Yeh, I know it’s been a while…what can I tell ya…

PART TWO
Interviewed by Yochai Davidoff
Transcribed by Yehi Zaken and Hillary C. of www.jerusalemetal.com

“The story behind that song is so sad, and that’s how the love really is shown. The sad side of love and losing someone. That is a song for a cat I had, a cat called Ghost. I can’t even describe how human this cat was. That cat was my best friend I had here in the US, you know. “ – King Diamond

YD: In your 2 new albums for the new millenium, “Puppet Master� and “House of God“ there are allusions to an unrequited love that cannot be attained in our world. Are these allusions to your divorce, perhaps?

KD: No, no, not at all, no it’s not that at all. The story of the Puppet Master came several years ago back in 1999 when MF was out touring with Metallica in Europe. We were also playing in Budapest, and one of the days right around that show we had a day off, and we took a walk around the center of Budapest it was a Sunday afternoon, and everything was closed. And we passed a big theatre, and it said “National Puppet Theatre� outside, and I was wondering, how the hell can they have a puppet theatre in such a big theatre? And I couldn’t forget it. And when we came back to the hotel I started getting all the inspiration, and wrote a lot of the story there at the hotel that night, that night off that we had there. I thought of the names of the persons there, and imagined how it would work. And since then I got married to a Hungarian girl, who sings in the band, now, you know. She is the one who sings on the Puppet Master album. But the weird thing is that she told me that that theatre is very much like I described it, except, of course, that they don’t use real human beings. But it’s very much the way that I described it. And I said, you’re kidding me, no? And that’s how that started, you know. The story behind that song is so sad, and that’s how the love really is shown. The sad side of love and losing someone. That is a song for a cat I had, a cat called Ghost. I can’t even describe how human this cat was. That cat was my best friend I had here in the US, you know. I know that if my human friends read this they will probably be like, hmmmm, the cat meant more than me, but that cat was absolutely the closest friend I have ever had. And it was the biggest loss in my life, when I lost that cat you know. And that song captures it, even though the cat was a male cat, for the story of course, the song has to be a little different, but 90% of what is in that song was written totally for the cat. Only 10% is to make the story go on. So that’s why it’s called Ghost Song as well.

YD: Could please you tell me what your makeup represents?

KD: Oh, it represents so many different things, you know. The one I’m using now is pretty close, with little tiny changes, but that’s only to make it more effective, but it’s practically the same one from House of God, just with slight changes. And that’s where, for the first time, I had crosses on my face, both this way and that way. And that represents a person who does not know what’s the right religious God to believe in, it very much represents that. They are both represented there, and none of them have taken over, so it’s even parts of both.

YD: Which of your life experiences has had the greatest influence on your music? Is there a singular experience that has had particular significance for you or that you especially remember, whether for good or for bad?

KD: I remember so many experiences it would be impossible to pick one, because there have been so many that have been very unique experiences. Every night is unique. Even when you play the same set night after night on a tour, it’s never the same. It is always different — the crowd is a little bit different, the sound is a little bit different cause it’s a different theatre you’re playing in, or the circumstances are a little bit different. It never gets old. I mean, I still enjoy playing “Welcome Homeâ€? as much, probably more today, than I ever did in the old days, and I guess that has something to do with the songs, they are so well performed today, we have a better crew with us, very professional people, and that means that there is less for me to worry about onstage. The musicians are absolutely perfect. The crew is perfect. So there are less chances that something is going to go wrong. I am always going to hear myself very well on stage. So I have less things to worry about and I can fully concentrate on having the greatest time with the audience. And that means a lot. And so those old songs never grow old, I totally enjoy then still, today.

So there are a lot of things, you know, I can say, I was on the stage with Metallica in Italy, in Milan. We had played earlier in the day, and then Hank and I were invited up onto the stage with Metallica, when they headlined. That one night they played different encores, and they played the whole ????, 12 minutes! And Hank and I were in there, standing there singing with Metallica playing Mercy songs. And James singing backup vocals, and Jason was there, and of course Lars, who sings. That experience was unbelievable. That meant SO much to me, you know. I have always been a huge fan of Metallica and I have known them personally since 1984, and they have always been the greatest guys, man. So that was very very special. But there have also been so many other special nights, definitely.

