I've got two words to describe BOBBY STEELE: Punk Rock!! Not punk rock rude, but punk rock honest. Bobby has the tendency to tell it like it is & could care less if somebody likes it or not. While talking to Bobby I began to wonder why so many people have grown to show hostility towards the man. To me he came across as an extremely nice individual. I enjoyed the interview immensly. It was entertaining & was filled with much laughter. I hope that you enjoy it just a fraction of what I did. Read on....
CORNFLAKEOVERDOSE-How did you first get involved in punk rock?
BOBBY STEELE-Wow man, well I grew up ya know with like ALICE COOPER, and the NEW YORK DOLLS so I was always like into the stuff that was just kinda like in the fringes of extremes, and so it was just like out of curiosity basically. I started seeing articles about the RAMONES and the SEX PISTOLS, ya know and the kind of things they were doin'.I thought that sounds like something that might be worth checking out. And when I finally heard, I think it was, "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend", on the radio, and I was like: "This is fucking great shit man". Ya know it just kind of reminded me of like THE BEATLES and stuff like that from the early '60's. So from there I got my hands on a copy of "Anarchy In the UK" and as soon as I heard those opening chords, that "Right Now" and stuff, I was like completely hooked man.
COD-What do you dislike about punk today compared to how it was?
BS-The fact that it's not punk rock anymore. Your not allowed to offend anybody. Ya know what I mean, it's got to be politically correct. You can't refer to a girl as a bitch or a cunt. Just stupid crap like that, I mean you basically got a bunch of ya know, nazi hippies that always wish that they could of been like Adolf Hitler and control peoples minds and stuff. Telling you what you can and can't think ya know, and I don't play that. If I wanna use the word bitch or I wanna say cunt in my songs nobody's gonna censor my speech ya know. It's like your average "joe punk" these days seems to like be very much for free speech as long as its speech that they agree with.
COD-Yeah, I've noticed everything is very like animal friendly, very anti-....I don't know, I guess in a way it's kind of cool but it's not....the music is punk but the attitude is not.
BS-Yeah! It's more hippies, ya know it's more like that stuff like peace and love and animal rights and all this kind of crap, and they let people walk all over them. You know what I mean? It's like the old time punks don't put up with any bullshit.
COD-Plus I think it lacks a sense of humor too.
BS-That's the whole thing. There's no sense of humor. Punk was like, there was no sacred cows. Nowadays all of it's acceptable to the politically correct fascists to make fun of cripples. So I'm basically the only like, legitimate target in punk rock anymore. You can't make fun of nazis, you can't make fun of anything anymore because everybody is so sensitive and it's like, hey man fuck that shit. If you got a joke, you tell it. If it's gonna offend somebody, hey it's only a joke ya know. It's kinda like you got these rap bands using the word: "nigger", "nigger", "nigger", and it's like, people are offended by it, but all that they are doing is taking a word that used to be offensive, and using it to the point where it has no meaning anymore so it's no longer offensive. They're basically saying to the kkk's and the skinheads: "go ahead call me a nigger, I am a nigger, big deal". You know what I mean? Instead of saying: "oh you called me a nigger, that hurts". Ya know punk rock is supposed to be like, hey we can take a little bit of abuse. But now everybody is just crying about it, about every little thing.
COD-What was your very first band?
BS-My first band was called THE LIVING END. It was back in high school. It was me on a $25 guitar and a friend of mine on a toy drum set (laughter).
COD-That's fun though.
BS-It WAS fun, we drove my parents crazy. I had various other like high school bands. I was always more into doing originals than covers and stuff so I always had a hard time being accepted, especially like in the early 70's doing originals was like not the cool thing to do. So every once in a while we'd get like a gig in school and people basically would just come to heckle us because we were kind of like a pre-cursor to punk rock ya know. They couldn't handle it (laughs).
COD-How did you end up with the MISFITS?
BS-I just put an ad in a local music paper that I was a guitar player looking for a punk band with management and a record deal and Glenn called me back. At that point all I heard was Cough/Cool and I wasn't too keen on that record. I was kinda like well I don't know if I wanna really play with this band. I just kinda like took a gamble and said screw it I'm gonna go do the audition anyway. I did the audition and they'd just gotten the "Bullet" 45's in two days earlier and Glenn played that for me and I was like, now THATS cool. So I was just like 180% into it from that point on.
