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 the author himself to discuss the backgrounds of this rather disturbing collection of rock and roll tales.
Can you introduce yourself, please?
Hi there, and thank you for the interview. I am 50 years old, and was born in Accrington, Lancashire, before moving south in 2008. I have been a writer for 13 years now. While working 9-5 working in finance, I wrote on a semi-professional basis until 2008 when I turned professional. While I am happy to write about any musical genre, I obviously prefer to write about the music I love: metal, punk and rock. To date I have 12 books published.
Cemetery Gates – Saints & Survivors is in essence a collection about some of the more notorious hedonists within the rock and metal community. How did the whole project come to fruition?
Cemetery Gates is Laura’s baby so to speak, as she had already started on the book when I came onboard – circa February 2012. Needless to say I jumped at the chance to write about some of my favourite bands/musicians.
The book is split up in two parts. “The Saints” section describes the lives of dead rock stars and the “Survivors” section is about people who are still with us today despite having dabbled with the “rock’n’roll” lifestyle. Why did you chose this specific layout for the book and what does it signify?
As I say, the book’s format of Saints and Survivors was already in place. While I was writing the book, we discussed various options for the layout, but the two-sided format is the one that stuck as we felt it really points up the opposing themes of the book: life and death, hedonistic sinners and clean-living saints, madmen and functional members of society!
The book contains a lot of different characters coming from different backgrounds and ditto walks of life, ranging from party animals like Bon Scott and John Bonham to very troubled souls like Trent Reznor and Peter Steele. What is the common thread that ties them all together in your view?
Cemetery Gates certainly covers the whole spectrum from happy-go-lucky drinkers such as Bon Scott to the tormented Trent Reznor, but that’s what makes heavy metal so fascinating. As you say, the Saints and Survivors all came from differing backgrounds, but they’ve all been drawn to the dark side in some sense. Even kids like the Rev who enjoyed perfectly happy childhoods; even John Bonham – a beast of a man who was generally perceived to be the life of the party rather than the death of it like Pete Steele (his words, not mine). There’s no such thing as ‘normal’ in Cemetery Gates. There’s something a little fractured in the psyches of each . . .
Which person described in the book do you find the most tragic, and why?
While Dimebag Darrell being gunned down on stage was a senseless tragedy, I found Dead’s demise the most harrowing tale. I have to admit I find the whole story fascinating. Dead was obviously a deeply disturbed human being who wanted to die, but for his bandmates to photograph his body, use the prints as artwork, and take pieces of his skull for jewellery, sounds like something straight out of Edgar Allan Poe or H.P. Lovecraft.
Is there an underlying theme in the book? What do you want to achieve with Cemetery Gates?
The underlying theme in Cemetery Gates is undoubtedly ‘sex, drugs & rock’n’roll’, but we wanted to show that while some of the hell-raisers contained within were either unable or unwilling to pull back from the abyss, others were savvy enough to recognise they were living within the shadow of the Grim Reaper’s scythe and draw a line in the sand. Cemetery Gates also pays tribute to Ronnie James Dio and Dimebag Darrell, who were both taken from us before their time.
Large Portions of Cemetery Gates are based on/cite directly parts from books like The Heroin Diaries (Nikki Sixx), A Heavy Metal Memoir (Dave Mustaine), and Seven Deadly Sins (Corey Taylor). Why did you choose this method? What did you find enthralling about their books?
As many of our Survivors have put pen to paper recounting their hedonistic ways, it made sense to use their voices as it were. I’d already read – and own – many of these autobiographies, and yet while the underlying theme is sex, drugs & rock’n’roll, each one is different owing to the individual personalities. And of them all, for me, The Heroin Diaries is the ultimate blueprint for living fast and leaving a good-looking corpse and one can only wonder why Nikki isn’t Sixx feet under.
In the portraits of Varg Vikernes and Dead a book called Lords of Chaos is frequently cited. That book has drawn many criticisms from many contemporary members of the black metal scene for containing lots of mistakes and for being over sensationalistic. What are your thoughts on that?
I suppose any book depicting such a nihilistic picture is bound to draw criticism from certain quarters, and is it possible to over sensationalise the subject matter of church burnings, suicide and murder? Whether Lords of Chaos contains mistakes I can’t say, but we were careful to draw only from the interviews the authors conducted with Varg and others from the black metal scene which were then substantiated from other sources.
I do miss portraits of people like Al Jourgensen (Ministry), James Hetfield (Metallica), Phil Anselmo (Down/Pantera), Devin Townsend (Strapping Young Lad/Devin Townsend Band): All colourful people who struggled with addictions. Why did you choose people like Jimmy “The Rev” and Nikki Sixx over these aforementioned names?
Compiling the lists, and deciding who to include and omit, was perhaps the trickiest part of the editing process. True, Al Jourgensen and the others you mentioned have their own colourful tales. We also considered including the likes of Erik Danielsson (Watain) – but none of these personalities made it to the final cut. If memory serves, Jimmy ‘The Rev’ Sullivan was my suggestion as, apart from Jimmy being a talented guy, I felt we needed some younger talent to add to the mix – and of course, no book about hedonistic excess would be complete without Nikki. And who’s to say there won’t be a Cemetery Gates II further down the line?
There are many books out there that tackle the lifestyle and antics of rock and metal’s more notorious figureheads. What sets Cemetery Gates apart from the pack?
This is certainly true, and many of them are residing on my bookshelves. However, while Cemetery Gates divulges the debauchery and other deadly sins of those who wilfully lived every day as if it was their last, it also celebrates their musicianship.
Thank you for your time. Is there anything you’d like to say to the Ghost Cult Readership?
Aside from, ‘Please buy the book and tell all your friends about it’, I hope they enjoy the read, and we welcome their comments and critiques.
Raymond Westland