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 An Interview with Peter Steele of Type O Negative By Charlie Steffens, aka Gnarly Charlie, Writer/Photographer Monday, October 22, 2007 @ 1:47 PM
He admits to being a depressive and a loner, often preferring the company of his five cats to humans, who he says are the only reason he gets out of bed on some mornings. His overcast sense of humor is disturbing and alluring, as he throws out rhymes, limericks, and nostalgia. His love for the Beatles is obvious, whose influence often bleeds all over in both his conversation and music. At one point in our talk, for a reason that I now forget, I made reference to a bathroom window. A second later, in unison we both began to sing “She Came in Through the Bathroom Window” from the Beatles classic Abbey Road.
A tragic comic and a maniacally brilliant conversationalist, I will never forget the evening I met Peter Steele.
“It’s nice to be back in action,” Steele says, “seeing some of the fans that I’ve been meeting for the last 17, 18 years, which is a long time. Now our fans have kids who are our fans. But then again they could be my kids.”
“What you have said is exactly what I wanted to hear. We didn’t like have a game plan, like maps on the fuckin’ wall, a strategy to get to that point. But the object was “Let’s have a good time. Let’s do our fuckin’ job. Give the audience what they expect. We’ve been gone three years. Let’s fucking go.”
After releasing several albums with Roadrunner Records, Type O Negative’s contract ended, and last year the band signed with SPV Records. Steele seems somewhat optimistic about the switch, commenting briefly on the business move.
“I was signed to Roadrunner Records primarily through my former band, Carnivore, which was 19 years ago. I had a good relationship with Roadrunner, but I’m not in it for my health and when the contract ran out it was time to make a decision and it was based upon finances. I felt it was time to get some fresh blood into the organization, so, so far, so good.”
Appropriately and ironically titled, Dead Again is a strong comeback and very personal to the band, especially Steele. At times, I suspended disbelief after talking at great length about the songs on the record and life in general. There were, however, several times over the course of our three hour conversation where I could completely identify with the self-proclaimed prophet of doom as he claimed himself to be.
“We put the secondary and tertiary parts in at Josh’s house. So it was very convenient for me to walk down and do secondary guitar, tambourine, keyboard, whatever. Josh lives on the same block as I do, literally—like eight houses away, so I had no excuse not to show up there.”
“I believe that the true definition of a rock band is to upset people and that’s the reason rock became rock in the late 50’s, because the country was pretty right-wing. So when rock came out—being left-wing—that upset people. I will admit to being slightly right-wing. I consider myself to be a conscientious conservative. I am pro-police, pro-government, and pro-parent. Because the country has shifted so far to the left that even if you are mid-wing, still you are upsetting people. So, all these trendoid rock bands are just preaching to the choir. I have, in the past, gone out of my way to upset people and fortunately it worked. That’s why I can say Carnivore and Type O Negative are true rock bands, because your parents aren’t going to like this music. And if they do like it you better find different parents.”
“I’ve always liked orchestral music, especially marching music like John Phillip Sousa. I also play sousaphone and tuba. And I play string bass. I guess you could call bass a guitar, so to speak. But I was always fascinated by the definition of functions, like what makes a bass player a bass player. I got the answer. The answer is you are the bridge between rhythm and harmony. You gotta go with the drums but you gotta fill the bottom end at the same time. That’s a bassist. Which disqualifies me; because I play bass/rhythm guitar and I play mostly chords. A failure again.”
“My life is not so exciting that I could document it verbatim and make it into an interesting song. So I have to exaggerate. I take a few different things that really did happen and I string them together and make it into one song. On Bloody Kisses there’s a song, “Death in the Family,” and everyone thinks it’s about a woman. It was about a cat that I had since I was 17 that died. My life is pretty boring. It mostly revolves around Saturday morning cartoons and TV dinners. Like, I really wanted to marry Mrs. Swanson. If she fucked the way that she cooked then I’d be very happy, because I would know what I was going to get every time. Either way it’s going in the oven, right?”
