NEWSLETTER

BOBBY STEELE

INTERVIEW BY NICK GAZIN


Are you related to Peter Steele of Type O Negative fame? No, wait, you got the name Steele because of your…

Because I used to wear a brace.

Right. How did that happen?

I was born with spina bifida, which is probably one of the worst birth defects. Ninety-five percent of the people born with it die, and 95 percent of those who survive are so disabled that they have to be institutionalized. The ones like me who can actually walk around and stuff, we’re the people you don’t want to mess with. We've had to deal with problems from the minute we were born. I can spot a person with spina bifida in a second. Like John Cougar Mellancamp, he's got the same attitude, like "Don't tell me what to do." Axl Rose is another one.

What happened with you and Todd Solondz over Welcome To The Dollhouse?

They were over budget on the soundtrack, and the girl in charge suggested they use the Undead song “Evening of Desire” to fill a gap. Since they were over budget, I agreed to take only $100 for the rights. If the film was a hit, there was potential for a soundtrack album, and that's where I'd make my money. I thought the film was great, and it'd be a worthwhile risk, and I was right. But then when it came time to make the album, Todd's lawyer—I think he was KISS's lawyer at some point—claimed that they owned the copyright to the song. I called the record label and told them I could prove I owned the song simply by the fact that it had been on an LP seven years earlier. Still, the lawyer pocketed something like $10,000.

Sucks.

Then Todd called to try to get me to give up my rights to the song, claiming “You'll never work in this industry again.” He was so busy trying to fuck me out of my song that he forgot to enter the film in the Academy Awards. Apparently, no one liked working with him. That movie had all the potential of being huge, but just like the Misfits, they were too busy fucking people over and ended up losing out.

You got in a fight with one of those old Tompkins Square Riot vets back in August and wrote an op-ed essentially likening yuppies to Jews in pre-Nazi Germany.

The reason "yuppies" are targeted by these people is because they are perceived to be better off and in control of things, and therefore the source of the poor's misery. If you look back to Germany, 70 years ago, that's exactly the same charges that were being made against the Jews. I just think that to call for the death of "yuppie scum" in this day and age is a highly irresponsible act. The man who assaulted me for removing his posters even admitted that his flyers were intended as hate speech. He's an old hippie--or possibly a government plant. You have to wonder about a person who claims the government is out to "get him," but who the police refuse to arrest when he assaults a person who has to walk with a cane.

Is "yuppies" even a valid complaint anymore? It feels like being against disco or zoot suits.

Yuppies was used in the 80s to describe people who moved to the East Village because they thought it was hip. They could afford to lay out $300, when the going rents were $150, and they helped to artificially drive up the rents and push out the original residents. But they weren't the only ones. The rioters, by bringing national attention to this little postage stamp, made it even more appealing to people.

And those are exactly the folks they always complain about, the ones who saw the tanks on TV and were like, "Cool."

Another factor that people won't accept responsibility for was the constant promotion of rent strikes against "Mom and Pop" landlords. That played right into the hands of the major banks and realtors who wanted to take control of the neighborhood. Having previously planted their own friends inside the State, and rewritten the Housing Laws, they were then able to approach these ravaged landlords, and make them an offer to get them out of their problems. Once these new owners took over, they had all the loopholes in their favor, and were able to run the Protected tennants out of the buildings and start renting to the hipsters. No one was innocent in this.

So basically, you're saying the people trying to preserve the East Village were the catalysts in turning it into what it is today?

That’s why I wrote that song “Riot in Tompkins Square.” I saw the people rioting here, and it was supposedly all about the homeless--meanwhile, the homeless people who were living in the park were begging the rioters to stop because the riots were making things worse. The rioters said, “No. We’re doing this for you.” And the homeless were like, “We didn’t ask you to do this for us, why are you imposing this on us and making things worse?” They didn’t care about the homeless, they just cared about raising an issue and trying to embarrass somebody higher up.

Back to The Misfits--do you think Jerry Only will ever get his comeuppance?

People like Jerry always do. Just look at Glen, crying the blues because of what Jerry did to the band. That was his comeuppance for fucking over the rest of us.

Have you and Danzig reconciled since parting ways? I've always heard rumors that he's sort of a colossal dick.

He can be a jerk. He’s a strange guy because it goes both ways--one minute he's your best friend and the next he wants to kill you. Back in 1990 when he was doing the Lucifuge tour, I would get a call from a kid who saw Danzig the night before, and he’d say, “I was hanging out with Danzig and your name came up, and a tear formed in Glen’s eye and he said, 'I miss Bobby.'” Then the next day I’d get a call from a guy who'd say, “I was hanging out with Danzig and your name came up and he was like, 'If I ever see that motherfucker, I'm going to kill him.'” It really depends on what kind of a mood he’s in. He can be a real blast when he’s in a good mood.

What do you think of bands like AFI?

I've never listened to AFI, but any Misfits tribute band is better than the real thing.


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