~A chat with former SAMHAIN drummer, Steve Zing~

October 17, 1997
(Undisclosed location)
Lodi, NJ

"Steve Zing" - Yes, the same Steve Zing that my musical cohorts and I had continually praised for the great drumming on Samhain's "Initium" record. Though we knew of a few other records he had appeared on, he was pretty much a man of mystery to me, until I had the pleasure of meeting him in person in Lodi, New Jersey; where he agreed to answer a few of my questions, so now, read on and discover much more about the man behind the kit, Steve Zing.

As the interview begins, Steve comments on finding Misfits Central..

SZ: ..I went under punk rock and it had "Misfits", and I went up and clicked on it and it happened to be Mark's (Kennedy) and I go "oh this is really cool, I really enjoyed your page here.." and he emails me back like "Who?.. you're who?" so I'm like..

TV: I guess he was sitting there going "yeah right.."

SZ: Aahhh...but Mark is really cool...he's - I feel bad for him because he really takes a lot of shit from people.

TV: Yeah, he has a great site too. When I created mine, I had seen all of the copies of MISFITS CENTRAL and the HORROR HOTEL, so I made it a point to try and stay away from all of the same graphics and images that you see everywhere. He (Mark) does have a very in-depth site; there's just so much stuff on there.

SZ: Yeah he does, you know, but yours is kind of original. You really..

TV: You've been there?

SZ: Yeah..Yeah, you're researching these things, and so....it's cool.

TV: Whew! Thanks...well, can I hit you with some questions?

SZ: Sure, go ahead.

TV: I've got a page of them, but they're all pretty simple.

SZ: Alright.

TV: Ok..what instruments do you play?

SZ: I play drums, guitar and piano. I started guitar when I was about five, and I quickly had to stop that because I didn't have the patience for it. I started piano lessons. I took two years of that, and that I had no patience for either. Then, when I was in eighth grade, this kid had a set of drums in his garage and he didn't want them anymore, so my mother bought them for me, and I taught myself - that was it. I thought "hey, this is pretty fun" I mean, why I really started was because I used to listen to the MISFITS practice where.. of course you've seen Jerry and Doyle's old house..

TV: No, I had a source for the old address, but I left for New Jersey before I got it.

SZ: Oh, you didn't see where they used to live?

TV: No.

SZ: Come on, we're on the move.

TV: Alright!

At this point, Steve starts the car and takes us on a tour of the town, showing us Jerry's old house and the infamous garage where it all started. When the conversation resumes, we arrive at one of Steve's former residences as he recounts an early morning fire..

SZ: ..and the place was in flames. They rebuilt it now, but we lost everything. It was right over there (pointing to the building)...the third door. We lost everything. We barely got out alive.

TV: Incredible. How did you get to be the drummer for SAMHAIN anyway?

SZ: The guy who helped me produce "Mourning Noise", he was the same guy who produced pretty much everything from "Horror Business" to right before "Walk Among Us". He's an older guy who never liked his name mentioned for certain reasons, but Glenn was good friends with him, and I was good friends with this guy. I would go by this guy's house and Glenn would always be there. I got to be friends with Glenn because Glenn didn't have a car, and I would drive him around to pick up albums, drop off artwork for t-shirts and stuff like that. Well, one night, I get this call from Glenn and he told me that he had just had their (MISFITS) last show, and he said he wasn't gonna do it anymore - it just wasn't working anymore. So I said, "You'll do fine." and he says, "Well, how would you like to start a band with me?" I'm like - "Let's go!". So it was him and I, and he would come over to my apartment, where I showed you, and we'd set up in the bedroom. At the time, Glenn had flown down to Washington DC a few times to play with the guys from MINOR THREAT.

TV: Yeah, Lyle Preslar and Brian Baker.

SZ: Yeah, that didn't work out. In fact, somewhere, I have those rehersal tapes, and I have the stuff that I did in my bedroom too, just him (Glenn) and I, like this country-punk song.

