WEDNESDAY 13 On MURDERDOLLS Reunion: 'This Is About As Right As I Can Get It'

During an appearance on today's (Saturday, November 14) episode of the Waste Some Time With Jason Green podcast, Wednesday 13 addressed the recent announcement that he will reunite with two of the other original MURDERDOLLS touring members — Eric Griffin (guitar) and Acey Slade (guitar) — for select live appearances next year to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the band's debut album, "Beyond The Valley Of The Murderdolls". They will be joined on stage by Wednesday 13's solo bandmembers Mike Dupke (drums) and Jack Tankersley (bass). Together they will pay tribute to late MURDERDOLLS members Joey Jordison and Ben Graves. The shows promise to be a celebration of what the MURDERDOLLS built together, with the blessing of Joey's sisters, Katie Riekena and Annie Jordison.

Regarding how the MURDERDOLLS reunion came about, Wednesday 13 told podcast host Jason Green (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I think I told you when we first met, you asked me about doing MURDERDOLLS again. I think I went, 'Uh, I don't know. It's just not right without Joey.' And it doesn't feel right without Joey. There's nothing more that I would love than to have that guy here with us. Because I know that if he was here, there would be a new MURDERDOLLS out. It'd be happening. I know it. We were already talking about it. I know it would be happening. But he's not here. This 25-year anniversary's here."

He continued: "The conversation started last summer when I was on tour and doing festivals and stuff. And I met up with Acey, and then Acey and I did the tribute to Joey that his family did at the Teragram [Ballroom in Los Angeles] last October [2025]. And that's where the conversation really kind of started taking shape there. It was, like, 'Oh, we gotta do something for the 25th anniversary.' And I was, like, 'Yeah, we do, we do.' And I was leaving for tour, just like I'm about to right now. And I was, like, 'We'll talk about it when we get home.' And we started talking about it when we got home. And it was months and months of ideas, and we finally got it together and we decided that we would celebrate the 25th anniversary of the MURDERDOLLS and Joey and Ben. And we would do it with just some select shows."

As for how the news of MURDERDOLLS' return has been received by the band's fans, Wednesday 13 said: "A lot of work went into this. A lot of thought went into it. This is a big thing for me to celebrate. Because of MURDERDOLLS, I have a career. And to go back and do some big shows like this and seeing the reaction online, everyone's loving it. I mean, there's a couple of naysayers here and there, but overall I say it's 99% positive."

Wednesday 13 also talked about the decision to recruit Dupke and Tankersley to play drums and bass, respectively, at the upcoming MURDERDOLLS shows, explaining: "Well, Mike is perfect to do it because I've already played these songs with Mike. When I was doing my MURDERDOLLS celebration a couple of years ago, Mike did all the drums on it. And we got in depth with those drums. He really listened to those albums and tried to play it — and not just tried, he played it like Joey played those songs. And so when [we were] putting this lineup together, I knew it was gonna be me, Acey and Eric. Jack's been my good friend for many, many years now. I was doing the math today. We've been in a band together now for 16 years, which is crazy. And he was also the bassist in MURDERDOLLS on... He was the bassist on the last touring lineup with MURDERDOLLS. He was in all our music videos. So he was already a member of MURDERDOLLS, and it just made sense to do that."

 After Green noted that Griffin was the touring bassist for MURDERDOLLS in a previous lineup, Wednesday 13 said: "Well, look, we're all guitar players. When I got offered to be in MURDERDOLLS, I got offered to be the bass player, too. [Laughs] I was, like, 'I don't wanna do that.' So I graduated to vocals."

The singer continued: "When the press release [about the MURDERDOLLS reunion] came out [this week] or whatever, the one thing they put on there is [that this is being done] 'with the blessing of Joey's family.' Yes. We've worked so close with his sisters... We text with his sisters. And it is so crazy. When I text with them, it is so bizarre because one of his sisters is identical to Joey in the way they text. Even the way they quote movies. They can quote the exact... And I know where they get it from now. I think it was a family thing. Joey was always quoting 'Airplane!' and 'The Jerk' and all this stuff. And then when I met him, I was quoting it, and he was, like, 'Whoa. You do it, too.' And now that I talk to his sisters, we all do the same thing. So we've worked really close with them on this whole thing. It's as close as I could get to working with him. Even some of the little teaser things we put online, the sisters made the art for it. They're so involved and so happy with this. I told you before, I said I didn't wanna do this unless it was right. Well, this is about as right as I can get it."

Wednesday 13 added: "To answer your question why Jack went to bass, when we started talking about... The sisters said, 'Who's gonna replace Joey?' That was the question they said to me. And I answered them pretty quick. I didn't even know how I was gonna answer that question, but I just started talking. I said, 'Nobody's replacing Joey.' We can't… I told the sisters, I was, like, 'This isn't about replacing Joey or Ben.' It's, like, if we've got Acey and Eric — Eric's a killer guitar player. He was in my band for a while, and he plays in GENITORTURERS. He's always been a killer guitar player. I remember being back in the day when we were all hanging out, and he'd pick up a guitar, and we were, like, 'Jesus Christ, this guy's better than all of us. Why is he playing bass?' So we told the sisters, it was, like, 'Well, since we're the three core guys, why don't we just let Eric switch over to guitar, and let those guys be the guitar players, and that way one of us is sort of, kind of just stepping over into the Joey spot on stage.' Not replacing him or anything. Not trying to get some new hired gun. And that's kind of what we did with that. And then it was, like, 'All right. Well, who else do we get?' And I'm, like, 'Well, Jack was in MURDERDOLLS. He's stuck with me all these years. We're good friends. He loves the band. He loves the music. And so why not him?' They were, like, 'Cool.' And then Mike is just a killer drummer. He was there last year for the Joey celebration. The sisters liked him. And they were involved. They wanted to know who was gonna be in the band, too. They didn't wanna just have anybody, too. So, yeah, that's why Jack got pushed to bass. He's not upset about it or anything. It's just probably gonna be him getting used to doing that again. But at the same time, it's what we do, and I'm glad to have him on board with it, and it feels family. It's gonna be fun. I'm excited."

