Mark: Is it different for you, these days now that you are singing as well, do you feel a different kind of pressure in that role?
Jerry: Yeah, in the beginning I did, I’ve been doing it for 13 years now, so to me it’s funny, because when I first started singing it was kind of awkward playing and singing, and now it’s awkward either just playing or just singing! So, I actually feel more comfortable actually playing and singing at the moment. As far as being nervous, I’ve learnt heaps of things over the years that showed me, you take advantage of the situation as best you can, and you have to live with what you are able to do, whether it’s a production issue, or a physical issue, where your voice is a little bit shot, you go out there with the best intention, and you do the best job you can. We don’t really party on the road, we don’t drink or smoke, or anything like that, we give it the ultimate respect.
Mark: You’ve finally got a Christmas single out, bringing a bit of horror to Christmas; I think it’s called “Horror Xmas” is that something you’ve always wanted to do?
Jerry: Oh, yes! Have you heard it?
Mark: I’ve just heard it this morning!
Jerry: What did you think?? The first listen is always important!
Mark: It’s great! It’s just what you expect, it’s typical Misfits, and it brings a huge smile to your face!
Jerry: I’ll tell you a funny story, but first I’ll tell you why we did it. When I was a kid, my favourite Christmas shows were always The Grinch’s shows, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, by Dr Seuss, with Boris Karloff narrating the voice of the Grinch. For me, it always had that horror feel to it, with Boris Karloff’s voice- he is the voice of horror! So after that we had to do a song, it took us about two months to put the song together, and it took me that long to figure out how to play it, it wasn’t what the lyrics were, what the notes were, but how are we going to take the Grinch, and make it our own! But, make it so cool that it’ll go over big, and people are going to like it, and people aren’t going to really criticise us for doing something like a Christmas record with the Grinch! And that came out very, very well. Then we did “Blue Christmas” and Michael Tripaldi, is a good friend of mine, I went to go and sing with them in New Jersey, when they came up here for the summer, and I played him the record, and I said Michael, I know you’re a big Elvis fan, you gotta hear it, I played Blue Christmas, and I saw him roll his eyes and go, “Oh, my god, what are these guys doing?!!” Then when the song finished this big smile came across his face, and he really liked it. We weren’t trying to be Elvis; we were trying to make out the Elvis vibe via The Misfits! It was a different way of thinking, and a total respectful thing. And the last song on there is “The Island of Misfit Toys”, and it’s funny, because I actually penned this song back in 1999 when we were doing “Famous Monsters”, but the band was falling apart and things were all screwy, so I threw it away. But, later I was looking through stuff, and we were doing “Devil’s Rain”, and I saw the “Monkey’s Paw” which we did, I said look, this is a great song we should do this, I’m really sorry we didn’t put it on “Famous Monsters”, let me do it now. So, we did the “Monkey’s Paw” for “The Devil’s Rain”, and we grabbed the lyrics out of the book, and I sat down and I finished the song. “The Island of Misfits Toys” turned in to a long song, based on “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer”, and the toys that are all broken, and no kids want them, so they are all banished to the island of Misfits toys, so I wrote a song about that, for my little girl. And also to come up with an original Misfits track, I think when we put together a Christmas album, and we put some original songs in there, it really makes it good! I’m very proud of the whole thing.
Mark: It’s a great song, and just to get in the Christmas spirit, I see you’ve got a whole host of T shirts and ornaments on sale as well!
Jerry: Yeah, we are working really, really hard, trying to do really quality stuff, and we’re trying to stay in the public eye. We are trying to change the mentality of the music business, instead of releasing one big record and then releasing a whole bunch of singles spinning off to promote that record, we’re doing a whole lotta stuff, and then build it in to an album! We are working in reverse, and we are making all the merchandising and all the new art form into icons, and make it a key factor in what we put out as far as albums go.
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