COD-How much did you contribute to the writing at that point?
BS-Glenn did all the writing.
COD-Really?
BS-Yeah. All this bullshit that Jerry's trying to spread around that he wrote the stuff and Glenn ripped him off, it's all bullshit. I mean, just listen to it. Listen to what he's putting outnow. Listen to Kryst the Conqueror.
COD-Well I was thinking the other day, I was under the impression that Glenn did most of the writing but when I hear DANZIG and then I hear the new MISFITS, it's almost like you would think that Jerry did.
BS-Well Jerry just kind of ripped off like....I mean if you really listen to that record it's just all of Glenn's old riffs ya know just turned around. I mean you can hear "Astro Zombies" and you can hear "Gouls Night Out"....he even took Glenn's titles ya know...."Walk Among Us", stuff like that and just like wrote songs around them.
COD-Yeah they definitely kept the horror movie theme.
BS-Yeah.
COD-There is something that I always wondered about. I had heard a rumor, something about on the Evil Live tape. There's some violence or something going on during "Horror Business" I think.
BS-Yeah, yeah!
COD-Well, I heard a rumor about someone being killed by a bass. Somebody getting hit in the head and dying from it.
BS-Nobody died at that show, but yeah, Jerry bashed the head in of one of my friends that night.
COD-So when he's yelling,(on the tape), I think it's Glenn, that was your friend he was yelling at?
BS-I think so. Some people say he was yelling at me but I don't think he was yelling at me. I think he was yelling at my friend. A short while after that my friend came up into the dressing room with like a bass tuning peg imbedded into his forehead.
COD-Dang. So nobody actually died at any of the shows?
BS-No but there was a show in San Francisco where a kid got like, permanent brain damage.
COD-From one of the band members?
BS-Yeah, Doyle hit him over the head with a guitar. What was really messed up was MRR joked about it in the interview, when they interviewed Jerry. They kind of like made a joke about it. They puyt Jerry Only on the cover of MRR and they're talking like their not corporate and stuff and they put a guy that like is responsible for permanently injuring a member of their scene.
COD-Who came up with the idea of using the Crimson Ghost for the trademark?
BS-Glenn. Yeah I think he was at like a garage sale or something like that and he found a picture of the Crimson Ghost. I remember him showing us the picture and going "check this out man". It was originally just gonna be used for like that one poster for a show but then we liked it so much we just kept using it.
COD-How about the "devilocks" and the scary horror image?
BS-That was one thing that Jerry created. Yeah, Herry came up with the devilock. It was kind of a mutual thing as far as the horror image, ya know just kind of like gradually progressed from being the more political like Who Killed Marilyn and stuff like that to the horror image.
COD-I heard a rumor, something about that last singer they had, Michael Graves I think his name was,(this was when Michael had left the band and Myke Hideous began singing for them) that he was under some kind of contract where he had to like work out so much and things like that.
BS-Yeah I don't konw if that's true or not but I've heard alot of wacky stories.
COD-What exactly did happen with you leaving the band?
BS-It was basically....I mean from everything that I've seen man, and it's been confirmed by some people that are close to Jerry, Jerry was always jealous of Glenn. Glenn was the brains. Glenn was the talent of the band. Jerry wanted to be the leader of the ban d really bad so, he would basically tell me that we weren't practicing when we really were and I wasn't showing up for band practice, and after a couple of weeks of that he convinced Glenn that ya know Bobby was being a fuck up so let's get rid of Bobby and put Doyle in, and once Doyle was in then Jerry put his foot down and was like "okay now it's my show and if you don't like it then me and my brother are gonna leave". That's why Glenn eventually was just like screw it and just like ended the whole thing because it wasn't the MISFITS anymore, it was some speed metal band.
COD-Do you get any of the royalties from any of the stuff that you did?
BS-Nope, never seen a penny. Just on the boxset alone, Jerry ripped me off about $200,000 so far.
COD-Do you and Glenn still talk? Do you guys get along?
