Ah, gather 'round, my son, and I shall tell you a tale. A tale that began this past December at the famed Birch Hill Nightclub in New Jersey, home of the Misfits...
Was quite cold out, people standing on line around the building for hours waiting to get in. The place was packed tight, and I was right in front of the stage. When the latest version of The Misfits (Jerry, Marky Ramone, and Dez Cadena from Black Flag) came out, the place went nuts. They played tons of older stuff, Danzig-era, and a few off of American Psycho, and a lot of old Ramones songs. They also played their cover of "Day the Earth Caught Fire", a song by Japanese horror-rock band Balzac, and finished with a Christmas song that I missed the name of but I think it'llbe on their new album which comes out at the end of July.
At one point during the show I turned to the guy next to me and was like "If I shook Jerry's hand, I swear that'd be so awesome". Well, at the end of the show, Jerry came off the stage and jumped up on the metal guardrail, stood there in the "Jesus pose", then reached out and grabbed MY hand first out of all the people clawing at him. Then he stepped down, took out a Sharpie and just started signing aurographs for everyone. EVERYONE. Every person there who wanted an autograph, or a photo, got one. At one point early on people got kinda pushy, as people often do, and Jerry's like "Hey, relax, you guys are my home crowd, I aint leavin' til you're all taken care of."
He even let me and Mary hang out with him and talk to him while he signed for people. He explained the Devilock hairstyle ("Lotta hairspray, man, lotta hairspray"), how often he works out ("Every day, if I can help it." You don't realize it until you stand next to him how HUGE Jerry Only is), and we even talked about wrestling a bit. He said they had fun in WCW but that he hasn't been following it lately, and that he and Vampiro don't get along anymore.
I had to ask him why MicHale Graves isn't in the band anymore, and surprisingly he was very open about it. "Mike's a good kid, he's a great singer, but he has a lot of growing up to do, and he needs to do it on his time, not mine. I can't be postponing the start of a tour because my singer didn't bother showing up opening night. It's my band, it's my way or no way." I can understand that. He did speak very highly of Mike in general, though.
I also asked him who the "permanent singer" would be, and he did say something very interesting: "Me or Glenn, nobody else. If Glenn wants to do it, the door's open. I don't think so, but never say never, you know?"
Apparently Doyle is taking time out to be with his family, as his wife recently had a baby girl, but he will be back soon supposedly.
Dez Cadena was a cool guy as well. Mary yelled out "you're hot!" as he walked by, so Jerry grabbed him and gave him a hug and was like "C'mere cutie." All in all they seemed like they were all in good spirits, like they all got along well and were having fun being The Misfits. I think Marky was sick, he only came out and mingled briefly. Jerry had just gotten over a ten-day bout of strep throat, so it's possible.
Mary also kept slapping Jerry's ass. He didn't seem to mind. She just explained she has a thing for hugely-muscled guys in spandex.
He had someone take his picture with us and the kid was supposed to mail it to us but he never did.
All in all it was a great experience. I became a bigger Misfits fan after meeting them (and I was already a huge fan) just because Jerry is one of the legitimately nicest people I've ever had the pleasure to meet, and he genuinely cares about the fans.