Recorded September27, 2017, in the parking lot of Reggie’s 42nd
Street Pub in Wilmington, NC, leaning against the side of Michale’s pick-up truck and transcribed. All the ums, ahs, laughs, pauses, stumbles, doubling back, and friendly interruptions are there, very conversational, very informal, very much like sitting down with an old friend, which, in a lot of ways, it was. [Pictures are from the show that night]
D: The 2nd time I saw you was in September of ’97, God,
that’d be right at 20 years ago. I showed up early and caught the soundcheck
through the open stage door. You sat alone on the edge of the stage and bled,
really bled, a couple of Patsy Cline songs, knowing full well that there were
rabid punk fans outside listening, who were already judging you. I’ve never
forgotten it. Hearing the heart you poured into those songs was my first taste
that you had more to offer. That’s when I became a fan of yours, not just the
current project.
MG: [laughs] Thank you, that’s a pretty cool story…
[Bit of a recording glitch here, missed several minutes…]
D: …Vagabond is a bit of a masterpiece, probably my
favorite of all of your work, and the acoustic version, well, it was a friend
when I needed one. Backroads/World Turned aside, what’s your favorite of all
your projects?
MG: Vagabond. Yeah, I’d have to say Vagabond. You know, I, I
don’t have to put, and I don’t put that music through many filters like I do
with the horror stuff, where I’m really, you know, watching and tinkering with
words in a different way. The Vagabond and Wanderer stuff, it’s just kind of…
D: Like pure voice?
MG: Yeah, Yeah. It’s just, it’s how I feel. I’m not afraid
to talk about spirituality. I’m not afraid to talk about, you know, life and
love and loss, I just, I just kind of put it out there.
D: So, what’s a…, what’s the most personal song you’ve ever
written?
MG: They all are.
D: Whether we’ve heard it or not?
MG: I think they all are. “New Song” comes to mind. “New
Song,” when I play it, sometimes I don’t play it, ‘cause there’s like 8 out of
10 times I don’t get through it.
D: [simultaneously] …can’t get through it?
MG: Yeah, so I think “New Song” is pretty, uh…[long pause],
yeah.
D: It’s been pretty cool getting two versions of the last
several albums.
MG: Yeah. Yeah, yeah
D: It really has, seeing the process in it. Which do you
like more? Do you like going from… stripping it down or going, expanding it to
the full band?
MG: I like the, I like, I like the deconstruction. I like to
deconstruct it. Rather than sneaking in… Although, that’s how I wrote the last
record.
D: Which I love, by the way.
MG: Yeah, it was from simple acoustic and then I built on.
But I, I love to deconstruct.
D: What do you get the most satisfaction out of playing
live? I’ve heard that you like the acoustic stuff just because it is so
personal, but…
MG: And it’s also a challenge for me. I love the challenge,
the musiciansh…, you know, the challenge as a musician when I’m just up on
stage, and just my voice and my, and the guitar. I don’t want to say I can hide
behind a lot of things when I’m up with the band, but it’s, it’s a different
sort of delivery system. I’m using a lot different muscles, you know?
D: Yeah. Have you got songs that you never, ever want to
play again…
Loki: [gives a hearty laugh!]
D: …that you just
can’t get away from due to fan demand?
MG: No.
D: No?
MG: No. No, not yet, at least. I keep my mind…, um, you
know, I don’t, I think, I’ll never forsake the songs. Every time we play “Dig
Up Her Bones,” or one of those songs that you’d think I, you know, “Crying On
Saturday Night,” um…
D: …that some people would probably think that you would
just get sick of doing, you don’t?
MG: I don’t. I don’t. it’s a blessing every time we get to
play it. The reaction that people have is just…
D: [to Loki] What about you…
Loki: …that’s what it’s about, it’s about the reaction…
D: Do you get sick of playing anything in particular?
Loki: Well, my personal taste, I, I’d, I would rather never
play “Godzilla” again.
MG: Yeah?
D: Fair enough.