BS-I haven't talked to Glenn since about 1985 or '86, but according to Steve Zing, Glenn said as soon as he like gets his stuff back in order, he's getting a new DANZIG album together, he's trying to do the SAMHAIN reunion thing. ONce he gets all that stuff squared away he said he'll give me a call so we can get together and try to stop Jerry from totally destroying the legacy.
COD-He's doing a SAMHAIN reunion?
BS-Um, I don't konw what's going to be happening with it, ya konw one day I here it's on and the next day I hear it's off so, I haven't talked to Steve since I've been back from the tour. We're kinda like hoping that it's still on cause then maybe THE UNDEAD can do some shows with them.
COD-That would be cool. What did you do right after leaving the MISFITS?
BS-Oh I started THE UNDEAD immediately. Yeah it was like I got kicked out of the MISFITS like the last week in October and by the first week in December I already had the band together.
COD-I've heard different things about THE UNDEAD, like one in particular that it's not just a band, it was you to start out with. What's the story on that?
BS-No no, it started out with me and Matt and Richie ????????? on drums. It was originally called THE SCABS. It was a band that I actually had before the MISFITS. So while I was in the MISFITS, days when the MISFITS weren't doing anything and I was kind of bored I would just get together with those guys and we'd go to Richie's house and just play some of the old songs. So when I got kicked out of the MISFITS I just like, made a phone call. Richie wasn't interested in really continuing too far at that point so we got Patrick ???????? and went on and Richie came back and did some of the drumming on Act Your Rage. But no it's always been a band, there was just a period of time when I had some shows booked and I didn't want to have to cancel them and I went out ya know and used the drum machine. Took alot of shit from fascist at Maximum Rock and Roll and stuff, which it's really ironic cause now they are praising some other guy for doing exactly the same thing I was doing like 8 years ago.
COD-ATOM & HIS PACKAGE?
BS-Right yeah! ATOM & HIS PACKAGE is a hero but BOBBY STEELE is like not punk, ya know what I mean? It was the "late great" Tim Yohannon. Tim Yohannon was probably like the closest thing to Adolf Hitler to ever hit America. He liked to control the minds of young kids. Here's a guy who's in like his late 40's early 50's, who was controlling the minds of alot of young kids, making ALOT of money off the thing. Preaching that money was evil while shoving it all in his pockets and defaming a disabled person just because he has a problem with cripples. Whether it's his sexual hang-up or something else I don't know, but he definitely has a real problem with people who are disabled because he'll do anything to spew hate against a disabled person. He's shown that with me and he's shown that with JELLO BIAFRA. So when I heard the news that he was dead I celebrated.
COD-What's the story behind that?
BS-If it wasn't for JELLO BIAFRA you wouldn't even know Tim Yohannon, just cause JELLO like helped him get MAXIMUM ROCK AND ROLL, some legitimacy in the beginning, and then when that incident happend at Gilman St. where JELLO got the shit kicked out of him and was pretty much crippled for a long time. All of a sudden Tim Yohannon was down on JELLO BIAFRA. So ya know, it's a pattern.
COD-What's your favorite horror movie?
BS-Whoah! Okay my all time favorite horror movie would be HUSH, HUSH SWEET CHARLOTTE.
COD-I've never even heard of that.
BS-It's a Bette Davis movie, and it came out like around 1961-62 and if you've ever seen any Bette Davis films she plays a total psycho. I can't remember who else is in the movie with her but that's like my #1 favorite one. Then my next favorite one is another really obscure movie called LADY IN A CAGE, which is being remade right now. It's like really really sick. My next favorite one would be HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL. Those are the movies that like gave me nightmares for like the first 20 years of my life (laughter). It was like after seeing HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL I refused to go in the basement for about 10 years.
COD-What are some of the bands that your into right now?
BS-Aw, wow that's the worst question to ask me. Got THE INDEPENDENTS. Trying to think who else I've been listening to, let me pop open my cd player and see what's in here right now, probably "Til Death" (laugh). Yeah I got "Til Death" in my cd player....let's see....I got CRADLE OF FILTH....Most of the stuff I listen to is like local bands that send me their demos cuz I can't afford to go and buy stuff.
COD-Some of that stuff is the best stuff you can get.
