(drumroll please)
At least I have a *meaningful* contribution to make to this List!

....... J- proudly presents ...... translation of "OOR" interview released only today ......
(Warning: what you're about to read may not be Peter Steele's exact words - I'll try to sort this
out from the source (that is to say, not Peter, but NIQUE HANSKAMP of OOR). She translated it into
Dutch, then I went back to English again so there may be some errors. And where you read things
like 'ruin' this could equally well be 'fucked up' or whatever. I've given it a try and broke
a world record in translating (45 mins). I'll stop rambling now .. here we go ............
(it's lengthy!!) (the interview I mean)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~ WHEN I'M ON STAGE I FEEL LIKE A 2 METRE LONG PENIS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Once Peter Steele was a provoking rebel with dubious ideas. Nowadays we may consider him as a friendly 
womanizer. Repented, or is there more to it? So we went for a talk with him. In the end one thing was for 
sure: Steele will *always* be misunderstood. 


Me - a womanizer? Steel is surprised when confronted with this fact. ‘I can tell you this: If people come to 
listen to us these days and they know nothing of our bad reputation, then they just like our music. A 
womanizer....maybe they’ll start liking me as a real person. Not that I want to be liked, though, all I want 
to do is make music and give our fans a good time. 

	Why don’t you want to be liked? 
It’s not that I don’t want to, it just doesn’t matter at all to me. I give myself entirely to people, hoping 
that they will then get to like me. Only to discover that they confuse nicety with stupidity. 

	Does that happen to you a lot?
All the time. So nowadays I don’t go through the trouble anymore of being liked. I think it’s better for 
people to hate you for who you are than that they love you for what you are not. 

	Are you happy with your present life?
I was a lot happier when I still worked for the dept of Parks and Recreation. 

	So why did you give it up for Type O Negative?
Ah, but I’m a masochist. I like ruining my own life and that’s what I did. 

	You really think you’ve ruined your life?
No one who can still walk and see has the right to make complaints about anything. And, realizing all is going 
well with my so-called career and that my friends and family are all right .. I really should keep my trap 
(mouth?) shut. 

	Do you ever think of returning to your old job?
Every day (sigh).  I keep thinking about how great that rake felt in my hands. Rakes are a lot cheaper than 
guitars too. 

	Do you consider Type O Negative as a job?
No, not right now.  I really like writing and recording, but maybe it’s more of an occupation. 
I had a life prior to Type O Negative. I wasn’t a streetkid who threw himself on the music just because he had 
nothing to lose. With Type O Negative I had a lot to lose which made it so exciting to take such a big step. I 
gave up a comfortable job of US$ 40,000 a year so that I could fully plunge myself into chaos. (??)… It’s like 
jumping off a cliff. 

	You once said that you would quit with Type O Negative once you’d earned enough money. 
I probably meant to provoke, ‘cause things aren’t that bad.  I just don’t want to have the feeling that I 
*must*  tour, since I dislike (loathe??) touring.  I feel like a 2 m long penis when I’m on stage, like a 
complete asshole. I still don’t get it why anyone would want to see Type O Negative or buy a Type O Negative 
product. Every time when I’m in front of those people, I get the feeling that I’m ripping them off, that I’m 
making a fool of them.
(????? J-)

	It’s seems you’re hardly ever satisfied about anything
That’s right. I’ll never be satisfied  (contented ??) and I think that’s a good thing, ‘cause people who are 
contented stop growing. As long as I hate what I’m doing, I’ll continue to change and thus grow. 

	October Rust is almost entirely about women. How come it’s such a different album than Bloody Kisses?
You really think so?
	It’s still Type O Negative but the aggression has gone.
I can say a few things about it. Firstly: as a songwriter to this band it’s hard for me to be objective about 
the final result. I always write my songs through a fixed line (??), a formula .. that’s really the only thing 
I pay attention to. But, returning to women. I know people who think I’m exploiting women in my music. But, 
what’s wrong with writing songs about something you love? You should get to talk to some female Type O 
Negative fans; I don’t think they’ll feel exploited, rather they feel honoured for my worshipping their 
gender.

	The lyrics of October Rust are quite passionate. Are you overdoing it, or do you really see women like 
	that? 
When I’m with a woman, I like to be of her service with anything she wants. The role of man in this world is 
chiefly to serve women. Men used to be good for three things: to care for women, to protect and for 
procreation of course. Nowadays women don’t need men anymore to care for them, and as regards protection, well 
this is also unnecessary since we have laws. And with artificial insemination ‘n’ all we’re not necessary for 
the act.  Men have really become redundant. Once we were good for making babies and making war, 
now all that’s left is making war. 

	So men are inferior to women.
Any life form has a right to live and in that respect we are all equal. But as far as the usefulness of those 
life forms during their lives is concerned, that is the big difference. I have few male friends. I just prefer 
the company of women. Maybe because I grew up with five older sisters.

	And what’s your opinion of, say, gays?
I have gay friends, but most people I know are heterosexuals. That’s pure coincidence. I don’t care at all in 
which hole someone wants to put his penis. As long as it doesn’t affect me, or the people I care for. 

	Your views on mankind strike me as rather cynical.
Due to all this touring around I recognized how disgusting mankind really is. I’ve learned a lot about that.  
For instance, I am quite convinced that we are the most inferior life form on earth; we are the only species 
stupid enough to foul its own nest. Not even dogs or pigs do this. 

