Cliff Burton Spinal Tap Moment: Blackie Lawless from W.A.S.P. Joins Meltdown!
I recently had the pleasure of interviewing a childhood hero of mine, Blackie Lawless from W.A.S.P. In the course of talking, we got on the subject of Spinal Tap.
Blackie had his own “Tap” story for me about an early tour with Metallica. He said the bands would switch off headlining every other night. One night, they were playing a VFW hall, no one got soundcheck and the dressing rooms were in the basement. He said it was like a maze down in the area where they were.
He told me this was a night that W.A.S.P. was closing the show, and as he prepared while shaving in his dressing room, “I hear Metallica’s intro tape start to roll…and the door comes flying open. I’m shaving. I’m looking in the mirror. I got the razor to my throat, and I look behind me, and there’s Cliff, standing there with his bass on…and he doesn’t know how to get to the stage. ‘Blackie, Blackie, how do you get to the stage?'” At this point, he hadn’t been to the stage either, so he didn’t know what to tell Cliff. Blackie went on to say that Cliff thought he was busting his chops. He told him he didn’t know, to which Cliff responded, “Screw you, Blackie!” He said it was about another two minutes until he heard the bass kick in on the stage above him. Hysterical story……so Spinal Tap!
Check out the entire interview here…
