BLACKIE LAWLESS has opened up about his decision to perform the rarely heard pre-W.A.S.P. song “Mr. Cool” during the band’s 1984 To Headless tour — admitting that the choice is deeply personal and saying: “I’m doing it, quite honestly, for me.”
Now this is the sort of deep cut that gets longtime fans properly interested.
W.A.S.P. are digging through decades of history for their 1984 To Headless tour, but Blackie Lawless isn’t stopping at the band’s official catalogue.
He’s heading back even further.
All the way to the years before W.A.S.P. existed.
The veteran frontman has decided to bring “Mr. Cool” into the live set, a song dating back to his pre-W.A.S.P. days and one carrying considerably more personal meaning than your average forgotten rarity.
And according to Blackie, this one isn’t about giving fans another obscure track to tick off the list.
It’s something he wants to play for himself.
🩸 ‘I’m Doing It, Quite Honestly, For Me’
Speaking about the decision to resurrect “Mr. Cool”, Lawless made the motivation refreshingly simple.
“I’m doing it, quite honestly, for me.”
That says plenty.
After more than four decades of W.A.S.P., Lawless has played some songs hundreds — possibly thousands — of times.
There are tracks audiences expect.
There are songs that simply cannot disappear from a W.A.S.P. show without somebody in the crowd becoming deeply upset.
But “Mr. Cool” comes from somewhere different.
This is Blackie reconnecting with a piece of his own musical history that existed before the records, before the worldwide tours and before the W.A.S.P. name became permanently stamped into heavy-metal culture.
Sometimes musicians deserve to put something into the set because they want to hear it again.
Fair play.
🎸 Before W.A.S.P. Became W.A.S.P.
W.A.S.P. might have exploded internationally during the 1980s, but Blackie Lawless’ musical story obviously didn’t begin with the band’s 1984 debut.
Like most musicians who eventually become successful, there were years of earlier groups, rehearsals, clubs, demos, abandoned ideas and songs that never found their way onto a major album.
Those formative years helped build the musician who eventually created W.A.S.P.
“Mr. Cool” comes from that earlier chapter.
And bringing it into a modern W.A.S.P. show effectively connects Blackie’s present directly back to the years when none of the fame had happened yet.
That’s pretty special.
🔥 The 1984 To Headless Tour Is Already A Trip Through History
The title of the tour tells you exactly what W.A.S.P. are celebrating.
1984 To Headless takes its inspiration from the extraordinary run between the band’s self-titled debut and The Headless Children.
And what a run that was.
W.A.S.P.
The Last Command.
Inside The Electric Circus.
The Headless Children.
That stretch contains some of the most recognisable songs in the band’s catalogue.
I Wanna Be Somebody.
L.O.V.E. Machine.
Wild Child.
Blind In Texas.
The Real Me.
The Headless Children.
That’s plenty of ammunition already.
Yet Lawless has decided the celebration shouldn’t begin in 1984.
He wants to acknowledge what came before.
🤘 Deep Cuts Make Anniversary Tours More Interesting
Anniversary tours can sometimes become dangerously predictable.
Everyone knows what’s coming.
The lights go down.
The classic songs get played.
The audience goes home happy.
Nothing wrong with that.
But throwing something like “Mr. Cool” into proceedings changes the atmosphere.
For longtime fans, it’s genuine history.
For newer fans, it’s probably something they’ve never heard before.
And for Lawless?
It appears to be a chance to revisit a younger version of himself.
That emotional connection is considerably more interesting than simply saying:
“We needed another song because the set was five minutes short.”
🕰️ Imagine Playing Something You Wrote Before Everything Changed
Think about that for a moment.
Imagine creating a song when you’re still trying to establish yourself.
No platinum records.
No giant stages.
No international fanbase.
No iconic logo.
Then decades later, you’re performing that same piece of music in front of fans who know your entire career.
The song hasn’t changed.
But absolutely everything surrounding it has.
That must be a strange feeling.
Songs can become little time machines like that.
You play the opening chord and suddenly memories come rushing back.
Old rehearsal rooms.
Old bandmates.
Old clubs.
A version of yourself that existed before your entire life changed.
For Lawless, “Mr. Cool” appears to carry some of that weight.
🎤 Blackie Has Always Been Protective Of W.A.S.P.’s History
Lawless has frequently spoken at length about different chapters of the W.A.S.P. story.
