CHRIS HOLMES Once Again Rules Out Return To W.A.S.P.: 'I'd Be An Idiot To Go Back'

In a new interview with Thomas S. Orwat, Jr. of the Rock Interview Series, former W.A.S.P. guitarist Chris Holmes was asked if he would ever consider rejoining the band if W.A.S.P. leader Blackie Lawless asked him to. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "No. No. Do you know what happened with my publishing? Why would I play with [Blackie] again? It'd be pretty stupid, wouldn't it? He'd have to pay me my publishing [before I would even consider going back], and he's not gonna do that. I'd be an idiot. I'd be an idiot to go back."

Reflecting on why he feels he was wronged by Blackie, Chris said: "Listen, we're on the road, and [then-W.A.S.P. drummer] Frankie Banali's not gonna tour unless he gets $1,850 [a week], okay? And I'm getting $500 a week, okay? I went to Blackie, 'Well, it doesn't seem right. I'm one of the guys, main guys that people come to see, and Banali's not. But he's getting $1,850. I get five [hundred]? That's almost four times as much.' Blackie grabs me and puts his arm around me and he goes, 'You're gonna make more off your publishing. What are you worried about?' When he knew he was taking my money. When he knew they already wrote me down as a session player. What kind of person is that? You think I'd ever wanna even sit in a room with that guy? No. No. No. So it's not worth it; it's not worth it to me. And plus — how can you say it? He's a malignant narcissist, and I don't wanna be around people like that anymore. There's no money in the world that's [gonna make wanna be around people like that]. I wanna be happy. I wanna be around people I enjoy being with, that make me smile, that crack jokes. I don't need to be around people like that. Plus, from [1997's] 'Kill Fuck Die' on, W.A.S.P. was nothing but a depression to play with live because they were sampling, and it's not live to me. And it hurt me in my heart to be playing, knowing that I was faking it to p[eople] — or the band was faking it. I wasn't. But knowing that it was faking it. I really hated myself doing that."

Chris added: "Why do you think I don't like signing the [W.A.S.P. records]? I never got a penny of my publishing. I can't stand that band. I can't stand the band. I can't stand what he's done. So, that's the way it is. And that's why I wanna play with people I enjoy."

Holmes recently canceled a tour of the United Kingdom and Scandinavia, scheduled for May 2026, due to a "minor prostate issue" which required immediate attention.

In February 2022, Holmes was diagnosed with throat and neck cancer, and he immediately postponed his touring commitments while he received treatment. He completed seven weeks of radiation therapy and five months later, he shared the good news with fans that his cancer was "gone".

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."

In a September 2024 interview with Cassius Morris, Blackie was asked if he has seen Chris's documentary film "Mean Man: The Story Of Chris Holmes", written and directed by French filmmakers Antoine De Montremy and Laurent Hart. The project, which was made available on Blu-ray, DVD and VOD in January 2021, was born in 2014 after De Montremy and Hart had an opportunity to meet and direct Holmes in a music video for the Holmes-penned song "Let It Roar" in Cannes. At that time, the now-67-year-old rocker had more or less disappeared from the music scene, leaving his home in the U.S. to seek a new beginning with his wife Sarah in France.

Blackie said about "Mean Man": "I have no desire to see anything that has to do with that. First of all, you wanna base anything you're gonna do in life on truth. And you know what? It may be his truth, but your truth doesn't necessarily make it fact. Anybody can have their own truth, but that doesn't make it real. And when somebody's spewing a bunch of hate because they can't create on their own… Listen, if the guy had genuine creativity, he wouldn't give two hoots about what I do. So, that's the yardstick on how you judge those things. And if somebody's coming from a perspective where they're not telling the truth, I'm not gonna waste my time on that."

Asked if that was the reason that he didn't participate in the documentary, Blackie said: "Well, I don't recall being invited, but if I would have, I wouldn't have done it. Like I said, I've got no desire to do something… I mean, if it's based on truth, then I might have taken a look at it. But for a guy to do a tutorial for an hour, or however long it was, to sit and give just their side of the story that's not based on truth, why do I wanna be part of that?"

Blackie also once again dismissed the possibility of a reunion of W.A.S.P.'s original lineup — Lawless, Holmes, guitarist Randy Piper and drummer Tony Richards — for the recent tour celebrating the 40th anniversary of the release of W.A.S.P.'s first album. He said: "Allow me to be unapologetic for just a moment. The band that I have now… Mike Duda is one of the best bass players in the world. Doug Blair is one of the best lead guitar players in the world. Aquiles Priester, his drumming speaks for itself. I'm fortunate enough to be in a band with world-class musicians, the guys that are way better than me. And I look around sometimes during the show at I think to myself, 'Wow, I get to play with these guys.' And I'm being honest here — they're far better than me. So why would I wanna go back to something that would be taking a step backwards?"

