W.A.S.P.'s BLACKIE LAWLESS Has No Plans To Retire Anytime Soon: 'Somebody's Gonna Have To Drag Me Off Kicking And Screaming'

In a new interview with AJ Motts and RJ Stone of The AJ & RJ Show, W.A.S.P. frontman Blackie Lawless spoke about TWISTED SISTER singer Dee Snider's recent announcement that he was retiring from performing for health reasons. Asked if he has personally ever thought about calling it quits, Blackie said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Well, naturally, to see any of your peers say that for whatever reason they're not gonna be able to do it anymore, that's disturbing for a lot of reasons. I know Dee — I've known him for a long time — so it gets my attention, let's put it that way. And you question your own mortality when you hear about something like that, and I think it's natural. But for myself, I've been really blessed. You can beat me with a bat, and I've been able to come back. So I've been really fortunate when it comes to that. So, as far as hanging it up or anything like that, somebody's gonna have to drag me off kicking and screaming.

"I hear people talk about retiring, and if you're forced to, that's one thing, but if you're not, I'm asking myself, retire for what? You get a watch and go fishing? I don't get it," he explained. "I just don't understand that, because what motivated me to get into this in the first place is what keeps me going now. And that's no different than it was when I was 16. So I don't feel any different."

After the interviewer noted that "the energy level" during W.A.S.P. shows is still "great" after all these years, Blackie concurred. "Oh, man. We're out there to hurt people," he said. "It's that simple. It's, like, we ain't taking no prisoners, man. I don't wanna ever be in a situation where we can't deliver the way we need to.

"I saw B.B. King [American blues singer and guitarist] about 15 years ago, and I was in the second row right in front of him," Blackie continued. "I was probably 10, 12 feet away from him. And he was sitting down in a chair. He says, 'I'm 81 years old, I gotta sit down.' But I could hear him singing acoustically louder from where I was sitting than when I heard him coming out of the P.A. on the sides. I mean, he was up there roaring like a lion. And I thought to myself, 'You know what? When I grow up, that's what I wanna be, is that guy right there.' So it's, like, hey, however you gotta get it done, man, do it. But like I said, 81 years old and he, like I said, sounded like a lion roaring. And fortunately for me — like I said, I've been really blessed."

Lawless also talked about W.A.S.P.'s legacy and what's coming in the future from him and his bandmates. He said: "I look at it all kind of like a book. And when you do an album, that's a chapter, you do a tour, that's a chapter. And the book is still being written. And this may sound like a canned response to you, but that really is what it is.

"They say that a thing can't be analyzed until it's over. And because we're not finished, I don't think you can analyze it yet," he explained. "I mean, somebody could certainly look at the phases we've been through, and like any other artist, if it doesn't grow, it dies. So you can see the natural progressions that it makes. For me, though, I would say the real progression happened in the first five years, because with any band, and I don't care who it is, if they're gonna last and they're gonna have a genuine career, and I'm talking about somebody that you know is around 20 years, 30 years, that has a genuine career, almost in every situation their legacy is built in the first five years they're there, that the public knows about 'em, whether it's them making records, them touring, whatever it is — it's done in those first five years. If you think back about all the bands you like, there's maybe the odd exception here and there, but almost all of them made their bones in those first five years. We are no exception to that. And all the big changes happened in those first five years. You can continue to write and some of the subject matter may change, because we continue to grow, unless we're in a box. And again, I'm no different when it comes to that, but I would say the majority of a lot of those worldly changes happened [in] those first five years."

W.A.S.P. recently announced the "1984 To Headless" 2026 U.S. and Canada tour with KK'S PRIEST as very special guest. The tour kicks off on September 10 in California and runs through October 31. W.A.S.P. will be playing the hits from the band's first four albums.

W.A.S.P. cemented its place in the rock history in its first five years with the band's iconic debut album in 1984, followed the next year with "The Last Command", "Inside The Electric Circus" in 1987 and capped with the their greatest yet, "The Headless Children" in 1989.

In their fabled 44-year history, W.A.S.P. have been pioneers of shock rock, psycho drama and live spectacles that are now legendary in the world of rock.

W.A.S.P. will be again offering fans VIP tickets that give fans a chance to meet Blackie Lawless, get a personal photo with Blackie, autographs, a W.A.S.P. traveling museum with new items added since the last U.S. tour, and take part in a very personal Q&A with Blackie. VIP tickets can be purchased at waspnation.myshopify.com.

W.A.S.P. will take the "1984 To Headless" tour to Europe and the rest of the world in 2027.

Because of the extensive back injuries Lawless suffered during the European leg of W.A.S.P.'s 40th-anniversary tour, the band's previously announced 2023 U.S. tour was canceled.

W.A.S.P.'s massive European leg of the 40th-anniversary world tour wrapped on May 18, 2023 in Sofia, Bulgaria at Universidada Sports Hall.

W.A.S.P. wrapped up its first U.S. tour in 10 years with a sold-out show on December 11, 2022 at The Wiltern in Los Angeles. This marked the 18th sold-out shows for the U.S. tour, which kicked off in late October 2022. W.A.S.P.'s performances included the return of the band's classic song "Animal (Fuck Like a Beast)", which hadn't been played live in over 15 years.

W.A.S.P.'s latest release was "ReIdolized (The Soundtrack To The Crimson Idol)", which came out in February 2018. It was a new version of the band's classic 1992 album "The Crimson Idol", which was re-recorded to accompany the movie of the same name to mark the 25th anniversary of the original LP's release. The re-recorded version also features four songs missing from the original album.

W.A.S.P.'s most recent studio album of all-new original material was 2015's "Golgotha".