Loki: But, with that being said, no, like with the hits
that, that is a mandatory hit, I feel like the reaction that we get is just,
it’s a blessing for us to play the songs that people enjoy so much.
MG: Yeah.
Loki: They just wanna, they’re waiting to hear it, why
wouldn’t you play it?
D: Right.
MG: Yeah.
D: Yeah, No, I agree.
Loki: I mean it’s silly, 100%. Just playing it, and seeing
people’s…, and just feeding off of their energy, dude. That, it’s just great.
D: That’s awesome. So, is there stuff that you want to do
live that just doesn’t jive with the show? That you just can’t work it into a
set?
MG: Well, like the Vagabond
and the Wanderer stuff, and certain
songs that just wouldn’t work in the set that we, we do, but I have plans for,
for that, for that stuff, so I’ll be able to get that off of my chest at some
point, yeah.
D: Alright. You got any guilty music pleasures? Like are
you a secret Britney Spears fan or anything?
MG: You know, like I said I have 2 children, 3 children, 2
girls…
D: I have 2 girls myself.
MG: Uh, huh. 2 girls and a boy, and the girls, except for my
youngest, Perry, kinda likes heavier music, she’s getting into heavier music,
but when I’m with Olivia and Perry we listen to a lot of Kid’s Bop, and so… I like all… there’s so many songs that I know
and that I like and that I sing along to…
D: That’s cool, I’ve got such a range of likes myself, that
its cool to hear that.
MG: Yeah. I’ve never been a clique-y person, you know what
I’m saying? So, my taste in music is so eclectic, I love, you know, you’ll find
me listening to, I don’t know, the soundtrack to The Phantom Of The Opera, or Beethoven, or Tchaikovsky, all the way
to, you know, I love John Denver, I love Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash, and I
love listening to like Lamb Of God and Megadeth.
D: You’ve named a few that I’ve looked up to for a long
time.
MG: I love Darryl Hall and John Oates, Bon Jovi.
D: I’m gonna embarrass you a little bit, since you named
several of those people. The acoustic stuff, I mean I’ve really, you have
lifted up to singer/songwriter status with a lot of those people for me.
MG: Yeah? I appreciate it. I’m never ashamed of the stuff I
listen to. I’m never ashamed.
D: I’m glad to hear it. I never have been either.
MG: Yeah, good music is good music.
D: What’s the first piece of music you ever bought?
MG: That I ever bought?
D: Own money, walked into a store and bought.
MG: It was probably like a Def Leppard…, probably Pyromania…
D: Still have it?
MG: Or Eddie Rabbit, you know or like Air Supply or
something when I was younger? No, I don’t have it.
D: My first one was a 45 of “Another One Bites the Dust”
with “Don’t Try Suicide”…
MG: Yeah? Yeah, yeah!
D: …still have it!
MG: Like Get The Knack
or something, Haha!
Loki: [laughing]
D: One of the things that I have always been impressed
about is that you never hidden your politics or your faith or anything like
that amongst a community of fans that’s generally seen as liberal and agnostic…
MG: Yeah.
D: …and things like that. Do you think you’ve gained or
lost fans because of it?
MG: I think both. I think it’s gone both ways. I think that
I gain and I lose fans, um, and you know, that’s ok, but the fans that I do
have and the fans that I do gain are great people, and a lot of them disagree
and a lot of them aren’t in line with my politics, and some are atheists and
some are Jews and Hindus…
Loki: Hell, the band isn’t all in line…
MG: ...a friend of mine was a high priestess of the satanic
church, and she’s no longer there, but, so I have love for everybody…
D: [to Loki] Kind of a follow up to that since you
mentioned it, is the band kinda on the same page? Are y’all all over or…
Loki: I can only speak for myself, but yeah, it’s all over,
especially with me and him, but man, I can’t think of a closer, you know,
friend that I have than Michale.
D: Hey, some of my closest friends are polar opposites when
it comes to…
Loki: It’s not about, you know, agreeing all the time, you
know, it’s about having a conversation.