BS-It is man, I got like this band THE VLADIMIRS. They're from I think Columbus or Cinncinati, I know they're from Ohio. Here's another really cool one FELIX FRUMP which is a New Jersey band.
COD-Do you listen to any of the like Fat Wreck Chords pop stuff?
BS-Nah, they don't send it to me for free so I don't listen to 'em (laughs). Another really good one is THE BLAMED.
COD-THE BLAMED? They're a CHRISTian band.
BS-No. Not at all.
COD-I have some BLAMED. They're hardcore/punk and they're a CHRISTian band.
BS-This is a band from New York City. The guitar player played bass for THE UNDEAD for about a year.
COD-Oh okay.
BS-They do a killer version of THE DICTATORS' "New York, New York" with Ross the Boss on guitar. And also they do "Over the Rainbow". Yeah it's great. If ya ever get your hand on a copy of that man, check it out.
COD-How would you describe your sound, THE UNDEAD?
BS-Um that's a tough questio nman. How would I describe THE UNDEAD? Just loud pop music really.
COD-What's your favorite UNDEAD album?
BS-Til Death.
COD-Have you had generally a good reception to what your doing?
BS-Yeah so far, especially with the new one. Everybody that's heard it so far is raving about it.
COD-Yeah I've been hearing some thing about it.
BS-The funny thing about it is the last song on the album is this ballad that I just kinda like threw on there at the last minute and that's like the most popular song on the record. I thought for sure that I'd be getting alot of crap for putting a ballad on a punk record but so far everybody's like "man that's my favorite song man".
COD-Good thing you put it on then.
BS-Yeah.
COD-Got any hobbies?
BS-Um, I don't have time for hobbies (laughter). I guess my hobby is sleeping.
COD-What do you think the most embarrassing way to die would be?
BS-The most emabarrassing way to die? Wow let's see.......this is a good question man, I like this one.......wiht shit in your underwear. (laughter)
COD-Okay. Is there any music that your not into? (I guess I stumbled on my words here because the question I MEANT to ask was: Is there any other music that your really into)
BS-I'm not really into Ska. I'm not into ska, I'm not into all that electronica stuff. Basically if it's not rock and roll I'm not into it. I like the screaming guitars and the drums and the bass like roaring in your face.
COD-What's the funniest or strangest thing that has ever happened to you while you were on tour?
BS-Oh wow, your asking the tough questions here man. I think the funniest thing was when I was on this last tour, yeah this is a really good one. Will from THE INDEPENDENTS was playing bass for me and we were outside this Chinese restaurant at this small town in Florida that we really were going to be playing at. And this car pulled up and there were like these two rednecks in the front seat, ya know, beards, toothless and all that kinda stuff and they asked Will: "What's going on here tonight?". So he figured "ah, it's just a couple of rednecks", so he was like: "Oh man, a couple of bands are playing and...." and they were like "they drinking?" and he goes: "Oh yeah we got free beer and ...." ya know he was totally bullshittin' like that and they pulled away and as they were pulling out of the parking lot he looks and in the back seat some kid turns around and like, looks, and he's got an UNDEAD t-shirt . So it was obviously his Mother and Father (laughter) who were taking him to the show and they wanted to make sure that there wasn't gonna be any drugs or alcohol, and Will didn't see the kid at first.
COD-So his night got ruined.
BS-Yeah he (Will) came to me and was like so embarrassing. He was like Bobby man, I'm really sorry man but, and he told me the story and I was just....couldn't stop laughing.
COD-Have you been touring lately in support of the latest album?
BS-Pretty much. Not as much as I'd like to. I've only toured two weeks out of this year but I toured like three weeks at the end of last year and working with THE INDEPENDENTS has been like the best thing that's ever happened to me cause these guys are like very reliable on the road. They know what's got to be done. They're real professionals about everything. It's been working out really good with those guyts. So hopefully I'll be doing alot more.
COD-How about religious beliefs. do you have any?
BS-Oh yeah! I believe in God, I believe in Jesus, I just don't believe in religions.
COD-That's great! Yeah that's another thing, we were talking about little trendy things are in the punk scene now. One of them is totally anti-God.
