TYPE O NEGATIVE Frontman On Rock 'N' Roll, Inspiration And That PLAYGIRL Issue

Charlie Steffens of KNAC.COM recently conducted an interview with TYPE O NEGATIVE frontman Peter Steele. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

On rock n' roll:

"I believe that the true definition of a rock band is to upset people and that's the reason rock became rock in the late '50s, because the country was pretty right-wing. So when rock came out — being left-wing — that upset people. I will admit to being slightly right-wing. I consider myself to be a conscientious conservative. I am pro-police, pro-government, and pro-parent. Because the country has shifted so far to the left that even if you are mid-wing, still you are upsetting people. So, all these trendoid rock bands are just preaching to the choir. I have, in the past, gone out of my way to upset people and fortunately it worked. That's why I can say CARNIVORE and TYPE O NEGATIVE are true rock bands, because your parents aren't going to like this music. And if they do like it you better find different parents."

On inspiration:

"I've always liked orchestral music, especially marching music like John Phillip Sousa. I also play sousaphone and tuba. And I play string bass. I guess you could call bass a guitar, so to speak. But I was always fascinated by the definition of functions, like what makes a bass player a bass player. I got the answer. The answer is you are the bridge between rhythm and harmony. You gotta go with the drums but you gotta fill the bottom end at the same time. That's a bassist. Which disqualifies me; because I play bass/rhythm guitar and I play mostly chords. A failure again."

"My life is not so exciting that I could document it verbatim and make it into an interesting song. So I have to exaggerate. I take a few different things that really did happen and I string them together and make it into one song. On 'Bloody Kisses' there's a song, 'Death In The Family', and everyone thinks it's about a woman. It was about a cat that I had since I was 17 that died. My life is pretty boring. It mostly revolves around Saturday morning cartoons and TV dinners. Like, I really wanted to marry Mrs. Swanson. If she fucked the way that she cooked then I'd be very happy, because I would know what I was going to get every time. Either way it's going in the oven, right?"

On outside interests:

"I don't like to go out, because I don't like to be recognized. I don't like to be looked at. I really don't like to be onstage, but however, I'm a masochist, so it's the perfect punishment."

On his modeling career:

"I was unaware that Playgirl was a gay publication. I was under the impression it was for lonely housewives or something. It doesn't matter to me it was just a publicity stunt. That's all it was. I kind of regret it because I feel like I exploited myself, but when management is telling you to do it and the band's telling you to do it and the record company's telling you to do it… and they offer one page and then three and then the cover and then the centerfold. 'You'll sell so many albums if you do it.' And I go, 'I'll fuckin' do it.' The greatest part about it was it kind of escalated. They had me on their 'Ten Sexiest Rockers' issue, and I don't know why they chose me to come in for a headshot. This head. The one on top of my neck (laughs). And so I go down there and they say, 'You wanna take your shirt off?' and I say, 'Sure.' I happened to bathe that month so it was okay. Then they pretty much made me an offer that I couldn't refuse, to pose nude and this and that. I have read Playboy. It's as classy as pornography can get. Nice layout, I don't think it's demeaning to women. So I'm thinking Playgirl's like that. So they send me these issues and I was underwhelmed a little bit. Thumbing through them I'm thinking, 'Man, all these guys are flaccid. I said I'll do this shoot under one circumsi…I almost said circumcision (laughs). I said, 'I want to be erect.' And they said, 'Oh, do you really think you can do it?' I said, 'You hold your end up by bringing the check and I'll hold mine up.' I go and do it. Apparently I was the first person to have an erect penis during a shoot. So now I'm trying to hide this from all of my family members because I have five older sisters and 9,000 cousins, something like that. So I come in one night and the Playgirl issue is on the dining room table and my mother's sitting there. My sister was in the other room and I said, 'Did Mama see it? You showed it her, right?' She's like, 'Yeah.' I said, 'Well, what did she say?' So my sister says, 'That's why I named him Peter.' (laughs) My mother had a great sense of humor. I'm still a good Catholic boy, deep down. Nothing's funnier than laughing in church."

Read the entire interview at KNAC.COM.