My Interview With Jerry Only of The Misfits
Sitting in the dressing room, Jerry Only was hospitable and very kind. My friend and I sat down and after we introduced ourselves, I explained to him what I was doing here. We then got down to business and the first thing we discussed was what was in store for the Misfits in the future. I asked him if fans should be expecting the Misfits to be slowing down any time soon and he quickly replied that no such thing will be happening. He then went on to tell me that the Misfits are working on a new album and they already have tours all over the world lined up for them to take the world by storm. He went on to say that the goal is to expand their horizons in terms of their music and try to fade away from the old songs that everyone is familiar with.
We then moved on to a more trivial topic but a topic that is on everyone’s minds. Some Misfit fans who have been following their legacy since the beginning feel as though new fans are posers and don’t deserve to be sharing the same airspace as the Misfits, which leads to a rift in their fan-base. Only laughed when I told him about this and said that maybe instead of pushing new fans away, they should try and embrace them and take them under their wing. “They should be showing the young Misfit fans the ropes and enjoy this experience together“. I then went on to ask him what was the most rewarding thing for him and he simply replied “This Interview”. Needless to say I was taken back and expressed that what he said meant a lot to me. He elaborated that it was because he was enjoying the kinds of questions that I was asking since I wasn’t simply trying to bring up controversial stuff that many other interviewers do. He went on talking about how being in this sort of business means you really have to learn how to deal with peoples bullshit and that having an education is extremely important.
I asked him if he finds himself able to live a pretty normal life when he goes back home and he said that “it’s no problem at all“. He then talked about how much he misses his family and especially his little girl when he is out on the road. Though he said that he is also very lucky because he has a lot of his family who are part of the Misfits crew, therefore he gets to work with them and be around them. For him the Misfits has turned into another family business. I then asked him what were some of his favourite songs to play live and he replied, “The new ones! After playing ‘Astro Zombies’ for almost 33 years it gets old, but it’s what the kids really want to hear so we play it” explained Only. He also explained that their set is organized in chronological order. “Every show I can’t wait till we get to ‘Monkey’s Paw’ because we have such a good time playing it” said Only of the new song.
As my final question I asked him if he could give one piece of advice for young artists who are looking for their big break what would it be? He responded in a realistic fashion stating that they need to have a back up plan. “People need to have a career before they go into a business like music” explained Only. He believes that without an education and a career, being in the music industry could be the end of you. He continued to say that people and record labels will try to exploit you and that if you don’t want to be manipulated you need to know everything and do research. “What’s worse than no record deal is a bad record deal” was Jerry Only’s humble conclusion.
We shook hands and said our momentary goodbyes for we would be seeing each other in a few hours when the Misfits brought Halloween to Montreal.
-Interview Conducted by Roya Manuel-
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