My latest Talkin' Rock with Meltdown guest is none other that Blackie Lawless of W.A.S.P.. It's always a treat when I get to talk with Blackie. He's a great interview, and also the force behind one of my favorite bands of the era.

Lots was discussed including his health. After undergoing surgery to ease his back last year, he's on the mean. "But, you know, we had surgery on it about ten months ago, and, you know, I'm on the mend and everything's cool, you know? So, you know, we should be ready for the fall tour coming in, in October."

Blackie Lawless On His Special Meet & Greets

Blackie's meet and greet is very unique, where the fans get pictures and stuff signed, then he'll do a Q &A session with them. "Well, we looked around at what other VIP packages were doing and quite honestly I didn't get excited about it. I thought, you know, if I'm going to meet somebody that I've always wanted to meet, wouldn't some sort of back and forth, you know, question and answer? I mean, wouldn't that be what you would want to have it be? And for me, that's what I would want. You know, and quite honestly, I didn't, because I've never done these before until we had done that the last time we were in the US a couple of years ago. And I'll be frank with you, I got as much, if not more than the people did out of it because like every other artist, you live in your own bubble and you don't really have a chance to talk to people on a one on one basis without it being in a chaotic situation." He later told me that some of the questions he received jarred some memories that might end up in a future autobiography.

Blackie On New W.A.S.P. Music

The last time I talked with Blackie, he told me he was working on new music. Where does it stand now? He said the surgery set him back a bit, but he got back into it. "I've had a long time to go through that. Those early demos of what we have been working on it, listening to it with fresh ears. Some of it's really good, but there's not enough of it yet where I would be comfortable in saying, okay, this is finished, and let's go with it. You know, I want to, I'd like to like to go back and visit the drawing board, so to speak, you know, and see what else is there, because even from a two year period of when we started working on that before to where we are right now, you're going to gain so much, you're going to grow so much, you know?"

He went on "So you really have to I've learned and you don't make records or I don't make records anymore that are spread out over a 2 or 3-year period. Because the guy you are when you first start making it is not the guy you are when you finish making it, get in, try to, you know, six months top to bottom, get that thing cranked up, you know, because like I said, if you don't, you end up running the risk of it kind of being a schizophrenic type of record. You know, where you've got one type of one thing and then some. The other half is something else, and it has no real cohesiveness"

You can see Blackie and the band perform their entire debut album at the Royal Oak Music Theater on November 10th. For tickets, click here.