“I don’t like to go out, because I don’t like to be recognized. I don’t like to be looked at. I really don’t like to be onstage, but however, I’m a masochist, so it’s the perfect punishment.”
“Two of my favorite bands are Devo and Laibach. Devo I love because they completely make fun of the human fuckin’ race. Laibach I love, because they fuck around with political dynamics. They never admit to being left or right, so they are hated by both. They call themselves neo-collectivists and that’s why I call myself a commu-Nazi. I was very, very honored to see them at Limelight, back in New York about 10 years ago, I think. I was up in the VIP area—not that I’m very important—I just wanted to have a good view. But they were also fans of Type O Negative and they came out from the back to meet me. This is one of my favorite bands coming out to meet fuckin’ me.”
“The first thing I have to say about the Internet is that it really saddens me. This superior technology is primarily utilized for just a rumor mill. That’s why I have never once gone on a Type O Negative website or homepage…or Carnivore or Peter Steele. I don’t want to know because I have people coming up to me and telling me that they’ve read what I consider to be horrible fucking things about me that I’ve never done…and also great things I have never done. I don’t want to fuckin’ know, and it saddens me and it disgusts me. It’s a joke. A profound source of education and somebody’s just going to sit there talking about other people anonymously. If you have something to say, say it to my face. Don’t hide behind a fucking screen name.”
“After my mother passed away last year and a couple of other things happened, I pretty much got back to my faith. I was born Roman Catholic. Believe it or not, I go tot church on Sunday and I do read the Bible. But I don’t read it as a how to live your life book. I read it as if I have a question I can open any page. If you’re open minded you will get the answer from a passage. And you will get a different answer if you read the same passage but it will still be just as worthy. “
“I went to confession for the first time in 30 years. And the priest was very happy that I had come back to church and stuff. I didn’t go into each and every sin otherwise he would have to take two weeks vacation (laughs). I said ‘Father I did wrong and I want o apologize to God for my behavior and I’m going to try for it to not happen again.’ It’s better to pay in this life then in the afterlife. So he said “well, make a large donation to your favorite charity, which I did. I’m not going to tell you which charity it was or how much, because that really started me thinking about these so-called charitable people. Charity should be anonymous. If you’re going to get a pat on the back for doing…”Oh, you’re such a great guy. You gave five million dollars—even though you have 50 billion—to South Africa. You’re a great fuckin’ guy.” So I donated my money anonymously and when I had reformed Carnivore I had asked the guys to do just one thing for me. And that was to make a donation anonymously. ‘Don’t tell me, just please, that’s all I’m asking you to do.’ It’s never dome up again and I trust they have. You shouldn’t get a pat on the back for fuckin’ doing the right thing. You should always be doing that. In a great world people would treat each other the way they would like to be treated. My mother always told me if I really didn’t wan to do something, if I was really tired, but if I had helped someone and I really went out of my way for them but I asked nothing for it, that I should donate my energy to the souls in purgatory—meaning that to give my goodness to those who are trapped. This is purgatory/limbo. This is a very Catholic thing that very few people really understand. I just feel that if you always do the right thing in you’re heart, number one, you’re going to get fucked…there’s no doubt. But after death, I think there’s a better place.“
“Let’s put it this way. I would find it very hard to believe that Adolph Hitler and Mother Teresa are going to the same place. I guess it’s comforting to believe in some sort of justice. My definition of God is attempting to put a face on physics, mathematics, and chemistry that we have yet to understand. That is my God. Something had to create everything. I lie in bed awake at night freaking myself out. Thinking about going somewhere forever, with the clouds, the harps, the angels, the wings. St. Peter had a secret, and.St. Peter one time questioned God. And he had no right to question God, but God allowed him. God said, ‘Alright. What’s the question?’ If you are so merciful…if you know everything, and you create your children that you know are going to wind up in Hell—why would you bother creating them? And the answer was ‘Because Hell does not last forever’. No one goes to Hell forever. It’s like a waiting room, a Godless place. And Peter goes ‘If you know about mans suffering on earth, why do so many horrible things happen to good people?’ And God said, ‘Because I love them so much that I pour pain upon them so that the transition from life to death will be more profound for them and they will appreciate my gift more than the others.’”
