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The day after the signing of the out of court settlement Glenn, Jerry, Doyle, Robo and Franché signed an agreement with Caroline Records regarding The Misfits output from 1977-1983. A $1,450,000 Initial Advance was paid, of which $800,000 was projected as recoupable within 24 months; the advance was divided as $1,375,000 paid to Jerry, Doyle, Robo, Franché (with an unknown split; this also included money to be paid to other former Misfits) and $75,000 paid to Danzig. According to the settlement, various percentages (ranging from 7.2%-100%) would be paid depending on LPs, singles, digital records, third parties or what part of the world they were sold, all these royalties would then be paid 40% to Glenn, 60% to Jerry, Doyle, Robo and Franché; other portions of that 60% would be divided up between other former members. Caroline could not edit, resequence or remix any masters without written approval from Glenn or Jerry; there would also be no new Misfits releases without either Glenn or Jerry's approval. Should the rights to Walk Among Us fall back in Danzig's hands he must give Caroline first right to purchase/distribute. Caroline received first right of refusal on the Flipside video, recorded at the Channel Club in Boston, MA on March 20th, 1983.
Caroline planned several releases at this time, Teenagers From Mars 7"/CD single, Static Age and Max's X-Mas; but all of those would be put on hold (or cancelled) presumably due to Glenn's previous plans with the label to release another Misfits collection.
A 1994 band that Michale Graves was in
photo shared by Tim Ring
Above; Michale Graves with Valmont at their first show at Studio One in Newark N.J.. Below; Michale Graves high shcool
With The Misfits business finally settled both Jerry and Glenn had work to do. Jerry and Doyle immediately set out to find a singer and drummer for their new band. On January 2nd and 4th 1995 Jim Dorsey was invited back to ProEdge for another go at vocals. After several more months of tryouts Michael Emanuel (Mulch) auditioned in March; he was then invited to ProEdge in April to audition with Jerry and Dr. Chud (on guitar) along with potential drummer Steve Lucas.
Misfits™ rehearsal: Doyle, Joel Gausten, Jerry Only; early 1995
Michale was only slightly familiar with The Misfits having heard a song here or there. He was told about The Misfits™ auditions by Bob Allecca (producer at Reel Platinum) and given Jerry Only's contact info; upon contacting Jerry, Michale was sent Walk Among Us and lyrics to the Misfits songs that Glenn wrote. He then went out and purchased Misfits/Collection I in order to begin familiarizing himself with more songs.
"I had never heard of the Misfits, I thought they were a band like cannibal corpse or something."~Michale Graves, ETCH Vol.2, No.5, December 1996
Dr. Chud during a 1993 Sacred Trash rehearsal
Dr. Chud of course was a hold over from Jerry and Doyle's failed quasi-Christain band, Kryst the Conqueror, having begun drumming for that project in November 1992; although he was apparently not yet guaranteed his slot in the final Misfits™ line up as auditions for drummers continued. He also played with Dan Kidney And The Pulsations as well as Sardonica prior to 1992. Back in the fall of 1994, he recorded/released a self titled album with his band Sacred Trash. The debut (and only) album is a short 8 song release, some of which evokes the future sound of The Misfits™; Dr. Chud (vocals/guitar), X (backing vocals/bass/keyboards) and Liochi (drums)
1995 flyer for Jerry and Doyle's appearance(s) at Chiller Theatre
On April 26th, Jerry and Doyle made an attempt to get Glenn to join their Misfits; they showed up at his hotel after a performance at Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, NJ but never got a chance to talk with him before being escorted by security from the hotel. Also in April The Misfits™ mailed out the Frightin' Facts postcard to fiends; it was used as a test for future Official Misfits Fiend Club mailings. Auditions for both vocalist and drummer would continue until October 1995 although Michale was given a shot at a live tryout in May at an American Legion Hall in Franklin, NJ where he sang Skulls with Drop Thud Oops. During 1995 Jerry also negotiated with Franché, Robo and several other former Misfits to close up any possible loopholes in his ownership of the name.
Frightnin' Facts flyer (shared by https://www.instagram.com/norecords/) and postcard
Danzig (with an all new line up) went to work on their fifth album in August 1995. Danzig 5 Blackacidevil was a huge departure for Danzig as Glenn had pretty much stuck to a hard/doom rock-blues-heavy metal influence for the first 4 albums, although 4p contained a few shades of sounds to come (he had also experimented with some of this stuff as far back as Halloween II and during several Samhain tracks). For Blackacidevil Glenn experimented with industrial/techno sounds adding several voice effects to his vocals as well; of the 10 tracks found on the initial release (the album saw release in 2000 with 13 tracks) only Ashes evokes a more subtle Danzig sound. Although Caroline had tentatively cancelled the release of Static Age, they still issued promo cassettes (50 copies) in August.