TV: Oh, you're teasing me now.

SZ: So we started like that. He (Glenn) was like: "Eerie (Von) should be in the band - Eerie should be on bass." like that. So, we knew Eerie was in, and that was that. He (Glenn) just happened to be a mutual friend because I took him around and stuff like that, and we just got to know each other. In fact, he drew the "MOURNING NOISE" cover for us.

TV: Oh really?

SZ: Yeah, that was just one of the ways he repaid me for taking him to Long Island to pick up records.

TV: So, he did a lot of the artwork himself?

SZ: Well, all of the MISFITS stuff except for the stuff by "Mad" Marc Rude.

TV: Yeah, "Earth A.D.". So, he did the SAMHAIN covers?

SZ: He did everything.

TV: Wow, pretty interesting. I didn't know that. Ok, what about the other bands you were in, before SAMHAIN?

SZ: MOURNING NOISE. That's it.

TV: That's the extent of it?

SZ: Yeah, that's it. I never played in anything else. It was always a punk band. I never did anything else. Right before MOURNING NOISE was a band called IMPLOSION, which was basically the same members (as MOURNING NOISE). See, we idolized the MISFITS from the very beginning. The singer from MOURNING NOISE lived right across the street from Jerry and Doyle, on that street. So when we wrote songs, it was very MISFITS-influenced because that's all we used to hear, you know, and there would be times when Glenn would go: "Hey, that song sounds like one of ours".

TV: Duh!

SZ: (Laughing) Yeah!

TV: As far the other MISFITS and the guys in the other related bands go, let's see, you know CHUD, you went to school with CHUD, you went to school with Doyle, you went to school with Eerie. Was there anyone else in your class that particular year?

SZ: That had anything to do with this? No.

TV: All those guys were in the same class, but Glenn's what - about nine years older than you, right?

SZ: (Laughing) Something like that.

TV: I just got his (senior) picture today.

SZ: Did you?

TV: Yeah, look. (I pull out the Danzig yearbook photo)

SZ: Oh man! That's amazing!

TV: As soon as I saw it, I knew.

SZ: Yeah, that's the one that says what, he wants to be a shop teacher or something?

TV: That's hillarious. It's amazing, I looked at him and knew in an instant, but didn't he have really short hair in some of the earlier MISFITS shows? Did he just buzz that stuff off or what?

SZ: Well, yeah. You know, Glenn was very heavily into BLACK SABBATH.

TV: Uh-huh. That tie really did it for me.

SZ: (laughing) Oh man, it was funny.

TV: Let's see, who else? Bobby (Steele) lived over in ummmm...Teaneck, didn't he?

SZ: No, Bobby grew up in New Milford.

TV: Oh, he was born in Teaneck, I think.

SZ: I met Bobby of course through the MISFITS, when I used to go there and watch them rehearse. Bobby was very fucked up. Of course, when he was kicked out of the MISFITS, the same mutual friend that Glenn and I had, was also a friend of Bobby's and had put up the money for the "Nine Toes Later" UNDEAD record. When "MOURNING NOISE" recorded our 45, this mutual friend asked Bobby if he would come down and play some lead guitar for us, and which he did. At that point in 1982, Bobby Steele calls me and says-"My drummer O.D.'d..I need you to fill in temporarily, can you do it?". Well, temporary lasted four years and I'm doing MOURNING NOISE, SAMHAIN, and the Undead all at once.

TV: Haha!

SZ: It got to the point where of course MOURNING NOISE - you knew that was gonna end because I had no time for that. Glenn hated me playing in the UNDEAD because he didn't like Bobby, but Bobby was paying seventy-five bucks a show and it was like: "Yeah! this is great!". You know, I did that on and off and then finally, I couldn't even do Bobby anymore because we went on the road and everything. Then, after I got off the road, I'd go back and do the same thing with Bobby. So Bobby would work his schedule around me. It was really messed up. Finally in 1986 I had to say "Bobby, I can't do it anymore." because he was crazy - not all there.