	So what would be a higher life form in your opinion?
You mean, is there a God?
	Yeah, something like that. Do you believe in God?
God doesn’t believe in me.  It’s all right for me, we have a good relationship...But, no, I don’t believe in 
God. I think that the definition of God by mankind is an attempt at identifying scientific facts for which we 
still have no explanation. The more we learn about nature,  about science and ourselves, the less we will need 
God to give us the answers to our questions. So: there is no life prior to this life and there is no life 
after death. There is nothing. I’m just 120 kgs of organic chemicals...walking meat. 

	With brains and a soul and a spirit. 
No, none of those. None at all.  If you were to cut me open right this moment, all you would find is a big 
black hole. An empty space, a vacuum. 
	In which you feel trapped?
I feel trapped in life particularly.  I believe that death brings total independence. You don’t have to worry 
anymore about oxygen, sun, water, or finding someone who loves you. It is total freedom, the eternal black 
tranquility… on a nice soft blanket. 

	If you feel about it this way, you might as well end your life.
I would please too many people. And I only live to agitate people. It gives me so much pleasure. 
	That sounds very childish (?)
All right. I live to dwell upon my possibilities. I see myself as an instrument and I’m trying to found out 
how much stress it can endure before it breaks. 
	You see that as a mission?
My mission is to alleviate as much misery as possible from the people I love, as long as I’m in this world. My 
second mission is to make myself happy, but I think that’s impossible. 
	Why? What would be necessary to make you feel less miserable?
A womb big enough to crawl back into. I often think how great it would be to have some sort of tank with warm, 
salty water, with some heartbeat, and then to put out the ligfht and lie in it with an oxygen mask, like a 
gigantic foetus…. I’m just a simple soul with few needs.  I want the same things from life as anyone else, 
like a bit of luck. Eventually I want to spend the rest of my life with a woman in a nice house with a huge 
perimeter fence around my estate .. With high voltage on it, and wolves on the inside.

	You just talk of your great liking for women. But, what does love really mean to you?
That’s something I still have to think about, I haven’t figured that one out yet. You see, to me love means 
needing something. And I try not to need anything from anyone. So how could I ever love someone? I think that 
when people love each other, they fit like a key and lock. It should be the good combination. Giving each 
other what you need. 

	Do you have a perfect woman in mind to live with?
There are no perfect human beings. I think that when you care about someone, when you think you love this 
person ….. Look, a love relationship is a compromise. So I’d like to find someone with whom I match as much as 
possible. If there’s things with which we don’t agree,  then we’ll find a solution for it. 
You make it sound as if you’re trying to find someone to make a deal with.
If it sounds like that, well, maybe.  You should realize that I’m talking with my head now, not with my heart. 

	How close have you got to this perfect deal so far?
Right now I have a relationship and I think I love her. But love is something terrifying to me since it means 
I feel involved. It means that a particular section of my happiness, my life and my time is dependent on her, 
hoping that in the meantime she doesn’t change her mind. And I know what I’m talking about. There were women … 
you know … at 8 o’clock at night she loves me and at 8 in the morning I never see her anymore. I think that 
everyone has to go through this (stage?) in his life, but maybe I’m taking things more seriously. If someone 
asks me "Do you love me?" then firstly I have to think real hard ‘cause I don’t  want to say yes when I don’t 
mean it.  The minute you tell someone that you love him or her, the relationship gets a whole new meaning.  
And I feel it’s a very frightful idea to be left alone. I have always tended to get involved with people real 
fast and to throw myself into a relationship with way too much enthusiasm.  So now it’s better for me to keep 
some distance, she’ll have some more space and I will too. 

	Returning to Type O Negative. You used to be a political band particularly, and now you confine 
	yourselves to love, sex and romance. What’s your thing in 1997?
(thinks for a long time).  The weakness of life. Whatever you do, you’re gonna die anyway.  So you might as 
well do what you please to do. Our existence has no goal; we are in this chaos by accident.  The band is 
nothing but a hobby, it fills the space between my birth and my death. I wait for my death and this is my 
pastime. Or else time goes so slowly. 

	So our being on earth is just an accident?
If a rock could talk, it would say that life is a virus. It would say it was very happy not to have to live.  
I don’t consider it an honour to live and most people should be ashamed of their species (?), if only for the 
way we treat each other. I’m not proud to be a human being, certainly not. This here (gestures around him), is 
the product of five billion years of evolution. Children are murdered, planes are shot from the air, all this 
pollution…. It’s so sad. 

	So is man good or bad?
Good and bad don’t exist. Those definitions constrain themselves to the following: everything natural is good, 
and all that’s unnatural is bad. How we are is the only way we can be. 
That’s not good or bad, it’s just so.  Maybe somewhere in the universe there are creatures behaving like 
children but who are intellectual geni. They may have all technology as well and all they do is learn how to 
kill each other with it. 
	Would that be the tragedy of mankind?
Intelligence is a curse. 
	But you need intelligence to be able to say it’s a curse. 
That’s true, but that still doesn’t justify having intelligence. I think, so I am?  So what? A bird doesn’t 
care that it  IS. All it wants to do is eat, fuck and fly and that is all that matters to it.  Really the same 
as a human being, but we must walk. 

	Do you consider it as a burden that we are emotionally involved in so many things?
Absolutely.  It would be better to have the intelligence of an ape or another animal, and no pity, no 
emotions, nothing. 

	Would that make a better world?
I am not capable enough to answer that question. It would be an entirely different world, I know that. I think 
that very soon there won’t be any world … "Soon" from a relative viewpoint: in the light of the entire world 
history. No doubt we will destroy ourselves one way or another. I don’t think it will be with arms, rather by 
disease. Something terrible is bound to happen to the world …. That’s why I’m laughing right here and now. 

There could be typos - it was a rush job. 

BTW great photos in the mag as well. 

Janine (it's no use hiding anymore I suppose)