Danzig (1996-1997): Josh Lazie (bass), Glenn Danzig, Joey Castillo (drums), Tommy Victor (guitar);
photo from the7thhouse.com
photo from Dr. Chud
Up until October Jerry was anxiously awaiting word from Dave Vanian (The Damned) as to whether he would accept the position of Misfits™ vocalist; Type O Negative's Peter Steele was also approached for the singing position but he declined. On October 27th, 1995 the new Misfits appeared for the first time during a Chiller Theatre Convention in Secaucus, N.J. Jerry and Doyle filmed interviews with Basil Gogos, Roger Corman and Ben Chapman at this time as well, which were used as part of their unaired Chiller Theatre show (eventually named Fiend Club). On October 30th The Misfits performed during Type O Negative's encore at Chance Theatre in Poughkeepsie, NY; Michale Emanuel, now dubbed Michale Graves, sang one song of the three song encore. The next night the group performed during another Type O Negative encore this time at Roseland Ballroom in New York, NY; Michale Graves sang two songs of the five song encore. Immediately following their encore performance the band headed to Coney Island High in New York, NY for a 30 minute performance; Michale sang ten songs of the thirteen song set. The Misfits spent the rest of 1995 and early 1996 rehearsing for their upcoming tour; they blistered through 90 minute sets of Misfits covers on a nearly daily basis.
Doyle and Jerry; screen capture from Fiend Club (a.k.a., Chiller Theatre
collage from Misfits Central
Misfits Collection II was released on November 14th, 1995, the album actually contained 5 songs (recorded between August/September 1987) that featured Eerie Von on bass/background vocals; Mephisto Waltz, Hate Breeders, Cough/Cool, Braineaters, Nike A Go Go and Devil's Whorehouse recorded in 1986/1987.
front/back of Collection II
In January 1996 fiends began receiving Fiend Club membership packages from the Official Misfits Fiend Club; these packages contained a letter from Jerry Only (much like those from the Doyle Fan Club), Cyclopian membership card(s), Cyclopian Music logo(s) cardstock cut out, Fiend Club sticker(s), a Misfits sticker, U.S. Post Office Universal Monster stamp proposal petition(s), several shirt and poster order forms (that were requested to be given to local merchants) and a "Find-A-Fiend" postcard.
In what may be the biggest year for The Misfits, or at least fiends, since their initial run Caroline released the Misfits box set on February 27th, 1996. The "coffin set" contained every Misfits album except Walk Among Us, the unreleased Static Age and several other unreleased recordings; although it would still not contain all of the Misfits recordings.
boxset promo shot by Tom Bejgrowicz
"The thing is with CHUD, we were working on a project [Kryst the Conqueror] in the middle while things were really screwed up, you know while the "Dark Ages" were, you know, the eighties, I'm sure you've heard of 'em. And what happened was CHUD used to come down to practice when I was practicing with the "Kryst the Conquerer" drummer [The Murp], and the drummer that I was working with wouldn't even show up at his own house for practice. I would drive an hour and a half to come to his house and practice, and he wouldn't even show up at his own house. So, CHUD lived around the corner, and CHUD used to come down every day and watch us, and any days that this guy didn't show up, CHUD would play the kit, and it just came down to the point where I would just say...I was coming down to jam with CHUD, and I said "Well, CHUD, if you wanna be in the band, you gotta come up by me.". You know what I mean? So he came up all the time, he actually worked in the machine shop, in the last days of the machine shop when me and Doyle were still working there. And CHUD's a good boy. CHUD takes his position very responsibly. He helped me build the kit...screw things together, paint things. He's always coming up with ideas for the drums. We started with black, then we went to silver, then we painted the silver drums orange, like they are now, next we're going to do candy-apple red. Basically, you lay darker colors on the ones you've got. What happens is CHUD holds up his corner of the tent. The band is like a tent-everybody's got a corner, and they gotta hold it up to get everybody underneath it. And what happens is that you get people who let down their corner and problems occur...and CHUD holds up his corner very well. I wouldn't trade CHUD for any two other guys, to be honest with you. And, like I said, we had CHUD about a year [2 years] before we had Michale, so CHUD was all worked in when Michale came along. Actually, CHUD was the one who really, seriously sold me on Michale. At first, with Michale, he was very young and he was listening to regular shit, like everyone else was listening to. I didn't know if he has the right characteristics to front the band. I mean if you pick a singer for the Misfits, it's gotta be somebody who's ready to do the job. You just can't get somebody's grandmother to come out there and do the job. So, I was a little fucked up about that, but CHUD kept telling me that "the kid's got talent, the kid'll come around, you'll see, you'll see, you'll see...", and then I was sold, and then Doyle was really the last sale. And after Doyle was sold, Mikey more than earned the job. He's a great writer-he's probably the best writer out of the four of us. That's one thing that also frightened me about coming out with a new band, was would the material be on the same par as the old material, and would we tarnish the name by coming out with something that was less? And I didn't feel like we did-I feel that (American) Psycho is our best album, and I think this is our best line-up. I mean, it's hard to live down the legacy with Glenn, but that's from the more nostalgic standpoint than the actual, factual standpoint where you listen to everyone's performance and everybody's stage presence, and the morale of the whole crew."~Jerry Only http://tvcasualty.com/articles/a_jonly.html interview by Rich Lockney March 21st, 1998
In March The Misfits™ set out across Europe on The Shocking Return Of The Misfits Tour (March 12th-March 30th, 1996); Jerry figured European audiences would be more receptive to the Misfits return. The band took a brief respite from touring before going back out on the road for the East Coast Comeback Tour (April 29th-April 12th 1996). They entered the studio in May to record a 7 song demo and would immediately transition into the Resurrection Tour (May 30th-August 31st, 1996) and then into the Halloween Shows (October 29th-November 2nd, 1996). Although their set primarily consisted of covers of Misfits songs written by Glenn Danzig from 1977-1983, they had begun playing their new material as well; The Haunting, Blacklight and The Hunger during their earliest of shows.
