W.A.S.P.'s BLACKIE LAWLESS On Holding Pre-Concert Q&A Sessions With Fans: 'It's Been One Of The Greatest Experiences Of My Life'

In a new interview with The Classic Metal Show, W.A.S.P. frontman Blackie Lawless was asked about the VIP tickets that the band is selling that give fans a chance to meet him, get a personal photo with Blackie, autographs, tour the W.A.S.P. traveling museum and take part in a very personal question-and-answers session with Blackie. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Well, that was something that we started about five years ago. And we had never done meet-and-greets before. And I always felt kind of strange about the idea of if you were gonna charge an admission for something like that. We looked at it and we said, 'Well, what are other bands doing?' We didn't know anything about it. I mean, we were literally green. And there was no place to go to, to ask, so we started looking at what other bands are doing. And quite honestly, I didn't feel comfortable with what I saw other artists doing. And again, I'm not putting anybody down for anything they do, but we saw that they were doing a photograph and a couple of signatures and I thought, if I was going to meet somebody that I really was genuinely interested in, I would want to hear what they have to say. And so what we did is we put this literal rolling museum together, and it's excerpts from throughout the history of the band, and it's a pretty cool little ensemble when you see it laid out. It's about 30 feet across, and it's in rolling tour cases and things like that. And we open it up, and it's got all these things inside of it that are mementos, like gold records and album covers and magazine covers, the cod piece from the 'Animal' single and things like that. I mean, things you just wouldn't see any day, or every day.'

He continued: "But the thing that has been the best for me is when we do the meet-and-greets, we do it in a way where — we kind of assembly line it, where we do the photos and the signatures first, but then we get into the meat of it, which is really what I prefer, which is we have a Q&A. And it usually lasts about an hour, where everyone gets to ask a question, sometimes multiple questions. And that's the part I like the most, because I found it became like little mini market surveys. Because when someone comes up to you on the street and they see you out of the blue, it's usually a chaotic situation. And they're nervous and they can't think straight, and they don't really have the ability to verbalize what it is they wanna say. But when they know they're coming to a meet-and-greet or a VIP experience like this, they have time to think about the questions they wanna say or ask. And for me, that becomes very conversational, kind of like what we're doing right now, and there's a back and forth and a give and take. And like I said, it's a little mini market survey for me and I get to hear them in a controlled situation, unlike the chaos that would be on the streets. And I'm learning maybe more from them than they are from me at that point. Because, like I said, I've never had the ability to speak to the fanbase like we do now when we do this, and it's been really, really interesting for me to hear what they have to say. And I wish I would've started doing it years ago. But better late than never, I guess."

Asked how the fanbase is different from what he envisioned before he started doing the meet-and-greets, Blackie said: "Well, I was suspect that the thing that brought them together was the lyrics, but I wasn't really sure. But that's the one big confirmation that has come out of all of this, that it's the lyrics of these songs that really bring them all… That's what knits it all together. And it makes sense to me, because when you hear them say something like, 'This song really changed the way I thought,' or 'This song changed my life,' or 'This song did' whatever, and I'm listening to them when they're talking. And a lot of times some really emotional stories come out of these folks because it also serves as a bit of a confessional for both them and me. So, like I said, the give and take that goes on there, it's pretty priceless. It's been one of the greatest experiences of my life, and I mean that sincerely."

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 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".