MG: Yeah, nah, I’m pretty staunch when it comes to certain
things, but that’s the thing, that’s what’s wrong too, you want to boil it down
to the punk community, the rock community, to, or really at large, um, there’s
no more civil dialogue it seems…
D: I agree.
MG: Everybody’s just arguing…
D: about everything…
MG: We’ve fallen into the trap. We’ve fallen into the trap
that it’s a psychological operation to soften everybody up. Everybody is much
easier controlled when we’re in fight of flight.
D: Oh, yeah.
MG: and that’s what happens when you create such, when you
create on a large scale, on such a large scale of everybody constantly in that
fight or flight mode where they’re angry about something or they’re just
waiting to hear some sort of trigger, it does something, it does negative
things to a society. It makes everyone more susceptible to disease and control
and everything else and that’s where we’re at and it’s really sad and scary
because I have young children.
D: How old are they?
MG: An 8 year old, a 5 year old, and a 2 month old.
D: Wow, I didn’t know you had a 2 month old!
MG: Yep.
D: Nice, I’ve got 9 year old and an eleven year, or, I’m
sorry, a 9 year old and a 12 year old, and it’s, it’s crazy.
MG: I was, when I was younger, I was, I was pissed off for a
lot of other reasons, and now I’m, you know, I’m pissed off in a whole new way…
D: Yeah, Hahaha!
MG: I’m pissed off in a whole new way because the world
that… I’ve lived a good life. I’ve done pretty much everything that I’ve wanted
to, so I can lay my head on the ground and go back to my lord and I’ll be ok,
but It’s the world that they’re gonna, the world that they’re being brought
into is the world that I’m angry about and trying to make… I mean, you know,
you’re a father…
D: Totally understand,
MG: Yeah, yeah.
D: Does the “Conservative Punk” label ever weigh down on
you or do you embrace it?
MG: It never weighs down on me.
D: No?
MG: No, I wear it with a badge of honor. I’m very, very
proud of the things that I did, um, yeah, I didn’t take the easiest path, or
the easiest road, but…
D: No, you didn’t. You brought a lot of stuff down on
yourself, criticism-wise, that I’ve admired you for doing.
MG: Yeah, you know, when you’re gonna fly into the enemy,
into the enemy’s encampment, you gotta understand that you’re gonna get shelled
to the ground.
D: Alright, uh, kinda building on that, um, do you ever
find it difficult to reconcile your faith with the subject matter and the image
that you, that you portray?
MG: I don’t, because I believe in Christ, that Christ died
for all, you know, that Christ died for all of us.
D: I get asked the question a lot too…
MG: Me too.
D: And it’s never, it’s never, it’s never been an issue for
me.
MG: You know, I’ve, I’ve had conversations with clergy,
especially when I was down in Little Rock, I delved into the Christian
community as much as I could, um, for that reason, to try to get people,
younger people, um, you know, awakened to, awakened to spirituality,
Christianity, and um, and I always told those people that, that you have to
understand the dark and you have to, you have to communicate the darkness as
well, to understand the light as well.
D: I think it’s a brilliant sentiment, and I wholeheartedly
agree.
MG: And in the Bible it says you’ll, you’ll know, you’ll
know them by the fruit that they bear. And so I say to anybody, you turn on
the, the computer and you pull up pictures of me and you, you take a look at me
you could come up with, you know, you could come to a conclusion that, that’s
very, that’s very very wrong. But when you really look at what I’ve done in the
past 20 years, I think that my, I know that my savior is waiting. I, I’ve…
D: That’s refreshing to hear. It really is.
MG: Yeah, I’m gonna be alright. I’m gonna be alright.
D: Glad to hear it. Let’s see, um, as outspoken as you have
been, uh, you’ve made a lot of musical statements that clearly had a political
message…
MG: Sure.
D: …that weren’t overtly political. You know, they weren’t
‘Jello Biafra’ political..
MG: uh, huh
D: Um, is it by design? Like, do you write them that way,
or does, is that just how they come out?
