Glen Benton As He Is

(Provided by LEGION magazine & NOVUM VOX MORTIS)

Glen, you have been playing for more than ten years. Do you consider yourself to be a happy man?

Yes, I am a happy man.

Is there anything that makes you unhappy?

Lack of pussy, lack of money to pay the bills... lack of money to pay for pussy!

DEICIDE released the live album right after “Serpents Of The Light”. How would you like to comment on such a rush?

Well, I wanted to do a live record but Roadrunner didn’t want us to do that. They wouldn’t agree with that. I did a lot of interviews and people asked me why didn’t we put out a live record. They called and asked and it turned around and turned around. And when Roadrunner called me like eight months later they wanted us to record a live album.

What do you want your son to become in his life?

I want my son to become a productive citizen. I will love him no matter what he does.

Would you like him to follow your steps?

I don’t wanna say that, I don’t want to put any pressure on him. He is a little kid right now, he doesn’t realize who I am. He sees my records in stores, of course, but he still doesn’t realize who I am. When he gets older and wants to do what I do, it’ll may be easier for him. Easier that it was for me.

Glen, what do you think of Mr. LaVey and his church?

Everybody’s asking me about that. I think he is a Hollywood Satanist. He’s dead now.

Are you happy he does not exist anymore?

Am I happy he’s dead? No, I am not happy for anybody if he’s dead.

The United States is known to be a very religious country. Do they censor your albums in the US?

They censor my records. They are always writing about me in their magazines and shit like that. They don’t know where I live. I carry a gun in the States, so if they come looking for me - Bang! Bang! I’ll protect myself. That’s what guns are for. That’s why many men in the United States have guns.

Nobody knows where and how you live. Could you please describe us your house?

Recently me and my wife separated, so I don’t live with my wife anymore. I’ve just got a new house, I am running the house with my new girlfriend. In my house DEICIDE is on the walls, all my records and all my evil shit laying around.

Are you a rich man?

No, man, far from it. In the United States I am considered poor.

You are the manager of DEICIDE. Is it difficult for you to be a musician and manager at the same time?

No. This is the best way to be ‘cos nobody takes advantage of me. A lot of people would yell and scream at their manager but they can’t yell and scream at me. Because I’ll leave and there will be no show, ha ha!

Is it possible that you refuse to play tonight?

I don’t see it happens.

Some people think you are very extravagant, you can do unpredictable things.

I am very unpredictable. I got lost in England. They left me, the bus left me. It cost me one hundred bucks.

What is your attitude towards satanic sacrificial rituals? In our country the cases of Satanic sacrificial carnage take place from time to time.

Do they kill animals?

No, they kill human beings.

Using Satanism?

Yes.

In the United States I’ve had this happened to me. I’ve been a subject of law suits because of kids killing people. And they were using our music as a scapegoat, blaming for this our music. Saying, that the Satanic music, may be, killed these people. But in the United States I am protected by the Amendment of the Constitution to do what I want to do. When kids come from broken homes, when they come from bad backgrounds, they listen to this kind of music, they end up doing STUPID things. Like killing somebody or whatever. A lot of kids don’t know how to practice Satanism. Because in Satanism killing a person isn’t a part of Satanic religion. Those kids have mixed up with the wrong people, doing drugs and they ended killing somebody. And when they turn around they may try to use Satanism.

If a person really wants to follow the Satanism, what piece of advice would you like to give him?

The Satanism is all about yourself. It’s about being true to yourself.

What about burning churches?

If they burn churches to use it for their promotion, it is not right. You don’t tell anybody you burn churches, keep it in secret. If they burn a church in the United States in the South, they come to me first. They always think I did that. I don’t know...

Let’s imagine that you are invited to star in a movie. What sort of person would you like to act?

I would say some kind of a hit man, murderer.

DEICIDE has only one video clip: a live video for the “Legion” album. Why do you not shoot the videos?

Because Roadrunner won’t give me the money to do it the way I want to do it. I want to do a theatrical video. Anybody can do a live video, it’s easy. I want to do a theatrical video as well. I want to do something that has meaning.

So, Roadrunner records merely doesn’t give you money?

With Roadrunner, when you give them your first record, they promote you, they put a bunch of money behind you. And after your first record they don’t care less about you. That’s what Roadrunner is.

Your vocals is one of the prominent features of DEICIDE sounding. How do you manage to achieve such a powerful and aggressive high-and-low-pitched growling?

When I am in the studio and I do my vocals, I put three track vocals: low vocal, midrange vocal and scream. That’s what creates that.

Some people assure me that you do it simultaneously.

No.

There is a vocal intro to the “Legion” album. Could you please tell us what were the words you said as there was no text enclosed to it?

What did I say? “Master Satan spawn, the caco-daemon”.

