Wednesday 13 is no stranger to interrogation, his solo acoustic shows often turn into Q&A sessions with some songs dropped in, but not everybody is lucky enough to make it down to these nights… which is where we come in! We put a call out on the Metal Hammer Facebook asking for your questions, and after sifting through the 100+ replies, we gave Wednesday a call to hold him to account. Well, we talked about his cat and Star Wars. And Murderdolls, obviously.
Chris Rousell asks:
If you could go back to any gig and relive it which one would it be and why?
“Wow. I dunno, I’ve done a bunch of cool gigs. We played a lot of cool shows with Alice Cooper. Back in 2005 was the first time we went on tour with him, we played Halloween night with him in California and he called us out onstage at the end of the show – I was just like ‘This is the coolest thing ever, Alice just invited us out on stage!’ At that point I felt like I’d made it, my goal as a kid was to one day play a show with Alice Cooper, and he invites us out on stage.”
Katlyn Morningstar asks:
Do you ever miss playing as Frankenstein Drag Queens From Planet 13?
“No, not at all. It was a lot of fun doing that band, looking back on it I’m super proud of what we did, but that band was me in my early-20s, that’s where my brain was at the time. The idea of doing that at 40-years-old – wearing pink dresses, wigs and platform shoes – is kinda off my radar now.”
Karen Acteson asks:
In the event of the zombie apocalypse happening, do you have your own plan on how to survive it?
“Yes, I’m going to eat myself. Everyone will be like ‘Whoa, what’s that guy doing?’ Fuck it, I’m eating myself. I’m going first, I’ve got first dibs on myself. Eating myself alive, I’ll get cool points for that alone.”
Max Potter asks:
Do you have a favourite song on the new record?
“I’m not sure, every week it changes, but the last track Death Infinity wasn’t really meant to be a song, but it turned into one. It was one of the first songs I wrote for the record and I always end up playing it on my acoustic guitar in my apartment, and my cat makes some crazy noises. If my cat agrees with it, then it’s probably that one. That song and the title track were the first two I wrote for the record, and each time I play them, she starts making this wreeeh-eeh-eeh noise.”
Kimberly Morrison asks:
What is the hardest part of being on tour?
“Filling up the boredom of all the waiting around. Being on tour all day turns into a job because you’ve got a schedule, but you’ve also got these hours of waiting around with time to kill, so it’s just about occupying your time so you don’t go insane – especially when you spend that much time on the road. I love being on the road, so if I do have any down time it’s filled with something that isn’t dangerous like I used to do most of the time. I turned 40 so I’ve been taking old man naps lately, but I’m raising hell in my dreams.”
Sharon Williams asks:
If you could swap places with someone for a day who would you choose and why?
“Probably professional wrestler, 16-time world champion, Ric Flair. I’d like to switch with him, he’s a famous wrestler from North Carolina where I’m from, and just seeing how that guy is treated like royalty there – he’s got his own lottery ticket! If I could live one day in his shoes I would do that.”
Niki Munster asks:
Who are your top five favourite wrestlers of all time?
“If I picked a top five, Ric Flair would be number one. I also like the tag-team The Rock N’ Roll Express, which we’ll count as one, The Road Warriors as number three, Dusty Rhodes as number four… I was a big fan of Ultimate Warrior, too. That dude was terrifying, so he’d be my number five.”
Alicia Buttons Trejo asks:
If you could collaborate with any other artist, who would it be?
“I’m such a huge fan of the band Killing Joke, I’d love to work with the front guy Jaz Coleman but I’d be terrified. Musically I think the guy’s a genius, but in my spare time I’d love to know what’s going on in that guy’s head – tell us what we don’t know! I met him once at a Killing Joke show in Los Angeles, he looked at me and knocked my hat off my head, and he goes ‘Take that ridiculous thing off when you’re talking to me,’ and I was like ‘Yes sir!’ Ha ha.”
- Wednesday 13's Guide To Life
- The History Of Goth In 30 Records
- Wednesday 13 to release Condolences in June
- Read Classic Rock, Metal Hammer & Prog for free with TeamRock+
Aaron Gover asks:
If you could have a cameo in any horror film, old or new what would you pick?
“I wouldn’t mind making a cameo in Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 1 and Part 2, those are my two favourite movies. They have silly characters and I think I could fit in their somewhere as a little cameo, definitely in Part 2. I’d like to walk in and say two words like ‘Howdy man!’ then I get hit on the head with a chainsaw.”
Patrick Nooner asks:
What is your favourite memory with Joey during your entire time making music with him?
