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This article is about the band. For other meanings of wasp, see Wasp (disambiguation).

W.A.S.P.
Background information
Origin	California, USA
Genre(s)	Heavy metal
Years active	1982 - present
Label(s)	Demolition Records
Members
Blackie Lawless Doug Blair Mike Duda Mike Dupke
Former members
Glenn Soderling Stet Howland Tony Richards Johnny Rod Frankie Banali Chris Holmes Randy Piper Steve Riley Bob Kulick Patrick Johansson Darrell Roberts Don Costa

W.A.S.P. is an American heavy metal band formed in 1982 and had continued success in the 1980s. The band gained notoriety for its shock rock themed image, lyrics and live performances.

The band continues to write and perform today, though Lawless remains the only member from the original line-up. They plan on releasing a new album in 2007 entitled "Dominator".

Contents 1 History 2 Current Band Members 3 Former Band Members 3.1 Guest Members 4 Trivia 5 Discography 5.1 Studio albums 5.2 Live albums 5.3 Compilations 6 References 7 External links

The band, formed in Los Angeles, California, initially consisted of Blackie Lawless, Rik Fox, Randy Piper and Tony Richards. The band became famous for its raunchy and at times shocking live shows; Lawless was known to tie semi-naked models to a torture rack and hurl raw meat into the audience. The band's debut single, entitled Animal (Fuck Like A Beast), and its cover were equally controversial.

The first lineup didn't last for long, as Rik Fox left the band to join the band Steeler with (then unknown) vocalist Ron Keel and guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen. He was replaced by Don Costa. Shortly afterwards, Don Costa also left the band and his position on the bass was filled by Lawless. At the same time, guitarist Chris Holmes joined the band.

W.A.S.P. signed to Capitol Records for their debut album, W.A.S.P., released on August 17, 1984. The debut was at one time planned for release under the name "Winged Assassins". The idea was obviously forgotten though. The band's first single Animal (FUCK Like A Beast) was omitted from the album in the United States to prevent the album from being banned from major chain stores.

"L.O.V.E. Machine" and "I Wanna Be Somebody" helped the album sell well, and set the band up for "Blind in Texas", a song written in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, by Blackie Lawless. The song was released on the next album The Last Command on November 9, 1985. The Last Command is still W.A.S.P.'s highest charting album, peaking at #47 on the Billboard album chart. "Blind In Texas" is still perhaps their best known song, more than 20 years later. The Last Command Album was also the first album with new drummer Steve Riley. The former Keel drummer replaced Tony Richards at the beginning of the 84-85 tour.

After The Last Command tour, guitarist Randy Piper quit the band. He auditioned for a spot in Alice Cooper's band and was accepted, but, according to Piper himself, left in a few weeks because Kane Roberts was going to be the lead guitarist, and Piper was not content with staying in the background once again. Former King Kobra bassist Johnny Rod joined the band as Blackie went back to rhythm guitar. With the changes made, they recorded their 3rd album called Inside the Electric Circus. It was released on November 8, 1986. The album was a big hit with W.A.S.P. fans. Critics of the other hand dismissed it as "7th grader rock". Songs like "Shoot from the Hip", "9.5.-N.A.S.T.Y." might have helped the band earn the reputation to match one of the possible meanings of the infamous band name, i.e. "We Are Sexual Perverts" - an idea that had been around since 1984.

W.A.S.P. became a very prominent target of the Parents Music Resource Center, an organization led by Tipper Gore and dedicated to opposing music with lyrics deemed violent or sexual. This lowered the band's reputation to such a degree that concert halls were getting bomb threats, band members were getting written death threats by the hundreds, and singer Blackie Lawless was shot at twice (though not hit). Ironically, the publicity this controversy generated ultimately improved album sales.

'A tired record by a tired band', as Blackie calls it, spawned a minor hit single "95-N.A.S.T.Y.". It was a critical review of this single that convinced Lawless of the necessity to take some time off and reconsider the band's creative direction.

In 1987 W.A.S.P. had their song "Scream Until You Like It" on the movie Ghoulies 2. The same year a few dates during the Inside The Electric Circus tour were recorded. On November 27 1987, the Long Beach arena concert was released as the Live... In The Raw album. Unfortunately by this time Steve Riley left W.A.S.P. to join L.A. Guns, a band that had just recorded their debut album L.A. Guns with drummer Nikki Alexander who quit just after the recording of the debut LP, this is when Riley stepped in.

