Wednesday 13 has announced a U.S. tour celebrating 21 years of his former band, the revered glam punk icons MURDERDOLLS. Wednesday 13 and his current band — which features MURDERDOLLS alumni Roman Surman and Jack Tankersley — will perform a full set of MURDERDOLLS songs, taken from the band’s celebrated 2002 debut album “Beyond The Valley Of The Murderdolls” and the 2010 sophomore LP “Women And Children Last”, which won them the Revolver Golden Gods “Comeback Of The Year” award. Wednesday 13 was the frontman and songwriter, alongside guitarist and his creative partner in crime Joey Jordison (SLIPKNOT),in the metallic glam punk outfit.
Asked in a new interview with Waste Some Time With Jason Green if he would ever consider touring under the MURDERDOLLS banner again, Wednesday 13 said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I don’t really think so. Now that Joey is gone, there’s no way that that can happen again. That’s why I didn’t wanna do this tour and call up all the other guys and go, ‘Hey, let’s put our differences aside and go out…’ It’s not MURDERDOLLS without Joey. That’s why I wanted to go out and say I can go out and perform these songs, perform the MURDERDOLLS songs…
“For the last 18, 20 years I’ve been touring,” he continued. “When I first started touring as Wednesday, before I had all these albums under my belt, I had to play those MURDERDOLLS songs in the beginning. I’m just now getting to the point where I’m, like, ‘Oh, I don’t have to play MURDERDOLLS songs,’ and then now I’m back to 20 years ago again.
“Last year when we did the tour and I said we had a little tribute thing to Joey [as part of each concert], after the shows I would talk to people and they would just say, ‘Hey, I never got to see MURDERDOLLS. I never got to hear those songs live. It would be really cool if you did a whole show and played those songs.’ So that’s what I thought would be the best way to pay respect to it. It’s the music of MURDERDOLLS. It’s not trying to continue on like BRIDES OF DESTRUCTION when Nikki Sixx left. I didn’t ever want it to be something like that.
“I’ve already seen people in the press going, ‘Well, it’s not MURDERDOLLS without Joey.’ I’m, like, well, exactly,” Wednesday 13 added. “That’s why I’m not calling it that. This is just something that I can go out and play these songs. And if we get to take this overseas and Europe and the U.K., we will. But I’m still not gonna focus on doing this full time. This will just be a fun thing to do; it’s a cool little celebration. I haven’t played those songs in a long time. I’m kind of sick of playing my songs. So this will be a good little break from ’em.”
Last October, Wednesday 13 accused MURDERDOLLS‘ former guitarist Acey Slade of taking the MURDERDOLLS name behind Jordison‘s back.
In August 2022, it was announced that Slade and former MURDERDOLLS bassist Eric Griffin would take part in a signing at the Silver Scream convention at the Hilton Double Tree North Shore in Danvers, Massachusetts to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the release of MURDERDOLLS‘ first album, “Beyond The Valley Of The Murderdolls”. The event was slated to be livestreamed on several platforms, including YouTube, TikTok and Instagram. Acey and Eric were also going to be doing a meet-and-greet after the announcement for those in attendance at Silver Scream Con. In addition, Acey and Eric launched a web site, murderdollsofficial.com, that purports to cater to all of the MURDERDOLLS alumni and their legion of fans affectionally known as The Ghoulscouts.
On August 25, 2022, Wednesday 13 took to his social media to throw shade at his former bandmates, insisting that any merchandise being advertised using the MURDERDOLLS logos, music and lyrics is unapproved and unauthorized. Two days later (August 27),Acey responded to Wednesday, saying that the re-release of “Beyond The Valley Of The Murderdolls” is officially licensed after he went through a “time-consuming and expensive” process reinstating the assets from Warner Music Group which fully acquired Roadrunner Records in 2010 after first buying 73.5% of the company in January 2007. He also invited all former member of the MURDERDOLLS to “use the band as a platform for their own endeavors”.
After the completion of the touring cycle for “Beyond The Valley Of The Murderdolls”, MURDERDOLLS went on hiatus so that Jordison could focus on his other band SLIPKNOT. In 2010, MURDERDOLLS released a sophomore album, “Women And Children Last”, which did not feature Slade, Griffin and drummer Ben “The Ghoul” Graves, all of whom toured in support of “Beyond The Valley Of The Murderdolls” but did not appear on any of MURDERDOLLS‘ records.
Wednesday 13 reunited with Griffin and Slade on stage for the first time in over a decade in August 2018 at Lucky Strike Live in Hollywood. The event, which celebrated the life of Graves, saw the trio performing some of MURDERDOLLS‘ classic songs.
Graves, who also worked with PRETTY BOY FLOYD and DOPE, passed away in May 2018 after a year-long battle with cancer. He was only 45 years old.
The MURDERDOLLS did a number of major tours in support of “Beyond The Valley Of The Murderdolls”. By the summer of 2003, the tenacity of the band was paying off. Tours with IRON MAIDEN, PAPA ROACH and the FOO FIGHTERS around the world and a Top 40 U.K. single with “White Wedding” made the band fan favorite in Metal Hammer, Metal Edge, Kerrang! and Rock Sound magazines.