MG: A lot of it, yeah, a lot of it is cloaked. If somebody
was to go back in my music and really look and really take the blinders off and
really look and start to pick it apart, the messages go all the way back to The
Misfits.
D: Oh, yeah.
MG: All the way back to The Misfits. And there’s time when I
come out more ferociously than, than I do at other times, but, at the end of
the day, I’m, I’m an entertainer, and my job is to entertain, through music,
through video, through, through art and so my political statements, or my, you
know, my world view, you’re right, it’s in there, but it, it’s kinda covert.
D: Ok
MG: It’s put in there as, as allegory.
D: Yeah.
MG: Um, you know, but when times call for it, I think like
now, um, I, I raise my rhetoric a bit.
D: Alright, as long as we’re there, you wanna weigh in on
this whole ‘take a knee’ thing?
MG: [pause] I, personally, don’t believe that when the
national anthem is played that it’s the time to make any sort of political
statement.
D: I would agree.
MG: Right or wrong. Right or wrong, its not agreeing or
disagreeing with the political statement, it’s just that that, the national
anthem, as Americans, we should all just wait a couple of minutes, you know,
and rally around that song, and, and keep that song sacred. Um, you know, for
lots of reasons. Because it’s for the sacrifice that, that everybody made.
Sacrifice the soldiers make, you know there’s young guys out there that, that,
you know, that are literally dying for the flag, you know it’s… So, I’m all for
people making political statements. I think it, I think that that’s great that
we have discourse…
D: It is important.
MG: But everybody should just take a breather when, when
that song comes on and, and, and I think that we should respect it and stand up
for it. Lemme tell you something, the way that I was raised, If I was out on a
field, or if I, you know, my dad or my mom or some guys that I know…
D: I’d be, I’d be behind that tree right there…
MG: …knew that I took
a knee…
D: …my dad woulda beat my ass!
MG: Yeah! I’d be in, I’d be in big trouble, but irregardless
of that, it’s just, once again, it’s really just, it’s sad, it breaks my heart
to see such, you know, such back and forth, everybody’s, everybody’s arguing…
D: And we get back to the arguing and it’s beating…
MG: …in a profound way, in a, in a very profound way…
D: …and it’s beating everybody down.
MG: Yeah.
[pause]
D: Alright, while I’m thinking about it, looking at your
trailer, did ya’ll ever recover any of your gear from last year?
MG: No.
D: None of it? None of it at all?
MG: No. No. No. Well, you know what, lemme just back, let me
back up to that, to that last question ‘cause I have the opportunity.
D: Ok, yeah.
MG: You know what, what I don’t like is that, again, we have
young children, and you see these systems whether it’s ESPN, NFL as a league,
where they’re getting all of this money in from organizations and other corporations and so they’re putting
out a public agenda, you know, they, the NFL accepts money to push, to push
the, you know, the war footing of America, and that’s, that’s not right. I
think that if, again, you clean out money like that in those organizations,
it’s just not the NFL, it’s everywhere. You look at my industry, the music
industry and the movie industry, there’s, there’s 5 companies, and they’re all
Chinese run now, It’s all Chinese money, so now every time you go and you see a
movie there’s gonna be some sort of communist China message in there, that’s
the, that’s the truth. And so these young kids are starting, are not starting
to, have this warped sense of what, what reality is. Communism, facism,
capitalism, conservativism, liberal, liberalism, they’re just words that float,
and they just evoke emotions and it’s, it’s bad, and its, it’s very wrong and
we’re, I think we’re headed for some bad stuff. Some bad stuff. I wish the
music industry was different.
D: You got time for a couple of Misfits questions?
MG: Sure. Sure, sure.
D: Have you followed, uh, the careers of your former
bandmates?
MG: Of course, of course.
D: What do you think of the stuff they’re putting out?
MG: I really, I, I, anytime… I haven’t listened to Doyle’s
new record, I’m not real, you know, I listen to it…
D: I’ll throw my 2 cents worth in, its amazing. I didn’t
love Alex’s voice on Abominator, but
then I saw them…
MG: That’s great. It’s not my thing. It really isn’t. The
style, and…
D: Well, that’s what turned me off to them until I saw
them.