YD: Do you have any opinions about the metal world today? Anything you listen to, maybe? Anything that caught your ear?

KD: I listen a lot to old stuff. I have a huge CD collection of old classic heavy metal, a lot of CDs that you can’t buy any more, you know. And strange bands you may have never heard of, you know… and I have so many of them and I like them…

YD: Try me…

KD: There was a band that had a couple of Israeli guys in there, Jericho, an old band called Jericho, that did an album in 1972. A couple of English musicians and I think that there were 2 Israeli guys in there as well…heavy shit, man, so killer, that album I have on CD, you know. Lucifer’s Friend is an old band that had the singer who later joined Uriah Heep. Geordie is a band that not a lot of people have heard of, but Brian Johnson, who later was with AC/DC, he started out with that band. I saw him play with that band Geordie in Copenhagen three times before he ever joined AC/DC. Great band, the first two albums are really heavy, cool stuff. And when he is singing it sounds like metal sometimes, believe it or not. I have so much stuff that is Truth and Chains, Vampire from Norway, a great fucking band, they’re all from the early seventies. And I also have a big collection of the big bands from that time, I mean, I love them, like Uriah Heep. When David Byron was singing in the band, that’s my favorite lineup of Uriah Heep. And he is my favorite singer of all time. He is not \here anymore, he is dead, you know, but he is still my absolute favorite singer of all time. David Byron. No doubt about it. But there are also a lot of guys I admire highly, but it’s all those old bands, Jethro Tull, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Uriah Heep… a lot of these early 70s bands. They all have their very individual style. You can hear sometime, somebody can be playing “Black Night� and you know it’s Deep Purple, there’s no doubt about it. You hear “War Pigs�, and it’s Black Sabbath, no doubt. They were so different from each other.

It seems like today, without knowing very much about the scene, because I really don’t listen to much of it, it can be good and bad. I don’t know a lot about the scene today, but that’s good for ourselves. I never get inspired by what other bands do, I have my own stuff. I can tell you that when I start writing music for a new album for us, I do not listen to other music, not even the old music that I have here. I stop listening to music because I don’t want to be influenced. I want to have things coming from inside of me, only. So that I don’t start copying other stuff. Because if I sat and listened to an old Black Sabbath album, and then I went in and started playing guitar, in my mini studio, I would automatically be in that mood, and start writing heavy slow riffs, and that’s not what King Diamond is about. KD is about the inner feelings from me and the inner feelings from Andy. So with all the stuff I have here, all the CDs I have here, I don’t have time to buy a lot of brand new stuff. So if I buy a new thing its probably a new album that Jethro Tull has released or something. That’s the way it is. One of the latest things I bought was Kansas, an album called Masque, because the CD I had actually broke, so I had to get another one. That’s the last one I bought for myself.

YD: We’re almost done, I just have a few quick questions: First, what’s your favorite book?

KD: My favorite book? Well, I’d rather say my favorite writer. I haven’t read a book in a long, long time. I’ve simply been too busy, you know. My favorite horror writer is a guy called James Herbert, from England. Ooohh, his books, especially one called the The Dark, oooh, what a book!

YD: What’s your favorite movie?

KD: G-d, there are so many as well! But probably “The Shining.�

YD: Ok. What do you think is the best album that you ever put out?

KD: Oh my G-d. I can say that there are two albums, well, actually three albums, but there are specifically two albums that I would not change anything on even if I was given the chance. There are a lot of albums that I’m like, well, if I could go in and change just that little part there, or make that snare a little louder, play it a little heavier, there are always things that, as a musician, you’d like to go in and adjust again if you could. But in the album “Abigailâ€? — I wouldn’t change anything on it. And “The Puppet Masterâ€? — I wouldn’t change anything on those 2 albums. And the live album, we put out, the double CD live we put out, I wouldn’t change anything on it, I think it sounds phenomenal, I think it really captures the feeling of a KD show as good as you can on a disc, you know.

YD: Of all music, what do you think is the best album ever, the best album of all time?

KD: Oh my G-d, it’s impossible to pick one. There are so many that I value evenly high. Well, I’ll give you a title anyway, even though there are another 20 that should be right there with this one, I have to say Uriah Heep “Look at Yourself�.

YD: Do you have anything to say to the metal fans of your music in Israel, and especially in Jerusalem?

