Alex Zander Goes Head To Head With Satan’s Little Helper Thomas Thorn of the Electric Hellfire Club
Thomas Thorn and the Electric Hellfire Club are truly the real thing in terms of
Satanism. They’re not kidding. They’re not Black Sabbath or Danzig singing tales of the
Dark One. EHC sing praises of Anton LeVay’s Satanic Bible. They praise Ricky Kasso,
Charles Manson, David Berkowitz. In other words, they’re downright scary.
Their latest offering on Cleopatra Records, titled “Kiss The Goat,” is also about the
best recording of the year so far. It’s a psychedelic, hypnotic journey through Hades,
sex and drugs.
Thorn, formerly known as “Buck Ryder,” was once a member of My Life With The
Thrill Kill Kult. He quit the band as they became disco oriented and began recording the
Sexplosion CD. Based in Kenosha, WI., home of Weezer, (joke get it?) EHC boasts 5 members. Thorn is vocalist and programmer, Rev. Dr. Luv is keyboardist, Richard Frost on drums, new member Gregor Mephisto is guitarist, sexy Sabrina Santana does vocals, go-go dancing and erotica, while Otto Mattix works the sounds and imagines. “Kiss The Goat” is EHC’s 3rd release on Cleopatra. “Burn Baby Burn” was recorded in 1993 and earlier this year the EP “Satan’s Little Helper” was also released on Cleopatra.
EHC is as incredible as one may accuse them of being controversial. I cannot help but
be seduced by their sound and music, although I’m not in agreement nor disagreement
with their message. It is as dark and violent as real life. Their lyrics are the evening
news, tabloids, and talk shows.
I spoke to Thorn just days before I met him and other members of EHC in Chicago at
Convergence. I didn’t expect him to be as articulate and charismatic as he came across
in conversation. After all, I read a review by Carl Brown in which he described his
meeting with Thorn in these words, “I said, ‘God bless you’ and left. I wanted to hose
myself down. I felt like I had spent the night with an HIV infected prostitute. Thorn was
an unapologetic Disciple of Lucifer on a mission from Hell. If there was ever a guy I’d
like to see tossed into a burning lake, it was Thorn.” Thorn has also gone head to horn
with evangelist Bob Larson, and now Thorn was preaching to me.
Alex Zander: You just finished a tour for “Kiss The Goat”. Who opened up for you?
Thomas Thorn: We had Penal Colony opening for us.
AZ: What does a live show consist of? I read a lot of good reviews about it.
TT: (laughs) It’s basically us playing. It’s not some big theatrical stage show or anything
like that. Definitely we’re a very visual band in the way we present ourselves and our
music. But it’s us up there with Sabrina dancing around and there are a few props,
costume type things and stuff like that. Nothing that’s what I would consider theatrical in
a cheesy way. No fake blood, no giant toothbrushes, nothing like that. But I would say
that one of the main things we do is use a lot of fog and a lot of psychedelic lights to try
and really alter the space. For bands that are playing the size clubs that we are right
now, I think that’s an unusual thing. Most bands don’t bring their own light show. People
are accustomed to seeing whatever band it is with the exact same lights that the club
has been installed there. We always look different from any other band you’ve seen there. We
use a lot of lights you probably haven’t seen before and a lot of lights that really interact
with the audience. They’re not necessarily focusing on the band, they’re altering the
stage and going out into the audience. They’re sort of grabbing you and bringing you
into it.
AZ: Your band’s message is very blatant. Unlike bands such as Slayer or Sabbath,
bands with similar themes, your music seems a lot more enjoyable. Do you think the
audience is more attracted to the image or do you think they come to actually hear the music?
TT: I think that there’s definitely a cross section. There are people who are big fans who
have gotten turned onto the band through death metal fanzines and things like that,
because of interest in music of that sort of content. They say, “Hey, this isn’t usually my
cup of tea but I really enjoy what you guys are doing.” Likewise, there are people out
there who basically feel, “Oh, it’s another industrial band or psychedelic band and I
don’t get into that devil shit but I really like the music.” I don’t necessarily appreciate that
element in the fanbase but at the same time, if they’re going to buy the record and
empty money to see the band, I guess I can’t argue. (laughs)
AZ: What about any hassles? Problems from religious groups on tour. Do you have any
of that?
