W.A.S.P.'s BLACKIE LAWLESS: 'I Don't Ever See Myself Retiring'

During an appearance on a recent episode of the "Rock Talk With Jacqui Neal" podcast, W.A.S.P. frontman Blackie Lawless reflected on his band's 40-year career. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I'm one of those people that doesn't measure time well. I hear a lot of people say, 'It's been 10 years since tada tada da,' and they really feel the effect of that 10 years. To me, for some reason — I don't think it's denial, 'cause I've been like this my whole life — to me, 10 years doesn't feel like what I hear other people talk about 10 years. So whether it's a decade, two, three decades, a tour, whatever, to me I have the memories, of course…

"First of all, I don't feel like I'm getting any older, so I'm kind of in an adolescent time warp, if you like, and I just see things through that arrested development that the world has given me the opportunity to stay in," the 65-year-old musician, whose real name is Steven Duren, continued. "To say, 'Oh, wow. It's been that length of time,' I think to myself, 'Well, yeah, that is true.' But I don't see it as catastrophic or that it's some giant punctuation mark coming at the end of something.

"I don't ever see myself retiring," Blackie added. "What's the point in that? I'm one of those people that if I could have put myself in a Xerox machine and spit out two or three copies of myself, I would have been happy, 'cause I had a bunch of stuff I wanted to do. I have a lot of interests that I'm passionate about, but there just wasn't enough of me to go around. But you do the best you can with what you've got."

W.A.S.P.'s first live performance since December 2019 took place on July 23 at Skansen in Stockholm, Sweden. A week later (July 30),W.A.S.P. also played at Skogsröjet festival in Rejmyre, Sweden.

W.A.S.P. recently postponed its European 40th-anniversary tour, originally scheduled for spring of 2022, until the spring of 2023. The new dates will take place in March, April and May of 2023. All tickets previously purchased for the 2022 tour will be valid at the rescheduled 2023 shows.

W.A.S.P. will embark on its first U.S. tour in a decade this fall. The trek will coincide the band's 40th anniversary and will include support from ARMORED SAINT and MICHAEL SCHENKER on select shows.

Lawless has led W.A.S.P. as its lead vocalist and primary songwriter since its beginning. His unique brand of visual, social and political comment took the group to worldwide heights and sold millions of records alongside a legacy of sold-out shows across the globe for four decades. He is joined in W.A.S.P.'s current lineup by bassist Mike Duda and guitarist Doug Blair, whose tenures in the band span 26 and 18 years respectively, along with drummer extraordinaire Aquiles Priester.