Misfits™ Resurrection art by Ed Repka
"This has nothing to do with a re-union. This is a brand new band. We just happen to play a bunch of old stuff because everybody wants to hear it and we want to play it,..."~Jerry Only, PIT MAGAZINE No.18, 1996
"Although we didn't bring the band back only to play old songs, we want to continue and make new stuff. We'll have 45 minutes of new songs when we release the new album, so we'll take off 45 minutes of old songs."~Jerry Only ROCK BRIGADE, 1996
"It's a new band with a new beginning, but I'll never regret my past."~Jerry Only ROCK BRIGADE, 1996
"This is a new band y'know, we're not trying to live up to the old hype of the old band,..."~Jerry Only-Interview by Christopher Lee Schneberger July 27th, 1996
"...see a lot of people call me up and go oh I want toget tickets for the Misfits reunion, I try to tell them look this is not a Misfits reunion, this is us going and taking it to the next level and that is what this is about. We didn't come back to play the whole box set for you- if you know what I mean- we came back to make you a whole new box set..."~Jerry Only 3.7 MAGAZINE #10, November 1996 by Ryan Marsh on April 29th,1996
"I didn't come back to play old songs. I mean, I will play old songs because I like playing 'em."~Jerry Only, ETCH Vol.2, No.5, December 1996
"We didn't get back in to play old stuff, we got back in to play some new stuff. So, that's our goal."~Jerry Only-Hybrid Moments No. 6 September 1996
"I want to do another album in the spring. I want to and out three albums real quick. I want to bury the past as quickly as I can. I figure dragging my feet with new material is only going to hinder that. I'm trying to eliminate the old stuff systematically. Right now we've got eighteen new songs and about fifty old songs. Our set is usually about thirty to thirty-five songs so it's half and half. Next album that comes out we'll probably play twenty-five new ones versus ten or fifteen old. The third album, we're just going to do a medley for an encore. Come out and play Last Caress, London Dungeon, Halloween, Horror Business, all the classics."~Jerry Only by Aaron Smalls 1997
"I'm not here to play a bunch of old tunes for you or come out and play Last Caress because Metallica does it."~Jerry Only
Danzig took to the road during the 1996 Ozzfest (September 14th-October 31st, 1996) before commencing the Danzig 5 Tour (December 3rd, 1996-February 22, 1997).
Front/back of American Psycho
The Misfits™ had assembled a variety of songs and went into the studio December 1996 through January 1997 to record their debut album; the band voted on which songs to continue working on and out of the 40(+/-) songs written only 21 of them were recorded. American Psycho was released on May 13th, 1997, as they had done with their initial touring, the band started the album support tour in Europe (April 15th-May 20th, 1997) before bringing their live show back to the states (June 19th-November 17th, 1997). They made their first trips to Japan, Australia and Hawaii at this time as well (November 30th-December 13th, 1997) and hit the U.S. all over again (February 24th-March 21st, 1998). Although Jerry had talked about this being a new band, in 1997 he released Misfits™ shirts that bore the slogan; “20 Years of Terror 1977-1997”
back/front of Static Age
Caroline Records released Static Age as a separate release from the coffin/boxset on July 15th, 1997; the solo release would see the addition of the newly discovered song, In The Doorway as well as a hidden track containing outtakes from the Static Age sessions.
The Misfits™ first single, Dig Up Her Bones was also released in July; a promotional video was released on August 10th, 1997 for the song as well.
Michales Graves adopted several different looks during this time in The Misfits™
There was a slight hiccup with Jerry's new band in the spring of 1998, Michale Graves, assuming he had earned some well deserved time off, had signed up for a hockey camp in Colorado; in an apparent miscommunication with the tour manager The Misfits™ were scheduled (or became scheduled) to appear in Europe during the same time. Not wanting to let down European fans, Jerry, Doyle and Dr. Chud voted to go on with the show and recruited Myke Hideous (Empire Hideous) to perform vocal duties (May 25th-July 30th, 1998).
Up next...A Hideous Tour
This note was made possible by Misfits Central, James Greene Jr.'s book This Music Leaves Stains as well as various Misfits interviews. As always thanks to all the fiends (and photographers) that have provided all the photographic history.