I just bought this magazine for the first time. I thought this was a pretty
good interview with our man, Pete. Hope you all enjoy it!

Interview with Pete Steele in Live Wire (The Only Mag You Can Mosh To!)
Too Late, They've Already Quit Their Day Jobs
by Sharon Kaufman

        Somebody, anybody!!! Tell Peter Steele that he and his band TYPE O
NEGATIVE, wouldn't sell over 300,00 copies of their latest album, BLOODY
KISSES; it wouldn't climb to #6 on BILLBOARD magazine's HEATSEEKER'S chart;
it would never receive heavy radio airplay in major cities; and they would
not have toured with the likes of Nine Inch Nails, Motley Crue, Jackyl, and
now, Danzig, unless they had SOME sort of artistic talent! Oh, yeah, and
assure him that nude women don't try leaping onstage while you're
performing unless they find you somewhat physically appealing.

        And for Pete's sake (no pun intended),if you haven't listened to
the blackly-sensual BLOODY KISSES yet, go out and get it, because it surely
isn't like anything else out there. But for right now, read this exclusive
interview with Steele, done minutes before he made his dark presence known
onstage at New York City's Roseland theater.

        What was the first sign which made you realize that BLOODY KISSES
was on its way to becoming a successful record?

        I don't know if your readers know this, but Type O Negative
actually broke up for a while last year, primarily because I could not make
a choice between my day job and the band. However, I did have some vacation
time coming to me, and our manager came to me and asked if I would utilize
five weeks of it do a small U. S. tour, with Life of Agony. The tour was
extremely successful. That's when I really started to think, "You know,
maybe I have something here."

        Then did you immediately quit your day job with the New York City
Parks Department after that tour?

        No, then I went back to work and we were asked to go on tour with
Nine Inch nails for two weeks. It was after I came back from that tour that
we were offered the Motley Crue tour, and  I knew at that moment that I was
definitely going to have to make a decision. I realized that anyone who's
ever made anything of themselves has always had to take a chance. I don't
want to be some old man on his death bed with tubes going down his throat
and up his ass, saying to myself "I should have gone on tour. I should have
seen how far I could have taken myself." I just wanted to do something--I
mean, I hate to say reckless, but I've never taken a chance like this
before, and it's actually quite thrilling. So I have officially resigned.
We've all (the band) said goodbye to our day jobs.

        That must have been a pretty scary step.

        It is very scary, and to be honest with you, I miss it greatly. I
liked working with the city; I liked knowing that I was going to be paid at
the end of the week, I had really good benefits, I liked operating heavy
equipment, I liked working in parks, I liked dealing with the public. But,
I don't like where the city is going, and I don't like where my tax dollars
are going.

        Has your perception of the music business changed?

        Not at all. I still cannot say a single good word about it. That
just sums it up.

        When you're onstage, how attentive are you to the crowds' reaction?
Or, are you even concerned about it?

        Well, when I sing songs about women, I always try to pick one out
and address the song to her so it comes across a little bit better. If
somebody is being an asshole in the audience like throwing stuff or
heckling or carrying on, I try to memorize his face so that after the show
I can go have a talk with him.

        Any interesting, uh, "talks"?

        None that went past "Oh, I'm sorry, man!"

        What would you consider as some of the more memorable moments on tour?

        Some of the more memorable things, first off, are women jumping
onstage naked--TOTALLY naked. Also throwing underwear onstage. I just can't
believe that this is happening to me, because I've never really thought of
myself as an attractive person. What's even funnier is when you get men
jumping up onstage naked. Normally, I don't do too much moving around
onstage, but when I see some fat, smelly, sticky bastard jump up there
shaking his ya-balls all over the place, generally try to move away from
him.

        From seeing Type O Negative shows quite a few times, I recall the
way in which you introduce the band, as the "punishment for the evening."
Do you still do that?

        I'm quite a moody person, so if I'm having a really good day I'm a
nice guy onstage, and I'm Mr. Cordial. But if someone's giving me a hard
time, or if it's a "bad hair day," I'll take it out on the audience.

