Category Archives: Interviews

An Evening with Corey Taylor offers sinfully intimate interaction with the Slipknot/Stone Sour front man

By Jonathan Williams

Best known as the monster mask-wearing singer for metal band Slipknot, as well as the singer for the more hard rock oriented Stone Sour, Corey Taylor has recently shown his more studious side. First he was a guest lecturer at Oxford University this past June, then he released his first book, Seven Deadly Sins, in July. For the past couple of weeks he’s been on a solo tour that features spoken word and acoustic performances, as well as more intimate interaction with his fans than anything he’s done previously. With the tour continuing through Dec. 13, Taylor took a moment to talk to Wrestling with Pop Culture about the shows, the book and the wrestling-style promo he did to promote the tour.

So you’re about a week or so into your first spoken word and solo acoustic tour. How’s it going so far?

It’s going really well. Unless I say something stupid onstage, like make fun of the Pope or something, I think we’re doing alright.

This is obviously not your first time performing without your Slipknot mask, but it is a more revealing and intimate look at who you are as a performer than anything you’ve done previously. That being said, what can people expect from these shows?

I wasn’t really sure how the audience would respond to it and they have responded so wonderfully. Basically the show is me running my mouth for the first hour, then I take a quick pee break, then I play for, like, an hour and a half. It’s anywhere from two-and-a-half to three hours every night. It’s been a lot of fun. I come out and I rant in the vein of whatever chapter I’m going to read from that night, so every night is different. Then I read from the book, we do a Q&A, then we play some songs. It’s been really fun for me specifically because I love to have one foot in the structured side and one foot in the extemporaneous side. I love being spontaneous and if something’s feeling a certain way you just run with that. The audience has been so into it it’s really been awesome. Basically it’s like if [Henry] Rollins, [George] Carlin and Dave Grohl were the same person. That’s really been the response we’ve gotten.

I just got a copy of the book a few days ago, so I haven’t had a chance to spend much time with it yet.

Well, I apologize in advance.

I’m sure it’s not that bad. Tell me a little bit about the concept behind the book and why you decided to write a book.

I’ve been threatening to write a book for a long time. It’s one of those things I’ve always wanted to do since I was a kid. I’ve been a voracious reader since I was young and once I developed a taste for writing I knew that someday, if I ever got the chance, I’d want to write a book. When the chance came along, I jumped for it.

The concept of the book was originally just going to be about philosophy and me taking the piss out of philosophy in general. Luckily my agent talked me out of that and was like, “Dude, that will be 5,000 pages, it’ll weigh as much as a Volkswagen Beetle, we can’t do that.” I was like, “What do you suggest?” We kind of shot some ideas back and forth and he’s actually the one that said, “Why don’t you write about the Seven Deadly Sins?” At first, I was like, “That’s kind of a hackneyed premise when you get down to it. Why don’t I write it from the standpoint that they’re not sins, they’re just part of being human?” The more I thought about it, the more I truly believed that. So I basically used the book to make that argument that the Seven Deadly Sins are not sins at all; they’re part of being human and making mistakes. They can lead to sin, but the emotion itself is not the sin. I think in this modern literal world, we break it down into what is literal. There’s no room for esoteric mistakes anymore, so for me it made more sense to make that argument and balance it with stories from when I was growing up or being on the road and whatnot and basically say, “Look, I went through all of these ‘sins’ and I came out the other side and I’m a better husband, better father, better person for it. So how can you call that sin?” The reaction has actually been really good.

Did you have to do a lot of re-reading of The Canterbury Tales, John Milton and all that?

I read that stuff a long time ago. I studied it in school and read it on my own and whatnot, but I didn’t want to get too ensconced in the original material. I really wanted to make it feel a little more fresh. That’s one of the reasons I left out the Seven Golden Virtues. I wanted to concentrate on the sins themselves and really pick them apart like that. I knew that if I got too deep into the original material, I would start to quote too much. I brushed up on it briefly, but for the most part I just kind of ran with it. I did my best to make sure everything I was writing was as original as I could make it.

Was the spoken word tour part of the plan the entire time or did that come about after you finished the book?

That came out of nowhere. It came from two things, honestly. It came from my speaking engagement at Oxford and the two gigs I booked after the book had come out in England. I was doing a signing tour in England anyway and I thought, “Let’s just go into a club and do a show.” Those two shows were so much fun that I was like, “We’ve got to do this in the States. There’s no way I would not want to do this in the States.”

