To say that Peter Steele, the frontman for goth-rockers Type O Negative, was death-obsessed is putting it mildly. This was the guy who wrote "Everything Dies" and "Everyone I Love is Dead." Brooklyn native Steele died April 14 of heart failure at age 48.
So maybe I was expecting to speak with a morose soul when I got Steele on the phone in 2007, to talk about Type O's then-new album titled - wait for it - "Dead Again." But there was a pleasant surprise in store. Steele had me in stitches throughout the interview. (In fact, I laughed harder and more often during the Steele Q&A than I had with any other interview subject, and that includes George Carlin, Don Rickles, Pat Cooper, Bob Newhart, Tommy Chong, Lily Tomlin, Eric Idle, Joan Rivers, Charlie Callas, Tim Conway and Howard Stern.)
To remember Steele, here are some excerpts from that interview â that is, those that can be shared in polite company.
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On what Steele aimed to accomplish with "Dead Again":
"To alleviate poverty, primarily. I just played 'Sgt. Pepper' backwards at double-speed and stole all the riffs. ... If you play the album backwards, it actually says, 'I buried Pete,' not Paul."
On whether there was a "Normal Peter" and "Stage Peter":
"When I go onstage, I do have to access that part of my personality. But it's really funny, like, going foodshopping and being recognized by fans. And of course, I’m taking toilet paper off the rack when they come over. I’m like, 'I’m sorry. I (defecate), too.' I love to see people’s reactions. We’re just 'humanzees.' When people see something different, they’re stunned. You know, like a stunned George Bush staring with his mouth open? And then people will laugh at things that are different. You know why you’re laughing? Because I’m a threat to you. That’s why you’re laughing. Because every time you laugh, you kick the reaper in the (scrotum). So keep laughing. Because I am the reaper. I am the prophet of doom."
On styling himself:
"I was thinking about bleaching my hair white to look like the Winter Warlock, and to put green streaks in it. But all these hairdressers were like, 'Oh, you’re hair’s going to fall out!' I’m like, 'I’m dead already! What do I have to lose?' The hair on my head is a wig, anyway. I just thought it would be really cool. I’m, like, 445 years old now. I don’t feel my age. To see someone 70 years old with dyed black hair, you’re like, 'Hmmm, I dunno. Is that a wrinkled teenager? What is that?' So at some point, I’m going to have to stop doing this. It’s gonna look ridiculous. I don’t wanna look like Elvis Presley at 60 years old. There’s this great thing: If you take a Now Or Later (brand) taffy, and you push it onto your gums, and you take peanuts and push them into the taffy, it looks like 'baked bean' teeth. The girls love it."
On other ways of getting a response:
"If you drink two-week-old milk and you have vomit breath… oh man, they love it. I just like being a social experiment sometimes. I really should not be allowed in public. But I just go out into the public just to see people’s reaction. The thing is, I can do anything I want, virtually, within reason, just to see people’s reaction. ... People laugh at me because I get in the shopping cart and push myself down the aisle, like, knocking over cereals. People are laughing at me. Then I pull over and I’m like (in lowered voice), 'The day will come when you will never laugh again.' And then I go look at pork chops. 'Whattaya mean they’re $10.99 a pound?' Sometimes, I just buy stuff just to see people’s reactions. Because everybody looks in everyone else’s carts. If you’re buying low-fat yogurt and 100 boxes of tampons, it gains a little bit of attention."
On a personal philosophy:
"I’m a 'specist.' I hate the human race. Of course, therefore, I hate myself the most, because I am the least of the human race. I’m the product of 6 million years of evolution? Come on, man. I crawled out of a swamp yesterday. I’m the product of the fastest swimming sperm cell? What if I was the slowest one? Here I am! I’m human! I can eat you, therefore I’m superior. What separates me from animals? No. 1, we laugh because we never can die. We’re the only species who hunts for sport. Actually, I’m a heterosapien. People are like, 'Are you a homosapien?' 'No, I’m a heterosapien. Whattaya mean?' "
Steele's advice if you're being chased by a bear in the woods:
"If you were in the woods with me, I would not have to outrun the bear. I would just have to outrun you. ... There’s, like, Kodiak bears and there’s black bears. One of them, if you sit down like you’re (defecating), they wait. And they tap their feet like they’re waiting for you. But the other bears come right after you. If you can (defecate) and run at the same time, that’s a 50-50 probability. They may or may not stop running after you."
Steele's parting thought:
"Listen, if no one has told you they love you today . . . (Steele paused as if he was about to say 'I love you') . . . maybe somebody will tomorrow."