert is scheduled for September 2-4 at Denver’s Riot Fest And Rodeo, while the second will happen at Riot Fest And Carnival, set for September 16-18 in Chicago.
The original MISFITS band broke up in 1983, and bassist Jerry Only brought forth a new version of the MISFITS in 1995. Various members have come and gone, but Only, along with BLACK FLAG’s Dez Cadena, has kept some form of the MISFITS in the recording studio and on the road for most of the last two decades.
After the original MISFITS disbanded, vocalist Glenn Danzig went on to form SAMHAIN and then the eponymous DANZIG. Several albums of reissued and previously unreleased material were issued after the group’s dissolution, and their music became influential to punk rock, heavy metal, and alternative rock music of the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Source: Blabbermouth