TT: I think that the main problem we have along those lines is that we’ll get a show
booked and then the label will send out a bunch of press material. Then all the sudden
the club owner freaks out because, like you said, it’s not like Slayer. For that matter,
it’s not even like Deicide. Those things tend to be a lot easier for people to deal with in
that context. They don’t want to intellectualize, they want a cartoon version of what
Satanism is. They want people saying, “Oh well, we’re not really serious.” Or that there’s
some big mystery behind it or something like that. But for your average club owner, this
makes us out to be a bunch of monsters that are going to set the club on fire. We
definitely had some shows canceled over things like that. We haven’t had a lot of
Christian groups protesting. In all the time we’ve been doing it, I can count the times
that we’ve had that happen on both hands. I remember in Iowa that they had a prayer
circle around the club. I remember a place in Texas where they were trying to grab the
microphone between us and Christian Death because they wanted to tell the people to
leave. That they were being seduced by Satan. They weren’t concerned with Christian
Death. They were out there talking to us, “Oh yeah, we heard about you guys from Bob
Larsen and we know what you’re doing.” It’s weird. (laughs) They’re out there and I
think we don’t have that high of a profile yet. The second we do we’re going to be into
shit up to our knees. For now, there just aren’t that many people aware of it. I saw some
things on the internet warning people about us and asking people to get out and protest.
To warn other people about us being on tour. It’s not a significant force of any kind.
AZ: Do you want to push for a higher profile?
TT: Higher profile depends on what you mean. As far as, do we want to leave the
underground? No. Do we want to sell more records? Yes. There’s a fine line between
the two. I don’t want to become Nine Inch Nails, but at the same time, if by some bizarre
chain of events we did, I wouldn’t be kicking and screaming at the millions of dollars
somebody was handing me. I don’t see much danger in it. We’re going through this right
now. Cleopatra is starting to get into college radio. And there’s not anything on the
album that is “the pop song” or for that matter “radio friendly.” The songs are 8-12
minutes long, they have obscenity in them, and they have really questionable content.
It’s one of those things where we don’t make records like that. I don’t think there’s any
danger of us becoming press darlings. Likewise, while these kids and their parents can
live with, “I want to fuck you like an animal,” and “God is dead and no one cares” they
can’t live with, “God is dead and Satan lives” or “You are my latest masterpiece
dismembered on your bed.” They can’t live with that kind of content.
AZ: Getting out of Thrill Kill Kult, that wasn’t a bad idea. At the time it was actually good.
TT: It was one of those things where, at the time, I was tired of what I was doing and
what was going on, and Buzz McCoy was working on a solo project that was more
mainstream, sort of house music. He’d been listening to a lot of Black Box,
Technotronic, and things like that. Which is great for a solo project, but when it was
announced to me that they were going to take those songs and turn them into Thrill Kill
Kult songs for the new album, I was like, “Eh.” I envisioned myself (laughs) doing the
fag dance behind my keyboard for the rest of my life. I wasn’t particularly interested in
that element and it was a hard thing to do to leave a band you knew was going to get
really huge right then. I thought about it and if there was ever going to be a time to leave
this band, the time was now. Before the whole success thing happens so I can walk
away with some degree of credibility. So people wouldn’t say, “Oh, he quit the band after
their stab at the mainstream completely failed.” And so here I am.
AZ: Have they come to see your new band?
TT: No. It’s weird because when we first started out, I used to talk to them a little bit.
