Photo by Tim Tronckoe.
With his bodybuilder physique, devilock hairstyle and ghoulish corpse makeup, Doyle Wolfgang von Frankenstein is perhaps the most imposing member of the legendary horror punk band the Misfits. Because of his onstage presence, Doyle continues to be an underground icon in pop culture with his own action figure, his own brand of hot sauce and an upcoming comic book from IDW Publishing. Though his brother Jerry Only was the one who actually competed in the ring for World Championship Wrestling and Dragon Con Wrestling, Doyle’s connection to the squared circle goes beyond the ring to his short-lived Gorgeous Frankenstein project with then-wife (and former Randy Savage valet) Gorgeous George. After a few tours with Danzig, where Glenn Danzig and Doyle reunited for short Misfits sets, Doyle released his first solo album Abominator last October. As he prepares for the Annihilate America Tour beginning Aug. 15, Doyle talks to Wrestling with Pop Culture about wrestling, music and the possibility of a proper Misfits reunion.
First of all, I’m looking forward to seeing you on this tour later this month.
At the Masquerade! The only two venues I know are the Masquerade and the Whiskey [a Go-Go].
Yeah. I’ve seen you perform numerous times at the Masquerade with the Misfits and Gorgeous Frankenstein.
It’s a great place.
I noticed some familiar names and faces in your band for this tour. Who all is in your band and how did they end up in this initial incarnation of the Doyle band?
My singer is from a band called Cancerslug. His name is Alex Story. He attended a tryout eight years ago and he was the only one I actually listened to. All the other ones were horrible. Our bass player’s name is Left Hand Graham and he plays with Graves. And Dr. Chud from the Misfits is on drums.
The Misfits had a brief stint in World Championship Wrestling in 1999 and your brother Jerry Only wrestled at Dragon Con the following year. How did you guys get into the wrestling business? Are you still involved in wrestling in any way?
I’m not involved with it any more. Vampiro wanted to use our intro. I thought we were going to play on the show, that’s what I was told. Next thing I know we’re walking out with the guy and he’s doing a match. They kept having us on for about two months. That was pretty much it. All I can tell you about wrestling is that it’s real. But I’m not really into wrestling.
That’s kind of surprising because you look the part. You’ve definitely maintained an impressive physique over the course of your career.
Yeah. It’s just a matter of taste I guess. I’m just not into it.
Abominator, your first album under the Doyle moniker, came out last October. How did this album come about and why did you decide to do a solo record?
I was writing for a while and I wrote a bunch of musical compositions, fully finished and arranged songs, recorded, drum programmed, the whole thing from start to finish with no vocals or vocal melodies. After I write the music I have a hard time writing the melody. When I listen to it, all I do is picture my hand playing that song. I thought of who do I know that’s a great writer and a great singer? Who could I work with? Who’d want to write with me? The first person that popped into my head was Alex. So I called him and, ironically enough, he was walking into a Danzig show in Houston. I said, “Do you want to write with me?” He was like, “Fuck yeah!” I said, “I’ve got 12 songs.” He said, “Send them all to me.” I sent him three. One of them was “Mark of the Beast” and he sent it back to me in two days just as it is in the record. It was exactly what I wanted and I couldn’t do it myself. I didn’t change any of his words or anything. I’d throw an idea at him if I heard something, which wasn’t that much. If he liked it he did it, if he didn’t [like it] he didn’t [do it]. I only wrote one word on the record and that was, “Abominator.” But I wrote all of the music – me and, on a couple of songs, a friend of mine named Lucas Banker, who is a record producer in Hollywood.
You’ve done some touring with Danzig performing the Misfits sets within his show. Is that why you’ve waited so long to do the Annihilate America Tour to support Abominator?
We did the Danzig tour, which finished in October. Then we had a tour set up with Gwar and three days before we announced the tour, unfortunately, my good friend Dave Brockie passed and it was canceled.
That would have been a great tour.
Yeah. It was going to be great. It’s just a shame to lose such a good person like that.
With the Misfits, Danzig and Gorgeous Frankenstein, you’ve always had an energetic live show with a certain amount of theatrics. What do you have planned for this tour? What can people expect from Doyle?
Just to fucking fuck shit up. That’s all I do. I don’t have anything else planned. I never plan anything different. It’s always the same.
So no elaborate stage show or anything? You’re just going out and playing hard?
Stage show? I’m broke, man. We just go out and play. With the Misfits it’s pretty much the same thing, just go out and play.
I recently came across a bottle of Doyle Wolfgang von Frankenstein’s Made in Hell hot sauce. Is this a recipe you came up with? How did your name and face end up on a bottle of hot sauce?
It’s a recipe from Halloween Hot Sauce. We got together, I put some special stuff I wanted in there, they worked on it for a while and it came out really good. I’m working on a hotter one right now. I just tried a sample the other day and oh, my God, it’s so hot! It’s called Abominator.
Your tour begins Aug. 15 and goes right into Halloween season. What do you have planned for Halloween this year?
Photo by Tim Tronckoe.
We might go to South American or Europe. I’m not sure what’s going on. We’re still figuring that out.
Do you have any plans to tour with Danzig again?
That’s totally up to him. I’m always open to it.
You seem to be caught in the middle of all the Misfits controversy between Danzig and Jerry. Is this stuff blown out of proportion or is there really that much discord between those two?
I would like to do a Misfits tour with Danzig and my brother. That would be great for the fans, it would be great for the three of us and it would be great for music in general. I think it would be really fun and I’m totally in. I’ve just to get those two guys to settle all their differences first and we’ll take it from there.
I can’t think of many other bands where all the most important people are still able to do a full-on reunion of some sort. I think the reaction for that would be enormous.
Exactly.
Do you try to stay out of all that or are you trying to facilitate making it happen?
No, man. I’m going to try to be the catalyst here to get that shit together. I talk to both of them, so I’ve just got to talk to my brother and talk to Glenn.