W.A.S.P.'s fifth album, The Headless Children, was released on April 15 1989. This was their first album without any sexually explicit songs and also the first one that sold rather poorly. It reached #48 on the Billboard 200, but quickly fell off the charts. However, it was critically acclaimed to be W.A.S.P.'s best work at the time, and according to a recent Lawless interview, it is now actually the biggest selling W.A.S.P. album. The drumming duties for the album were handled by former Quiet Riot drummer Frankie Banali.

Chris Holmes left in August 1989, stating that he wanted to 'have fun, you know,' to which Lawless responded with a caustic remark about the fact that 'some guys want to stay at home and wear aprons,' hinting at the nature of Chris Holmes' relationship with his newly acquired wife Lita Ford. The band effectively disbanded a few months later with Blackie Lawless embarking on a solo career. Lawless was originally slated to play T-1000 in the Terminator 2: Judgment Day movie, but was later replaced by Robert Patrick after Arnold Schwarzenegger deemed Lawless 'too tall'. Blackie commenced work on a solo project, but under pressure from both promoters and fans had to release it as a W.A.S.P. album. Ironically, many critics feel that this album, The Crimson Idol, has been the best W.A.S.P. output so far.

The follow up to The Crimson Idol was Still Not Black Enough, a collection of dark introspective tunes that extended the Crimson Idol mythology (but this time, without Lawless 'hiding behind' Jonathan Steele, as he stated in the liner notes) as well as included cover songs as 'bonus tracks'. The initial European edition included a different track listing from the American and a subsequent American re-issue featured yet a different track listing. No version to date includes all the various tracks on one disc.

Chris Holmes returned to W.A.S.P. in 1996 and together they released K.F.D. (1997) and Helldorado (1999). They also recorded two live albums from these two tours, Double Live Assassins and The Sting, respectively. The Sting CD and DVD were taken directly from the experimental webcast. Apparently Blackie had no control over this release and was unhappy with the results with their poor sound and picture quality.

The band continued with Unholy Terror in 2001. Chris Holmes left the band again in 2002, citing that he wanted to 'play the blues'. He hooked up with fellow ex-W.A.S.P. member Randy Piper's band Animal, but fell out soon. It's interesting to note that Holmes has claimed he never played on 'Unholy Terror'.

Dying for the World, released in 2002, was written and recorded in less than a year which is very fast by Lawless' perfectionist standards. Its liner notes feature one of Lawless' strongest statements about political correctness, inspired by the 9-11 terrorist attacks.

In April 2004, W.A.S.P. released the first part of The Neon God, subtitled The Rise , a conceptual album about an abused and orphaned boy who finds that he has the ability to read and manipulate people. The second part, The Demise, was released in September 2004.

In 2005, W.A.S.P. headlined American Metal Blast. A video shoot of a promo for the 'Never Say Die' track was planned with Ward Boult, a fetish photographer, as director, yet to this day there's no news as to whether the shootings resulted in anything. It would have been the first W.A.S.P. promo video in ten years, since the 1995 'Black Forever'.

Early 2006 saw the seemingly stable lineup fall apart. Stet Howland left first on amicable terms, promising more specific information about the reasons for the split to be posted on his website. Larry Howe of Vicious Rumours was considered as a replacement, yet in May the departure of Darrell Roberts hit the band, and as the new guitar player Mark Zavon was announced several days before the first tour date, the same press release confirmed Mike Dupke and not Howe as the new drummer. Still, two days later Zavon was out of the picture as well, seeing Doug Blair step in once again.

A new album, Dominator was planned for release October 2006, according to a statement made by Blackie at a tour stop in Kavarna. He then went on to play a new song from the album, entitled Mercy.

A few weeks later the release of the album was postponed till April 2007, with the band recording two news songs and dropping two cover tracks, to be used as selective bonus tracks.

The release of the Dominator album has been finalized for April 16th in the UK, April 20th in Scandinavia with the rest of mainland Europe following on April 27th.The release dates for South America and Russia will follow in early May.