The Oxford engagement was really where I came up with the idea for the Q&A. At the end of my speech, I could tell no one wanted to leave. So I was like, “We’ve got a little more time, you got any questions you want to ask me?” It was so much fun. With every question, I had a weird little story I could tell. So it was really cool to be able to kind of incorporate those two ideas into the American tour. One of the reasons the show is different every night is because not only is my rant at the beginning a little different, but the questions allow me to tell different stories and really break it up and give something to people so that specific show is completely different.

How did the Oxford engagement come about?

They had been trying to get me to do that for about three years. I was always on the road or in the studio and I just never had any time to go and do it. So I was really lucky that they came to me every year for three years and finally that last year I was actually going to be in London anyway for the Kerrang Awards and for Slipknot rehearsals. So I was like, “Absolutely! Let’s do it. If I don’t do it this year I’m never going to get to do it.” I’m so glad I did. It was just fantastic and so much fun.

The tour announcement video you did featured you cutting a wrestling promo for a fictitious promotion called the IBWF (I Be Wrestling Federation). What was the inspiration for that?

We were sitting at my kitchen table trying to think of a different way to promote the tour. I hate doing the same crap over and over. It drives me nuts after a while, so I wanted to do something different. And I went, “Oh my God. A wrestling promo!” Everyone around me was like, “That’s amazing!” It was right around the time that the Halloween shops had sprouted up everywhere, so I was able to find everything I needed in one day. We went back to the house, I put on my ridiculous outfit and we shot it in 10, 15 minutes. It was great. I knew people would take that and run with it. The weirder I get, the more the fans are into it for some damn reason. It was a perfect way to set the tour up. Plus it gave us a chance to put Chicken Cow Cow back out there. Search for Chicken Cow Cow on YouTube and it’s the first thing that comes up. It’s my little dance remix thing that I do with my keyboard.

Were there certain wrestlers you drew from stylistically when cutting that promo?

Obviously there’s Hulk Hogan in there somewhere. I’ve been a wrestling fan since I was a kid. If you embrace it for what it is, which is entertainment, I have no illusions about the fact of if it’s real or not. But I know it’s physically taxing and it takes great skill to make it look good and no skill to make it look crappy. I know the people who rise to the top are the best in the business and it’s almost a metaphor for the music business. People come and go, but legends stay forever. My all-time favorite wrestler is Stone Cold, but I also love the Rock, Triple H, Shawn Michaels and the wrestlers I grew up with, which is Hogan, Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat, Tito Santana, Andre [the Giant], even “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan. I got to meet him and Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake and I was, like, freaking out. I was losing my shit, I was like, “Oh my God. You guys are awesome.” I’m still a fan.

Do you still follow it much these days?

I try to. But it’s like getting to watch football on Sundays, it’s hit or miss. I know the Rock is back. I was actually at the Anaheim show when he came out and they announced him as the guest host for WrestleMania this year. I lost it. I jumped up out of my chair and was losing my mind, so much so that I scared an entire family sitting behind me. They were like, “Excuse me, sir. Could you just sit down? I’ve got kids here and they’re trying to see.” I was like, “No. I won’t sit down. I don’t care. It’s the Rock. Get out of my face.” Then I sat down and was like, “Sorry, I’m just really hopped up on sugar.”

Were you there as a guest of WWE or as a paying fan?

I was there as a fan. It’s very rare that I go to anything as a guest. I’m just like everybody else, I buy my ticket. There’s not a lot of shows that I go to, whether it’s wrestling or music or whatnot. But at the end of the day, I can buy a ticket like anybody else. With the rare exception of if I’m friends with the band I’m going to see, then I’ll call them. But that’s really because I want to hang out with them, catch up with them, see if they’re doing OK and whatnot. But when it’s band’s like Van Halen or Nine Inch Nails or whatever, I buy my tickets, I go and I sit, watch the show, love the show and if I don’t get close seats, so be it.

Now that you’ve done spoken words, acoustic performances and various other musical projects, do you think you’ll be branching out into more mediums in the future?

Maybe. People ask me all the time if I want to get into acting and whatnot. I don’t want to be the star of a movie or anything, but I would love to do some supporting stuff and just be the guy that walks by in the background and you’re like, “Did I just see Corey Taylor in that movie?” I want to be the body on CSI so bad I can’t even breathe.

