Mean Man: The Story of Chris Holmes

Where's the cat?

Where is it?

Baby...

I waved to him!

It's red!

I fucking could have made it through there. What the fuck?

That's stupid!

No, because... look, Chris...

There is people in the middle, you will put great traffic...

I would have been on right there.

What's the problem with you? The law is the law.

That's a judgment call, it wasn't red.

You missed a piece...

What's up, man?

I'm selling the box : 30 €.

Yeah, but I play electric guitar. I don't play acoustic.

I'd put drugs in that thing. I'd put drugs in there.

"Chris Holmes on Radio Beat!"

We've been talking about him during the last hour,

finally, guitarist Chris Holmes is in our studio for the first time ever!

Chris, for many people, you are an american rock star who leads a wild life.

What do you think of the way people see you?

I don't really care.

They’re not the ones paying my bills.

A rock star is somebody like Gene Simmons,

who wants to be...

They walk in the room and: "I'm a rock star."

Me, it's a way of life or whatever.

It's a personality, you know.

I don't even have any memorabilia from W.A.S.P.

Nothing. - Nothing left?

The biggest part of the sound was Chris' guitar,

and just his attitude, the way he played, man.

He was like angry: "Motherfucker...!"

He was angry and that was all part of the fuckin' attitude, man.

Chris is a huge part of the W.A.S.P. sound for sure.

His guitar tone and his parts are huge part of it.

The most metal guy in that band, for sure.

That guy was not messing around, he was living it.

I recognize him as an icon in music.

When I first got into heavy-metal,

W.A.S.P. and especially Chris Holmes, was one of the first inspirational figureheads.

There was Ozzy, this was beyond KISS.

I remember watching those pictures in the magazines,

looking at Chris Holmes with the black eyeliner and the big blond hair...

"That's a cool guy, I wanna be him."

Chris was like the US version of Lemmy, back in the early 80s.

He was Lemmy, but just more crazy, psycho,

uncontrollable...

That was rock n' roll.

That's what the L.A. scene really needed,

to take it out of that glam-rock stigma that was going on in L.A.

The first two W.A.S.P. records are still two of my favorite records.

I remember listening to that, going: "I gotta move to L.A.,

'cause that's where that's happening."

Those really inspired me to get my ass out there.

My wife and I moved from L.A. to Europe,

so we came to visit her parents, they live in Cannes.

"No, baby, I see you..."

People think that W.A.S.P. was successful or whatever...

Yeah, we sold a lot of records and we were successful,

but I didn't understand how the money worked and all that stuff,

so all the contracts, I guess I signed away...

I didn't even sign away my publishing, I never got any out of it.

Freddie !

Don't kiss me or I'll fuckin' punch you.

My name is Frédéric Bujoli, I've been a lawyer for 15 years.

I'm a huge heavy-metal and hard-rock fan.

W.A.S.P. was of course one of the big 80s bands we listened to.

Chris is now a singer and looking towards the future,

but we need to restore his rights from his past.

Many things have not been settled since 1984.

"Come over here, come here Ug."

Here in France, a lot of people get mad that I don't speak French,

but I don't sing in French.

I'd learn English language first, before I learn French, but I still don't even know that.

It's probably better that I don't understand what they say anyway.

It's probably better that I don't understand it.

Other than talking, there are other languages like this.

That.

Yo!

This guy saw me play in L.A. in 1991.

1991.

A long time ago.

I saw this fuckin' guy on stage.

You can't break it.

Hair dryer... I get my hair dry.

Most of the people I've surrounded myself with in Hollywood,

they just care about themselves: "What can you do for me?"

Most of all other girls in my life, they really didn't give a crap about my career,

or me playing music, or anything like that.

Sarah kinda cared about what I did musically.

We spent a whole evening talking.

He told me about his life, I told him about mine.

It was natural and we never left each other.

Baby, there are people around, you can't do that now.

This was my previous wife, before.

She gives me a hug in the front.

We've got ten minutes before my first gig I ever sang in my life.

It's kind of a new chapter for me.