He remembers details.
He remembers why songs were written.
He remembers recording sessions.
He remembers the ideas behind album covers and stage productions.
And whether you agree with every decision he’s made over the years or not, it’s obvious that the legacy matters enormously to him.
The band’s early catalogue isn’t simply a collection of old songs to wheel out for nostalgia.
For Blackie, those albums represent chapters of his life.
Going even further backwards to something like “Mr. Cool” pushes that idea to its natural conclusion.
💀 W.A.S.P. Were Completely Unhinged In The ’80s
And what a journey followed those early years.
When W.A.S.P. arrived in the 1980s, subtlety was not exactly part of the plan.
Blood.
Fire.
Chains.
Raw meat.
Exploding stage props.
Saw-blade imagery.
Enough controversy to keep American parent groups occupied for years.
W.A.S.P. quickly became one of the most notorious bands associated with the Los Angeles metal explosion.
But underneath all the theatrical chaos were actual songs.
Big ones.
Lawless had a knack for combining heavy guitars with enormous melodies and choruses built for audiences to scream back at him.
That songwriting ability is why the material survived long after the shock tactics stopped being shocking.
🖤 Then W.A.S.P. Got Darker
By the time The Headless Children arrived in 1989, W.A.S.P. had evolved dramatically.
The band hadn’t abandoned the heaviness.
But the songwriting became darker, broader and increasingly serious.
The record explored themes far removed from the wild image that had initially introduced W.A.S.P. to the world.
That evolution eventually led into The Crimson Idol, one of Lawless’ most ambitious and personal works.
Which makes a tour celebrating everything from 1984 through The Headless Children fascinating.
You’re essentially watching a band grow up in real time.
From leather-clad chaos merchants to something much more reflective.
🎶 ‘Mr. Cool’ Adds Another Chapter
Including a pre-W.A.S.P. song effectively adds a prologue.
Before I Wanna Be Somebody.
Before Animal (Fk Like A Beast)**.
Before Wild Child.
Before MTV.
Before arena tours.
There was simply Blackie Lawless trying to make music.
That’s where “Mr. Cool” lives.
And bringing it back now gives fans a tiny glimpse into the DNA that eventually became W.A.S.P.
🎸 Fans Love Getting Something They Never Expected
There’s also something brilliantly old-school about a band unexpectedly dusting off an obscure song.
In the streaming era, virtually everything is available instantly.
Setlists appear online within minutes.
Someone has filmed the entire gig before you’ve even reached the car park.
Surprises are increasingly difficult.
So hearing the opening notes of something you genuinely didn’t expect can be magic.
You get that moment where hardcore fans look at each other and go:
“Hang on…
Is this what I think it is?!”
That’s worth a lot.
🔥 Blackie Playing Something For Himself Is Probably Healthy Too
There’s another side to Lawless’ comment that’s worth appreciating.
Musicians spend their careers performing for audiences.
They play what fans expect.
They play the hits.
They meet contractual obligations.
They repeat the songs everyone wants to hear.
After decades of doing that, surely you’re allowed one song simply because you bloody fancy playing it.
If “Mr. Cool” reconnects Lawless with something important from his youth, then stick it in the set.
The crowd might discover something.
Blackie gets something personally meaningful out of performing it.
Everybody wins.
🤘 THE RIFF REPORT VERDICT
We love this.
Not because “Mr. Cool” is suddenly going to replace Wild Child as everybody’s favourite W.A.S.P. song.
That isn’t the point.
The interesting part is why Blackie Lawless wants to perform it.
After decades of touring, platinum albums, controversy, triumphs, losses and everything else that comes with spending most of your adult life in a rock band, he wants to reconnect with something from before any of that existed.
There’s something beautifully simple about his explanation:
“I’m doing it, quite honestly, for me.”
Good.
After more than 40 years of giving audiences W.A.S.P., Blackie Lawless has earned the right to put one song in the set purely because it means something to him.
And for fans lucky enough to hear it?
You’re not simply getting an obscure deep cut.
You’re getting a glimpse at the music that existed before W.A.S.P. became W.A.S.P.
Turn it up.
Dig deep.
And let Blackie enjoy this one.
Sometimes the best songs in a set aren’t there because everybody demanded them — they’re there because the bloke holding the microphone needed to play them again. 🩸🔥🤘