Me and Clown [Slipknot’s Shawn Crahan] are actually starting our own film production company where we’re going to start making crazy, twisted, weird movies. Movies that everyone can enjoy, but also movies that look great, feel great, that are different. We want to make movies that look fantastic, but also scare the crap out of you or make you think. So that’s something we’re working on right now.

For more information, go to www.thecoreytaylor.com.

VNV Nation brings its retro-futuristic “Automatic” tour to the U.S.

Unknown Hinson was billy before “Squidbillies” was cool

Voltaire, goth’s pop cultural ambassador, is always ready for Halloween

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By Jonathan Williams

While he is perhaps best known for the darkly satirical gypsy folk music he’s been creating for more than a decade, Voltaire‘s creepily creative talents have seeped over into other areas of pop culture including animation, comic books and collectible toys. With an insider’s view of the goth and geek scene, Voltaire has published books such as Paint It Black: A Guide to Gothic Homemaking and written songs poking fun at Star Trek, making him an annual favorite at pop culture conventions such as Dragon*Con. Following the release of his latest album Riding a Black Unicorn Down the Side of an Erupting Volcano While Drinking from a Chalice Filled with the Laughter of Small Children, which features contributions from David J of Bauhaus, Brian Viglione of the Dresden Dolls, Melora Creager of Rasputina and others, Voltaire set out on the Black Unicorn Cabaret Tour. As he prepares for a performance at Anne Rice‘s The Theatre of the Vampires Ball in New Orleans on Oct. 28, he talks to Wrestling with Pop Culture about his music, Halloween and more.

Your latest album features collaborations with some of your biggest musical influences, as well as some of your best known peers. How did this all-star lineup of goth luminaries come about?

Photo by Scott Irvine

Most of the people on the album are musicians I know personally or have worked with before. The drums are played by Brian Viglione of the Dresden Dolls. He played the drums on my last album and I asked him if he’d return for this one. The cellos are played by Melora Creager of Rasputina. She played cellos on the soundtrack of one of my short films a year or so ago and we recently went on tour together. And David J of Bauhaus plays bass. We’ve run into each other a few times on the road and have played a show or two together. So it really was a case of calling on people I know, whose work I admire and asking them if they’d join me on this record. Don’t be fooled though, just because I know them all doesn’t mean I don’t fanboy a little at the mere thought of it.

As your musical career has progressed, you’ve simultaneously crossed over into practically every other realm of pop culture, from film and comics to video games and children’s songs. Are there any areas you have yet to explore that you’d be interested in delving into? Wrestling, perhaps?

Wrestling is definitely not in the stars for me. I’m a lover, not a fighter, as they say, which is really just a fancy way of saying, “I don’t fight well.” But I did recently write a feature film script which I hope to get made and believe it or not, I’m getting more and more excited about the thought of acting. I’d like to spend more time in front of the camera, especially in horror films. So I think acting and making features is my next move. I’ve also got a novel or two in me, I think. I just don’t know where I will find the time to do all of this stuff.

As steampunk has grown in popularity, your music has gone from being described as goth to steampunk (without much, if any, stylistic change on your part). How do you feel about these different labels being applied to what you do? Conversely, how much crossover do you see amongst your fans between various subcultures?

Well, truth be told, I’m still referred to as “goth,” but I have never made goth music. Seriously, I sound nothing like the Cure or Bauhaus or whatever people call goth these days. Musically, what I do is probably closer to folk. It’s always acoustic, sometimes funny, sometimes poignant, usually about dark subjects. I personally relate to being goth because that’s the scene I grew up in and I’ve always loved the macabre. But I’m not a musician who makes goth music, I’m a goth who makes music. The music in my songs has drawn from folk, country, flamenco, gypsy, classical, rockabilly, jazz, ska and even reggae. It’s the message and snarky viewpoints expressed that define it as “dark.” Over the years I’ve been called goth, darkwave, anti-folk, gypsy punk, dark cabaret and steampunk. It seems like every couple of years a new term comes up and I get lumped in, probably because no one, including myself, has come up with a neat categorization for what I do. At the end of the day, I don’t really care what people call my music as long as they are enjoying it.

Photo by Jimmy Lin

You’ve also become an unofficial spokesperson for these subcultures, having appeared on Fox News, MTV and elsewhere over the years. As someone who so adequately represents some of these spookier elements, what does someone like Voltaire do for Halloween (especially when Halloween falls just after your tour)?

Well, usually I’m performing somewhere. October is hands down my busiest month of the year. Sometimes I feel like the mayor of Halloweentown, which I like quite a bit! Wherever I am, I’m not generally wearing a costume though. There’s no need. It’s the one day of the year I fit right in wherever I go.

