Kory Grow of Rolling Stone spoke with singer King Diamond (Mercyful Fate, King Diamond) about his forthcoming North American tour. Excerpts from the interview appear below.
Rolling Stone: What sorts of freaky things can fans expect on your North American tour?
King Diamond: It’s a very dark show. King Diamond was always more Satanic than Mercyful Fate. And I’m not saying anything bad about Mercyful Fate – I love that band but sometimes people forget that King Diamond is the Satanic philosophy through and through. I was made an eternal member of the Church of Satan by Anton LeVey himself in 1988.
Rolling Stone: Where did you get the bones for the microphone stand you made out of a femur and tibia?
King Diamond: My younger brother’s schoolmate’s dad was a surgeon. He taught students how to operate on donated bodies, and when they were done, they would strip the skin off the bodies and put the bones in barrels. He took a couple of bones home to his son, and my brother convinced him to give it to him. I feel like the person who they belonged to is now getting to see the world in a different way. I don’t mean that in a sick way at all.
Rolling Stone: What is life like for you, since your surgery? [The singer had triple-bypass surgery in 2010]
King Diamond: I have a braided, metal wire going down the middle of my chest, underneath my skin. I saw it on an X-ray of it; it looks like a piece of jewelry. When they sawed me open to do the operation, my ribcage was like a double door, to be blunt. They put the wire in to help it grow back together. I’m lucky. You can barely see where I was glued together. I can’t take painkillers, because they thin my blood. So when I have pain, I have to live with it. But that’s how it is. To get a second chance is amazing.
King Diamond: So you’re working on a new album?
King Diamond: We’ve done a lot of stuff. We are going in some new ways that are going to be amazing. I’ve been building a studio so I can do my vocals at home. Once it’s completed, we can start recording. I have a title for a new record, but I won’t say it. [The record] will encompass the things I need to write about after what I went through. But I can’t say much about it because I haven’t talked to the rest of the band about it.
Read more at Rolling Stone.
source: rollingstone.com
18 Responses
If stuff starts moving around your house for no apparent reason, something is very wrong. Some very bad shit is around you, that’s not “cool.” This guy doesn’t get it, and after everything it’s kind of amazing that he still doesn’t.
I enjoy the music. I couldn’t care less about his religious beliefs.
The term Satan in the name of the church of Satan is not directly linked to the Christian devil or god. Learn something before commenting about it please.
If political correctness extends to the Church of Satan then we are finished as a society. ENDGAME! No offense to KING. I have THEM in my IPOD and he seems like a good guy but those guys jokes are spot on. The devil stuff went out with Geraldo and 80s metal. Iommi himself attends Catholic mass. The INDANE CLOWN POSSE make -up is horrorshow-cartoonish. Him being made-up is like a red devil with a forked tail. It is a show. Nothing more.
No, no, no…all of you.
It’s not political correctness, it is freedom of religion, or arte you one of those people that feel religious freedom only applies to Xtians, who seem to do nothing but scream persecution these days because others who do not feel the same are voicing their views instead of suffering in silence. BTW, I am an atheist and so don’t really have a dog in this fight. I just hate to see someone demean something due to lack of information about a certain subject which is what I felt you were doing. If I am incorrect on that count then accept my apologies.
It’s not about a religious belief, it’s about getting into the occult for material gain. This is pretty common in music, has been for centuries, people want to make it so bad, they will do crazy things to give themselves an advantage… whether you believe that that would work or not, it still goes on….a whole lot more than you think, believe me. The Bible can be used in an occultish way too, ipso facto Satanism. Me, I take my lumps and hope for the best, I don’t get involved in anything like that.
I love hard rock. I like the power. I like the rebellion. And I know hard rockers enjoy being entertained by the “dark side” a la Alice Cooper, Gene Simmons, or the old horror movies. But I don’t care how good KD’s music may be, for him to actually belong to a church that worships the devil and to glorify that crap in song? I can’t go there. Satan is not playing a part in a horror movie. He is real gang. And he ain’t nice! All the evil and suffering in this world is due to him. At first I wanted to refer to KD as a pathetic tool. But then I realized that I, and we, should pray for him…
Well said David, I agree.
I had heard that King Diamond was a atheist or agnostic or something. Which goes against from everything we were told “back in the day” (Satanism, etc).