“God does not like actors. It has to be heartfelt. I shouldn’t tell you this because it’s almost contradicting myself, but one of the examples of doing some sort of charity anonymously is on my block there are quite a few old people. When it snows I shovel their walk and they have no idea who shovels their walk. Now, I’m not looking for a pat on the back, I’m just trying to make an example. One day I’ll be 75 and maybe somebody will do that for me. That would make me cry.“
“Ever since I have come back to my faith, such incredibly strange things have been happening. Ten times a day if I ask God for a sign, through numbers and letters I will get it. I believe that God speaks to everyone in a way that only that person can understand, but I have been enlightened…you have to ask to be enlightened. I ask these questions and I get the answers. I don’t hear God’s voice. That satisfies me.”
“When I said I have hit rock bottom, it’s not in a bad way--it’s in a good way. I’ve found piece on something solid and now I know what the meaning of life. I’ve always thought that the meaning of life was to try to find something to live for. Now I realize, all this time, it is finding something to die for. It’s been right there all the time I will die for my faith. I am going to. I know it.”
“What is music? I hear sounds, especially machinery and mechanical sounds that I find to be very appealing. If I wrote an album--if I had the time to write--it would be un- listenable, but it would be music to me. Mechanical-like pounding, screaming emotion. It would just be a psychotic breakdown, like every track. I even have a title for this project. It’s called Utility. I also wanted to do this side project, which is a combination of hardcore and bluegrass. We’d have pickup trucks and John Deere amplifiers and chickens and pigs. And we’d load in our own equipment, fighting with each other like the Clampetts, beating the fuckin’ shit up, beating each other up. And Grandma is sitting there with the banjo and the big jug with the three X’s on it with pigs running around. And the whole backdrop would be like the front of a barn. We would actually pull tractors into the club. The entire show begins when the band pulls up. Like, we have John Deere equipment, like rednecks. We’re going to use Peavey, Ampeg, and Marshall, or whatever, but paint them green and fucking yellow. ‘Yep, we’re from the South. South Brooklyn, that is.’”
“After 17 years of working together I think we know each other well…maybe too well. Josh, Kenny, and Johnny have a lot more responsibility than I do because they have children and wives, and their social situation isn’t as complicated as mine.”
“It’s very difficult to resist. I actually have quite a bit of stage fright. I don’t feel comfortable with the idea that I have to be the spokesperson for this band onstage, and I need my wine muscles to go out there and do my job for the night. So it’s turned into a crutch, pretty much. It’s one of my goals to conquer.”
“When I do interviews and I lie about everything, people think I’m so serious. When I tell the truth they think it’s hysterical. Who’s going to believe you with the things I have said? I believe myself. Print whatever you want. No one will believe it, I’m sure.”
Photos by Charlie Steffens, aka Gnarly Charlie
mrspetersteele - 1/22/2009 5:14:36 PM
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After seeing them play two memorable sets, the first in Anaheim and then Los Angeles, before the release of the new album, I tell Steele that by the way the band was playing it seemed like they weren’t gone for that long. 
“A lot of stuff that I attempt to sing is out of my range. Technically my voice is a bass and a lot of things I’m singing are in a tenor range. I have good days and bad days, and one out of three I have a good day. So, probably everything you’ve heard me sing—and I use that term loosely—on this last album I’ve executed…like 50 times. It’s kind of bipolar…this is what happens when you stop taking your medication during the recording process. You have down days when you write 14-minute dirges. The bipolar up is you write a frenzy of songs. At some point, even with Prozac and Trazedone and Depakote I was still depressed and I’m like ‘If I’m drinking and I’m not taking care of myself, what’s the point putting all these chemicals into my body?’ So I just stopped. Has it influenced the writing of the album? I’m sure it has. The album could have gone a thousand different ways.” ‘The Profits of Doom’ means that I am a rich man, so long as I do the right thing. My reward shall come afterwards. A camel can pass through the eye of a needle much more quickly than a rich man gets into Heaven. My reward will come later on. It’s no coincidence I play bass. To tremble the earth and also God told me I’m an idiot because I can only handle four strings, not six.”