“Too many to name, we did a lot of cool shit in that short time on both tours. I remember us getting the comeback award at the Revolver Awards in 2011, and we didn’t know we were getting an award, we were just going out to introduce the original line-up of Alice Cooper and we were so excited. It was my first time introducing somebody at an awards show, then the stagehand walks up and says ‘Okay guys, when David Coverdale introduces you to get your award, you introduce Alice Cooper,’ and were both like ‘Whaaaat? We’re getting an award? Holy shit.’ It was a pretty cool moment that neither of us knew anything about, but was a really proud moment. We got our award then were able to introduce the original Alice Cooper band for the first time in 40 years.”
Damien Dame Benton asks:
What, in your opinion, is your weakest album and why?
“To me, Calling All Corpses is my weakest album, and it’s only weak in my mind because I wasn’t focussed where I should have been. Calling All Corpses was recorded a few months after Murderdolls got off tour on the last record and that was a pretty crazy year, everything I’d been going through with the divorce and moving across the country, then a few months before recording we were in the earthquake in Japan which really fucked with my head. Writing and recording was something I wanted to do really quick and I don’t really remember it. I like it, but I wasn’t all the way there, I had all this shit going through my head. I don’t hate it, it’s just my least favourite.”
Shannon Snavely asks:
Who is your favourite Star Wars character?
“Han Solo without a doubt. He’s just the coolest, he’s the rock ‘n’ roller dude. If I could be any character I’d want to be him, if not I’d be Darth Vader. Can you imagine being Harrison Ford and waking up every day knowing that you’re Han Solo and Indiana Jones? That guy is cool as hell.”
Gustavo Silveira asks:
Are they any plans for another live DVD anytime soon?
“We have a live DVD that we’re 99.9% finished with, we’re just correcting a couple of things on it. I think it’s something you’ll see at our live shows, it may not be a national release. It’s a DVD called South Of Hell: 666 Days On The Road, it’s basically one of our crew who filmed everything we did backstage/onstage for the past six years and it’s a compilation of mainly backstage stuff. There’s a few live songs in there, too. If you like the silly Vines we do, it’s a two-hour DVD of that – you get to see exactly what goes on. There’s one part where we’re all sitting around with hours to kill and I just start screaming out of boredom.”
**Emily Jane Garthwaite asks:
Which do you prefer and why: the acoustic shows or the full band shows? **
“Full band shows, without a doubt. That’s the comfort zone, that’s natural. The acoustic thing is terrifying but it’s rewarding at the end of the day. I get something out of the acoustic thing, it’s like a live meet-and-greet. We’d do a year touring with the full band and our shows are so jam-packed we don’t stop or talk to the crowd, so at the acoustic shows it’s two and a half hours where I’m wide open – I’ll talk to everybody, I take questions from the audience. It’s a whole different thing that constantly reconnects me with the fans. But it is nerve-wracking, we played to 400 people in London, and it’s terrifying because there’s nothing to hide behind.”
Marian Ramone asks:
What do you do to relax?
“On tour, we’ve got such a chill band and crew now, I feel like the craziest person is me. What we’ve been doing lately is watch Family Feud, that’s been our thing, and we’re so addicted to it, we watch and play along as a group, then we’ll go home and text each other like ‘What are you doing?’ ‘Watching the Feud.’ That’s my relaxing thing, kick back and watch Family Feud with my cat or the band if I’m on tour.”
Too Many People To Count ask:
What’s going on with a Murderdolls reunion?
“Murderdolls at the moment is the same as it’s been since 2011, there hasn’t been any conversation between Joey and I. I just tell everybody, from what I hear through the grapevine, Joey is possibly interested in doing Murderdolls again at some point and if it does happen then it will probably be in 2019 because this year and next year I’m going to be touring non-stop, I’ve got my year pretty much booked, so there’s no way it could possibly happen. But I think the idea of us doing something in future and doing shows would be a great idea, I don’t see why we couldn’t.
“In my mind, if we did anything it would be a couple of shows or some festivals or something first. To be honest, we didn’t really get to tour on either one of those records, it was just so quick. Seeing Murderdolls was like saying you saw Bigfoot! I would love to have Murderdolls be something I do on the side of doing Wednesday 13 here and there, and Joey has his own projects that keep him happy, but why not do it on the side? At this point I’m doing three months of acoustic shows but that could have been three months of Murderdolls shows. If there’s downtime between us in our schedules and we can work it out, I’m sure it’s going to happen, but it’s not going to happen any time this year or anything like that. It took eight years for the last one, so 2019 will be another eight years – every eight years we decided to get back together. If I had to predict, I’d say 2019 we’d talk about doing some shows.”
Wednesday 13’s new album Condolences is out June 2, via Nuclear Blast.