TV: Well, you've answered a lot of my questions in advance. I had here "How did you meet Glenn?", but..

SZ: ..through the mutual friend.

TV: Yeah, you'd go to this guy's house and he (Glenn) was always there.

SZ: That's right.

TV: Let's see, I have to ask..Was he (Glenn) very controlling when it came to the writing the stuff in SAMHAIN ?

SZ: 100 percent.

TV: Did he write the music and say "This is how I want the drums to go, and this is how I want the guitar to go.

SZ: Pretty much, and he did that in DANZIG and he did that in the MISFITS. He was right. You know, in a way, Glenn taught me a lot. I would have been more successful with CHYNA had I been more like Glenn at that point, because in a situation like that, you have to be controlling. Where as right now, Jerry is the controlling one there. No doubt about it.

TV: Right.

SZ: You know, you need somebody to be controlling. Unfortunately, Glenn was sometimes a little too, you know, overpowering. But Glenn knew what he wanted.

TV: I'd have to agree. He's an amazing talent.

SZ: He definately is.

TV: You've given me so much additional information that I'll have to pick through and pass over the ones you've already answered.

SZ: (laughing) Sorry!

TV: We talked about this before, but I didn't record it. Why did you leave SAMHAIN ?

SZ: Well, it was a real weird time. SAMHAIN was, you know, it was just - at that point - a hard band to break out to the next level. I think Glenn was frustrated, we were all frustrated, and at that point musically, I wanted to do more, and because of the controlling situation, I wasn't allowed to. So, I needed more. I had started recording some other things with some friends and doing different things. It just got to be where there was too much of a power struggle. It just didn't feel right to do, and that was it.

TV: And what year was that?

SZ: Eighty-five. Ooooh..I feel old.

TV: Hey, these fans - when they're born in the eighties, that kind of makes ME feel old. In fact, I'll be twenty-four in forty-five minutes.

SZ: Alright man! Well happy birthday!

TV: Well, thanks!

SZ: That's great..If I'd have known it was coming, I would have baked a cake!

TV: (laughing) OH No!!!!

SZ: A few years ago, I went to NINE INCH NAILS / DAVID BOWIE concert with the singer from MOURNING NOISE, who I'm very good friends with. He's a big DAVID BOWIE fan, and we were standing there, and we've got these kids saying to each other: "Hey, what song did DAVID BOWIE have? " and he's flipping out going "I can't believe this!" I said to him, Mike (Mansfield), the average kid here is 16 years old. DAVID BOWIE's last big hit was "Let's Dance" and that was in '83. So if this kid's 16, and it's 1995, look when the kid was born! ". He doesn't know. He was two years old when that came out!

TV: I think back...and wonder..what was I doing back in '76 and '77 when all of this stuff was happening?

SZ: Yeah, it was a great time, it was a real weird time because it was so unaccepted that it made it that much better. Now, you turn on the radio and you hear GREEN DAY, and it's standard. Where, back then, you wouldn't even think of hearing anything like that. To see somebody walk around with different color hair, do weird things - that was totally off the wall, where now, basically anything goes. So it made it that much better.

TV: Yeah, like my bit of good Karma today. I came out of the high school, had Glenn's picture, I get in the truck, first thing I hear is "Mother"! It's on the radio, it's really weird.

SZ: Oh man, that's odd!

TV: So where did you guys practice, I mean as the full band? I know you said earlier that you and Glenn recorded things in your bedroom..

SZ: Right, sometimes we played in my bedroom, but mostly we rehearsed in Eerie's basement.

TV: Did Eerie live right close here in town somewhere, or was he..

SZ: You didn't see where Eerie lived?

TV: No.

SZ: Let's go !

