MICHALE GRAVES Comments On MISFITS Near-Reunion

Jason Price of Live-Metal.net recently conducted an interview with former MISFITS singer Michale Graves. An excerpt from the chat follows below.

Live-Metal.net: How did your departure from the MISFITS come about?

Michale Graves: My departure came about from a series of events that took about a year or two. The first sign, if you go back into the MISFITS history, the first sign of trouble was when I left when the band went to South America. I left mostly because I was championing the causes of Dr. Chud and Doyle (Wolfgang von Frankenstein). My problem with the situation was that I wasn't being given the respect that I felt that I deserved, nor the ability to have the input on decisions involving art or direction. I was always told, just as all of us were, that "If you don't like the way things were, you can go home and we will find somebody better." My answer was always, "You can't." The planets aligned when we all came together and I was a major part of why the MISFITS resurrected from where they were. It went from this underground thing, to this then relevant, powerful musical force. I wrote the majority of those songs that are one those records. I wrote the songs that you most associate with those records. "Dig Up Her Bones", "Crying On A Saturday Night", "Scream!", "American Psycho", and "Shining", those came out of me. I was always vocal. Jerry and I, the same problems exist today as they did back then. Jerry knows that if Chud and Doyle would pull there heads out of their asses, we could get the MISFITS back together. It's not on me and it is certainly not Jerry. It has always been mostly Doyle and then Chud. I left because there was just so much disfunction, so much unhappiness, and so much stupid shit.

Live-Metal.net: I think the main thing that many of your fans are interested in is whether or not the door is closed for good on a MISFITS reunion.

Michale Graves: Jerry and I do not have a dysfunctional working relationship. Him and I both know and I know he knows that I am on board. It is a phone call away. I won't step back into what I walked away from, but the problem isn't with Jerry and I. The problem is with Doyle and with Chud. I just read an interview with Doyle where he is bashing Jerry about some type of MISFITS reunion with Danzig, basically saying how Jerry threw a monkey wrench into it.

Live-Metal.net: I saw that.

Michale Graves: Well, what fans don't know is how close a MISFITS reunion came because he was having talks about that. After the first situation fell through, the next round of talks that was happening was "Hey, let's get Jerry, Michale, Doyle..." Jerry didn't want Chud, but I was fighting for Chud. The plan was to get us four back together. Like I said before, I was on board. The sticking point on why that fell apart was that Doyle wanted to bring his wife out on tour and wouldn't bend from it because Gorgeous George or Gorgeous Frankenstein or whatever she is called had to be a part of the MISFITS. Jerry didn't even want Chud in the band. Chud is a waste of human life, BUT he certainly deserved to be a part of situation that was being put together. I was the one that was sticking up for him even though he really doesn't deserved to be stuck up for. Doyle says, "So let all the MISFITS fans put that in their pipe and smoke it." Well, you guys have to tell the whole story. They only give you half-truths and they don't want to talk about me. You're not allowed to bring up my name in front of them because they can't hash their stories because they are on the fuckin' losing end of it.

Live-Metal.net: Looking back on that period, is there anything you would do again differently if you had the chance?

Michale Graves: I wouldn't have championed Chud and Doyle's causes if I knew then what I know now. I wouldn't have stuck up for them the way that I did, always more so than helping myself. But that is the way that I am and that is the way I treat people and the way that I conduct business. Those guys are different or at least they have changed a lot.

Read the entire interview at Live-Metal.net.