BLACKIE LAWLESS: 'Anybody Living In The United States That Thinks That It's Not The Best In The World, You Need Your Head Examined'

During an appearance on the September 13, 2026 episode of "Whiplash", the KLOS radio show hosted by Full Metal Jackie, W.A.S.P. leader Blackie Lawless was asked if he has been in contact with former W.A.S.P. guitarist Chris Holmes, who recently began chemotherapy in France for prostate cancer, just four years after undergoing treatment for throat and neck cancer. Blackie responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I've corresponded with him via letters, but that's really as far as it's gone so far because we got a message just a a few days ago. He's not doing well, so we really don't know where he is right now as, as far as his treatment. We know that he's living in [France]."

Blackie continued: "Allow me to do a commercial for just a minute here. Anybody living in the United States that thinks that it's not the best in the world, you need your head examined. You need to go to some of these other places to see what they don't have. Yes, they have complete healthcare, but it takes three months to get to somebody. And I'm not joking. I mean, it is primitive, to say the least. What they don't get is criminal. And to compare, or try to compare, the United States to what you don't see in other places is a joke. I mean, anybody here, you come across this border, I don't care who you are, you're gonna get taken care of, and you're gonna get taken care of pretty quickly. But he is over there. He is not here, and so he is at the mercy of trying to deal with the French government, and it's... We don't really know what's happening. I mean, you know pretty much the same thing I do at this point."

Asked to share something that stood out to him most about Chris as a bandmate during his time with W.A.S.P., Blackie said: "His ability to perform. I mean, that's the thing that made him who he was. 'Cause if you look at the records like the big solos, 'Blind In Texas', 'Wild Child' — that's [early W.A.S.P. guitarist] Randy Piper doing that. So people, a lot of times… It's a little like AEROSMITH. People think that Joe Perry is the end all to that musically, but Brad Whitford had a whole lot to say about what was really going on with leads. So we weren't different when it came to that. But [Chris's] ability to perform, that's what set him apart. So I think when people think of him, that's what they think of."

Chris's wife Catherine said in a post on GoFundMe that his cancer "treatment is essential and cannot be interrupted. Because of an administrative error linked to our marriage registration, the health insurance system placed Chris under 'emergency only' coverage," she explained.

Chris was forced to "wait three months before receiving any care at all, and only the radiotherapy given during the month of July is covered," Catherine revealed. "Everything else falls to us," she added, listing hormone therapy, scans and PET scans, biopsies, blood tests, and daily trips to and from the hospital.

Catherine went on to say that the bills have accumulated, leaving them "€20,000 in medical debt," with "treatment ahead" set to "keep adding to it every month.

"Chris must remain in France to receive radiotherapy. Leaving the country would risk his emergency status lapsing, so he cannot travel and therefore cannot work," Catherine said. "Chris has given everything to his music and to the people who listen to it. It is his whole life. Today we cannot carry this alone."

She expressed gratitude to France for "granting the emergency coverage that allowed Chris to begin radiotherapy. Now we ask, humbly, for help covering everything else."

The GoFundMe goal is set to €50,000. So far, more than €56,000 has been donated.

Holmes joined W.A.S.P. in 1982 and remained with the group until 1990. In 1996, the guitarist returned to W.A.S.P. and stayed with the band until 2001. Chris has not played with W.A.S.P. since.

In 2021, Holmes told SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk" that W.A.S.P. was "a group, a band" on the first LP. "And after that, the second album, it wasn't a group — it was a one-man show," he said. "And it's been a one-man show after that ever since. It's the way it is. Look at the records. It's the way it is in that band."

According to Chris, he, guitarist Randy Piper, drummer Tony Richards and Blackie Lawless were all part of W.A.S.P. initial management contract, but Blackie was the only one signed to the record label. "Everybody thinks we [all] signed to the label, but it wasn't [like that]," Holmes told "Trunk Nation".

Despite the fact that he only got songwriting credit on a couple of the songs on each of the first four W.A.S.P. records, Holmes was adamant that his input was essential to the band's overall sound."If I would have quit after the first album, the way I play guitar, the way I play is really important to writing those songs," he told "Trunk Nation".

"If I hadn't joined in the beginning, it would have never worked. Blackie told me that the first day, when he came and talked to me to play in W.A.S.P. He says, 'I've got this band. It's not gonna work unless you're in it.' He told me that to my face."

W.A.S.P. kicked off the "1984 To Headless" 2026 U.S. and Canada tour with KK'S PRIEST last night (Thursday, September 10) at The Magnolia in El Cajon, California. The 17-song setlist from the Lawless-fronted outfit consisted mostly of songs from W.A.S.P.'s first four albums — 1984's "W.A.S.P.", 1985's "The Last Command", 1986's "Inside The Electric Circus" and 1989's "The Headless Children" — opening with URIAH HEEP's "Easy Livin'", a song W.A.S.P. covered on "Inside The Electric Circus" but had never performed live. Blackie and his bandmates also played "Mr. Cool", a song that originally appeared on a demo from Lawless's pre-W.A.S.P. band SISTER, which later evolved into the track "Cries In The Night" from "The Last Command".

W.A.S.P. is again offering fans VIP tickets that give fans a chance to meet Blackie, get a personal photo with Blackie, autographs, a W.A.S.P. traveling museum with new items added since the last U.S. tour, and take part in a very personal Q&A with Blackie. VIP tickets can be purchased at waspnation.myshopify.com.

W.A.S.P. will take the "1984 To Headless" tour to Europe and the rest of the world in 2027.