BLACKIE LAWLESS Explains Decision To Perform Pre-W.A.S.P. Song 'Mr. Cool' On '1984 To Headless' Tour: 'I'm Doing It, Quite Honestly, For Me'

During a VIP question-and-answer session before W.A.S.P.'s September 12 concert at the Fox Performing Arts Theater in Riverside, California, frontman Blackie Lawless spoke about the band's decision to perform "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 1985's "The Last Command" album. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Well, I wrote that [song] when I was 18. And we're doing a version of it tonight. We're doing the original version. And I'm doing it, quite honestly, for me. Because when we did the original demo, one of the guys that was in the band went back to New York, and he struck a deal for $5,000. And I didn't get any money out of it. He claimed he wrote it. So fast forward a couple of years later, the second album comes out, they sue me for copyright infringement.

"All these stories you start to hear about the music business, they can start to come true real fast," Blackie continued. "And you get spit out, and you say, 'Huh, so this is how it's gonna work, huh?' But like I said, I was 18 when I wrote that.

"Looking back on it, the lyrics are pretty astonishing for an 18-year-old," Blackie added. "I was writing about experiences that I thought I was gonna have. Boy, how little did I know how right I was. But you try to look into a crystal ball and think that you're gonna get some of it, and I did okay with that one. So like I said, to do it tonight, I'm doing it for me. I'm doing a song that some people have never really heard, or at least the version that we're gonna do tonight. Unless they paid attention to the Internet a lot, to YouTube, they're not gonna know it. But like I said, I'm doing it for me."

W.A.S.P. kicked off the "1984 To Headless" 2026 U.S. and Canada tour with KK'S PRIEST last Thursday night (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.

Prior to launching into "Mr. Cool", Lawless told the crowd (see video below): "I was about 18 years old when I wrote this song. And a bunch of interesting things happened along the way. We did a demo of it. It got released as a single by a band that Chris [Holmes, ex-W.A.S.P. guitarist] and I had a long time ago called SISTER. It got sold for $5,000. And I have never, ever played this song live. So I'm doing this for me, and I hope you like it. This is 'Mr. Cool'."

When "1984 To Headless" was first announced in February 2026, Blackie said in a statement: "It's hard to express the genuine excitement I'm feeling in describing the '1984 To Headless' U.S. tour. Playing those songs from those first four albums in a combined package like this is something we've never attempted before. In addition to the songs, the entire stage show will look like the album covers from those records will come alive... right before your eyes! Complete with all the history and bombastic live presentations that's made this band one of the great live bands in the theatrical rock world. When elements of those album covers start to come alive, right on the stage before the people, it's gonna be something they'll not soon forget!"

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.

W.A.S.P.'s latest release was "ReIdolized (The Soundtrack To The Crimson Idol)", which came out in February 2018. It was a new version of the band's classic 1992 album "The Crimson Idol", which was re-recorded to accompany the movie of the same name to mark the 25th anniversary of the original LP's release. The re-recorded version also features four songs missing from the original album.

W.A.S.P.'s most recent studio album of all-new original material was 2015's "Golgotha".