Mexican promoter threatens lawsuit against W.A.S.P., 7/14/05

 MEXICAN PROMOTER THREATENS LAWSUIT AGAINST W.A.S.P.!



Updates from the Denver debacle and Blackie allegedly uses a “bullet in the head” comment towards soundman

We took this from the fine folks over at www.blabbermouth.net. Actually we took it from our World Famous Metal Sludge Gossip Boards and a poster referred to the site as www.blabbershit.net but we don’t talk like that around here.

Anywho here is the scoop.

Mexican concert promoter Francisco Hernandez of Ugly Duck Productions is threatening to sue W.A.S.P. drummer Stet Howland for allegedly causing damage to a van that was transporting the group all over Mexico during the band’s recent tour of the country. The following is a brief question-and-answer session with Hernandez, conducted for a Mexican fanzine by El Bam Bam:

Q: Why are you going to sue Stet Howland?

A: "At the last gig we did with W.A.S.P. in Mexico City, this creep decided to damage the van that was transporting them. He wrote on the roof of the van, ‘Suck my dick.’"

Q: Why do you think he did that?

A: "The only reason he did that is because he’s an asshole. After the show, I went to the Monterrey Metal Fest, and I received a message telling me what he did to the van. I immediately went to talk with [the band] and to tell them that they were going to be put in Mexican jail if they don’t pay for the damage caused to the van. They promised to care of this, and he really looked scared and promised to make arrangements to pay for the damage."

Q: So you’re going to sue Stet? Or W.A.S.P.? Or the band’s management?

A: "I have spoken to my lawyers. First, I decided to send two friendly e-mails to this guy, and it appears that he’s a real coward, since he hasn’t responded to our letters. So we’re going to take the legal route against Stet and the entire W.A.S.P. band. Our lawyer told us that we can make sure that he will never be able to come back to Mexico, and if he does, he’s going to be immediatly put in jail. So our lawyer’s recommendation was to file a lawsuit against Stet and the entire W.A.S.P. band, because, as far as I understand it, everyone was in the van when the damage to the vehicle was caused."

This e-mail came into the Sludge headquarters from the “Oriental Theater” in Denver Colorado after a Blackie Lawless debacle went down there on July 4th..

—– Forwarded message from Oriental Theatre Box Office

Date: Fri, 8 Jul 2005 14:59:22 -0600

From: Oriental Theatre Box Office

Subject: blackie lawless will NEVER play the oriental theatre again…

To: bbf@metalsludge.tv

we here at the oriental theatre in denver will never book the has been, blackie lawless asshole american fiasco again. he has NO respect for anyone. He threatened violence towards my sound guy. we really tried to make this a great show. la guns, stephen pearcy and metal church had no problems with our theatre. they all want to come back!! even the 3 members of wasp were very cool except for asshole blackie. i figure that if he comes back to denver, blackie WILL be playing in a bar to 10 people. his fan base keeps getting smaller. the denver fans saw what kind of a person he really is. and YES he does use backing tapes. i was in the theatre during his sound check. he also fucked around all day and blew off the local bands, moore and havok. afraid of being upstaged ? lastly, think about it blackie, do you really think your fucking mike stand will fit into a shitty bar? beacause thats where YOU are going to be. its NOT 1985 ANYMORE…

michael odonnell, oriental theatre inc.

Thanks Michael. We feel obligated to give the fans news about whacky stuff like this. Just out of curiosity, did W.A.S.P. eat their deli tray lunch meats or did Blackie throw it at the crowd? That whole fake Halloween blood and lunch meat shit is for kids. I wonder if Pearcy is thinking about throwing Milk and Cereal on his crowd while he sings “You think you’re tough?”

And here is a World Famous Gossip board post from the Soundman from this very gig in Denver on July 4th .

Lets put an end to this right now.

Blackie and crew are using some pre-recorded tracks. Its noises and gang background voices. NO LEAD VOCALS NO GUITARS AND NO DRUMS What you are hearing is all raw W.A.S.P. Apart from the intro music and I think 3 songs that have background vocals. THATS IT FOLKS.

Let me state, for the record, WASP can play and they are kicking ass on this tour.

I AM NOT A WASP FAN!!!

As long as I am posting, heres some facts:

Blackie is not fat, he’s actually in pretty good shape.

Blackie didn’t sign one autograph or greet one fan at the show I ran sound.

WASP purposely ran long on setup to make no time for supporting local acts.

I did not know I was running sound for WASP until they showed up, I was told they were touring with a soundman. To anybody that thought it sounded like crap, I apologize, I did the best I could.

Blackie is extremely particular about his sound and if he is going to make stupid requests, his crew should be making sure that technical requests are handled BEFORE they ever walk into the venue.

I never got a stage plot or input list from them. A little planning goes a long way!!!!