What are some of your current projects (musical or otherwise) that your fans can look forward to and where can people find them?

Well as you know, I have a new record out and I’m touring to support it. I also try to make a short film a year. The most recent one is called Odokuro. It’s narrated by Gary Numan. It has just started touring the film festival circuit. I also have some new vinyl toys of my character Deady, some of which came out this summer and some more that are coming out this winter.

For more information, go to www.voltaire.net.

Gwar front man goes from monster rocker to monster writer with “Whargoul”

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When most people think of Gwar, they think of horrendous beings from another planet assaulting the senses with an aural and visual onslaught that includes disemboweling political figures and spraying audiences with bodily fluids while performing pummeling metal songs. Though he has explored other creative outlets such as his participation in the still-in-development Blood Vomits animated series and his recent “Spoken Turd” performance at Gwar’s Crack-A-Thon, one might expect front man Oderus Urungus’ talents to revolve around world domination and exaggeratedly phallic aggression. From wrestling matches to sword fights, Urungus and his crew of creatures have had epic battles with some of the ghastliest ghouls in the universe. But Urungus’ alter ego Dave Brockie can now call himself a novelist with the recent release of his debut book Whargoul.

Though Whargoul has been alive at www.oderus.com for years, it was only recently that it’s physical form was realized with the publication of the Whargoul paperback. The story of a demon-like creature who is reborn generation after generation with the sole purpose of creating carnage, Whargoul is just the kind of story you might expect from a guy who performs while showing off his enormous alien penis. As the band prepares for this weekend’s Gwar-B-Q festival in Richmond, Va. and the subsequent Return of the World Maggot tour, Dave Brockie talks to Wrestling with Pop Culture about his book and more.

I interviewed you a few years ago and your knowledge of weapons and military history came up. You clearly applied that knowledge throughout Whargoul, so it was interesting to see some of the things we talked about before being put to good use.

I’m a big fan of history and the more warlike episodes of human history are usually the most interesting. Art and war were probably my two biggest areas of study. It’s not that I’m a supporter of war by any means, but it is a fascination we have with the entire aspect of warfare. It’s so contradictory and so undeniably damaging to the planet, the human psyche and the physicality of being human. It’s such an unrelentingly negative thing that it’s just unbelievable that we spend so much time, money, effort and so many lives basically pursuing a system that still relies on the laws of the jungle.

I’ve been fascinated with it my whole life, probably mostly because both of my parents were World War II veterans. My dad’s from Scotland and my mom’s from London and they both were very young during World War II. But when you were living in England during World War II and you were the only thing between the Nazis taking over Europe and having a good shot at taking out Russia, they saw a lot of fucked up shit and it definitely affected their lives. As their child, it affected mine as well. So I was always fascinated with why my parents were sucked into this hideous thing. Over the years it was something I was always studying. So when I came up with the idea to write the book, it was a really good opportunity for me to purge out a lot of this useless knowledge that I had in a creative way.

Yeah. That was obviously a lot of the inspiration for the story itself, but how did you come up with the character and concept of the Whargoul creature?

I’ve always been a fan of fantasy stuff like Conan, the Elric and, of course, The Lord of the Rings. As I got older, I just devoured all that stuff – Roger Zelazny, Michael Moorcock, the more classic horror of H.P. Lovecraft. But one of the authors that really got me settled on this character was a guy named Barry Sadler who wrote a series of books about a character named Casca, who was the eternal warrior. He’s basically the Roman soldier that stabbed Christ with the spear to see if he was dead or not. So the books are about this guy, who is cursed forever and can never be killed. He has to fight in wars forever and the books are him appearing in war after war throughout eternity.

I was inspired by that kind of character and just mushed together a lot of different elements with the eternal warrior thing from the Casca books, as well as Michael Moorcock’s Eternal Champion, or even a movie like the Highlander. I wanted to have the completely sick eldritch horror of H.P. Lovecraft, but I wanted to have the goofy irreverence of something like Evil Dead 2. I guess Gwar was a big influence as well, especially the way the Oderus character had evolved over the years. I just wanted to take elements of all these different things I was interested in and come up with a cool character I could write about.

He came to be in our song off of Ragnarök. Whargoul’s first existence was in that song and I started writing the book shortly after that. I really didn’t know what the character was going to be or how he was going to turn out. I knew I didn’t want him to be a one-dimensionally evil creature. I wanted him to have a humanity to him and make that the conflict in the book. Once I had established those ground rules, the character kind of suggested itself. I had the whole chronology of his travels in my mind and it was just up to me how I wanted to present it.

