Last month saw the release of Cemetery Gates – Saints & Survivors Of The Heavy-Metal Scene by Mick O’Shea. The book is a collection of portraits on the more notorious figures within the rock and metal scene who’s party antics became their undoing or at least affected their lives in a significant way. Ghost Cult caught up with co-author Laura Coulman to discuss the backgrounds of this rather disturbing collection of rock and roll tales..
For the people who don’t know you, can you introduce yourself?
Of course – my name’s Laura. I’m an editor and author living in London town. Metal music of all varieties is my obsession and so far, I’ve been lucky enough to edit books on Metallica as well as several cult film titles written by Gavin Baddeley – who’s not only an ordained priest in the Church of Satan and an expert in his field, he’s also a really pleasant gent. My first book, entitled Strange and Beautiful, was devoted to Lady Gaga’s fashion. This may seem random since her music doesn’t speak to me in the same way as any of the artists featured in Cemetery Gates . . . however, I can’t deny that as a performer and a personality she’s something of an enigma. As much as Nikki Sixx, Dani Filth and numbers 0-8 of Slipknot, Gaga is a constructed character – and whether she reflects anything of the genuine individual beneath the masks/layers of raw meat/whatever oddity she happens to drape herself in is a question that fascinates me. As you’ll see from Cemetery Gates, I love an artist with the ability to keep me guessing.
How did you become involved with the Cemetary Gates project and what did you contribute?
Cemetery Gates began to take shape in my mind back in 2010. Though it seems a morbid exercise to tally up the losses that the metal community suffered that year, I’m a superstitious kind of girl and I couldn’t get the notion of a cursed year out of my brain! Of all the tragic headlines, the one that hit me hardest was the death of TON frontman Peter Steele. I absolutely adore his music and am happily haunted by the legacy he left behind. The idea that there was nothing in print to commemorate Peter’s incredible life and works (apart from online and in magazines) was a travesty to me and this book is my earnest attempt to change all that. However, I didn’t want Cemetery Gates to become just another book of fallen heroes – hence, the inclusion of living legends like Ozzy. With two-sides and myriad personalities, I felt like I found the perfect structure to explore several other obsessions of mine – what it is about extreme music that draws in tortured souls and confirmed crazies like the proverbial destructive flame? ‘Mad, bad and dangerous to know’ was a term coined to describe an aristocratic cad in the 1800s (Lord Byron, of course), but I think it’s also a great tagline for many of the wild men profiled in Cemetery Gates. It’s almost as though there’s no way for these musicians to separate art from life. The drama of their music simply can’t be suppressed or tamed. And as for the survivors who’ve supposedly beaten their demons and turned their lives around – is there still a place for them within such a scene of extremes? What is it about these personalities that allowed them to attain stability and sobriety, as opposed the sainted icons we’ve lost. In the words of Stephen King, ‘monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us and sometimes they win’. With this book, I wanted to focus on why as much as how. However, I couldn’t do it alone. Having written an intro, as well as profiles on Layne Staley, Corey Taylor and Pete Steele, I was delighted to have Mick on board. He’s a real authority on GN’R and brought a whole new perspective to the project – which, in a book of many voices, personalities and possibilities, is something I really valued.
The book features a whole range of different characters and each story is quite unique. Which character/story did you find the most moving and why?
This isn’t an easy question, but perhaps Peter Steele (again!) if only for his distorted self-image. More than any Shakespearean character I’ve ever read, the man was his own worst enemy. As adored as he was, he never really appreciated the reasons why. If his darkest lyrics came to pass then it’s sad, but no surprise Then there’s Layne Staley. His story never fails to break my heart. With the death of his fiancée it’s like he was denied the only thing he ever wanted – a stable family life – and from then on, the pain made him so short-sighted. Before his death, he distanced himself from everyone who ever loved him. By the end he was utterly alone. No one should have to die like that.
The book consists of two parts, namely Survivors and Saints. What’s the idea behind this approach?
Well, Cemetery Gates is a book of opposites. Above all else, I wanted to spotlight the divide between life and death; sanity and lunacy; virtue and vice, and more. For example, Cliff Burton’s drawing a literal death card while out on the road; the irony of Axl Rose struggling with bipolar disorder at the very height of GN’R’s stratospheric commercial success . . . the line between both these states is perilously thin. Whoever you are and wherever you’re from, it pays to remember that. By showing both sides of the same coin, Mick and I were keen to invite comparison. As I’ve already mentioned before, if there is something more tangible than luck, chance, or whatever you want to call it, separating the Saints from the Survivors then we absolutely wanted to tease it out. It’s always fascinating to hear the Survivors’ perspective on how they dragged themselves back from the edge. Corey Taylor, for one, provides some startling insights into how he’s still around to realise his dream of lecturing students at Oxford Uni – made all the more poignant by the fate of his bandmate Paul Gray. The two shared so much as fellow Iowans out on the road with Slipknot. The parallels simply don’t bear thinking about – except that I kind of wanted to!