• Blackie Lawless - lead vocals, rhythm guitar
• Doug Blair - lead guitar
• Mike Duda - bass
• Mike Dupke - drums

• Glenn Soderling - drums
• Stet Howland - Drums
• Tony Richards - drums
• Johnny Rod - bass
• Frankie Banali - drums & percussion
• Chris Holmes - guitar
• Randy Piper - guitar
• Steve Riley - drums
• Darrell Roberts - guitar
• Don Costa - bass

• Valentina - vocals on "Unholy Terror"
• Bob Kulick - lead guitar (1989-1995) (live performer and guest on "The Crimson Idol" and "Still Not Black Enough")
• Roy Z - additional lead guitar on "Unholy Terror"
• Mark Josephson - violin on "Still Not Black Enough"
• Ken Hensley - keyboards on "The Headless Children"
• Philip Wolfe - keyboards
• Patrick Johansson - live drums (2006)

• The band can be seen briefly in the movie The Dungeonmaster (1985) about an evil wizard.
• According to the Last Command liner notes, the track "Wild Child" was originally written in 1983 by Blackie for Mötley Crüe, but Nikki Sixx felt the vocals were out of Vince Neil's vocal range.
• The video for "Tormentor" plays briefly in the movie TerrorVision (1986) which is about family's new satellite TV system that receives signals from another planet, and soon it becomes the passageway to an alien world.
• W.A.S.P. contributed Scream Until You Like It for the horror film Ghoulies II.
• Some people believe the initials of W.A.S.P. stand for "We Are Sexual Perverts" or "We Are Satan's People" or even "We Are Satan's Preachers". "We Are Sexual Perverts" is inscribed on their first album into the vinyl next to the label. Another possible abbreviation is "White Anglo Saxon Protestants" (see WASP). When asked, Blackie normally doesn't give a straight answer; in one interview, he answered "We Ain't Sure, Pal".
• According to Blackie, with the exception of only one member, every time someone left the band was because of drugs.
• In the song Sunset and Babylon (with lead guitar by Lita Ford), the Rainbow Bar and Grill of West Hollywood is mentioned. Opened in 1972, it catered to some of the world's biggest rock and roll celebrities (and is today known as a favorite bar of some celebrities, mostly rock musicians). Blackie met Rod Smallwood in this bar.
• Ken Hensley, former member of Uriah Heep, played keyboards on The Headless Children album.
• In many concerts, Blackie could be seen with a metal contraption over his crotch containing fuel that would spray sparks outwards in somewhat of a suggestive manner. In an interview to VH1, Blackie stated he used the device until, during one concert, the device exploded, causing him great pain and knocking him back a number of feet.
• The band played many gigs in the legendary Troubadour nightclub, where they made a name for themselves.
• The band is participated on a US/Europe/Asian tour in 2006. Blackie, in an interview, stated that "the tickets will cost no more than US$15 each at any show" and the sets will be at least 90 minutes because he is "tired of shitty bands charging $50 and playing less than an hour."
• As part of the W.A.S.P. stage performance, Blackie mounts a demonic-looking metal sculpture (called "Elvis") that doubles as a microphone stand. Reportedly weighing in excess of 1,000 lbs., it is mounted on springs to allow Blackie to climb atop and swing from it during the show to dramatic effect. This mic stand is often cited by the band as the reason for its cancellation of shows, due to its tremendous weight being too heavy for the stage.

• Face the Attack (1982, independent demo tape)
• W.A.S.P. (August 17, 1984)
• The Last Command (November 9, 1985)
• Inside the Electric Circus (November 8, 1986)
• The Headless Children (April 15, 1989)
• The Crimson Idol (June 8, 1992)
• Still Not Black Enough (1995)
• Kill Fuck Die (1997)
• Helldorado (1999)
• Unholy Terror (2001)
• Dying for the World (2002)
• The Neon God: Part 1 - The Rise (2004)
• The Neon God, Pt. 2: The Demise (2004)
• Dominator (2007)

• Live...In the Raw (November 27, 1987)
• Double Live Assassins (1998)
• The Sting (2000)
• Live...Animal (EP) (November 27, 1987)

• First Blood Last Cuts (1993)
• The Best of the Best: 1984-2000, Vol. 1 (2000)

• History of W.A.S.P. with Tony Richards
• History of W.A.S.P. with Randy Piper
• Album liner notes (written by Blackie Lawless and/or Dante Bonutto)
• Press archive @ W.A.S.P. Nest
• Press archive @ The Official W.A.S.P. Nation page
• Press archive @ W.A.S.P. World Domination
• Blackie Lawless chats with fans on AOL; subjects include Terminator 2
• Rik Fox Interview about the early days of W.A.S.P.
• Press release - WASPONTOUR.COM

• Official Website
• WASP Newsletter
• 1st review of new album Dominator