The Whargoul character takes on many different forms throughout the book. Were there particular incarnations of the character that you enjoyed writing more than others?

I thought I would really like his time fighting with the German army the most, just because there’s a classic villain, they had the coolest tanks, the most wicked uniforms and the SS was probably the most evil, fucked-up military organization in history. I thought I would really enjoy that, and I did, but I actually ended up digging other aspects of his personality even more. I liked the way that his contemporary physicality was a big black dude living in a ruined urban kind of landscape because it had a real connection to what’s actually going on.

Most of this book was written pre-9/11, and it reflects that. It certainly is dated, but people seem to have forgiven that. I finished the book right before 2001 and it’s really funny that the apocalyptic act that kind of climaxes the book occurs in New York City. In a weird way, it kind of presaged a lot of this century’s carnage and I wanted the Whargoul to be like the first major new monster of the 21st century. Boy, the 21st century sure started with a bigger bang than anybody would have predicted in their most fucked-up nightmares.

I also really enjoyed the challenge of writing him when he was a female. There’s one scene where after he’s tortured to death by the Mossad agents and blown up along with his hooker girlfriend, he has to basically use her body to repair himself. He comes out this weird half man/half woman wolf-like creature. So that was different and really fun, especially when he became a member of the Iraqi army. Here you have this Whargoul thing that looks like a woman, but is trying to dress up like a man so he can be in the army, and he’s having sex with his subordinates and going to meet Saddam. As I writer it was so much fun to take that character to places like Saddam’s secret bunker or the weird tomb he went to go smoke hash in.

Each Gwar tour is like a new chapter in the Gwar mythos. What’s the latest chapter with this tour?

Oderus Urungus

It is the Return of the World Maggot Tour. If we’re going to call it the Return of the World Maggot, I really hope he actually does. I’m sure he will. As many of our fans will remember, the World Maggot was the focus of our Skulhedface movie, where we were trying to wake the World Maggot up with a glut of souls and he left the planet without taking Gwar with him. I guess there were two World Maggots and we’re going to see the hideous creature onstage every night and will be feeding as many hot chicks to it as possible. And we’ll have our usual collection of cybernetic assholes, violent large rubber monsters and, of course, a few celebrity victims to whom Gwar dispenses the rough justice that we are known and loved for. I’m pretty sure Casey Anthony will be there, not so sure if her dead kid will be. If something can be done in poor taste, but at the same time equally hilarious, I like to think that we’ll be the first to do it.

Do you think the Whargoul is a character Gwar might ever encounter in song or on stage?

I would love to do a Whargoul character and have him be in a Gwar song or do battle with him. The only thing that’s ever held me back from doing it is we’re traditionally terrible with pyrotechnics and it would be very important for the Whargoul to have a gun that fucking just blasts full auto a lot. We haven’t really incorporated him into the Gwar live universe yet, and certainly Whargoul hasn’t met Gwar yet, but in the crazy mythos that we’ve created, yeah, it’s very conceivable that such a thing could happen. And it could be really fucking super cool.

For more information, go to www.gwar.net or www.eraserheadpress.

Skid Row’s Rachel Bolan talks rocking, racing and wrestling

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Though the band’s most commercially successful years were in the late ’80s and early ’90s, when Sebastian Bach fronted the band on such hits as “18 and Life,” “Youth Gone Wild” and “Monkey Business,” Skid Row has continued to rock metal crowds across the country. Having toured with the likes of KISS, Mötley Crüe and Poison, the Bach-less Skid Row has taken a more hard rock approach since the addition of singer Johnny Solinger in 1999. As the main songwriter for Skid Row, bassist Rachel Bolan (alongside longtime guitarists Dave “The Snake” Sabo and Scotti Hill) has not only kept Skid Row from ending up on a metaphorical skid row, but he has also produced bands such as the now-defunct Luchagors (led by Amy “Lita” Dumas) and taken to the track for various kinds of auto racing. As the band prepares for some big upcoming shows such as October’s KISS Kruise and a homecoming of sorts for Atlanta-based Bolan and former Rockets to Ruin drummer Rob Hammersmith at Wild Bill’s, Bolan takes a moment to talk to Wrestling with Pop Culture.

