King Diamond is grateful for many things – but few more so than the invention of theatrical blood.
The singer – who had a triple heart bypass in 2010 – recalls using stage props that were all too real in his early days and says he’d never use “pig guts” on stage again.
He tells Rolling Stone: “When I was in the band Black Rose, I had a friend that worked at a butchery who would get me pig heads that I would tie together. He would also bring pig guts and pig blood, and I would fill that into little plastic bag.
“I put it in a the stomach of a big doll onstage, and I would stab it. It looked so real. And I would stick my hand in and pull the guts out from the stomach and throw them into the audience. It was completely gross. I wouldn’t do that today. “You don’t need to use real, sticky pigs’ blood, which smells really bad, too. I would stand there with it in my hands and everything is sticky. Your hand became one with the microphone, it seemed. Eventually, you find out there is theatrical blood and it really doesn’t cost very much.”
He also revealed he and his band are working on a deeply personal new album for which he already has a title. He says: “We’ve done a lot of stuff. We are going in some new ways that are going to be amazing. I’ve been building a studio so I can do my vocals at home. Once it’s completed, we can start recording.
“I have a title for a new record, but I won’t say it. It will encompass the things I need to write about after what I went through. But I can’t say much about it because I haven’t talked to the rest of the band about it.”