Buzz and I were good friends and he was kind of bummed out because at the time that I
left the band, I really just disappeared. I moved out of Chicago, I didn’t really tell anyone
where I was going. I had a lot of different issues that I was trying to resolve. The only
way I was going to resolve them was by completely getting myself out of the situation I
was in and not being around the people that I’d been around. By the time they figured
out where I was, I had already started working on this side project. When I talked to
them, they said the Sexplosion tour is going to start at such and such time. I said, “Well,
I’m not going to go.” It wasn’t a popular thing. When we (EHC) were playing little piss
ant clubs, I would let them know. They’d say, “Oh yeah, we’re going to show up.” But
they never bothered. Jacky Blacque came and saw us once, which was cool. But when
we got signed, it was a completely different issue. Groovie Mann got a bug up his butt
about the fact that Cleopatra was really whoring out the Thrill Kill connection. Thrill Kill
Kult’s first ever cover story in Alternative Press was followed by a full page ad for us.
This is a time when a lot of people were really questioning what had happened to Thrill
Kill Kult. I think maybe a lot of people were saying, “Hey, maybe this is the real hero.”
Certain people joke and refer to me as the man who took the Kill out of Thrill Kill Kult.
AZ: How did you meet the members of your band?
TT: Actually a couple of them were Thrill Kill Kult fans I had met at some of the shows.
Where we’re based and where we live right now is only about an hour from Chicago. I
met them and I was trying to get out of my Chicago burnout thing and was driving to my
parents in Wisconsin a lot where I had a lot of older friends up there. I’d be hanging out
in Milwaukee or Madison or wherever, and I started stopping in to see these guys in
Kenosha. (I was) helping them learn how to work their electronic gear and start their
own band. It kind of came together as a thing where, “Maybe I should be in this band.”
That was going to be the side project that I was doing. The time that we were ready to
start playing shows coincided with when I would’ve been leaving to go on a Thrill Kill
Kult tour for another 2 months or so. It just wasn’t something that I was willing to
sacrifice. I decided that this was a lot more important to me.
AZ: I like this new album a lot. I haven’t quit listening to it since it came out. We really
dig it. Did you write all the lyrics on this?
TT: Yeah, I did.
AZ: My favorites are “Evil Genius” and “Bitchcraft.”
TT: (laughs) That’s really funny. We just got our first really negative fan letter ever. It was
this guy who was saying that compared to our first 2 albums, this was the weakest
piece of shit that he’s ever heard. One of the obvious problems was Sabrina’s influence
on the album and that she can’t carry a tune to save her life and shit like that. I don’t
know if he’s a woman hating guy or what, but I think she has a pretty nice voice.
AZ: I sense a little sexual sense of humor in those two. Where did you get the
inspiration for these 2 cuts? They are completely different from everything else on the
album.
TT: You can put yourself in a lot of different places when you write. “Bitchcraft” was
intended to kind of be that sassy, “These boots are made for walking” song. LeVay has
a chapter in his book called The Satanic Witch called “Bitchcraft.” There’s an element of
sarcasm, but at the same time, the way that the people in the band, particularly Sabrina,
view the whole feminine mystique and the role of the woman and the concept of
feminism is not from a very politically correct standpoint. She, as most Satanic women
do, believe in using feminine wiles and their powers of seduction to get their way to
accomplish things, realizing that those are natural gifts, rather than that those are things
you should avoid it in your pursuit of happiness and power. “Evil Genius” was one of
those things where you’re taking the whole concept of sort of a semi-pornographic
superwoman of your dreams. Looking at it from the standpoint of the things she should
say, things like that. Rather than what the average person thinks is right or how women
should act. Also taking into consideration the power of woman over man. Using some
biblical metaphors and marking femme fatales throughout history (laughs) that I
consider to be significant personas.
AZ: It’s a very psychedelic album. Did LSD serve as an inspiration?
TT: Oh yes. Well, LSD has been a continuous inspiration in the band. I mean since the
beginning. When we started the band, it was big doses of LSD playing a role in bridging
the gap between spirituality and the music that we were creating. I mentioned LeVay
and the Church of Satan, but there are areas in which we differ from their beliefs. I was
just reading something the other day that was saying no true Satanist would ever take
mind altering drugs. I bed to differ! (laughs) I really do! I can understand your average
fucked up teenager, your Sean Sellers and Ricky Kassos, all those people who we’ve
actually got songs about, those are weak willed people. And if weak willed people use
drugs, particularly psychedelics, bad things happen. Particularly if they’re invoking
demonic entities. But then again, half the people in the Church of Satan don’t
acknowledge the existence of any certain demonic entities. So, I don’t know what their
problem is (laughs). We definitely believe that if you are weak willed and using drugs as
a shortcut to demonic intervention then (laughs) you stand the risk of possession.