It's great now because I don't have to put up with the L.S.D.

It's called Lead Singer Disease.

I've put up with that all my life.

I'm not saying that all lead singers are assholes.

A lot of them are.

The lead singer I worked with for years was really hard to work with.

That makes the other guys really nice,

even if they're not, right?

I like the part that makes people happy,

makes me put some smile on their face.

People bring their own records and want them signed. You've gotta do that.

They get to take a picture with somebody they probably never thought they would be able to.

You see a lot of people smile and say thanks,

I like that.

I don't like making people sad.

- Good night! - Thank you!

I am the one and only Blackie Lawless,

and this is Chris Holmes: speak for them, Chris!

Sometimes he has to... stop!

W.A.S.P. were likes of new wave of shock band.

They were really good as well.

They took "God of Thunder" by KISS and they built on that.

How could you not love the theatrics?

First time I heard the song "Fuck Like a Beast", I was just on the floor laughing.

I was reading the only magazine for popular music in Sweden, growing up,

and W.A.S.P. had just come out with their first album,

it was like an uproar in Sweden, everybody was outraged about this new music.

When you paid for your ticket to go watch W.A.S.P.,

your shirt was worn-out when you walked out there,

'cause you just got entertained for an hour and a half, in a big way.

The first show they did was like on a Tuesday night.

At that time, there was no Internet, no cellphones or big clunky things.

They had a couple hundred people from word of mouth.

That's when they tortured the girl on the rack.

The story goes that the next Saturday, they kicked the headliner off,

they put W.A.S.P. on it and 3.000 people came down.

The fire marshalls wanted to shut them down.

Blackie's idea was costumes that have weaponry.

He had sawblades, bolts, lag bolts,

and that stupid saw between his legs, I knew that was gonna be trouble.

I heard later he blew himself up one time.

It was scary because who the hell is eating raw meat on stage,

and then throwing it at the crowd, and the crowd loving it?

It was insane. I never wanted to be in the front row,

I'd stay in the back because I didn't want to get hit by some raw meat.

It was very scary,

to see these huge men come out on stage, fire everywhere, smoke going off...

Blackie actually came up with the idea for the fire sign,

but he wanted to do it round, with the name in the middle.

I said "no, just frame the name".

Frame the name in big letters,

we'll get fire resistant paint,

'cause the letters were just wood,

double-coat so nothing will burn, put bolts in it,

scratch'em up a lot, make them look nasty,

and then blow this flame up around

with two 5-gallon tanks of propane, that's one of them right back there.

One of the original propane tanks.

And just doing crazy shit...

Chris was wild.

He is a showman.

He could be just tired, not in a good mood or bummed out,

soon as the lights hit, he was an animal.

I always relied on, first of all the music that comes out of my hands,

through the guitar, trough the speaker cabinets,

off the stage. That's what people are gonna get.

The theatrics... I don't know...

I look at like like people that have to do it, they're not good enough to be themselves.

They're not good enough to be on stage and people buying a ticket to watch it.

Myself is. I am.

He could do without the costumes,

which is why he cut the butt off of his original costume.

He said "If I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do it my way."

I saw the film Jimi Hendrix and...

That's my dog. He's Ug.

I saw the film Jimi Hendrix and...

The way he played, jumping around...

I dug it man, that's all I wanted to do.

I never thought of myself:

"Wow, ok, I'll create this guy, Chris Holmes."

Gotta be always filming!

You gotta hang that thing around your neck.

That's it, right?

Move that piece of shit!

- Chris! - What?

The sound is ok, but when you play, it's too loud.

It's heavy metal, you can't ask Chris Holmes to play down like he plays disco!

Hey, who fucked up on the soundcheck?

These guys are waiting for us.

Why do you look at me when you do that?

Sarah, I'm not saying you did.

We play at 10?

My amp's fucked!

How you doin'?

What's up?

I have to thank for one thing my wife Sarah,

if it wasn't for her, I wouldn't be here at all.

I'll be at home in my closet, drinking,

smoking dope, doing nothing...

Thank you very much!