JERRY ONLY On MISFITS Reunion Shows: 'It's Gonna Be Us At The Top Of Our Game'

Classic MISFITS lineup members Glenn Danzig, Jerry Only and Doyle Wolfgang Von Frankenstein will reunite for first time since 1983 to headline this year's Riot Fest.

The reunion, billed as "The Original Misfits," will take place at the Riot Fest in Denver and Chicago. The first show is scheduled for September 2-4 at Denver's Riot Fest And Rodeo, while the second will happen at Riot Fest And Carnival, set for September 16-18 in Chicago.

Speaking to Chicago's classic rock station 97.9 The Loop, Only stated about MISFITS' setlist for the upcoming concerts (see video below): "The first reunion shows are going to be all classic material. We've already picked the set. I let Glenn write the set. It's his baby. It's a really good set. We've got about twenty-two songs that we're definitely [gonna do], and we're probably gonna shoot for about thirty that we know before we we [walk out on stage]."

He continued: "When I'm fronting the band, we do up to forty or fifty [songs]. On our twenty-fifth anniversary, we played Roseland [in New York City], [and] we did fifty-something songs, and then we went down to the WWE World on Broadway for an after-party and almost hit a hundred songs in one night."

Only also talked about the possibility of the MISFITS reunion continuing beyond the Riot Fest shows. He said: "If [these two festival appearances] run well, and we find that we are hitting the potential…

"You see, the thing is, with us, we're a legendary act, we need to live up to what people conceive us to be. And the beauty of it is Glenn's in great shape, my brother looks like freakin' Hercules. And I've dropped about twenty pounds. I'm running every day, playing basketball with my nephews, trying to get that kind of mobility going. And then I rehearse the set about three times a night. We've got it on CD. We just got back from L.A. and we recorded the set. So I put it in and we put it through the P.A. and we rehearse to it. So it's like one hour of cardio, really."

He added: "It's gonna be us at the top of our game. And if we can live up to, and exceed, what people believed us to be, we're gonna try and keep going."

As previously reported, Glenn, Jerry and Doyle are rumored to have recruited Dave Lombardo (SLAYER, SUICIDAL TENDENCIES) to play drums for the band for the Riot Fest shows.

Speaking to Rolling Stone magazine back in May, Glenn wouldn't hint at who will be sitting behind the kit but said: "It will blow your mind when I tell you. It's pretty crazy. He's one of my favorite drummers, and I've known him for a while." Only, meanwhile, said that the drummer was someone who is a "family guy" who had to sacrifice some gigs to stay home.

According to Only, the reunion came about after a meeting he had with Danzig in January. The pair had gotten together with the MISFITS management in order to discuss the rights to the band's name and merchandising with a view towards avoiding any further litigation between the parties.

Glenn didn't rule out more dates after the Riot Fest shows, saying: "We'll see how it goes. It may lead to some other work, but who knows how it's going to turn out? I mean, I don't think it's going to be a disaster; I think it's going to be incredible."

Regarding what fans can expect to see at the upcoming MISFITS concerts, Danzig said: "I'm just going to do what I normally do, which is to go out there and try and have a great time myself and make sure everybody has a fantastic fucking time. I want them to be so blown away they don't know what the fuck just hit them."

The original MISFITS band broke up in 1983, and bassist Jerry Only brought forth a new version of the MISFITS in 1995. Various members have come and gone, but Only, along with BLACK FLAG's Dez Cadena, has kept some form of the MISFITS in the recording studio and on the road for most of the last two decades.

After the original MISFITS disbanded, vocalist Glenn Danzig went on to form SAMHAIN and then the eponymous DANZIG. Several albums of reissued and previously unreleased material were issued after the group's dissolution, and their music became influential to punk rock, heavy metal, and alternative rock music of the late 1990s and early 2000s.