That’s one of the risks you take. (laughs) Psychedelic Satanism is definitely one
medium and our goal. We’re not trying to recapture the 60’s or anything like that, but we
are influenced by that whole flower power era, primarily the dark side of it. Flower power
and psychedelics really created a whole new generation of sheep…the hippies, sex,
drugs, fucking in the streets, all that. At the same time, wherever sheep tend to
congregate, so do wolves and other predators. I think that the psychedelic era gave rise
to a new archetype of that sort of predator. Manson being one of the greatest
archetypes within that. Manson, the Process, all sorts of types of things are archetypes
of psychedelic Satanism. It’s no coincidence that the Church of Satan evolved at the
time dayglo and acid rock were reigning supreme. There’s definitely a connection. That
was the time of the occult explosion. I was born in ’64, so I basically grew up at a time
when all those things had been assimilated into mass media and popular culture. Those
were things that I was spoon fed through TV, magazines, and other forms of media on a
daily basis. They are definitely things that have inspired me and were extremely
influential during my formative years.
AZ: Where do you think this whole Manson popularity is coming from?
TT: It’s really weird because I would say that a good percentage of the kids wearing
Manson shirts don’t have a real particular understanding of who and what he is and
what he did or anything like. I manage a record store when I’m not on tour, kids will say
something about the Manson shirts, we obviously (laughs) stock a full variety of them,
and I’ll say, “Well, do you know why Manson is in prison?” They’ll say, :Oh, because he’s
a crazy guy that killed a bunch of people.” We’re actually working with some people
from Cleopatra now and Blood Axis to arrange a Manson Aid compilation. Nobody has
spent as much time in prison as Charles Manson has for complicity in a crime. He didn’t
kill anybody. That’s not to say he never killed anybody, but he’s not convicted on that,
He’s convicted of murder in a sense of complicity. In other words, he told people to jump
off a bridge and they did it. I think the fact the man has been in prison that long and he’s
been portrayed as the most notorious mass murderer in all of history is a travesty. It
shows what a joke the American justice system is and can be. As far as the current
popularity, it’s the same reason you get kids identifying with or becoming Satanists. Kids
becoming Satanists on the basis of what they’ve learned from things like talk shows.
Geraldo says, “Oh, this is what Satanism is.” and whether it is or not you’re going to
have a thousand kids who look at that and say, “I want to be a Satanist, that’s cool.” It’s
a self-fulfilling prophecy that they become that kind of Satanist. They go out and
sacrifice their neighbor’s cat in the name of Satan because they saw it on TV or some
‘B’ movie. That’s what it is. They know their parents hate him and most authority figures
that they abhor hate Satan. He’s the man that has the best music, he wears the coolest
clothes. The only thing he really did, the bible says, was thriving to be more like God.
They call that sin of pride. Any kid, or human being, can’t really look at that and say,
“Oh, that’s a horrible thing.” I think that these kids become Satanists because they’re
identifying with the rebel archetype. Likewise, those who don’t grow up under intensely
religious oppression is constantly bombarded in the media by certain images of evil,
and Manson, as I said, is portrayed as the ultimate evil. So the ones who are
rebelling, consciously or subconsciously, against the media archetypes of “what is right”,
even fucking MTV! Who died and put them in charge of telling you what you should
think? You know, no censorship, no racism, no fascism, no this, no that. All you are is a
fucking entertainment channel! Shut the fuck up and stay out of my head! Like it or not,
Manson has become a figurehead to a certain degree of racial ideology. These
kids feel that they’ve been disinherited I guess, in talking about white kids. They do 1 of
2 things: They either listen to rap music or they feel like they are completely
disenfranchised and start a rebellious attitude that turns into racial hate, that Manson
has been presented as this racial hate figure as well. There’s probably 10 different sides
to this coin as to why Manson has become a cultural icon.