“We all have five senses. And from time to time, the senses overlap. I can taste what I hear…and I can feel what I see. And it has become very confusing that I this gift. Every time I hear a jackhammer, I can taste an iron staircase. I can touch something and I can tell you how it sounds. I mean, I can tell you it sounds like a newspaper I dropped in the wind. I can taste a sound. Is this an affliction? I believe it’s a gift. But in kindergarten and being a kid they would point out to other children. If someone touched my hand I could taste them. It’s never stopped. I just realized I had to regress it because I had always thought everyone thought like me. There’s nothing that I can taste, hear, feel, that does not affect me in every other way. Depending on my mood it’s usually pretty constant. I can touch myself and I can tell you what I taste. I taste iron. I can tell you what I smell. I can tell you what I see. I see a very thing green line that you cannot find the beginning or the end to. And what I hear is a whisper. And I do this from time to time to test. I touch people, I shake someone’s hand…I can taste them. I can tell them what I know, but I sound insane. I know just by touching someone’s fingers—I know pretty much everything about them. To have all the information about them at one time is very confusing. She tastes like cinnamon. She feels like a fur coat. She looks like a green fire burning upside down. To touch a woman’s arm like that…she’s like flesh made into fire. If you’re completely honest and you make a chart out of the five senses it can become very interesting. Like, ‘Okay I’m going to play a song for you. What does it taste like?’ ‘Smell this. What does it look like?’ These are other dimensions. I love physics. I believe in the 11 dimensions, but when you define dimensions it’s just another opportunity to define a parameter. I have my own dimensions. I can smell something and hear horrible fucking music and cringe in the fucking street. I can taste something and see something else. Blocks of yellow cubes decorated with purple and orange because of the sound.”
“I would roadie for Devo, Laibach, or Black Sabbath for free. One of the great things about playing festivals is that there are so many bands and it is so chaotic that from time to time I can meet a lot of bands that I have been inspired by or that I like very much. I am very grateful that I’ve met most of my idols. I met John Entwistle, of all places, in Brooklyn. In Coney Island, Brooklyn they have these outdoor shows. So it was the girls from Heart, and I think it was Todd Rundgren and John Entwistle, were playing all Beatles’ songs. And I walked over and asked him if I could introduce myself and he was such a great fuckin’ guy. He was really, really nice. And a couple months after that he died and I was very saddened. I met Geezer Butler. I met other idols—Paul McCartney. John Paul Jones. Also Roger Glover. I had gone to see Deep Purple, Scorpions, and Ronnie James Dio at the PNC shithole of fuck, New Jersey. Whatever it is. They were all really cool. Ronnie’s a great fuckin’ guy, the Scorpions are great. Deep Purple,even though it was only three of the five original members, just to watch Ian Paice play…all I can say is he’s like liquid on the drums, like effortless, you know? But it’s such an honor to meet my idols.”