The people featured in the book come from all sorts of different (social) backgrounds. Some had a clean living style (Dio, Rhoads), some partied like no tomorrow (Rev, Bonham) and other ones were downright mental (Varg, Dead). What ties them all together in your view?
Yes, this kaleidoscopic mix of personalities was exactly what we were aiming for. Superficially, music is the only common denominator: they all belong to the ‘heavy-metal scene’. But I honestly believe that there’s something to be gained from bringing them all together. For example, ‘mental’ is a term that’s bandied about a lot within metal. But everything’s relative. John Bonham’s antics with groupies and snapper fish may have been more than a little eccentric, but compared to Dead – complete with his deep-seated belief that he was reanimated corpse – he’s a paragon of sanity. On the other hand, in view of all Dead suffered as a child (that he even survived to graduate from school is a feat), who are we to judge and label his response as ‘insane’, ‘abnormal’ or otherwise? It’s fascinating for me to consider the struggles/misbehaviour of these personalities in the context of their formative years. I hate the idea that we’re all completely defined by where we come from, but on the other hand, Slipknot’s ferocious second album isn’t named Iowa for nothing . . .
There’s a long list of rock n’roll books out there outlining the same subjects as Cemetary Gates. What’s the added value of the book according to you
I always hoped that this book would grow into something more than the sum of twenty short-and-sweet biographies. Highlighting shared experience, parallel lines and eerie coincidence, the aim was to offer an exciting new perspective on the facts – to provoke some thought and get people talking seriously about the genre! It’s also a celebration of some of the incredible, larger-than-life personalities who make the scene what it is today. Living or dead, metal wouldn’t be the same without them.
Large portions of the book as are based on autobiographies, such as the books by Mustaine, Slash, Taylor and so on. Why did you choose did approach. Did you also try to get first hand accounts by doing interviews with friends and family members for instance?
While I think there’s something to be said for including the artists’ own voices (this was certainly a priority for Cemetery Gates), I’d have ideally liked to have secured more original interviews. Despite my best efforts, it didn’t turn out that way, although I did manage to infiltrate the Oxford Union for a day in the name of research. I can also confirm that Corey Taylor has the most chivalrous team of bodyguards in the business (as far as I know!)
Putting a list of “madmen” within metal together must be tough decision, but some of the persons I find a tad obvious. The struggles of Mustaine and Ozzy are very well documented and I kind of wonder what people like Bon Scott, Rev Sullivan and Axl Rose have to be mentioned in a book about heavy metal. What are your thoughts on this?
Yeah, I absolutely agree that in many ways the lesser-documented personalities are the ones who I find most intriguing of all. However, to my mind, Ozzy is the ultimate poster-boy for this book. Even now, he’s still battling to stay clean and brave enough to admit it to the world. Without the context of his scene-shaping career, I feel that the significance of the next generation of artists is lost somehow. As far as the metal credentials of Bon Scott et al – they’re admittedly not the heaviest on the ear, but nonetheless, I feel that for many fans they provide an enticing path through the cemetery gates, leading to the deeper, darker personalities buried within!
I’m missing people like James Hetfield, Phil Anselmo, Devin Townsend, Peter Dolving, Mike Patton, Niklas Kvarforth and Al Jourgensen in the book. All people with their own stuggles and all colorful people in their own right. How do you see things?
Yeah, I’m missing them too. They each have their own wonderful brand of crazy and are all deserving of a place within Cemetery Gates. But ultimately, I was aiming to fill a book, not a library, so sadly some of my favourite personalities had to be sacrificed. I have a tendency to get carried away by my passion for the subject, but my publisher never let me forget the practical concerns of producing a viable manuscript. Ideally, of course, I’d love to print a book based on Pete Dolving’s musings alone . . . so, please help me make a success of this book and then maybe we’ll talk Cemetery Gates: Volume 2!
What other projects do you have the in the pipeline?
That’d be telling! But please watch this space, because I’m absolutely committed to adding as many sub-cultural projects to Plexus’ catalogue as I can get away with! And not only dedicated to the music and the artists themselves – I’m also a huge fan of the richly imaginative sci-fi and horror that inspired some of my favourite records. So who knows . . . maybe some day soon, I’ll have the opportunity to work on a project in that field
Raymond Westland