AZ: The creepy crawler cut, that was written by somebody on the outside, right?
TT: Yeah. It was written and performed by Sean Partridge. I don’t know if you’re familiar
with the Partridge Family Temple. They’re (laughs) to put it mildly, a fringe group that
sort of worship the Partridge family. Sean Partridge is one of the main characters; he’s
one of these people that are incredibly groovy and incredibly frightening at the same
time. He’s a friend of ours. The guys from Marilyn Manson came to out show in New
Orleans and I was talking to the keyboard player, he had met
Sean in Denver and he was talking about how great he was. I said, “Oh yeah, you have
to pick up our new album because Sean does a little thing there.” You just have to
have him on your record. (laughs) He walks around in purple velvet bell bottoms and
flower print shirts but at the same time, is one of those predatory psychedelics. I
thought it worked out very well. It was an interesting reference. We immediately thought
of Sean when we thought of the intro to that. Do you know what ‘creepy crawlers’ is a
reference to? When the Manson family would sneak up on a house, they would call it
creepy crawling. Even Rollins, whether he admits it in his public face or not, is a huge
Manson fan. He has a tattoo that is identical to one of Manson’s tattoos, it’s a spider that
says, “creepy crawl.”
AZ: Your videos obviously aren’t going to get on MTV, but have you done anything?
TT: We did a video for “Mr. 44.” It’s on a Cleopatra compilation. I like some of the
images in it. There was tons of footage shot and then it was edited by these 2 guys
while we were on tour and I’m not completely thrilled with the footage that they chose or
fashion in which it was edited.
AZ: What about the Pink Floyd tribute? I’ve got an advance of that. Was “Lucifer Sam”
the obvious song to do?
TT: We did 2 versions of it. The other version, I’ll actually say, I like a lot better. This was
allegedly supposed to be like an ambient tribute of some sort. Particularly doing an
ambient version of a song by another band was a really difficult issue. So we did
something that was just a fluffier mix of what we’ve been doing and that was the one
they opted for. I think we’ll probably take the one that we like better and release it at
some point.
AZ: What do you think the mainstream’s biggest misconceptions about Satanism are?
TT: That’s hard to say because I’m one of these real (laughs) thorns in the side about a
lot of the what you would call, Satanic community. These are the guys that would take
this opportunity to say the greatest misconceptions is that Satanists burn churches,
sacrifice animals, they only wear black, they do this, they do another thing. The
difference is the way we perceive Satanism is I personally don’t see that it’s anybody’s
place to define exactly what it is. It’s just like somebody saying, “What makes music
industrial?” Who’s to say? Is the Ministry industrial? Is NIN industrial or is Throbbing Gristle
industrial? It’s one of those questions like that. We tend to take all comers as far as the
the whole Satanic trip goes. There are a lot of kids who are involved in death metal who are
really a lot more into the whole thing of drinking blood and desecrating churches and
shit like that. I’ve got no problem with that. Whereas, most of these people I call
armchair intellectual Satanists are really opposed to illegal activity, drug taking, and
things like that. It’s really not anything that I have any great concerns with. I always buy
all the Christian fright books where they talk about, “Is your child a devil worshipper?”
and, “Here are the signs.” We use that stuff. As an example, the Ricky Kasso thing.
Another kid that dropped too much acid and stabbed another kid to death over a bad
drug deal, screaming, “Say you love Satan!” while he was plunging a dagger into his
eyes. That completely freaks the shit out of John and Jane Cute Public. What’s going to
freak them more than a band that’s openly Satanic and places this kid up, not as a hero
or martyr, but as a significant part of history (laughs) in Satanism. It drives some of
these people crazy that I keep dragging all of these characters that they say are not
Satanists back into it. What are other misconceptions? I’m not concerned so much
about people having misconceptions, just figuring out what they are, what scares them
and using it against them. That’s my strategy. This is my only pet peeve, from every kid
who writes to Industrial Nations to Christian Death in their latest interview in Seconds.