Formed in 2002, MURDERDOLLS were the Frankenstein brainchild of Joey Jordison and partner-in-grime Wednesday 13. Joey stepped away from his day job behind the drum kit in SLIPKNOT to play low-slung lead guitar, while Wednesday fronted the band.

Amid a musical landscape full of baggy pants, backwards caps and tracksuits, the metallic glam punk MURDERDOLLS defied the prevailing trends and brought back hard, fast rock 'n' roll. They dug up the corpse of rock and injected pure, undead, unadulterated life back into it. And it was glorious! "Beyond The Valley Of The Murderdolls" and its successor, "Women And Children Last", were like nothing else: fast, dirty, raw, and macabre, with every track full of tongue-in-cheek horror executed to perfection. "Beyond The Valley Of The Murderdolls" became a cult favorite, and fans have kept it alive ever since.

MURDERDOLLS' 2027 appearances will mark the band's first performances since 2018 when Wednesday 13 reunited with Griffin and Slade on stage for the first time in over a decade at Lucky Strike Live in Hollywood. The event, which celebrated Graves's life, saw the trio performing some of MURDERDOLLS' classic songs.

After the completion of the touring cycle for "Beyond The Valley Of The Murderdolls", MURDERDOLLS went on hiatus so that Jordison could focus on his other band SLIPKNOT. In 2010, MURDERDOLLS released a sophomore album, "Women And Children Last", which did not feature Slade, Griffin and Graves, all of whom toured in support of "Beyond The Valley Of The Murderdolls" but did not appear on any of MURDERDOLLS' records.

Just a few days prior to "Women And Children Last"'s arrival, Slade gave an interview to Blog Talk Radio's "Zombilly's Horror Hour" in which he said that he wasn't invited to take part in the making of the LP.

"We waited around a long time — myself, Eric and the Ghoul — we waited around a long time to do this record. And when Joey and Wednesday said that they wanted to do it by themselves, that was a bit of a… like, 'Really?! That's not what we discussed,'" he said. "But, quite frankly, it's like, okay, well, it's been seven years. You can't hold somebody to something they said seven years ago. It's like, 'Okay, cool.'"

Acey went on to say that he didn't like the material on "Women And Children Last". "I think it sounds like all the things that the band said that we weren't gonna be," he said. "When I was in the band, it was, 'We don't drop-tune — we tune standard 'cause we're a rock band — it's all tongue-in-cheek, nothing's serious. And now it's drop-tuned, it's serious subject matter, and it's not something I wanted to be a part of. It's like, wow, we were supposed to be a fun band that pissed people off, not a pissed off band that is writing… I don't know… It sounds like DISTURBED to me. It sounds like DISTURBED with Rob Zombie vocals. That was the other thing, too. [Laughs] Everybody was, like, 'You guys are like ALICE COOPER meets ROB ZOMBIE,' and we weren't. And it seems like all the negative things that people thought about us before they heard us, the band has now become. I'm not interested in that. I have a lot more creativity than that. And those guys do, too. So I'm a little disappointed for them. But you know, hey…. whatever. I guess they're happy doing it, but it's not something that I would wanna be a part of. And it's, like, weird, the whole Joey and Wednesday… They've got pictures of just Joey and Wednesday. I think it's pretty clear that they didn't want anyone else at the party; they want it to be an exclusive thing for them, I suppose."

Graves, who also worked with PRETTY BOY FLOYD and DOPE, passed away in May 2018 after a year-long battle with cancer. He was only 45 years old.

The MURDERDOLLS did a number of major tours in support of "Beyond The Valley Of The Murderdolls". By the summer of 2003, the tenacity of the band was paying off. Tours with IRON MAIDEN, PAPA ROACH and the FOO FIGHTERS around the world and a Top 40 U.K. single with "White Wedding" made the band fan favorite in Metal Hammer, Metal Edge, Kerrang! and Rock Sound magazines.

Jordison died "peacefully in his sleep" in July 2021 of an undisclosed cause. He was 46 years old.

The MURDERDOLLS reunion comes more than four years after Wednesday 13 accused Slade of "stealing" the MURDERDOLLS trademark. The trademark had quietly lapsed, and Slade legally acquired it on his own without the knowledge or consent of Wednesday 13 or Jordison's estate. The feud became public when Slade and Griffin announced a 20th-anniversary deluxe vinyl edition of "Beyond The Valley Of The Murderdolls", along with new merchandise and an official web site. Wednesday 13 later claimed that he and Jordison had been actively discussing a MURDERDOLLS reunion before Jordison's passing and insisted that Jordison would be "furious" about the trademark acquisition, called Slade's actions a betrayal, and vowed to put an end to the dispute. For his part, Slade defended his actions on social media by stating that he was saving the band's legacy from completely disappearing into obscurity. He claimed that the legal step was necessary to get the album back on digital streaming platforms and pressed to vinyl. He also maintained that he handled the band's history with respect, treating all former members as "alumni" rather than current members.