MG: Yeah, but I’m really glad, you know, obviously I’m
always rooting for those guys. I keep in touch with Jerry, I’m, yeah…
D: So, I’ve heard you say in the past that you’re open to…
MG: Of course, I’ve always been open to…
D: …a reunion with
them…
MG: Of course…
D: Do you honestly think it’ll ever happen?
MG: I do.
D: You do?
MG: I do.
D: That’s good to hear too.
MG: Yeah.
D: Alright, so, I was at Riot Fest last year in Chicago and
I was blown away by something that I never thought I’d see just because of my
age. Two days later I saw you at The Drunken Horse in Fayetteville, and was,
again, blown away, and enjoyed that how just as much as I did that Misfits
show.
MG: Cool.
D: What are your
feelings about Glenn singing with them again?
MG: It’s f.., I think it’s fantastic. I’m a fan of The
Misfits too. I’m a fan of Glenn, of Danzig…
D: I knew you were a big Danzig fan…
MG: Before I really understood what the Misfits, who they
were, I remember seeing Danzig on MTV, and, you know, when I was younger, and
in bands that I was in we did Danzig songs, so I’m a fan…
D: First song I ever played live was “Twist of Cain”…
MG: I’m so happy for them as individuals, that they were
able to come to whatever terms that they needed to come to, and put aside
whatever differences they needed to, to put aside to be able to come together
and play, because when you see, and you experienced it, the fans, what it does
for the fans…
D: It was amazing, it really was…
MG: It…, It’s…, that…, that’s saving the world one fan, one
fan at a…, but it’s, it’s such, everybody’s so excited, I’m, I’m very very
happy for them. I’m very very happy for them.
D: Good to hear. A couple of quick, one-liner last one’s.
Favorite band of all time?
MG: Ahhh…, Unfortunately, I think I have to say U2.
D: Yeah?
MG: I think Bono’s a jerk but…
Loki: [to Michale] If you were gonna be like “I don’t have…”
I was gonna say…
D: U2!
Loki: …U2!
MG: [laughs]
Loki: [laughs]
D: [laughs]
MG: I love the music of U2. The politics of U2 is a
different story, um, but yeah…
D: Favorite album of all time?
MG: It might be Pyromania…
D: Nice!
MG: Def Leppard with Pyromania.
D: Nice! Def Leppard was my first concert…
MG: Yeah?
D: …on Hysteria…
MG: I love that record.
D: Favorite song of all time?
MG: Of all time…, shoooo…,
Loki: No, no answer.
D: No answer, really?
MG: Ugh, that’s rough, man!
Loki: Yeah.
MG: Umm…
Loki: That’s like if you’re a chef and you’re like what’s
your favorite flavor…
D: …favorite food…
MG: I’m gonna say “Mano a Mano” by Daryl Hall & John
Oates…
D: Nice!
MG: …just because I need an answer!
Loki: [laughs]
D: [laughs]
MG: [laughs]
D: Favorite guitar?
MG: Favorite guitar?
D: To play, favorite guitar to play?
MG: Umm…
D: I’m a Tele guy myself.
MG: I love playing Ibanez. The Paul Stanley, like the real
Paul Stanley that actually feels like a real guitar.
D: What are you listening to right now?
MG: Ah, what’s um, again, I have… System Of A Down, Adam
and… Adam the Ants, Type O Negative, I don’t, I really haven’t, I really don’t
listen to anything new, I’m still…
D: What’s the newest band that caught your attention?
MG: Probably Living End, The Living End, but they’re not
even…, they’re not new anymore, but yeah, that’s the newest.
D: Well, alright. I appreciate your time man.
MG: Yeah man.
D: I really do. I’m looking forward to the show.
Loki: Awesome, thanks, man.
MG: I appreciate it.
D: Thanks, man.
Loki: Glad it all worked out.
D: Yeah, I am too.
MG: [walking away] Chinese food!!
MG: [walking away] Chinese food!!
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