Hell has frozen over...

Torn between Cool and Sad. Leaning to Sad.

Yeah, I'm kind of the same way. I'm sure Danzig's willingness to participate is directly proportional to both his current level of success and the size of the check they cut.

But damn sure I'll be there if they do a tour.

I saw Danzig back in 90? and he was at the peak of the solo stuff. I don't know if I could watch him pull a Loverboy-esque money grab like this.

Will Hot Topic sponsor the Misfits tour?

Saw Danzig in a small club in Nashville in '94--I think the club was named 328 Performance Hall.

It remains one of the best shows I've ever seen. The venue was small enough to be intimate, but the energy was high, the band sounded great, and he was really belting out all their best stuff.

I'd love to see this show but not sure I can swing it. It would be nice if this goes well and they don't tear off each other's faces to do a small tour and hit some more cities.

Possibly with Spencer's Gifts co-presenting?

It still wouldn't be as sad as looking at the T-shirt selection at Wal-Mart and seeing a Crimson Ghost shirt where it is filled with an American flag graphic. Or the one I saw at Penney's the other day where it has - inexplicably - a Hawaiian floral print in it. Jerry Only really goofed up licensing...I think he thought they would be like KISS or something.

I only saw Danzig once, it was when he did that Samhain reunion tour where Samhain essentially opened for Danzig. Samhain was AMAZING. It was the full lineup too, Eerie Von, London May, that other guy that went on to be in D Generation... Seriously, it was so fucking good. They played like half of their songs and then went off stage. Then they came back out, shirts off and covered in blood like on Initium. Then they played the OTHER half of their songs. I mean, they literally played every Samhain song.

And then Danzig was terrible. This was when he was doing all of that Thrill Kill Kult sounding bullshit. They had the giant skull and it was lit up in all of these colors, just looked ridiculous.

But his last couple of records have actually been quite good, Red Deth Saboth was a return to the swampy, deathy blues-rock and Skeletons was all good and fairly obscure covers.

Waitaminute...news of the Danzig/Only reunion was enough to bring KEN B. back!

Michael Barnes wrote: Waitaminute...news of the Danzig/Only reunion was enough to bring KEN B. back!

Don't thank me yet, for I bring you THIS classic bit! (I suck at Youtube apparently, fast forward to 13:27s below...





Chuck Biscuits was a goofy son of a bitch.

I saw the Misfits in '03. Loud, harsh, repetitive, and nowhere near as enjoyable as a couple of the opening acts that night. One of the Ramones was in the Misfits at the time, so they played a cover of "The KKK Took My Baby Away." My date got offended because she thought that they were just chanting KKK the whole time, and she actually ran out of the club. I made it up to her a week later by taking her to see Tori Amos and Ben Folds Five, and we're still together.

I remember being at D*C back in like '98 or something and the misfits roadie swearing to us Glenn was going to do a reunion. I didn't hold my breath.

Not sure if anyone's kept up with the legal wrangling Glenn and Jerry have wrestled with for decades but this seems to be what brought them to a temporary cease fire:

JG2LAND: THE OFFICIAL BLOG OF JAMES GREENE, JR.
Writer, humorist,bbq z weirdness enthusiast. Yes, I wrote that Misfits book. Hit me up: jgreenejr [at] gmail [dot com].
The Misfits Almost Settled Their Latest Lawsuit With A Reunion
The other Jersey boys: Glenn & Jerry, 1978. Photo by Ken Caiafa.

If you think the legal skull-banging between Glenn Danzig and Jerry Only ended in August of 2014 when Judge Gary Klausner threw out Danzig’s lawsuit against Only for breach of contract, think again. Danzig amended his complaint and the case over who owns the logos and trademarks pertaining to the Misfits drags on; opening briefs related to Danzig’s most recent appeal of a summary judgment Only won in April 2015 are being filed this month.

And yet, in an incredible shock, this entire affair was nearly settled over the winter holiday of 2014 by having Danzig rejoin the Misfits. That December, Danzig’s attorney suggested his client (who dissolved the group in 1983 after a six year run) and the defendant (who reformed the Misfits without Danzig in 1995) agree to a certain amount of reunion concerts, split the profits, split all future revenue from the disputed trademarks, and consider entering a new licensing agreement together with a major merchandiser. Only was receptive, so negotiations began for the first Misfits shows with Danzig in thirty years.

A proposed 60/40 reunion profit split in Danzig’s favor was leveled to 50/50. A ten date concert tour shrank down to six—but “at least one” reunion album was added. All other participating Misfits, no matter what their stature, were to be treated as “paid employees.” In response to Only’s demand for built-in protections to ensure Danzig would actually follow through with these gigs, Danzig’s attorney wrote, “I really don’t think this will be an issue as Danzig wants to do the reunion shows” (a $250k penalty was put in place should either party fail to complete the reunion obligations).

Initially Danzig envisioned the reunion happening in 2017 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Misfits. Only wanted it “as soon as practicable.” Only also wasn’t fond of billing these performances as “the Original Misfits” (though no alternate name was suggested). The real breakdown, however, was over the same trademark issues that instigated Danzig’s lawsuit in the first place. Confusion as well as contention remained over who owned what and who was entitled to how much of any given piece of Misfits imagery. Specifics failed to be clarified, certain copyrights could not be identified, documents proving anything conclusively could not be produced.

The two sides went back and forth until February 10, 2015, when Danzig’s attorney ended an e-mail by saying, “it appears we are going to try this case.”

Dovetailing with that was some rigamarole over depositions each party was to give that month. Danzig felt he wasn’t given enough time to prepare for his scheduled deposition so he bailed at the last minute; meanwhile, Only and his co-defendant, Misfits manager John Cafiero, refused to commit to any deposition date or agreement. On April 15, the defendants were awarded their summary judgment because Danzig had provided no evidence of the pre-existing business relations that Only is alleged to have sabotaged with his fraudulent ownership and representation of Misfits trademarks. Danzig also could not prove “lost economic advantage” from Only’s activities, nor could he outline “triable facts” concerning Only misrepresenting the famed Misfits skull logo (a.k.a. the Fiend Skull, a.k.a. the Crimson Ghost).

The information above is sourced from a forest of court documents that are available to anyone via Pacer.gov and probably a few other less bullshitty legal repositories (Bortz Law first posted excerpts from said documents on their blog in October 2015; for whatever reason, Bortz’s post didn’t reach fiends until very recently). The case is Glenn Danzig v. Gerald Caiafa et al in the California Central District and at this point it could be a book unto itself. There’s a great subplot that debates whether or not Danzig performing a Misfits song in any context constitutes a performance by the Misfits.

If I hadn’t seen it all in PDF form myself I wouldn’t believe it. The American judicial system almost returned to us the Original Recipe Misfits. Concerts are one thing, but I can’t stop thinking about the reunion album. What in the hell would that be like? What could they call it? Settlement A.D.?

Parties Agree Not To Disparage Each Other Publicly, that would be a good title. It’s my favorite of all the terms they reached for this proposed reunion.