TV: Here we go again, we're going on another expedition. I love this! Are you sure you don't mind doing this?

SZ: Not at all.

TV: Humor a kid from out of state you know.

TV: Well, thanks for the tour!

SZ: Not a problem, not a problem. (reaching into the console, Steve produces a handfull of CD's.) Here, this is a CHYNA sampler.

TV: Thanks very much. Ok, now where do we go? Oh yeah, the first SAMHAIN show - where did you guys play?

SZ: Rock Hotel.

TV: Where's that?

SZ: It was in New York, in the James Street Hotel. They had a big ballroom - it was basically like a welfare hotel, but the ballroom was really big and it was really beautiful. They used to rent it out and that was our first show. It was really interesting because, it was sold out, but the kids really didn't know what to expect. It was really weird. I'll never forget that. We even got a hotel room.

TV: Did you?

SZ: Well, I don't know that it was anything (nice).

TV: Let's see, what about bands between SAMHAIN and CHYNA ? Did you do anything besides the reunion (with MOURNING NOISE)?

SZ: I played with the UNDEAD for a little bit, that was about it. When I started doing CHYNA, I was actually playing drums, but because I was writing the songs, it was easier to find a drummer than it was a singer.

TV: Where did you get the name CHYNA ?

SZ: I don't know. I didn't come up with the name. It's just..I don't know. I really don't know where it came from. Somebody in the band came up with it for some reason, and we're like "What the ??????".

TV: (laughing) You're not gonna argue with it, eh? Try it?

SZ: Yeah, let's go with it you know..

TV: So no big mystery like...

SZ: No, no.

TV: ..like song titles from the MISFITS - "Well we got this from this particular movie, and this.."

SZ: Naahhhh..

TV: You know about this neverending "138" saga? Well, I went out and bought that movie, "THX1138", and it was boring! If Glenn watched this stuff, he must have really not had a life.

SZ: (laughing) Yeah, It was weird that Glenn never told me what that was about.

TV: As far as reading the lyrics, and then watching the movie, I can only gather that it's about the film.

SZ: But the thing is, he told me the lyrics are wrong.

TV: (expressing surprise) Oh geez!

SZ: He insisted that Jerry came up with those lyrics for the box set, and they're wrong. But then again, you just don't know.

TV: Ok, let's work on some CHYNA stuff. When did you guys officially get together as CHYNA?

SZ: About five years ago, Me and the guy that plays keyboards, Joe (Jay), who was our roadie for SAMHAIN, AND he took the cover (photo) for Initium for that album..

TV: Took the pictures, eh?

SZ: Took the pictures, and he used to drive the truck for us and sell our t-shirts. Joe was real good. Joe used to drive 12 to 14 hours straight. Just that type of person that could handle that.

TV: So, how many (CHYNA) albums do you have now?

SZ: The one that's coming out in a couple of weeks will be the second one.

TV: Now, on the CHYNA website, there's two - there's one just like an Ep, I mean, it's not a full album.

SZ: The one I just gave you is the Ep.

TV: Okay.

SZ: So, two and a half.(laughing)

TV: I'm just trying to be sure. The one with all the "negative people" - is this you guys?

SZ: That's "us guys".

TV: What happened to the hair, by the way? (referring to Steve's once past-shoulder length locks)

SZ: Mine? I cut it. Actually, it was real long and I said "I'll cut it". I get bored.

TV: Nice picture there. I think it was the "Meet the band members" section of the page. All I see is glasses and hair! Well, and a microphone.

SZ: You know, I gotta check that webpage out, because one of the guys in the band runs it, and I haven't been on it in probably a year. I don't know what's on it, because I just don't have the time to look at things like that, like I should.

TV: You touched on this earlier - what's the current status of the SAMHAIN box set?

SZ: Speaking to Glenn last week, he told me that he just got out of his whole deal with Rick Rubin and Def American Records, so now that that's done, he can go forward with everything. Hopefully within a few months. He's already hired artists to do covers and stuff like that.