KD: Well, we are very active. We are getting ready to write for the new KD album… I can tell you what we’ve been doing lately, I’ve been very busy with Roadrunner, even though they are our old record label. Its Roadrunner’s 25th anniversary, and…you should really give it a chance. It sounds better than it ever has sounded. It was mastered by Fred Jensen, a very famous mastering guy. And normally these guys don’t please me, but this guy did an amazing job. Absolutely amazing this time around! And there is a DVD disk with three live songs from a small club in Holland from 1983. King Diamond’s “Abigail� was re-released in this special bonus packaging, also the best sound that Abigail has ever had. It was released yesterday here in the US. It has a very very valuable bonus disk with it, a DVD, that DVD has seven songs from the Abigail tour in Sweden in 1987, plus our three normal videos that we did for Roadrunner – the Family Ghost, Welcome Home, and Sleepless Nights. So that’s a very very cool package.

I also know that Roadrunner is also going to release an Anniversary Album in the middle of October where they will take musicians that have been on the label and that are on the label now, have gotten together writing songs. I think that there are going to be 19 songs on there. There is a brand new song that is written by a very young guitarist, an amazing guitarist, only 19 years old, that sounds very much like a mix between Mercyful Faith and King Diamond, and I wrote lyrics for that song, and of course put vocals on it, and it’s a very cool song! It’s called “In the Fire�. So that’s going to be on the album. And it also has a DVD where they interview all the vocalists, so that’s what I’ve been spending a lot of time on.

Lately, the last couple of weeks, I’ve been looking at old shows from KD and MF. And Brian Slagel the owner of Metal Blade records is going to come over here, to my house, very very soon, within the next 2 weeks, and we are going to look through all this material, because there is some amazing stuff here. It’s bootlegs, but it’s extremely good quality, its bootlegs that we did ourselves of our shows, we have the masters. It’s the kind of thing that not even those who trade bootlegs have seen. It’s a KD show, a full show, with 5 camera angles. Like an outdoor show on a Sunday afternoon from Copenhagen from 1990, when we were in the studio, and we took all our gear out, played a free concert. And its broad daylight, it’s so cool, man. The songs that we were playing, we played a lot of Mercy stuff too… Satan for All and stuff… with KD! Very unique, playing songs like at the graves, a very very cool show! And there is a lot of other stuff like that too, you know, old Mercy stuff. So we’ll do a DVD for KD and one for MF. There is a lot of stuff from before we got signed to Roadrunner, before was Michael Denner with MF, I have a concert, live, from then, live stuff that no-one has ever seen. When I see it myself I get totally excited, so I think that the fans will really love to see these things! For me its like, check it out, look at this, wooah. So that’s the work that we are doing at the moment, plus we’re going to start writing for the next KD album. So we are bust, and we’re also scheduling at the moment a European tour, so hopefully it will be working out for us… it should start in April. This will still be a tour for The Puppet Master, we toured the US two full times with The Puppet Master, and the second time we changed the set list from the live album, we played a few Mercyful Fate songs too.

YD: Our editor just caught your show in the US recently, and I heard some really great responses to it, that it was one of the most amazing shows ever… there were a lot of opening acts but everyone really came to see you… how does that make you feel?

KD: It was a great tour, we played some good places, there were a lot of people coming. The cool thing is to see that the old faces are still there, but there are a lot of new young faces, I see 13 and 14 year faces right in front of the stage, and they know every single word. Some of the songs were written before they were born. And the band – I can tell you that the way that the band plays, its better than ever! You never heard KD songs played that well live, never! And that’s such a pleasure. And the show, the production, really, really works! We have some very unique effects that we are using on stage, and this show got some really good critiques, that’s for sure. And the things that we did on that last tour is what we’re going to do in Europe — identical to the last version hat we did here. Its not going to be exactly like the Live album, cause we wanted to freshen it up a little. Its funny, it’s because of the bonus DVD that we did for the re-release of Abigail. When I saw that I said, oh wow, were playing Arrival as the first song, and I think we should do that right after the intro with the baby coffin and all that stuff we have on stage. And I talked to the other guys and we said that maybe we should also do a few Mercy songs cause the fans will probably really freak out, so we did that, you know.

YD: Any last words for the fans?

KD: Stay heavy. Always stay heavy.