Glenn Danzig on Misfits, Odd "Mother" Requests, Why 2022 Tour May Be His Last

As always, Glenn Danzig is keeping busy — but he's being selective about it. The iconic hard-rock shouter/crooner for the bands Danzig, Samhain and the reunited Misfits will be back onstage for several performances this year, but he's also working on scripts to follow up on his first two films as an indie horror director: 2019's Verotika and his 2021 "vampire spaghetti western," Death Rider in the House of Vampires.

First comes a 10-date U.S. tour of his namesake band beginning May 5th in Reno, Nevada, and including a performance of Danzig II: Lucifuge in Ontario, California. As brief as the run is, Danzig says it may be his final multi-date tour, and he will likely focus on one-off live dates for the foreseeable future. There's also one Misfits gig lined up for the fall at Chicago's Riot Fest, and he may squeeze in another ballroom performance or two of songs from his 2020 tribute album, Danzig Sings Elvis.

The muscled man in black from Lodi, New Jersey, spoke with Revolver recently for an upcoming feature marking the 30th anniversary of his landmark classic, Danzig III: How the Gods Kill, but also caught us up below on his music, movies and Misfits.

WHAT CAN YOU TELL ME ABOUT THIS DANZIG TOUR?
GLENN DANZIG It's not really much of a tour. It's 10 shows. I don't think I'm going to tour anymore. I'm just going to fly out to a show here or there. I'll maybe be down to do some one-offs. But I just don't see myself getting on a tour bus anymore.

SO, NO TOURS AFTER THIS?
Yeah. I think I'm done.

ON THE SECOND NIGHT OF THIS RUN, IN ONTARIO, CALIFORNIA, YOU'RE PERFORMING DANZIG II: LUCIFUGE IN FULL. DO YOU LIKE PERFORMING ENTIRE ALBUMS LIVE?
I don't mind doing it once in a while. This way it's kind of fun and doesn't wear itself out. You get an offer from something like Riot Fest or Psycho Las Vegas to do a whole album, that's OK. I wouldn't want to do a whole tour of that. When I'm placing the songs on an album, I'm trying to make you go on a ride. It's similar with a live show except a live show's a lot different than sitting in your room listening to a record.

IS THERE ANY NEW DANZIG MUSIC IN THE WORKS?
I write songs here and there. Lately, I seem to be writing more soundtrack stuff. I don't know that I'm ever going to do another album again. I might do an EP or I might just record some songs and put them out for free on the internet. We'll see. It could be that right now I'm just not interested, and then a month from now I'll be in the studio. It depends. I've got to be excited about working in order to go do it. And right now I'm not that excited.

IS THAT PARTLY BECAUSE OF THE WAY PEOPLE CONSUME MUSIC NOW?
It's a bunch of different things. I've been doing it so long, I've written so many songs — trying to get excited about it and bringing something new or something cool, it takes a little longer now. The other thing is that people are stealing music left and right. Nobody really buys music anymore. I still go in a real studio to record so I'm not some kid in my living room doing my record.

A LOT OF PEOPLE DID REALLY LIKE YOUR LAST ALBUM OF NEW SONGS, 2017'S BLACK LADEN CROWN.
It came in Top 20 in Billboard, the first time since Danzig 4. I don't know that it means that much anymore these days, because no one's buying, but it's kind of cool. People really liked Deth Red Sabaoth [2010] and people really like Black Laden Crown. So maybe I'll do an EP or something.

YOUR DANZIG SINGS ELVIS PROJECT FINALLY CAME OUT IN 2020.
It was a big success. I've already been getting royalties for it, as a matter of fact, which is amazing. [Laughs] We have to re-press some vinyl because we're sold out of vinyl again. We did two shows right [in 2021] around Halloween at the Hollywood Roosevelt [Hotel, in Los Angeles]. I wanted it to be like an old Vegas vibe. They have a great ballroom there and we put tables in front and then seats behind. Those shows sold out. It was amazing.

YOU'D BEEN TALKING ABOUT THAT PROJECT A LONG TIME, SO I KNOW IT HAD SPECIAL MEANING FOR YOU.
It was just a labor of love. I didn't expect to make any money really off of it. I just felt it would be cool to do and it seemed like a lot of people would love to hear it. I would bounce the idea off people — a great thing about meeting people when you're on the road is that you can bounce stuff off them. They're your fans, and they've been following you for sometimes 20, 30 years. There's nobody better to ask than them. So, it worked out great. I think I'm going to do a couple more Danzig/Elvis shows.

YOUR SONG "MOTHER" IS IN THE NEW SEASON OF RUSSIAN DOLL ON NETFLIX.
I know Natasha [Lyonne], and she's a fan, and she requested to use the song. I got to meet everybody the other night at their season 2 party. Sometimes you get requests from people and you turn it down, but for her, "Yeah, no problem. You got it."

HAS "MOTHER" TURNED UP IN MANY OTHER FILMS OR TELEVISION BEFORE?
Yeah, I license it a lot to some people. I turned a lot of people down, but it's in The Hangover Part III. It's in a bunch of movies. I remember ABC was doing a Mother's Day thing and they asked to use it and I was like, "Ah, I don't know about that."

WHAT'S IN THE WORKS FOR YOU ON THE MOVIE FRONT?
I'm working on four scripts. One of them is a Death Rider [in the House of Vampires] sequel that's almost done. And then there's a werewolf biker movie that I'm writing right now – they're all one-percenter outlaw bikers. It's really violent. [Laughs] Then there's a martial arts movie and a sequel to Verotika. So, we'll see what gets done first.

ARE YOU GOING TO APPEAR ON SCREEN AGAIN?
If it's just a small role and if I'm directing, I can do it, but I would never put myself in a major role in a movie I'm directing. It's so hard doing a movie just to begin with, then add in having to learn lines and pop in front of the camera every now and then. I'd rather just be a secondary character.

REVOLVER'S LAST COVER STORY WITH YOU WAS JUST BEFORE YOU BEGAN MAKING YOUR FIRST TWO MOVIES AS A DIRECTOR. HOW HAS YOUR EXPERIENCE AS A FILMMAKER TURNED OUT?
The first one was tough. I had no money and I get to the set and all the things I need are not there. All of a sudden you're trying to make shit happen, so that was tough. The second one was a little easier. I also had a better budget on the second movie, too. Hopefully, with some of these new ones that I'm writing, I'll get an even better budget. I mean, what we're doing and what Hollywood is doing is night and day — they have, like, $100 million or even $50 million. We've got a tiny fraction of that. It would be nice getting a real budget to show what you can do.

IT'S LIKE BEING BACK MAKING PUNK ROCK RECORDS AGAIN?
Pretty much, yeah. [Laughs] So you just have to make it attractive in other ways. It's a lot of work. It's a lot of bullshit, but in the end it's kind of satisfying. I can't say I'm totally there yet where I'm like, "Yeah, this is great," but I'm sure it's going to be like music where you're like, "Oh, I could've done this, I could have done that."

ARE THE MISFITS GOING TO CONTINUE IN YOUR FUTURE?
We're doing Riot Fest [in Chicago] this year. We're doing the whole Walk Among Us record. So, we'll see if there's any other stuff [after that]. There's been talk. I have the whole fall off, unless I'm doing a movie or something — and I don't really like doing a movie during the winter. It's too cold. So, we'll see. There might be some Misfits shows.

NOW THAT YOU'VE DONE THE MISFITS REUNION SEVERAL TIMES, AND YOU SOUND OPEN TO MORE, HAS IT BEEN MORE FUN THAN YOU EXPECTED?
It actually gets better each time we do it.