How W.A.S.P. Got SO POPULAR...

The story of how Blackie Lawless and his outfit W.A.S.P. got so popular

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WASP outraged parents, religious groups and received death and bomb threats in the process. At the same time, they delighted people who witnessed their stage spectacles. Led by imposing frontman Blackie Lawless who stands at 6feet 4” tall, the group’s 80’s era albums represented a commercial high water mark for the group. In today’s video, let’s talk about the unusual rise of WASP.
The beginning of the WASP’s history starts with Blackie Lawless who was born Steven Edward Duren in Florida. He was raised in Staten Island, and in his younger years he befriended future kiss guitarist ace frehley. Duren was brought up in a fundamentalist baptist household telling USA Today “My father was a Sunday school superintendent, my grandfather was the head deacon of the church, and my grandfather was a preacher. When the doors opened, I was there. I was "indoctrinated". You're told what to think. I was in the church freely until the age of 18, and when I left the church I REALLY left. I went and practiced the occult for three years. At the end of that time, I discovered that was just another organized religion. In the same interview with USA today he had jewish ancestry..
As for how he got the name Blackie Lawless ,he’d get the name, at least the first part at the age of 13. He’d tell Eddie I know everybody in that band trunk that his mother worked for the USo during world war 2 and she was a professional dancer. She once went to a service club and a guy one night went up to one of the sailors, took a switchblade and stabbed the guy. He remarked ""He took a switchblade and he stuck it in the guy in his stomach and walked around the guy with the blade in him, so he did a circle around his body. And I heard that story, and it left a lasting impression," he explains. "So with the color of the hair and all, it just stuck. It's been with me ever since." As for the name Lawless there was a player for the football team the Dallas Cowboys who was an all-pro center named Burton Lawless. He loved that the jersey of the guy said lawless on it.”
Lawless uncle was late Major League Baseball pitcher Ryne Duren who played for a variety of teams including the new york yankees. Lawless at one point even considered a career in baseball thanks to having a good throwing arm. In the book nothin but a good time photographer Don Adkins recalled how Lawless told him he had a 99mph fastball and got drafted to play for the farm team of the Detroit Tigers. But by the mid 70’s he got an offer to join the group the new york dolls and left baseball. However in an interview with Loudersound, Lawless would clarify it was actually a stint with the cincinnati reds farm team. In a separate interview with rough edge magazine lawless claimed he still suffers from a baseball injury, a torn tendon in his elbow.
It wasn’t just baseball that caught lawless attention as he told the Edmonton Journal that had he not been a musician he might have went into advertising as he was always fascinated by marketoing. Meanwhile he’d tell a dayton ohio paper that in his mind the three best jobs in the world were being presidents of the United States, being boxing heavyweight champion and being a rock n’ roll musician. He’d meet boxer Mohammed Ali, crediting the athlete with inspiring his onstage footwork.
Lawless had a short stint in the iconic glam band, New York Dolls joining the group briefly in 1975 after guitarist Johnny Thunders left the group mid-tour. The Dolls taught Lawless how not to be famous remarking to the journal “They were the only band I know of, that could sit at an airport terminal and miss 5 planes in a row. One member was drinking 13 quarts of liquor a day and well let’s just say dolls were five guys trying to be jim morrison and succeeding. A lot of his early media interviews placed a large emphasis of his time in the new york dolls, but for Lawless the best thing that came out of the stint, was that it got him from the East Coast to LA.
Lawless formed the group Sister In 1976, which also featured future W.A.S.P. guitarist Randy Piper. Now I wanna say that the biography that WASP’s future label C