WASP plays EXTREMEMLY loud onstage, I’ve done a lot of rock n roll but there stage volume was insane. Blackie still thinks he is playing in front of 20,000 fans. In a 500 seat venue, this makes mixing a band EXTREMELY difficult.

Blackies mic stand DOES weigh about 500-600lbs. Then about 1,000lbs of weights are added in the bottom for ballast to weigh the thing down because he swings around on it. It is a pretty cool stage prop, but you should never rely so heavily on a prop that it detracts from the show.

I have to say, EVERY OTHER act on the show was as cool as can be, Metal Church, Stephan Pearcy, L.A. Guns were all great and put in great performances with no hassle. I thank each and everyone of them for that.

I’ve never felt more flustered and stressed by an artist than I did with Blackie, his crew (Danny, Kyle) must have the most amazing patience to be able to live with that every day. I’ve been running sound and playing music since I was 14 (I’m 32 now) and have done a thousand shows, but I just about completely lost it and left that night because of Blackie. So I’ll always remember him for that!!!!

This business is built on comprimise. Every show I’ve done, I’ve had to comprimise to some extent. NOTHING ever goes exactly as planned. Part of being a professional is being able to roll with it.

Anyway…

I’m just posting this to clear up some of the BS I read on here. If you want to fault Blackie, please do it for the right reasons (not being accessible to fans, etc) but don’t fault him for his performance, what you saw/heard was 100% Blackie.

Posted by: Monkey Todd

Then this was posted….

WOW.

Blackie hired someone to come on this board and lie for him.

I’m sorry but I’ve seen WASP live and I’ve got bootleg videos.

He uses vocal tapes for most of the show. Not just backing vocals.

Sometimes he straight up lip synchs…..sometimes he sings along live with a tape…….and sometimes he actually sings live all by himself.

There’s a widely circulated boot video of WASP live in Milan from a few years back when Chris Holmes was still in the band……..

you can see and hear exactly what I’m talking about in just the first few songs……..

Posted by: Purple Idiot

And then the soundman replies again…

Thanks for the replies.

Hopefully I can answer your follow-up questions.

First off, not only am I not paid by WASP, I didn’t make a farking dime on that show!!!!!

I have no knowledge of what WASP did on tour prior to July 4th. They could have come out and completely boy-banded it up with a million backing tracks for all I know. I’m just telling you what I know for a fact on this tour.

Maybe since WASP is not playing MASSIVE venues anymore, Blackie could look into making a smaller stage prop that is still visually impressive but does not require so much effort to support. Also, they carry around a 1500lb stand/weights but they carry NO MICS!!! Blackie has to sing through whatever house mic is available, thats odd to me. Someone who is so particular about stuff, but doesn’t carry his own mic.

But anyway….

I’m not suprised they are not traveling with a soundman. Most pro guys I know would not put up with that kind of attitude.

I’m a performer too, I know how "demanding" talent can be. But theres a line.

The venue rented out a sound system, I’m not going to make any excuses, but I did make a couple of mistakes during soundcheck. Mostly due to the fact that I had to spend the whole day onstage and ringing out monitors with WASP’s crew. I won’t go into detail Blackie made a comment about putting a fucking bullet in my head. It really un-nerved me and I was upset!!!

I will tell you this, I went for a walk to decide if I was going to come back in or not and do the show, and Ronnie (i think) the singer from Metal Church, saw me, he grabs me and just hugs me and says "look man, its not your fault! its ok!"

THATS A PRETTY COOL DUDE!!!!!

After that I pulled it together and it was fine.

Much respect to him for caring!!!!

Anyway, didn’t want to get to far off topic, I just wanted to clear up a couple of things.

Posted by: Monkey Todd

A bullet in the sound mans head? Someone needs to give Blackie a good old fashion ass kicking – Danzig style. It’s cunts like Glen Danzig and Blackie Lawless that give the whole touring industry a bad rap. Fucking over local and regional talent who bust their ass to help promote these events, and then the big “headliner” fucks them out of their 30 minutes on stage because they spend 6 hours fucking off with monitor mixes.

All the while they walk around with a shitty attitude and treat the local help, stage crew and staff like pieces of shit as well.

Okay there you have it. W.A.S.P. is not Milli Vanilli, but some fans would rather compare Blackie to Ashlee Simpson anyway.

We will too, Blackie you’re a fucking girlie bitch! Make up and all!

This man Blackie, or Steve his real name, is according to this soundman…a real tool box to deal with. Are we shocked? Blackie a pain in the ass? Can you imagine a woman who would lay under a man who looks like Mick Mars half brother?

What can be said…but if you ever go to Mexico – don’t drink the water. And if you go to a W.A.S.P. concert – for the love of God – don’t eat the lunch meats either!

Metal Sludge

I wanna Sludge Somebody