Blackie Lawless
Blackie Lawless was born in Staten Island, New York, United States on September 4th, 1956 and is the Guitarist. At the age of 67, Blackie Lawless biography, profession, age, height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, measurements, education, career, dating/affair, family, news updates, and networth are available.
At 67 years old, Blackie Lawless has this physical status:
Blackie Lawless (born Steven Edward Duren) is an American singer and guitarist best known as the lead singer and rhythm guitarist (formerly bassist) for the heavy metal band W.A.S.P.
Early life
Duren was born in Tampa, Florida, and raised in Staten Island, New York City. He was raised in a fundamentalist Baptist upbringing but has also claimed Jewish descent.
He has said he was "very active" in church as a youth and was born again at age 11. Duren departed from the church and became interested in the occult in his late teens. Although he only studied occultism for a brief period before deciding against it, he continued to explore occultism's themes until his return to the Christian faith in recent years.
He has ancestry from Ireland, French, and Native American (his mother is one-quarter Blackfoot). He is the nephew of late Major League Baseball pitcher Ryne Duren. Lawless's intention was to pursue a career in baseball; but, he ultimately went for music. He cites his older brother with his introduction to the guitar.
Career
Lawless began his career in music playing with bands such as Black Rabbit and Orfax Rainbow. In 1975, after Johnny Thunders left the glam rock band New York Dolls in the middle of a tour of Florida, the band started auditioning for guitarists. Lawless was hired but only stayed for the remainder of the tour. After the tour, he went to California with bassist Arthur Kane and helped found Killer Kane. At that time, Lawless' stage name was "Blackie Goozeman" as stated on the back of Killer Kane's only EP. About a year later Kane returned to New York City but Lawless decided to stay in West Los Angeles. In 1976, he formed Sister, which also featured future W.A.S.P. guitarist Randy Piper. Around 1978, a new lineup was assembled which included Nikki Sixx as bassist and Lizzie Grey on guitar. Later, Chris Holmes joined.
Lawless later formed a band called Circus Circus in 1979, with Piper again appearing in the lineup. In 1981, following Circus Circus' failure, Lawless joined Lizzie Grey and Nikki Sixx's band London, with whom he played a few gigs and recorded two songs as demos, though by this time Sixx had already departed to form Mötley Crüe. In 1982, Lawless switched to bass guitar and along with Randy Piper formed W.A.S.P. The lineup was soon completed with Chris Holmes on lead guitar and Tony Richards on drums.
W.A.S.P. underwent numerous lineup changes, with Lawless being the last remaining original member and chief songwriter. Many of his songs tend to deal with religious or apocalyptic themes, due to his Christian upbringing. Lawless has stated in recent interviews that he has returned to the Christian faith and considers himself a born-again Christian.
Lawless cites influences which include AC/DC, Black Sabbath, the Beatles, Kiss, and Alice Cooper.
His stage theatrics were influenced by Alice Cooper and Kiss, and he often imitated Gene Simmons and/or Paul Stanley very closely during his performances.
W.A.S.P. was no stranger to controversy, and Lawless found himself defending heavy metal music against a cadre of politicians (and their wives) in the mid-1980s. But beyond headlines and drama, W.A.S.P. enjoyed their biggest run of success during this period, releasing several singles over three albums from 1985 to 1988, the best known of these being "L.O.V.E. Machine", "I Wanna Be Somebody", and "Wild Child".
W.A.S.P. was also heavily under scrutiny specifically for their single "Animal (F**k Like a Beast)", led by P.M.R.C. lyric watchdogs.