Photo by Edel Puntonet

You were scheduled to perform at Wild Bill’s in June, but it was rescheduled to Sept. 16. Why was that show rescheduled?

We were doing a show and had just finished playing and the lights went down. As we were walking offstage, our guitar player Scotti was cutting behind the drum riser and I guess one of the local crew guys had put a small load case there. It was pitch black and he just fell over it and went to brace himself with his hand and nailed it on the corner of the drum riser and broke one of the metacarpals in his hand. So it was either play without him or reschedule, which we opted to do.

You’re not touring behind a new album, but will you be playing any new songs at this show?

We’re not playing new ones yet. We have been writing because we plan to get something out in 2012. We won’t be playing anything new at Wild Bill’s, but we have been pulling out some obscure songs that we haven’t played in a few years. So we’re looking forward to that.

Outside of performing in Skid Row, you’ve also done a bit of production work for other bands in the past few years. How did you get into that and what are some of the more recent projects you’ve worked on?

I’ve always loved producing. It’s a lot less stressful than actually being in the band and doing your own stuff because you still get to create and as long as you gain the trust of the artist or band you’re working with, it’s something I always really like to do. I did the Luchagors a while back, then Rockets to Ruin. I also produced the band Bigfoot, which will be playing with us at Wild Bill’s, and another local band called Ledfoot Messiah. Sometimes people just call me from the creative side just to get new ideas, so it’s always a lot of fun to do it.

When you’re not working on music, you’re also involved in auto racing. What type of racing do you do?

I race stock cars, Legends cars and my go-karts any chance I get. We’re gone on the weekends, so sometimes it’s difficult. But every now and then a friend of mine will call and want to get his car in a race and he might not be able to do it so I’ll go jump in the car and race it. That’s usually up in Charlotte. It’s something that I really love doing. I’m at the amateur level because I obviously can’t put in all the time that is needed. But I have so much fun and work out so much aggression when I’m out there.

I like racing my high performance go-kart on the clay oval, usually up in Commerce, Ga. I’ve raced in Minnesota quite a few times. A friend of mine and I built the kart and it goes about 60 miles an hour.

Photo by Fran Strine

I know you and your drummer live in Atlanta. Why did you originally relocate to Atlanta?

Snake lives out in L.A., Scotti’s in Florida and our singer Johnny is in Texas. I grew up in Jersey and lived there my whole life, so I wanted to move south. I was originally aiming at Charlotte, but ended up in Atlanta and it’s a cool town. I made a lot of friends pretty quickly, got to work with a lot of good bands, bought a house and stayed.

Your past few shows in the Atlanta area have been at Wild Bill’s in Duluth. Why has that become your go-to venue for Atlanta?

First of all, it draws a bigger crowd. Second of all, the people that live outside the Perimeter usually won’t come into the Perimeter while the people that live inside the Perimeter will go outside of it. It’s just such a cool venue and it still is predominantly a country venue with rock shows during the summer. There are so many rock fans out in that area and the surrounding areas. We know there are rock fans in the city, but who would have guessed there were so many in the surrounding areas? It just makes it easier for everyone and the fact that it’s such a great stage and venue, we really enjoy playing there.

Hard rock and professional wrestling seem to often go hand-in-hand. Aside from working with Lita’s band the Luchagors, has Skid Row ever been directly involved with wrestling?

Photo by Edel Puntonet

We haven’t, but Snake is a huge wrestling fan. We have a lot of friends who are in or used to be in professional wrestling. Actually, a buddy of mine is Marcus Laurinaitis and he just moved up this way and we get together whenever we can and grab a few beers. He was Fury years ago, but he has since retired. His brother is Road Warrior Animal.

Right. And his other brother, John Laurinaitis, has been on WWE TV a lot lately.

Yeah. I’ve met them all and they’re great guys. But Snake has been into wrestling since he was a little kid. He has such a vast knowledge of the sport, it’s crazy. He knows everything about American professional wrestling. We’ve had a lot of wrestlers come out to our shows. Back in the day, “Diamond” Dallas Page, the Nasty Boys, all those guys used to come out. And whenever we toured Japan we seemed to run into a bunch of guys over there. And they still do come out to shows.

Skid Row with Bigfoot and Dangerous New Machine. $7.50-$100. 9:15 p.m. Sept. 16. Wild Bill’s, Duluth, Ga. 678-473-1000, www.skidrow.com, www.wildbillsatlanta.com.

DJ Nemesis keeps the Dragon Dance going all night at Dragon*Con