(They) sit and say, “Well, all these people who call themselves Satanists are obviously
Christians because Satan is a Christian creation.” I don’t know how many times I have
had to explain myself but my concepts of what Satan and Satanism are is not limited to
or defined by Christian theology or any sort of biblical writings. The reason that we use
the terminology and the biblical metaphor is because it is culturally relevant. I do not
believe in Satan as necessarily portrayed in the bible. I definitely believe in a power that
I refer to as Satan. That same power or entity has existed for thousands of years before
Christianity was ever an inkling in some stupid prophets imagination. Likewise, it’s
existed in every single culture that has had some sort of spiritual founding. It’s in every
religion from ancient Chinese through old myths through Indian mythology and
things like that. There’s always a dark side and dark force. In most of the world
religions, while it’s something to be respected and feared, it is also something that’s
considered to be an integral part of everything that goes on, the night and the day are
part of the whole. They don’t want to create endless daytime or whatever. They know
not to endorse any sort of Eastern ideology but the Yin Yang where the light and dark
are balanced and each contains a bit of the other, that they are integral forces and one
couldn’t exist without the other or you’d have complete lack of balance. That’s more or
less what I believe. All these people who are saying, “I don’t see how you can call
yourself a Satanist without being Christian.” Well, tell the Christians that. You know,
what we believe has nothing to do with them and so on. We’re not subscribing to their
theology. That’s the only misconception that I care about . The fact of the matter is what
they believe is a Christian creation and is defined by that. They’re absolutely wrong.
AZ:What is your biggest gripe against Christianity?
TT: My biggest gripe against Christianity is that it’s completely hypocritical if you study it
from it’s inception, it was created as a power structure for the state. The church and state
went hand in hand. The way I see it, they figured the state could tell you, “if you get
caught stealing, we can cut off you hand.” But it takes people a short while to realize
that only 1 out of 10 people actually get caught when they steal. So the state creates
the ultimate cop who can see you when you’re sleeping, who knows if you’re awake,
who knows if you’ve been bad or good, you know? It doesn’t matter if they catch you or
not, in the end you’re going to go to hell if you did any of that stuff. It’s power structure. It
exists primarily to control people and to make money. It does so in the guise of
something friendly, charitable and stuff like that. I resent the fact that morality is
legislated, rather than thought out. Like the abortion issue. They say, “Oh, it’s wrong to
kill.” Why is it wrong to kill? It’s not wrong for you guys to kill when you going off to war!
There are so many people that should be forced to have abortions. There’s so many
things I hate about (Christianity) and I’m probably a little reactionary and inarticulate in
relation to it right now. The thing I hate the most about it is the intense hypocrisy and the
fact that it’s the biggest lie that was ever told. The bible is the biggest work of plagiarism
ever! There are so many different stories that are taken from different cultures and
different religions that are rewritten trying desperately to fit them into a singular context.
When you get all this crap about Jesus, I hate all the stuff that was preached by Jesus.
His whole turn the other cheek and things like that. I think that any religion that glorifies
and preaches submission and weakness is such an abomination that it’s very existence
gives me reason to live. I want to live to see the day it crumbles and is destroyed. I don’t
know (laughs) whether that answers the question or not.
AZ: I read some press from Cleopatra about this bit Carl Brown said…
TT: Oh, that guy. The thing where he said (laughs) that if there was anybody he’d like to
see cast into a lake of fire, it was me?
AZ: Yeah. How does press like that affect you guys?
TT: I thought it was great. I got that in the mail and sent it to Cleopatra and said, “Put
this in the press kit!”
AZ: I liked the picture of “A Quiet Night At Home.”
TT: It’s interesting. I would much rather have somebody saying that, than somebody
sitting there and saying the basic agnostic or new age philosophy of, “Well, these guys
are just Christians that have it wrong.” Or people that say, “This is just a gimmick.” We
play the image for everything it’s worth. There’s no question. We obviously like to play
with cultural terminology and cultural icons and things like that. The devil is one of the
most popular cultural icons that we have. I was saying to someone the other day, you
can’t even walk through a grocery store without seeing images of the devil. It’s powerful
from one standpoint to another and we’re more than willing to use that power to our
advantage. Admittedly doing so. We’re not sitting here saying, “Oh no, we’re not trying
to use its power, it’s just something we happen to think.” We definitely understand and
recognize its power and use it to our advantage. I think that that in itself is a Satanic
ideal.