TV: I think you posted something (on the MISFITS BIBLE) about that a while back.

SZ: Yeah, he wants to get it out.

TV: So, this is just one of those things where, rather than have the box set tied up with more legal crap later on..

SZ: ..he just wanted to make sure everything was clear.

TV: Good deal. Now, about you - have you lived here all your life?

SZ: All my life. Still living here.

TV: Well, nothing's wrong with that. Doesn't Franche` (Coma) still live here?

SZ: Yeah, Franche` still lives here.

TV: CHUD still lives here..

SZ: (Mr.) Jim still lives here. It's a cool town. It's got everything you want, a Burger King, a K-Mart - what more could you ask!

TV: Oh yeah! (laughing) You asked about these (sideburns) earlier as well - one of my user-IDs was "REDNECK", just from previously living in Alabama, and these things (grabs sideburns) everybody makes fun of it you know.

SZ: Well, Look at the KENTUCKY HEADHUNTERS!

TV: Oh there you go. Mine aren't anywhere NEAR that cool. Actually, these were inspired by ELVIS. I'm a huge ELVIS fan.

SZ: Me too! I love ELVIS !

TV: He just had a way with those things. They just looked so cool on him. Nobody else could make them look that cool. Well, I was going to ask you for some interesting stories, but I've gotten plenty of those, like the one with Jerry almost getting knocked in the pool.

SZ: Yeah.

TV: Very interesting.

SZ: Me and Eerie went to see him in the hospital and we brought him PLAYBOY magazines.

TV: So that truck just ran a stop sign? It was a dump truck, didn't you say?

SZ: No, it was a soda truck.

TV: So, what became of the car? I guess it was totalled, eh?

SZ: Oh yeah - there was nothing left of that car.

TV: Was it relatively new or a classic car?

SZ: Yeah, it was relatively new. Maybe a year old.

TV: Ooohhh...boy.

SZ: Yep. Beautiful car.

TV: It didn't have spikes on it, did it? (compared to Doyle's spiked Blazer)

SZ: No spikes. Just the bat.

TV: Just the bat. Was it painted on? Was it something..

SZ: Rocky did it. It was done in pinstriping. I don't know how he did it, but it was really cool.

TV: Alright, where were we? I noticed that Mark (Kennedy) has a picture on his site of this comic book that has the SAMHAIN skull on it. Is that where it came from? Do you know?

SZ: You're talking about where the skull came from? That I don't know. Glenn just happened to come up with that, you know. He just said "Well, this is what we're gonna use." and that's it.

TV: Mark tells me you have quite an extensive collection of MISFITS, SAMHAIN, and DANZIG stuff - even KISS?

SZ: Oh yeah.

TV: Big KISS fan, eh?

SZ: You know, before the MISFITS, it was KISS. It was a whole visual thing and that was besides the music. The music was very important of course with the MISFITS, because I mean, I idolized Glenn. I would sit and watch them rehearse and go "I'm gonna play with this guy someday." and 'boom!'. Sometimes when you wish for something, you really get it. My collection is, yes, very big. Not so much bootleg stuff, which I do have also, but real stuff. A few "Beware"(s), a few original "Cough/Cool"(s)..

TV: Ahhhhhhh! That's where they are!

SZ: (laughing) ..and they're all in a safe.

TV: Where was that picture on the front of "Cough/Cool" taken?

SZ: That was, I believe, Jerry's basement. It was just like plastic they had put up. Have you noticed the earring? If you look on the cover of "Cough/Cool" and you look at Jerry's ear, his earring was..

TV: A beer tab?

SZ: Yeah, the pulltab. That was like 'punk' you know.

TV: Sure, I'll go look at mine when I get home - yeah, right, though I stumbled across a "Beware" 12inch not too long ago..

SZ: A real one?

