Lacuna Coil vocalist Cristina Scabbia once had so many stalkers that the FBI needed to keep an eye on her.
Talking in the new issue of Metal Hammer, the singer reflects on the highs and lows of making it into metal’s mainstream during the 2000s. One of the unfortunate side-effects of such success was a contingent of over-passionate fans who stalked her and sent her threatening photographs.
Scabbia starts by remembering one fan who gave her his wedding ring. “That was to tell me he had ended a toxic relationship,” she says, “and to thank me for somehow saving him from something bad with my voice.
“That was peculiar, but I did have actual stalkers that were potentially dangerous and would follow me around. I remember them sending me weird pictures of me covered in blood or sending me pictures of a foetus.”
It eventually became so intense that the singer reported the incidents to the authorities. As a result, on Lacuna Coil’s following tour of North America, Scabbia had an FBI agent checking in on her everywhere the band played.
“I reported it, and for one complete tour I had an FBI agent in every town checking on me,” she continues. “It was not only disturbing, it was also boring for me because I had to be confined on a tour bus every day.”
It wasn’t all bad, however. In the same interview, Scabbia admits that she enjoyed appearing in many contemporary magazines’ lists of the “hottest women in metal”, a practice that’s since become outdated and decried by many as sexist.
“I don’t see the negativity [in those lists] at all,” Scabbia argues. “I know a lot of people are against this because they see it as sexism, but I thought it was just a way to say ‘beautiful’. I didn’t see it as something that objectified me.”
Scabbia also spoke on the topic of “hottest women in metal” lists during a conversation with Hammer in 2022. Back then, she said that being included on such a list can be “empowering” if the subject is “in complete control” of how she is presented.
However, she added: “I hate when the image of a woman is completely sexualised, especially if there is talent behind her […] Put it this way: in the music world, if being sexy is the only thing that you have to offer, that’s kind of sad.”
Lacuna Coil release their 10th studio album, Sleepless Empire, on Friday, February 14. The band’s first album of new material since Black Anima in 2019, it was awarded a glowing four stars in Hammer’s review.
Journalist Holly Wright wrote: “With Sleepless Empire, Lacuna Coil dive headfirst into their heavier side – and it works. This is a band that’s unafraid to evolve, to experiment and to hit hard. Gothic metal’s crown isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.”
Read the full interview with Scabbia in the new Hammer. The issue features Canadian metal giants Spiritbox on the cover and gets all the insider info on new album Tsunami Sea, as well as exploring how Limp Bizkit made the comeback of the century in the 2020s. Order your copy now and get it delivered directly to your door.