As far as I remember, the ‘Row’ magazine in 1992 published a photo session of your band with so-called “human smiling faces”. How did it happen?

With smiling faces?

Yes. Nobody expected you to smile.

They think I am not human.

A lot of people think you are...

An animal?

Antihuman.

Yeah, I guess the guy caught me with my pants down, ha ha?

Show business never cares about people.

Yes it does. People’s opinions are formed, man, before you can say a word. I am locked into the Satanism, I will always be a Satanist. Christianity made me a Satanist. I didn’t wake up as a kid saying, “I’m gonna worship the Devil. I wanna be a Satanist”.

At what age did you realize that Christianity brings people harm?

As I grew up people would say, “You can’t do this, you can’t do that” because of God. And I thought, “Why am I following this law? I’m not gonna follow it”. I was about eight or nine years old. My parents were never religious though they grew up in the religious community. And I just grew up with this shit. My parents tried to take me to the catholic school... Everybody looked at me as a Satanist.

You were a sort of pariah, weren’t you? You were not like them?

Exactly. They turned me into it. They told me I was a Satanist.

What were your parents, what was their occupation?

My mom, she manages a fast food restaurant Burger King. And my dad owns his own business.

It is sad but true: one day all the musicians have to stop their music activity. What will you do when you stop being a musician?

I have a lot of trades. I am an auto mechanic, I do a lot of things. I don’t know. I’ll probably have my girlfriend, who is a titi-dancer, to take care of me.

Do you have any hobbies?

Old cars.

I know you have a ’68 Plymouth Barracuda and you like to terrorize people around town.

Oh yeah, of course. I am like a Batman and I have an evil car. And the front license plate says “Satanic”.

Do many people in your home town know you?

Yeah, everybody knows me.

Do they scare you?

Do they scare me? No, I scare them, ha!

What sort of pupil were you when at school?

I got kicked out all the time!

For what reasons?

Fighting, smoking, cursing, fucking chicks in the bathroom.

So vicious!

I just did what I wanted to do. I never liked the authority.

What do you think about Monica and Bill Clinton?

Monica? You want a good joke? Bill Clinton is really upset now because he’s lost his “Whore Monica”! (“Harmonica” (instrument) and “whore Monica” have a similar sounding - Ed.)

Did you get any special education after school?

When I was at school, towards the end of high school, I knew what I wanted to do. And I felt like school was stopping me. So I quitted school two years before I finished. And two years ago I went back and finished the school.

What did your parents think when you did your first steps as a musician?

Oh, my parents and everybody around me were like, “Oh, you’re dreaming, you’ll never do that. Be an electrician, do something with yourself”. But when I got my first record it all changed. They had a lot of respect for me because I sat up to do something and I accomplished that.

Five years ago you were very unpredictable even for journalists. You could start growling at any moment. Nobody knew what to expect from you. Nowadays it seems to me you have become more tolerant to mass media.

I stopped doing interviews a couple of years ago. I just got to the point when nobody had anything nice to say. Everything was very negative. So I stopped reading interviews and I stopped doing them. Everybody wanted me to talk about my son and my family. Nobody wanted me to talk about the music. But now, because metal is coming back, I’ve got to come out and say, “I am still alive!”

It goes without saying, that the music you played ten years ago differs a lot from the one you play now.

Yeah, you grow.

Some people think that “Serpents Of The Light” is a bit commercial...

So where’s the fucking money, man, ha ha! If it is commercial, where is my money?! I have got no money. They don’t play me on the radio. You know, commercial is when you see yourself in ‘Rolling Stone’. That’s commercial. When you’re selling a million records, that’s commercial. I sell 80,000 records.

And sound?

People think I’m trying to get mainstream, but I’m just writing my songs so that you could understand and enjoy them. When I did “Legion” everybody hated it. Too fast, can’t understand it! They hated it. Every magazine in the fucking world shut the record down and hated it. Now everybody says it is “Reign In Blood” of death metal. Make up your fucking mind, you see? And now - “Serpents Of The Light”! They say it’s commercial. Five years from now they are gonna “O-o-oh! It’s the greatest thing!” Make up your mind. Listen to this shit. Like I say, you get a DEICIDE record, listen to it more than one time. OK? Because it takes more that one time to catch it. If you listen to it a few times, then you’ll understand what’s going on. So, “Legion” was too fast, nobody could bang the head, they just stood and listened. Because it was too fast. So now I just write songs you can bang your head to. Everybody goes crazy. So that’s why we changed from writing songs like that. Everybody complained it was too technical and too fast. Now everybody can have a good time. Songs have a good flow.

Your Polish fans haven’t seen you for about seven years. Tonight you are going to play just one gig and then you leave again. When is it possible to see you again in Poland?

We’ll be there. It might not be tomorrow, but the next day we’ll be there.