AMERICAN PSYCHO
In June of 1994, Bob Krasnow left Elektra due to a major corporate shakeup by The Warner Music Group, which owned the label.1 It was a huge loss to the industry, and an even bigger one for me. The new chairperson was Sylvia Rhone. Once she took over, I didn’t have that warm feeling working at Elektra that I had when Bob was there. I just said to myself, “I gotta get out of here.”
The only other place I knew of that had the same prestigious roster as Elektra, was Geffen. In late 1996, I met once again with the president of Geffen, Ed Rosenblatt, and he offered me back my A&R position at the label.
Did I love the idea of going back there? In theory, yes—I was a big fan of Ed’s, but the prospect wasn’t a huge thrill. Geffen is located in Los Angeles and because I didn’t drive, I didn’t swim, and I wasn’t going to move out there, it meant returning to the satellite office here in the city, which was not ideal. Many of the Geffen A&R executives in L.A. were pitted against each other. The egos were so fucking big and with me going back into the New York office, I could easily be forgotten. But I wasn’t going to let any of that get to me. I wasn’t looking to compete; I just wanted to do an awesome job.
Like Elektra, Geffen was a major label that operated as a boutique label. The A&R execs were very specific about their signings. There was never anything “run of the mill” about that label. They only signed the crème de la crème—artists like Cher, Sonic Youth, Nirvana, Guns N’ Roses, and White Zombie.
I was interested in the Misfits as early as 1983, when they played CBGB’s. At that point, in 1997 when I signed them, the album they would be recording would be their first on a major label. It would also be the first without their front man, Glenn Danzig. The landscape was seriously changing for them. They had to get a new singer and it was very hard to compete with Danzig—he was a founding member with Jerry Only and, as a singer, a true original.
They ended up going with a young musician and singer who looked the part, named Michael Graves. The band was now Michael, Jerry Only on bass, his brother Doyle on guitar, and drummer, Dr. Chud.
When I heard their new songs, I thought they were killer! They were all still inspired by horror movies, but I actually thought of the band as a pop band—not in the Top 40 pop band way, but their songs were sing-alongs and easy to remember.
The album was called American Psycho. It was produced by my dear friend Daniel Rey. Daniel had worked with the Ramones and Iggy Pop, and was a member of the band, The Masters of Reality, as well as being in the first band I ever signed, Shrapnel. Andy Wallace mixed the album and we hired him once again because of the previous work he had done for Slayer. The original painting on the album cover was by Basil Gogos, whose gorgeous renditions of such classic horror stars as Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney graced the covers of Famous Monsters of Filmland.
Initially, I think it sold about fifty thousand units, but honestly, the success (or non-success) of my records at Geffen had more to do with me being in a satellite office. I wasn’t in everybody’s face and the A&R people in the main office received preference.
It was clear that the staff wasn’t making American Psycho a top priority, and I could already feel they weren’t going to make a second studio album with the band. Geffen wasn’t supporting any of my projects financially so I decided to leave the label once again.
Before I left Geffen, I went with the Misfits on their first European tour. It was also the first time I met Drew Stone. Drew managed a small band called Subzero. He had asked the Misfits’ Jerry Only if Subzero could join them on tour, and Jerry agreed. All I remember about that tour was a lot of beer drinking and fighting. I was the one in most of those fights because once I started drinking, I turned into a bit of a fun-loving prick. Nonetheless, it was a very fortuitous thing that I met Drew on this tour.