Glenn Danzig is the founder of the Misfits, Samhain, and Danzig. He continues to be a huge influence in modern music (everyone from AFI and Himsa to My Chemical Romance have him to thank). Last year, Schoolyard Heroes bassist Jonah Bergman interviewed Andrew W.K. Since Jonah did such a great job, and because he's been heard making statements like "I've modeled my entire musical identity after Danzig," I decided to bring him back as the interviewer, but this time put him on the phone with Danzig. —Megan Seling

Hi, is this Glenn?

Yeah.

My name is Jonah. I have no journalistic background as far as interviewing is concerned.

That could be good! [Laughs.]

Let's start with your new record, Black Aria II. You've got a dark symphony goin' on, a lot of Eastern musical arrangements. How do you feel this fits in with the modern musical landscape?

I don't know that I really care whether it fits or not. How I actually started, and why I called the Misfits the Misfits, I always felt that I just never fit into the nine-to-five mutant world. I realized, especially after taking my music around to different labels and having them tell me how much it sucked, that I just had to make my own place in music.

I love that you've never given a fuck.

Oh, I don't! If I wanted to keep having hits and be playing big arenas, I would've just kept rewriting "Mother" over and over again, you know?

You are currently working on a script for a movie, Ge Rouge is it?

Yeah, actually I'm working on three scripts right now. I'm working on the Ge Rouge one, I'm also working on a serial-killer script.

How do you feel about doing the music for your own movies?

When I was finishing up Black Aria I started working on the Ge Rouge soundtrack, which is moody drums and creepy noises and shit like that. But the serial-killer movie, if I do a soundtrack, there's going to be a lot of '70s stuff. It's about a serial killer that never got caught back East; he or she killed the people in a very unique way. It's pretty creepy. But that'll be a '70s period piece so everybody will be dressed in dorky '70s clothes and the music will be like '70s music—probably a lot of early punk.

Speaking of early punk, I just saw American Hardcore the other day.

It's bullshit.

Where the fuck were the fuckin' Misfits?!

Well, a lot of people wouldn't be involved with the movie, so you know, it is what it is. It's a very slanted view.

I heard you were asked to be Wolverine for X-Men. Is that true?

Yeah, it's true.

Why the fuck weren't you Wolverine? You're the perfect Wolverine!

It's all a matter of scheduling. Over the years I met with them twice, maybe more. This last time, though, when they were really serious about getting the movie done, I was getting ready to go to Europe for Satan's Child. I hadn't toured in probably almost three years and basically I just said, "Look, even if I get this, I can't do it."

Everything I read tells me more and more about how you're bummed on touring.

I love being onstage. It's the other 20 hours of the day that I hate. I could be home doing stuff. When you're younger it doesn't really bug you so much, but eventually you start sittin' there thinking, "Wow, I'm sitting here doing nothing. I'm stuck on this bus, I can't do all the stuff I want to do!" It's almost like I'm wasting my life away waiting for those two hours to be onstage, you know?

So between touring and working on songs and scripts, what does Glenn Danzig do in his spare time? What's the perfect day for Glenn Danzig?

[Laughs.] A perfect day is yesterday. I got my mail and there was a big package with, like, 30 true-crime mags from the '70s. That's my perfect day! So basically I could sit there and look at these old, little, crazy, un–politically correct true-crime mags. Or it could be horror mags. If that shows up in mailbox, you know, that's fucking... that makes my day.