KING DIAMOND Blames Illegal Music Downloading For MERCYFUL FATE's Diminishing Record Sales

KING DIAMOND singer/namesake has spoken to Swedish Metal about the group's new album, "The Puppet Master", and the prospect of him doing another MERCYFUL FATE album in the not-too-distant future. Asked if it's hard to keep MERCYFUL FATE and KING DIAMOND going at the same time, King responded, "Of course it's time-consuming. That used to be the hardest part to find time. There was a time period where they were switching. One would do an album and tour and then the other would do an album and tour. It's different these days because of all the downloading and stuff that's really hurt the business and everyone sees it. That's the thing that has made a change.

"KING DIAMOND is going to be a big bulk of the work and will be the busiest unit for sure. MERCYFUL FATE…

"When we released 'Abigail II', we were all geared up for touring and the tour was actually set up, we just had to sign contracts with the local promoter. But that's when we got the news from Metal Blade [Records] that there were no tour funds at that time. They were really hurting bad from the downloading and that then reflected in renegotiating contracts and things like that. That's usually never a good sign. The fact is that if there was only MERCYFUL FATE right now and no KING DIAMOND, I would have to stop. I cannot live off MERCYFUL FATE, not today… that is physically impossible. KING DIAMOND is a different matter, it's still possible. So for that simple matter, MERCYFUL FATE has to stay in the background.

"The next album for MERCYFUL FATE will happen when and if KING DIAMOND has nothing else to do. That's simply the way the downloading has altered two things. I can only speak for myself, but I'm sure a lot of other people feel the same way. So that's the actual fact of the whole thing is that MERCY has never been the band that sold the most. KING DIAMOND always sold more than MERCYFUL FATE by far. It's always been the better financial profit as well.

"I've always loved doing this stuff and still do big time, so it's also to have a job you actually really, really love. On the other hand, it is a job too — it is what puts bread on the table. So you have to look at it that way too. You can't just say screw that side of it, 'We're just going to do another MERCYFUL FATE album.' … It doesn't work. That's just the way life is. No one could do that and just say, 'I'm going to concentrate on my hobbies for the next five months.' I might have to move out of my house or apartment. You have to look at it in a realistic way. That's unfortunately what has happened — otherwise I would probably still be switching back and forth between the bands.

"So MERCYFUL FATE and KING DIAMOND both signed new contracts. There was a new contract for MERCYFUL FATE and we wouldn't have wasted that if we didn't intend to do another album. But when it's going to be? It's impossible to tell. Right now we are so busy with KING DIAMOND. The album has done better than the labels expected, both in Europe and in the U.S., so that's really positive. We recorded almost all the shows and we are working to figure out and put together all the best versions of the songs that we did on that tour and release a live CD. That will probably be ready to be mixed around mid-April. We don't know yet when it will come out. But that's what we're working on and we have a couple other projects going at the same time. There was some talk to do a European tour for 'The Puppet Master' album, but it won't happen until after the summer simply because of the projects we're working on right now. It has to wait until then. But from that tour there has been some talk, which still remains to be seen, they're in the early stages of planning to do a KING DIAMOND live DVD. Hopefully it can maybe be collaboration between Metal Blade and Massacre. In the meantime, I have been looking at things in regards to a retro DVD… one for MERCYFUL FATE and one for KING DIAMOND with old, never-before-seen, good-quality bootlegs. They are extremely good-quality and stuff we know that no one else has seen. I've been busy looking at some of that stuff there were things I didn't expect to see since I had forgotten about some of those shows. I thought I couldn't believe it. There is way too much material actually. For MERCYFUL FATE, which I have seen now, it goes all the way back to I think '82, before we ever got signed. It wasn't even Michael Denner playing guitar, it was a guy that was in before Michael Denner. There's a whole concert from a place in Copenhagen. It was amazing, probably the fifth time we ever played live. Then there's all kinds of different things like us supporting METALLICA, etc. These things haven't even been out on the bootleg market. No one has seen it other than us. So there are some very extreme rarities there. At the same time, I'm looking through stuff for KING DIAMOND, including actually an extra which is from behind-the-scenes stuff that Andy [LaRocque] shot on the computer, both in the U.S. and Europe. He put this together a long time ago just for fun and I am SURE it was over an hour long, I haven't gotten a chance to see it again, I just haven't had the time to. So those projects are going to take up time as well. It's going to be a very busy year."

King Diamond's entire interview with Swedish Metal can be read at this location.