Misfits, Samhain and Danzig founder Glenn Danzig has released his new album, a collection of Elvis Presley covers. The rock veteran, whose vocal style has occasionally garnered him the nickname The Evil Elvis, previously included a version of Presley’s 1958 track ‘Trouble’ on Danzig’s 1993 release ‘Thrall-Demonstrative’, as well as a cover of 1968’s ‘Let Yourself Go’ on his 2015 covers album ‘Skeletons’.
He had planned to perform a number of intimate, all-Elvis shows to support the release, however those have now been cancelled due to the coronavirus crisis, with rescheduled dates promised.
It’s Danzig’s first release since 2017’s ‘Black Laden Crown’, while in February he released his directorial debut, the horror anthology Verotika, which garnered comparisons to Tommy Wiseau’s so-bad-it’s-good classic The Room.
As Vulture reported of a Q+A after the film’s premiere, Danzig told fans: “You guys laughed at the stuff I wouldn’t have laughed at.”
“Anytime someone mentions my name and Elvis’ name in the same sentence, that’s great. It doesn’t get better than that,” he said.
“When I was younger, everybody knew who Elvis was. I got into Elvis because I hated going to school, so I would play hooky a lot or cut school, and I’d stay home and watch old movies. I remember one day watching Jailhouse Rock. And just going, “Whoa.” By the end of the movie, I was like, “This guy’s cool. This is what I want to do.”
As previously mentioned, The Evil Elvis has covered some of Presley’s hits in the past, and it’s possible to find audio, from as far back as 1978, of the Misfits playing a bit of “Blue Christmas” live at Max’s Kansas City. It makes sense that Danzig might have come to see Presley as a kind of kindred lunatic. Though Presley’s music sounds relatively benign now, it was also once considered a threat to polite society.