TV: Yeah, I didn't pay a whole lot for it, but I've been talking to Mark about it. Somebody told me that on the really good bootleg, you can tell. The gray area where the pixels go from white to black, it's really fuzzy looking, but mine is well-defined.

SZ: I had one Glenn gave me, Doyle gave me, and one I had bought for $4.99 when it first came out.

TV: WOW!

SZ: Then of course, I owned this. In the boxset, there's this picture with Glenn dressed up as a skeleton, there's Joey Image in the background..

TV: Oh yeah, he's got the paint on the face and the boots with the skulls on them.

SZ: Right, and the MISFITS logo in the back..

TV: You took that picture?

SZ: No, I own that big logo, the big backdrop they had. Jerry and Doyle were throwing that out when they were moving from Lodi. They put it out in their garbage, and I went and took it.

TV: Those goobers!

SZ: ..also there's a picture in there of Jerry with a "Teenagers from Mars" jacket.

TV: Yeah?! The red one?! You have that jacket?

SZ: I certainly do.

TV: No way !

SZ: I certainly do. I had a lot of buttons too. In the "Static Age" (insert), I provided mostly all of the pictures and all the little things that you see in there. I brought that to CAROLINE RECORDS, provided all that stuff because I thought it would be worthwhile.

TV: Incredible. Like that little one (button) with Jerry - you know, there's something about him. He's unmistakable. All throughout the yearbooks, I would see pictures and I knew immediately it was him.

SZ: It's the eyes.

TV: Did you see post (on the MISFITS BIBLE) about the pictures I had on my site? They said "..the pictures are pretty funny, but did Jerry have to have those sunglasses surgically removed after high school?" - too funny.

SZ: Well, he still wears glasses. Without them, he's blind as a bat. When he plays, I think he's putting the contacts in, because otherwise, he can not see. I remember Jerry with blue hair. That was pretty cool.

TV: I can not see their father accepting...

SZ: No, their father was not into it, and they gave up a lot to work for their father. You know, I wish them the best. Whatever's in the past is in the past and you can't change anything. Whatever it is...it is. People that don't like the new MISFITS, well, they gotta accept it either for what it is, or not. It was weird for me to see them without Glenn. For seeing them a bunch of times with Glenn, it was weird to see them without him. The album sounds really good.

TV: Yeah, I thought it was well put together.

SZ: It's just too weird.

TV: Personally, I'd never seen them with Glenn, so it's starting new for me. I was just glad to see them live. It's just starting to sink in that it's not the original people, but it doesn't matter. Like these people saying that Jerry's in it for the money, he's trying to bail his dad out. Who cares? I think that's an admirable thing to do, and it's none of anybody's business.

SZ: Well, I don't think he's there to bail out his dad. I think his father is financially well off. Whatever the case may be - whether he's in it for the money or not, it doesn't matter. When you go to a job you're in it for the money. I don't go to work and go "Gee, I'm here because I enjoy it." you go there for the money. The way this world is made up, you can't do anything without it. I can't run my water because I gotta pay for that. So you're in it for the money. What's the difference? It's not like "oh, I'm not in it for the money." That's bullshit. I'm hoping CHYNA succeeds because I'm in it for the money. I LOVE money. If I can make money playing music, what's the difference? Should I go work in K-mart or flip burgers in Burger King? What's the difference whether flipping burgers, cleaning a parking lot or playing music?

TV: Well, If you worked at K-mart you'd maybe get that employee discount.

SZ: (laughing) Yeah..maybe!

TV: Did you ever think this kid, well, this guy from Lodi was just gonna be this huge thing one day? You know, even my mom likes his stuff. "Lucifuge" - she absolutely adores that album.

SZ: What does she like? "Blood and Tears"?

TV: No, she likes the whole thing, because she says "He doesn't cuss". He says maybe three (profane) words, but her reasoning is "He uses them well." The more I think about it, he does.