AZ: Where does Scary Lady Sarah fit it?I saw her name on the credits. Is she a friend?
TT: She’s a really good friend of ours. We recorded the album in Chicago and stayed at
her house. Actually they own an apartment complex. We stayed in one of the
vacant apartments while we were down there. I think it says “Hellfire Hotel” next to it or
something. She’s a good friend and an avid supporter of the band. She’s probably one
of the first DJ’s in Chicago to really play out stuff a lot and has supported the band.
AZ: Peter Steele saying that his favorite album is Burn Baby Burn wasn’t bad for
publicity, was it?
TT: Yeah, definitely. I actually just finished talking to him yesterday because they agreed
to do a remix for us. They’re (Type O) really good guys, I really like them a lot.
AZ: Good show too. They do “Cinnamon Girl” now it’s crazy seeing them open up with
that song. They’re out with Queensryche right now.
TT: (laughs) I was asking Peter what he thought about it and he said it was incredibly,
incredibly boring. I suppose after coming off tour with Pantera where it’s a wild fucking
party every night. I heard from Peter and other people, that Phil from Panters fancies
himself this incredible Satanist too, (laughs) and is like, “I live for the devil!” and “I’ve got
a swimming pool that’s round and its painted with a pentagram on the bottom of it!”
Peter told me that that’s definitely true. As a matter of fact, Peter jumped off Phil’s
second story balcony naked into Phil’s pentagram pool. (laughs) He said, he could just
see if he cracked his head or something. It’d be like, “Rock singer dies in bizarre
Satanic ritual sacrifice” or something like that.
AZ: Hey, that’s how Peter wants to go out.
TT: Yeah, I’m sure. (laughs)
AZ: What would you say is the scariest thing you’ve seen or situation you’ve been in?
TT: I’ve seen a lot of really remarkable things that at the time were really scary. In
in retrospect, I think it’s really cool that I witnessed them. I think one of the strangest and
at the time most frightening demonic manifestations was a black cat that laughed a
human laugh. Which sounds like a cheesy thing out of a Stephen King novel, but I could
tell you stories from my youth that make Pet Cemetery sound like a fairytale. At a
at a certain age, I came to align myself with the dark side and now it doesn’t really frighten
me anymore. I’ll give you another one. I was probably about 18 and my father’s father
had killed himself. He had been having these dreams about his father where his father
kept saying, “Meet me at..” and then he’d always wake up. It was like his father had
something to tell him. One night I was at this friend’s house and he lived out in the
country, and there was this really bad thunderstorm. It was bad enough that I didn’t want
to drive back so I just ended up staying at his house. He and his little brother had a
room that they shared together but his little brother was somewhere else. So we’re in
this room in twin beds and this thunderstorm’s raging and all of a sudden I felt the room
get really cold in the middle of summer. I just got one of those feelings you get when
you’ve been witness to some phenomenon. I heard this voice it was a voice that
sounded like 2 blocks of concrete scraping together. The voice was calling my friend’s
name. I heard him sit up and I’m just laying there looking around. You see lightning
flash just like in an episode of Tales From The Dark Side and there’s this figure standing
in the doorway. To make this story even weirder, I worked for his father and his father
was a funeral director. So I saw some pretty fucked up stuff there too. Anyhow, this
friend of mine flips the light on and there’s nothing there. Group hallucination or
whatever you want to call it, I definitely saw it. The feeling you got was not so much
frightening as it was bad. Something that definitely didn’t belong there. It was wrong that
it was there and it should not be there and you should not have converse with it. That
was the general sensation that you got from it. I have a long list of experiences, but I
was pretty chilled to the bone by that experience. Since accidentally stumbling on things
like that (laughs), now we go out of our way to evoke them. (laughs) That’s another
story in itself . Fear is an exhilarating feeling, it kind of takes you to the next level. I think
that has something to do with where we’re at and what we’re doing and what we’re
trying to achieve.