“I was unaware that Playgirl was a gay publication. I was under the impression it was for lonely housewives or something. It doesn’t matter to me it was just a publicity stunt. That’s all it was. I kind of regret it because I feel like I exploited myself, but when management is telling you to do it and the band’s telling you to do it and the record company’s telling you to do it…and they offer one page and then three and then the cover and then the centerfold. ‘You’ll sell so many albums if you do it.’ And I go, ‘I’ll fuckin’ do it.’ The greatest part about it was it kind of escalated. They had me on their Ten Sexiest Rockers issue, and I don’t know why they chose me to come in for a headshot. This head. The one on top of my neck (laughs). And so I go down there and they say ‘You wanna take your shirt off?’ and I say ‘sure.’ I happened to bathe that month so it was okay. Then they pretty much made me an offer that I couldn’t refuse, to pose nude and this and that. I have read Playboy. It’s as classy as pornography can get. Nice layout, I don’t think it’s demeaning to women. So I’m thinking Playgirl’s like that. So they send me these issues and I was underwhelmed a little bit. Thumbing through them I’m thinking ‘Man, all these guys are flaccid. I said I’ll do this shoot under one circumsi…I almost said circumcision (laughs). I said ‘I want to be erect.’ And they said ‘Oh, do you really think you can do it?’ I said ‘You hold your end up by bringing the check and I’ll hold mine up.’ I go and do it. Apparently I was the first person to have an erect penis during a shoot. So now I’m trying to hide this from all of my family members because I have five older sisters and 9,000 cousins, something like that. So I come in one night and the Playgirl issue is on the dining room table and my mother’s sitting there. My sister was in the other room and I said ‘Did Mama see it? You showed it her, right?’ She’s like, ‘Yeah.’ I said, ‘Well, what did she say?’ So my sister says “That’s why I named him Peter.” (laughs) My mother had a great sense of humor. I’m still a good Catholic boy, deep down. Nothing’s funnier than laughing in church.”
“I’m not radically different, but I am different. I’ve made a lot of mistakes and some of the mistakes I’ve made involve other people. When I get the opportunity I do apologize to them. Sometimes it’s not an easy thing to do and sometimes they don’t accept my apology, which is very painful. I ask why. Sometimes they just don’t want to talk about it. I can accept that, but at least I went. There’s a difference between apologizing and saying you’re sorry. An apology means that you’ve thought about your actions and you think ‘Man, I was a real fuckin’ scumbag. I was an asshole. She didn’t deserve that. He didn’t deserve that. And I just really want to tell her that I’m sorry.’ And I also want to tell her how it’s not going to happen again. I believe that part of being a Christian is forgiveness. I’m not here to preach. I’m here to warn, more or less. Beautifully, once or twice, a couple of the people who did not accept my apology at first have contacted me and said they thought about my actions and they do accept my apology. I was very grateful, and all I can say to them is ‘The only way I can really make this up to you is by not repeating my behavior.’ I’m still human. I still fuck up. I still sometimes instinctively utilize this same shitty behavior. But a true sin is any action that hurts you, someone or something with forethought and malice. I’ve never really gone out of my way to fuck somebody over, to hurt them. There have been times that I was disrespectful and I was irresponsible. I was a dick. We all make mistakes but I’m very happy that I have the opportunity to apologize for mine. I feel that God will not forgive man until man forgives man.”
“The closer I get back to God, the more temptation comes my way. As psychotic as this might sound, I have pretty much been told that I am the prophet of doom. I know the date of the end of the world. How do I know so? Because, I’ve been told so. Did I hear a voice? No, I did not. But…there are three others like me. We know of each other, but we do not know each other. I know it and I know what’s going to happen and I am to point out the signs. This is the Seventh Seal. At this point, if this last sign is not acknowledged, God will no longer forgive man and then there will be Hell on Earth. Earth is Heaven, already, without the bullshit, and at the very end, the good thing is, that God will even forgive Satan.”
“It’s pretty interesting to me. I get offended when people become up with these accusations of Satanism, anti-Semitism—Josh [Silver] is Jewish. I’m actually seeing a Jewish girl right now, so she finds it pretty offensive…and all the other ‘isms.’ The only thing I will agree with is botulism…totally for it. People ask me, ‘Are you right-wing or left-wing?’ I’m chicken-wing. I’m afraid of everything. I’m afraid to take sides. I’m a Groucho-Marxist, because I don’t know if it was Duck Soup or one of those movies…he even had a song, being a Groucho-Marxist (he begins to sing) Whatever it is, we’re against it…whatever it is…And that’s Type O Negative’s motto: Whatever it is we’re against it. That’s it. We don’t take sides. We’re against everything.”
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