        I always interpreted your introductions as the evening's
"punishment" as your being insecure about the band's performance--as if you
were covering for yourself and the band should the shows go badly.

        That is quite true; it's definitely a defense mechanism. But is
also shows the audience that we don't take ourselves as seriously as maybe
they think we do. It's always been an honor to share the same stage with
Nine Inch Nails, Motley Crue, Jackyl, and, now, Danzig, but it's really
tough to open up for these bands. Sometimes you get these knuckle heads who
just want to hear the headliner, and you have to deal with them. I try to
be semi-comfortable at times.

        Do you feel that as the tours go by, you're gaining more of a sense
of self-confidence?

        There is never a show that goes by that I am not terrified to walk
out onstage. Maybe terrified is too strong of a word. It's not so much that
I'm afraid of what the audience is going to think or that I'll screw up
onstage, but that my equipment, or the rest of the band's equipment will.
The worst thing in the world is to have something blow out onstage, then
the song stops and you have people getting restless. I as the frontman have
to pacify the audience, so it's like, "Oh, fuck! Now I have to go out there
and calm all these people down." Hopefully, it'll be a minor problem. There
have been shows where my bass amp blew up twice in one night, where I had t
do half the show with no bass and wing it. It's like, sometimes I feel like
a complete dick onstage and I'm standing there in front of the whole world
thinking, "Oh, god, I'd like to be any other place but here right now." But
you can't let the audience know it. You just have to continue with it, and
make the best of it.

        Are there other bands you'd be interesting in touring with?

        I'd like to tour with Curve, but I understand they've broken up.
I'd like to tour with Lycia. They're a really dark, almost trance-dance
band. Also the Electric Hellfire Club. I think this Danzig tour is really
good for us. I thought that the Cult might have been good, or maybe
Siouxsie and the Banshees. Anything that's dark but sensual, heavy but
melodic.

        How was it to go back to your hometown after touring recently, and
do the two shows that you did at the infamous "Rock Capital of Brooklyn,"
L'Amour?

        As I was away for the whole summer, and there was a lot of hype
growing on the band, when I came home, people started to treat me totally
differently. Yet, I didn't feel any different. When I got onstage, I felt
like it was going to be really hard to live up to the audience's
expectations. We're still the same band, we just had some really good luck
for some reason.

        Do you feel uncomfortable with that special treatment possibly
because you may not feel worthy of it?

        Exactly. I don't think that I deserve this. I don't think we're a
good band.

        Do you think you'll ever consider Type O Negative a good band?

        I don't know. This is something very personal to me. It's like when
someone is depressed or upset and takes a pencil and doodles something.
This is what I do when I'm upset--write these songs. It's like someone
taking this doodle and putting it in an art museum, and now everyone wants
your autograph because this thing is hanging on a wall. I can never think
that this is something special. This is my pain put on paper, this is my
pain put into someone's ear.

        So you almost resent your success?

        Yes, I mean, this is private to me. I think one of the best
compliments I've gotten is when people say that I've helped them through
hard times because they now know that other people feel what they do, and
that's great, I'd like to be helpful. I just don't like to be exploited by
these so-called indusrty people, or prostituted. Somebody's making a lot of
money, but we're not. I don't know who it is, but if I find out, I'd like
to ask that person for a loan.

        In regard to your contribution of the track "Black Sabbath" on the
NATIVITY IN BLACK tribute album, were you given a choice of which Black
Sabbath song you could cover?

        We were one of the last bands approached, so it was first come,
first served. Doing "Black Sabbath" would not have been my first choice; it
probably would have been "Paranoid," maybe "N.I.B." But like I said, we
were asked last. On the album, all the bands were fighting on who would be
listed first; I REQUESTED that we be put last so that I knew exactly where
we were going to be. No one want to be put last, and we always try to do
the un-cool thing. Whichever way the sheep are running, we run the other
way.

        Any further musical aspirations?

        The only other thing that I'd like to do is write film scores for
horror and/or science fiction movies. That could possibly really interest
me.

End of Interview

Sharon "I REALLY have to get a life one of these days"



____________________________________________________________________________
email sharon@panix.com

"We're the flowers in the dustbin."--Johnny Rotten