King Diamond: Obey Your Master!
By: David E. Gehlke
The sadistic tales of stillborn babies, deranged Grandmas and conniving doctors will forever define the career of King Diamond, but one must acknowledge the man's persistence and longevity. Still pumping out albums after 20 years of work, King Diamond has emerged once again with another quality tale of horror and deceit with The Puppet Master. Metallica name reference aside, The Puppet Master fails to tire, with a new twist around every corner. What is even more remarkable than the album itself is the fact that King almost called it quits thanks to the rampant Internet downloading of his albums. With his trusty sidekick Andy LaRocque by his side, King managed to put together The Puppet Master under the most unconventional of conditions. On the eve of a North American tour with Entombed, King phoned in to elaborate on the upcoming tour, the album and the times that nearly made him throw in the towel. With a back catalog reaching ten proper studio albums with multiple fan favorites, putting together a set list proved to be just as difficult as arranging the tour. "We had the hardest time picking songs more than ever, but for the fact we never toured for Abigail II. Downloading was a big factor in that, taking away 30% of Metal Blade's sales. Out of the blue we were told there was no tour, so you see how it hurts the label and it hurts us. We kinda had promised, the booking agent in the states had everything set up so it was a lot of wasted work. He was ready for us to sign the contracts with the local promoters. We had plans at that time to feature the Abigail story, we were going to do 60-70% of the songs from those albums, and then we said, "What do we do now?" We haven't played from Abigail II and we want to feature that little bit, so we can bring the two together and feature them as a two-piece story." King's budget problems surrounding Abigail II are no secret, so keeping costs at a minimum were an unfortunate priority for King. Trying to conjure up a set list to feature last year's Abigail II and throwing in songs from The Puppet Master were among his concerns as well. "We don't have a lot of money, so a lot of it is going to be imagination. We have a low budget, but we are going to make it stretch by imagination. Doing Abigail II with the wheelchair is important since there will be me and Jonathon in there with Abigail beating the crap out of me with the cane. At some point she will be standing by the fireplace and I will come over and yank out a thick amount of her hair and show those things. It looks like we'll be able to do five, maybe six songs from the Puppet Master and then jump into a couple of songs from Them with Grandma." King Diamond does have lineup stability to count on, maintaining a consecutive lineup for the first time in nearly a decade. After a couple lineup shuffles, King was able to recruit a few familiar old faces, along with some new blood. The addition Mike Wead of Mercyful Fate fame, former bass player Hal Patino, and new drum kingpin Matt Thompson has solidified King's lineup for the time being. "Glen (Drover, guitars) left for private reasons, and John-Luke (Hebert, drums) left for the same reasons as well. David Harbour was a great bass player, but he did not gel at all. So suddenly it was just Andy and me. We went through different options for guitar players by looking at tapes and listening to some demos of other players, but over and over it would come back to how if we could just grab Mike Wead from Mercy. We're (King Diamond and Mercyful Fate) never going to tour at the same time and he plays a much different style with King Diamond than with Mercyful Fate and he fit perfectly. Originally, when we moved our operation over to Texas he was supposed to be the new guitarist. Hal (Patino, bass) has been waiting in the wings for a while, and its obvious he's the bass player for King Diamond. Both musically and performance-wise he's the best I've played with and that's a simple fact. Getting Matt (Thompson) on the drums was just a HUGE addition. With his repertoire, its like having Mikkey Dee back in the band. He can play anything, you could put him in a jazz band without him knowing what's he's doing and he'd fit perfectly. Having Thompson behind the kit must make King sleep easier at night... "Live, what a safety net he is. It's such a difference to play with a guy like that because live; I don't have to think, "Oh no, is the part going to sound right? Are the others going to feel weird and I have to come in early on a part?" Coincidentally, King's one mainstay throughout his career, Andy LaRocque wasn't even an original member. After ousting original guitarist Floyd Constantine, LaRocque services were summoned after drummer Mikkey Dee's recommendation. "I didn't know of him back then, Mikkey Dee knew of him. The guy who he had at first (Floyd Constantine) was playing in Denmark with a band and that is the reason why he was chosen because Michael Denner knew him. So he kinda got into that from there and Mikkey knew him a little as well. But he didn't show the responsibility that is necessary, he had that semi-pro feeling. He didn't show up prepared for practice or to record an album. It was those kind of feelings that he wasn't serious enough or pro enough that he was given several proper warnings during practice to get it down, this is our livelihood your are dealing with! We went in the studio and he didn't have it down, so he was kicked out. Then Mikkey said he knew a guy from Sweden who was a big King Diamond/Mercyful Fate fan and would be awesome addition to the band. We trusted what Mikkey said and we called Andy to come down the next day, so he plugged in and we played him a piece of "Dressed In White" where he would have to play a solo later, and after a couple of times he ended up playing the solo that is on the album. It blew me away, and he had a much different way of playing guitar than Michael Denner, he was a much tighter rhythm player than Michael ever was."
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