Lawless continued: "I understand that the hardcore fanbase likes to romance ideas in their heads. I totally get that. But when we started doing [W.A.S.P.'s fourth studio album, 1989's] '[The] Headless [Children]', I was moving in directions that required musicianship that the original band could not do. I don't mean to be overly hard. It's just, again, these are just facts. If you want to do stuff where the degree of difficulty is up there, then you're gonna have guys that can play it and play it consistently. And then by the time 'Headless' was done and I moved into [1992's] 'The Crimson Idol', forget it. I mean, look at who played on that record. Your average run-of-the-mill musician is not gonna be able to do that. And again, I was privileged to work with guys that were world-class musicians. So if you're gonna get that level of creativity, professionalism, it's almost impossible to duplicate in an original situation. If that band grows together, then yes, you could. But if the band does not grow together, then it's never gonna happen. And it doesn't matter whether it's us or what band it is, that's gonna be the same every time."

Lawless also addressed the perception that W.A.S.P. is essentially his solo project, with hired guns helping him achieve his vision. He said: "No man's an island — no man. And I have gone to great lengths to speak out about the guys that are in this band to make sure that the world knows who they are. At no point have I ever wanted this to be just my situation.

"I grew up playing sports," he explained. "To me, team is everything. And I'm much more happy and comfortable, relaxed, it's a much more enjoyable situation in a team surrounding. So that's always been the thing that I focused on the most. What the world sees is when they look at the records, they see me as the primary songwriter. So I think that that's a lot of where they get that from. But when it comes to making those records, you see that I don't play all those instruments. I do what I do, but those other guys, they're doing their fair share of contributing to making those records what they are."

Back in January 2021, Holmes was asked by Cassius Morris if he had approached Lawless about participating in the making of "Mean Man: The Story Of Chris Holmes". Chris said: "I didn't, but Antoine did, and he said [Blackie] didn't have the time to do it."

Explaining that his relationship with Blackie is "over" and calling Lawless a "narcissist," Chris said: "When I left [W.A.S.P. for the final time] — or I really never left. [Blackie] just got another guitar player. They never even told me [I was out]. I found out that they were doing shows [without me]. So, I was, like, 'Wow. I must be out.' He never called me. Since then, I've dug in and found out some shitty stuff, what happened to me, and he knows that I know that, and he probably will never wanna talk to me ever again."

In October 2020, Chris said that he would never consider returning to W.A.S.P. unless Lawless agreed to pay him the publishing royalties that he allegedly owes him. He told Canada's The Metal Voice: "A lot of people think I made money from W.A.S.P. I've never gotten my royalties, or even my songwriting. All the stuff that I wrote, I've never gotten paid one penny. And you know whose fault it is? It's my my fault for not knowing the business, how it is. I trusted somebody.

"After every album, when the album is done, how they split up the publishing with the publishing contracts, the publishing companies — that's where the money comes from," he continued. "I was never told about when that meeting was. Because the other guys in the band never wrote — I was the only one [other than Blackie]. So I'm the only one that they have to screw over to get all the publishing. So I was never told. Then when I dug into it in about 2006 or [2007], I went into Sanctuary Music, had a lawyer go in to find out where all my publishing is, and I was written in as a session player into all the records. And if you don't know about it, and you're not told, and you don't see, you don't know. So I trusted Blackie Lawless about that. And when I found out, it really kind of yanked me wrong. It yanks me wrong — it makes me see he was sticking a knife in my back from the first day, from the first album, and not telling me, and being my best friend."

As far as Holmes is concerned, Lawless is solely to blame for him not getting his due from the W.A.S.P. records that he was involved with.

"If it wasn't for me, he wouldn't be where he's at — I guarantee you that," Chris said. "And then he screws me like that. It's all right. It's been a long time. It's something that I will never, never get over. I'll take that to the grave with me. I'm pissed thinking about it.

"Anyway, that's the kind of person he is. Everybody thinks, 'Wow! He's got the greatest…' Yeah, he's got an outrageous voice, Blackie, yeah, but he turns his back on his bandmembers real bad — he screws 'em. I'm the only guy in the band that ever came back to get screwed twice, which I did. I came back for 'Kill.Fuck.Die', and I was promised half publishing on that album. Didn't get crap. Knowing that I couldn't get in to see what was written in the contracts, of course. That's why I wrote the song 'Two Faced Mother Fucker'. It's about him. It's on 'Shitting Bricks'. And I've got one on the new album. It's called 'The Truth'. It says, 'You can't handle the truth.' It's on my new [album]. I'm gonna write a song about him on every album."

Addressing the possibility of his return to W.A.S.P., Holmes said: "Everybody asks me about a W.A.S.P. reunion. Sure, I'd love to play a W.A.S.P. reunion — if he pays me my publishing. If it doesn't, then he can have a reunion with Randy Piper, Johnny Rod and [Steve] Riley and everybody else. I'm not gonna play it. It's not worth it.

"I came back to W.A.S.P. in '95. I got screwed again," he added. "Screw me once, screw me twice — you're not gonna screw me a third time."

During a November 2017 press conference in Moscow, Russia, Lawless was asked what he would say to those W.A.S.P. fans who continue to call for the band to reunite with Holmes. He responded: "People get divorced for certain reasons, and there's times when the kids want the parents to get back together, but sometimes it never happens. And this is one of those [times]. Sorry."