SZ: No, not in particularly. When we did this, the whole thing with this thing that they had with the lawsuit and everything was weird because all we really were was a punk-rock garage band. That's all we were. That's all the MISFITS were, and that's all SAMHAIN was. None of us had anything in writing with each other. None of us ever thought that it would become what it was, or what it became. It's cool that it happened that way, but it was bound to happen because Glenn was just that type of person. Never really worked a job, all he did was his music, and he was bound to succeed either way. The MISFITS are bigger now, they became such a cult-type thing and it's unfortunate that they'll probably never break out of that even with the new one, they'll probably never really break out of that cult-status thing. That's where I think maybe a lot of the fans that don't like it, that's what I think they're afraid of, is that it's gonna become where everybody's gonna like them. It's not gonna be the close little..

TV: The little family thing.

SZ: The little family thing that it's always been. Years ago, it wasn't uncommon for them not to have a lot of people in a club to go see them. It happeed a lot. They became bigger after they ended. People like METALLICA helped them a whole bunch to become even bigger.

TV: Right, and when I heard "Last Caress" on the "Garage Days" Ep, I had looked forever for that, and I didn't know where to find it. The only place you could ever find it was maybe like on a live album or something. I didn't have access where I lived. You couldn't get records very easily - well, anything, for that matter. CDs, tapes, just music in general...it was hard to get ahold of things like that. You had to go to one of these little underground record shops, and even then a lot of times, they didn't even have stuff. They had dubs of everything, "I don't have this, but I can get you a dub of it for 3 bucks" and it's just nuts. So for a long time I had access to nothing, I didn't have any idea of the size of the catalog that existed. Then I moved up here (Pennsylvania) and got in good with some people that work in record shops, and we started discovering things, then I saw the guys in concert and I came up here (Lodi). It was really crazy, and I'm glad I did it, because, I came back here yesterday, and I just felt like I'd lived here for I don't know how long. I'm driving around going "Oh, I missed that turn, but we can go down this way and turn down here, here's a shortcut to this place, we'll run up by the high school and show you that real quick. I'll show you the old high school, the new high school.." It's just crazy. I feel connected here. It's a nice little town, but people don't pay attention to the red lights, especially down there at Saddlebrook, where you're coming under the bridge by..

SZ: Oh that's bad. You gotta be real careful. In fact, we were coming home from that way tonight and the light turned green and my wife's like "Go" and I'm like "No, I'm gonna wait a second.." Good thing I did, because, BOOM, somebody ran the light. That's real bad there.

TV: Ok, I have some more CHYNA questions for you.

SZ: Uh-oh..

TV: The guys that are currently in the band - how did you guys all get together?

SZ: Joe (Jay) and I grew up together, and he came on the road with us (as a roadie for SAMHAIN), and the rest of the guys just met through putting ads in the papers and word of mouth. The interesting thing about CHYNA is that none of them knew anything about my past. I never really brought it up to them for a while. I wasn't looking for punk-rock players because, if I did that, I would have been pigeonholed into playing everything to sound like "this" and there's a lot of people that'll go "Well, CHYNA sounds nothing like SAMHAIN.". Well, NO SHIT.

TV: That wasn't the intent...

SZ: Right. I can write songs better than the MISFITS can write songs that sound like the MISFITS, and I can write songs that sound like SAMHAIN, but that was Glenn's stuff. Glenn did it very well, and I don't want to copy him. If anything, I'm very influenced by him, I just don't want to copy him. I didn't want to have the players that were going to copy everything lick for lick. It just... to me, it made no sense.

TV: So, you're pretty much, aside from the family, just involved with the band, FLX productions, and the music company now?

SZ: Well, the music, you know...that pays my mortgage for now.

TV: My thanks to Steve Zing for being a great sport and an excellent tourguide. Contact Steve at: szing@aol.com and visit the official Chyna website at: www.chyna.net .

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