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by Tom Lounges
 Like most of us, even
rock stars sometimes ponder the meaning of life and the purpose of our
existence.
“Oh tell me Lord, why am I here?”
–– are the first words uttered on The Neon God: Part One – The
Rise, the first half of a new two-CD conceptual project from the
veteran hard rock band W.A.S.P.
This dark and soul
deep musical tale chronicles the disturbing rise to power of a
disturbing messiah-like character named,
Jesse William Slane,
and has been “in the making for the better part of a decade,” according
to band leader Blackie Lawless from an Austin, Texas hotel room.
W.A.S.P. is on the
road and heading to Chicago’s House of Blues for what will surely be a
slam-bang rock ‘n’ roll show on Sunday, August 22. “We’re doing mostly
a set of classic W.A.S.P. songs,” he said, noting that only a couple of
Neon God
tracks will be featured live. “It’s hard to pull out just one or two
songs from an album like this because of the storyline and the way the
songs work together and bleed into each other.”
The second half of
the Slane story will be hitting retail outlets the first week of
September. “I literally finished mixing [the second part the album]
last Monday,” he said. “It’s been a tremendous and laborious effort to
get ‘Neon God’
done. It’s been two solid years of intense recording, but I’m very
pleased with what has been created and the way it all has turned out.”
As to why the project
was split into two separate albums, Lawless blames the state of the
music retail business. “I personally would have preferred that
‘Neon God’ come out as one piece, but retailers won’t take
double records sets anymore,” he explained. “They will still take what
they call ‘historical albums’ like the Beatles ‘White Album’
or something like that. They will take multiple disc greatest hits
packages too. But when it comes to new recordings, they won’t take what
they call ‘two for one’ sets. I was disappointed that both [CDs]
couldn’t be packaged together.”
Lawless knows that
the media and the fans will immediately liken his new sonic adventure to
W.A.S.P.'s last greatly celebrated conceptual epic, The Crimson
Idol.
“It is natural that
people compare the two and I knew it would happen before we even started
this album, but it’s really like apples and oranges. They are both
fruit, but nothing alike. These are both concept albums, but they are
also nothing alike. There is really no comparison,” he said.
“This one is my
‘War And Peace,’”
he continued. “This album is something that has been rolling around in
my head for at least ten years. I’ve been working on it off and on for
that long, because it takes a lot of time to develop characters and to
get a story exactly the way you want it. It also took me that long to
get up my courage to ‘face the beast’ once again and tackle doing a
concept album. Quite honestly, ‘The Crimson Idol’ just wore me out.
This one being a two record set was completely exhausting.”
Though he claims to“never
say never,”
Lawless doubts that he will ever compose another concept album. “[A
concept album] is about four or fives as much work as making a regular
record,” he said.
Lawless described the
22-year-old band’s latest aural epic as being its masterpiece. “My
intention when started this project, was to try to create something for
the ages,” he said. “I wanted to make an album that in twenty, thirty
or forty years from now, people could still get into and get something
from. Great books are timeless and are read by each new generation. I
wanted to make an album that was like that. Something that was powerful
and deep. Something that would hold up over the years and continue to
captivate people who listened to it.”
To do that, Lawless
looked to the what the greatest common denominators are between people.
“As human beings, we all stop at some point in our lives and ask --
‘Who am I? Where am I going? Does my life mean anything? Is there a
God?’ I
wanted to encapsulate all of that and that was the jump off point for
this story.”
Lawless
described the journey he takes listeners on with the Neon God project as “a psychological trip” and mentioned that he
looked at historical figures like David Koresh, Jim Jones, Charles
Manson and Hitler while working on his storyline.
“In my
mind, I was fascinated with the charismatic power those guys had,” he
explained. “Look at Manson’s family or what Hitler had done with the
Brown Shirts. It’s amazing how easily some people follow these false
messiahs.”
As to how
the Jesse Slane story will end once Neon God: Part II
is released next month, Lawless remains mum. “I’m not going to tell
you,” he chides. “You will have to listen to that album to learn the
final outcome!”
W.A.S.P. perform live at Chicago’s House of Blues on Sunday, August 22
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