People with Ears Rejoice: Glenn Danzig Says He Doesn’t Know “If I’m Ever Gonna Record Again”
It’s been roughly eight years since New Jersey native, Misfits frontman, and cringeworthy horror film “director” Glenn Danzig last released a solo album. And aside from the well… everything that’s happened over these last eight years, at least that fact is a pretty good one. I mean, he’s made some killer albums back in the day, but did you hear Black Laden Crown? Better yet, have you heard Danzig Sings Elvis? Fuckin… yikes.
Well apparently in a recent interview with Full Metal Jackie (as transcribed by Blabbermouth), it’s sounding like those two aural mishaps could potentially be the end of Danzig’s solo career. And a lot of it is thanks to the current state of the music business.
“The whole music thing and recording and everything, it’s just changed dramatically where people really don’t buy physical product anymore. They just wanna download it for free online. So there’s really no incentive to new music, unless I’m in the studio and I do something and I wanna give it away for free to everybody. I don’t know if that’s a great business model.”
Now, he’s not wrong there. It’s gotten pretty damn hard for musicians to make a buck off their talents thanks to things like digital streaming services paying shit rates per stream, increased tour costs, and the fact that barely anyone buys full albums anymore. It’s not as lucrative as it was just a couple decades ago, that’s for sure.
When asked if he at least likes writing new music, he said he does… only he’s not sure if he’s going to continue working on solo Danzig material moving forward.
“Yeah, of course. But I write lots of different stuff.
“I don’t see the music industry changing at all. So I don’t know if I’m ever gonna record again, at least Danzig stuff. Maybe at some point. I don’t know right now.”
As for touring, Danzig (who will be 70 years old this June) said he’s soured on the idea of long tours these days. And who can really blame him? As it stands, he only does a handful of shows each year these days, citing once again how things have changed since the good ol’ days.
“Well, everything’s more expensive. The last time I went out — I think it was 2022 or 2023, again just a handful of shows — and prices on buses and gas had just gone [way up]. And then this last time we went out in 2023, they went up three times what we normally pay. And this time it’s even crazier. So, I think it’s also become really hard for a lot of bands to go out there and tour. I’ve said it before — a young band just going out there, they would have to go out in a van, well, kind of how we did back in the day with Danzig and Samhain and the Misfits. I mean, we would go out in a van. It was all we could afford.”
Though it sounds like Danzig might be really winding down his music career (hopefully not so he can pursue film… yikes…), he’s still got a handful of shows scheduled for next month. You can check out the full list of dates below.
DANZIG tour dates with DOWN, ABBATH and CRO-MAGS:
March 21 – Las Vegas, NV – The Virgin Theater at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas
March 22 – Lincoln, CA – Thundessheater
March 26 – Portland, OR – Moda Center-Theatre of the Clouds
March 29 – Los Angeles, CA – Kia Forum
March 30 – Phoenix, AZ – Arizona Financial Theatre
