SLAUGHTER Documentary In The Works; 'The Wild Life' Definitive Edition Due This Summer

In a new interview with Meltdown of Detroit's WRIF radio station, SLAUGHTER frontman Mark Slaughter was asked if he and his bandmates have any ideas demoed out for a possible new studio album. Mark responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "No. But Dana [Strum, bass] and I, when we wrote [1990's debut album] 'Stick It To Ya', we wrote it in about two and a half weeks. So it doesn't take us long to write the songs; it's more about getting us all in the same room… But we don't have a set date. We're just kind of doing all these shows and we're kind of earmarking the calendar where we have holes in the schedule where we can do that."

Regarding the status of original SLAUGHTER drummer Blas Elias, Mark said: "[He will play with us] when he can do that. And he has family commitments and he has other things that he's doing right now. Blas is, and always will be, a big part of the band. He was the original player. Jordan [Cannata, fill-in drummer] is a fantastic drummer. So I don't know. When we get to the time of recording, it's kind of, like, who's available and what works? But I know that we're working on a biopic right now, and obviously Blas will be a part of that. I think that's probably — once we get something like that out is when we'll release something where Blas comes back and we really go for it as close to original as we can."

Asked to elaborate on the SLAUGHTER "biopic," which will presumably take the form of a documentary rather than a movie that dramatizes the band's history, Mark said: "Yeah, that all started during the COVID time. We started going through our drawers. You throw all your junk in a drawer and then you come back and you go, 'Man, what's this?' And then you start sending it back to each other: 'Hey, dude, you remember this?' So we ended up finding a 24-track tape which we had basically cooked, and then we took all the files off it. It was a show we did at Universal, in a Dick Clark production, and we did a whole show in between doing the tapings. So we have a full live show with [late SLAUGHTER guitarist] Tim Kelly on it that I'm mixing or trying to pull together for a release, probably through BMG. So we're pulling all that together right now. And there are a few of those songs that we threw in this 'The Wild Life' compilation in this box set that'll be in there [when it comes out this summer]. But that was a great find; it really was."

SLAUGHTER formed in 1988 from the ashes of Slaughter and Strum's previous band, VINNIE VINCENT INVASION, which featured former KISS guitarist Vinnie Vincent. The group's double-platinum debut, "Stick It To Ya", featured the hit singles "Fly To The Angels", "Up All Night", "Mad About You" and "Spend My Life". The band issued four additional full-length albums over the course of the rest of the decade, but it has not released any new music since 1999's "Back To Reality".