W.A.S.P.'s BLACKIE LAWLESS On PMRC: 'It Was All About Them Trying To Put A Man In The White House. It Was Not About Censoring Records.'

In a new interview with Rock At Night magazine, W.A.S.P. frontman Blackie Lawless was asked how he was affected by his experience with the PMRC (Parents' Music Resource Center) more than four decades ago. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Well, honestly, after it was all said and done, more was said than done. It really didn't change things for us one way or the other. They wanted attention, and what better way to get attention than to go after an attention-getter? So they chose us, and they chose the bands that were in that list that they came up with.

"They were trying to put a man [Al Gore, U.S. senator and later vice president and then-husband of PMRC co-founder Tipper Gore] in the White House, and it didn't work. You got a guy that had a personality that was like watching paint dry. And he wonders why he couldn't get elected. So, they became... What's the word I'm looking for? Victims. And I wouldn't say of their own success — of their own diabolical plots of the things that they tried to put together. 'Cause after it was all said and done, and the truth came out, it was all about them trying to put a man in the White House. It was not about censoring records. They could have cared less. They made us a household word, I'll admit that. But when you make somebody a household word, somebody's grandmother in Wyoming — I don't mean to pick on Wyoming this evening; could be anywhere, Iowa, you name it — they don't buy the records anyway, so what difference does it make whether they know who you are or not? So it really didn't make any difference. Like I said, it makes you a household word, but so what? It really doesn't change anything as far as what the relationship with the fans are."

Blackie previously talked about the PMRC during a November 2022 "VIP Experience" question-and-answer session before W.A.S.P.'s concert at The Paramount Theater in Huntington, New York. He said about how the high-profile parents' campaign against "objectionable" music affected him: "It changed my life. It made me more of a recluse. Yeah, a couple of thousand death threats and bomb scares and getting shot at a couple of times usually has a tendency to alter your outlook on life a little. But also, we were exposed to extreme fame very early, and fame is kind of like this — if this table is a smorgasbord, it's like an evil genie stands down at the end of the smorgasbord and [says], 'You can take anything you want, but if you take one thing, you take it all. You do not get to pick and choose. So all the good stuff that you like in the smorgasbord, that's wonderful, but you've gotta take the bad stuff too.' So it ends up being a life-altering experience, one I don't think you can ever really go back from — at least I haven't been able to."

Back in the mid-'80s, the PMRC published a list called "The Filthy Fifteen" which consisted of the top fifteen songs they wanted banned due to objectionable lyrics suggesting violence, sex, drugs, alcohol or the occult. They petitioned for lyrics to be printed on the album jackets and no one was safe — heavy metal acts were right there alongside the pop stars. AC/DC, Madonna, MÖTLEY CRÜE, JUDAS PRIEST, Prince, W.A.S.P., MERCYFUL FATE, Vanity, DEF LEPPARD, Cyndi Lauper and TWISTED SISTER all made "The Filthy Fifteen" list. In November 1985, the RIAA (Recording Industry Association Of America) agreed to put "Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics" labels on selected releases at their own discretion.

In a 2004 interview with the Las Vegas Mercury, Lawless spoke about having his music slammed by the PMRC, saying: "As the story goes, [PMRC founding member] Tipper [Gore] was walking down the hall in her house and her 12-year-old son had [W.A.S.P.'s] 'Fuck Like A Beast' playing on his stereo, and she lost her mind," Lawless said. "I don't know if that's true, but that's the story I've been told.

"You wanna talk about sensationalism?" Blackie continued. "This was an organization that was seeking a platform that would help serve its own political interests. They didn't give a damn about censorship. I've spent the better part of my career trying to get people to understand that. This really is not what you think it is. They come to you like the wolf in sheep's clothing and then use you to create a frenzy — not unlike what McCarthy did with the communists and Bob Dole did with rap. This is nothing new.

"You don't have to be Nostradamus to see what's going on with young people these days," Lawless continued. "Parents just don't get involved with their kids as much as they used to. Are you going to tell me that these parents at Columbine didn't know that anything was going on with their kids? Hey, my mother knew what I was doing 24 hours a day, seven days a week. But parents now, they don't want to take any responsibility for their children. They bring something into this world, and then when something goes wrong, they want to blame everybody else for it."

Earlier this year, W.A.S.P. 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. is again offering fans VIP tickets that give fans a chance to meet 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.