Ex-MISFITS Singer MICHALE GRAVES Explains Why He 'No Longer Exists' In The Punk And Rock Worlds: 'I'm Hated. I Can't Exist There'

In a new interview with Rock Talks, former MISFITS singer Michale Graves was asked if there are any plans for him to reschedule his U.K. concerts which were recently canceled due to his alleged far-right links. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "No, there's no plans to do that. It's too much of a hostile environment, which is one of the reasons that I have pivoted the way that I am. I've signed with this label and I'm doing these things that I'm doing — not because I don't love that world, but I no longer exist in the punk world, in the rock world, in that heavy world. I'm hated. I can't exist there.

"I'm gonna do something. I'll get back there to Europe. I'm not saying that I'm not gonna go back there and play, but I'm gonna do it a different way," he continued. "I can't have my physical — anybody's — physical safety in jeopardy. I can't have these businesses and the people that are working in them and running them subjected to what the people have been subjected to, these businesses. It has just been awful. And I don't want any part of it. I'm trying to build things and bring people together, and there's nothing but destruction and chaos and violence and awful, awful things that I won't be a part of."

Michale added: "I love people. And I've devoted my life and my talent and my energies in the service and duty of other people, spreading God's kingdom, certainly helping to bring God's kingdom to this world. Well, how do you do that? By doing exactly what I'm doing. Talk to anybody that's come to a meet-and-greet or a Michale Graves show. I love talking to people. I love ministering to them, whether that's just playing them a song or talking to them. Some people wanna pray, some people just wanna ask me questions. But in that three minutes of time sometimes that I spend with people, it's life changing, and they hold those moments forever."

After the interviewer noted that Graves gets a lot of online criticism from metal and punk rock fans for his reported affiliation with the right-wing group Proud Boys and publicly declaring that he is a Christian, Michale said: "My reply to them is encapsulated in the way that I live my life and the things that I do in the real world. Most of these people, they just kind of live online, in that matrix. But I go out into the real world. And when I go out into the real world, I do real things and I reach people and I touch people.

"My integrity has been questioned, but I live my life with integrity," Graves continued. "The reason that I have so much confidence is because I'm unreproachable, and that means that I haven't done anything that I need to hide. And so I'm very open, I'm very truthful. And what's happening is this evidence that they've gathered against me, it's interpretive in nature. There's no fact to it. There's no foundation to it. It's not based in truth. So in many ways it doesn't matter what I say because it's never gonna change those people's minds because they've already made up their mind, they've already prosecuted me. They already judged me, when they hear Michale Graves. It's not Michale Graves, the human being who I am. They don't understand. They don't know the way that I've lived. They know what's in the news. They know what they've heard. They know what these organizations are telling them. They know what maybe other artists have said or are just conditioned to respond a certain way. And so, again, it becomes hateful and it becomes destructive in a way that it has affected my life in profound ways. And that's the point. Those people, it's a punitive thing. So they believe that I've done something so horrendous that I'm in that insurrection ecosystem — Proud Boys, January 6th, Alex Jones, Christians, Infowars, Trump, all these things. And when they hear, they just freak out. 'Ah, you're a Nazi. You're a racist.' And everybody just kind of short circuits. And so no amount of words, no amount of statements, nothing is gonna change these people's mind. I don't wanna debate with them and I don't wanna fight them. I would rather them just come and listen to some music and rock out."

Last month, Graves announced the signing with Epochal Artists Records, a label under the TLG family and distributed by Virgin Music Group.

Michale will embark on the "God Bless America Tour 2026" this spring, bringing a unique and deeply personal live experience to audiences across the country.

"These shows on my 'God Bless America Tour' will be an intimate, story-driven live experience that blends acoustic music, testimony, and storytelling," said Graves.

Michale is an internationally recognized artist who has been creating music and telling stories for over two decades. Before his 20th birthday, he was recruited to be the lead singer and primary songwriter of the legendary punk band the MISFITS. Graves faced an uphill battle of immense criticism while trying to fill the shoes of original MISFITS vocalist Glenn Danzig, but he injected the group with freshness, youth and energy which rewrote the history of the band in a way that even his sharpest critics found undeniable, reaching a whole new generation of music fans in the process.

After recording two albums with the MISFITS, "American Psycho" via Geffen and "Famous Monsters" through Roadrunner, as well as touring the world to meet millions of fans, Graves quit the band to blaze his own path. Michale steadily built a reputation as the working-man's punk rocker. He reintroduced himself to the scene with non-stop touring around the country before taking his new act worldwide.

When Graves testified on behalf of five Proud Boys members in March 2023 that he was asked to perform for them on the afternoon of January 6, 2021, he acknowledged that members of the Proud Boys may have been guilty of trespassing on Capitol grounds that day, but he said he did not believe they had any intention of targeting Congress.

The singer, who gained notoriety for his conservative views, has claimed that his "candor" got him "canceled", resulting in him being removed from Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

Graves has denied advocating "racism, violence or the exclusion of anyone based on race, religion, gender or identity".

He went on to resurrect his show called "Radio Deadly With Michale Graves", which he brought to the Censored.TV platform.

Photo courtesy of O'Donnell Media Group