BS-Yeah, it's stupid, it's stupid man. It's like what did God ever do to you (laughs). And I've had so many experiences in my life that nobody could ever tell me that there ain't no God.
COD-Yeah, that's how I feel.
BS-I mean I've had little experiences............. and angel saved my life one time.
COD-Really?
BS-Yeah. You've probably heard like part of the story. When I fell between the cars of a moving subway train in New York. This was back about 1980, I was still in the MISFITS and I had a really bad accident in the subway and I ended up falling between cars of a moving train and there was no way I was gonna get out of it. I was llike practically under the wheels. I saw my whole life go by and I accepted the fact that there was no way out and all of a sudden somebody grabbed me and pulled me back out and put me down on the platform and when I turned around there was this guy standing there looking at me with like a real blank stoned expression on his face. And I asked him who he was and he just kind of like put his hand up like telling me to stop and he just like stepped back and vanished.
COD-Wow!
BS-And since then I've heard alot fo reports of the same person fitting the exact same description saving peoples lives and stuff. So I'm pretty sure ya know that....it sure as hell wasn't the devil.
COD-Have you ever thought about writing a song about it or have you already?
BS-No I've never written a song about it. It would be a tough one, but yeah one of these days I'll probably write something about it.
COD-Yeah that's a cool story.
BS-Yeah it was a pretty spooky experience.
COD-How about political idealogies?
BS-I don't trust politicians. They're all the same, liberals, conservatives. If anything I'm more of a conservative, but I believe being conservative is more of like being someone that goes by the constitution, ya know conserving the constitution. That's what I think of when I think conservative, not somebody who's trying to change the constitution. I have no respect for liberals because liberals claim to care about poor underprivileged people such as myself, but when you come and ask them for help all they want to do is line their pockets with the money that's supposed to be going to help the poor ya know. So fuck them all. Now alot of people in New York City want me to run for mayor (laughter).
COD-Uh-Oh!
BS-Yeah.
COD-What's your favorite cartoon?
BS-Pinky and the Brain is my favorite cartoon.
COD-You ever watch the Tick?
BS-Oh man, the Tick yeah. I didn't like the cartoon as much as I liked the old comic books. I used to like read the Tick yers ago, I've got all the original comics and stuff. I was really excited when the cartoon came out but then it just kinda like....it wasn't as corny as the comic book was (The conversation now turns to how awesome the Tick is. Bobby also fills me in on the history of the Tick making me feel like an inadequate Tick fan).
COD-What's the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to you?
BS-Oh man here's a good one! Okay, this happened about two weeks ago. There was this girl that I had met a couple of years ago, really cute girl. And I wanted to find a reason to like taker her out somewhere. Being a musician and being broke all the time it's kinda hard to like make dates with girls cause you gotta pay for things. So I was waiting for a time when I could get on a guest list for a cool show that she would be into going to. So the INDEPENDENTS were playing at this big club opening for Sebastian Bach. So I got in touch with her and I was like "hey there's a show tomorrow night, do you wanna go?" and she was like "yeah, sure". So the night of the show comes, I'm all ready. I"ve got latex pants on. You ever seen latex? It's like your wearing a black condom for pants. Tears really easily so you've got to be really careful but it looks really cool. So we're at the club and we're hanging out in the dressing room we're having a few drinks and we go out on the floor, we're talking and I gotta piss now. I had a couple of beers, so I go and I piss and I'm shoving my dick back into my pants and I rip the entire front of the pants, okay (laughter). So here I am naked to the world right, so I take one of my belts and I kind of shift it down over my dick and I walk back down and I'm like what am I gonna do? I'm not gonna leave now so I just like walk out there and I'm like your not gonna believe what happened and she's like "what?", and I just showed her (tons of laughter). And here I am, I'm hanging with Sebastian Bach, Ace Frehley, Joey Ramone and teh entire front of my pants are gone (more laughing).
COD-Oh man, that's a good one!
BS-Yeah you can't top that one. At the end of the night the girl said: "Will I get to see you more?" and I was like : "Didn't you see enough?" (laughter) I was supposed to go out with her last night but the club I was supposed to meet her at wouldn't let me in.
COD-Well that's about it. Got any final words?
BS-Buy the new record. I won't get paid for it but buy it anyway.