Heavy horror punk icon Wednesday 13 has been paying tribute to his one-time MURDERDOLLS bandmate, late SLIPKNOT drummer Joey Jordison, during his 2022 U.S. headline tour, dubbed “20 Years Of Fear”, which was launched last month in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
In a new interview with the “On The Road To Rock” podcast, Wednesday 13 spoke about his Jordison tribute and reflected on his relationship with Joey, saying: “Every night we have a little part in the set that I tell the story and talk about Joey. It’s weird — there’s some nights I don’t talk as much ’cause I get choked up. I’m, like, ‘Go into it.’
“It’s been a tough thing to swallow, knowing he’s not here. But we got to do that second [MURDERDOLLS] record [‘Women And Children Last’], which is my favorite — killer songs on that record.
“When that record ended, we kind of ended on ugly terms and stuff — I won’t get into it — but we made up in 2018. We had two days off in Iowa and I went to his house. I brought the whole band over. We had a barbecue, we hung out, we made up and we had been talking, ‘Hey, let’s do MURDERDOLLS again. Let’s do MURDERDOLLS again.’ And literally a month before he died, he texted me, just out of the blue, watching ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’. From his bed, he was, like, ‘I just woke up and this was on.’ He was just giggling watching The Hitchhiker. And he wrote me a message and said, ‘Dude, I’m with you, brother. Horns up. Go out there and destroy it.’ It was just a weird, out-of-the-blue thing. So I don’t know what was going on with him then. And then I get the news [about his death]. I literally woke up and I had a bunch of messages going, ‘Did you hear? Did you hear?’ And I knew it.
“So, yeah, man, it’s been a weird thing,” Wednesday 13 added. “But getting to go out and play these songs and seeing people’s reaction has been a healing thing. I needed that.”
Jordison — who played guitar for MURDERDOLLS — died “peacefully in his sleep” last July of an unspecified cause. He was 46 years old.
Three years ago, Wednesday 13 told the “Talk Toomey” podcast that he has fond memories of his time with the MURDERDOLLS. “That was such a special time for me — both times, both records,” he said. “I mean, we did a lot of cool stuff. But that very first time we came out, and the things we did, it was when nu-metal was dying, and we were just kind of like… I won’t say ‘breath of fresh air,’ ’cause it definitely wasn’t fresh; it was smelly. But we were something that kind of came in, and it was really amazing in certain places. In the U.K., it made me feel like THE BEATLES for five seconds. It was something I’ll never forget. I’ll never forget having your van almost rocked over by a hundred fans in the middle of Piccadilly Circus in London. That was pretty nuts.”
MURDERDOLLS had been inactive since completing the touring cycle in support of the aforementioned “Women And Children Last”, which came out in August 2010 via Roadrunner Records.
In 2018, Joey told the “Talk Toomey” podcast that he wasn’t opposed to the idea of collaborating with Wednesday 13 on new music. “Never say never, man — I mean, that’s life,” he said. “It’s kind of funny, ’cause we have a bunch of songs that have been written and a bunch that are ready to go. Timing is everything, man — not necessarily anything about, ‘Oh, we need to do this to impress people,’ or, ‘We need to put out this record or do something like that.’ Timing in life is everything, so we’ll see. Only time will tell.”
Jordison told CrypticRock.com in 2017 that he “would love to do another record” with MURDERDOLLS. He explained: “I have this punk rock and pop side of me that I don’t really get to get out in other areas in my life. When we did that band, it was just pretty much to express fun, have a great time, and kind of throw a monkeywrench into what was going on in rock and metal at the time, and it worked.”
Jordison added that the tours he did with the MURDERDOLLS were “really awe-inspiring when you look in hindsight of what we accomplished in a short amount of time and the two records we did. I could not be more proud and happy of what we accomplished in that time,” he said. “Everyone that was in that band, the couple of different personnels we employed, the MURDERDOLLS were killer.”
Wednesday 13 reunited with onetime MURDERDOLLS members Eric Griffin and Acey Slade on stage for the first time in over a decade in August 2018 at Lucky Strike Live in Hollywood. The event, which celebrated the life of former MURDERDOLLS drummer Ben Graves, saw the trio performing some of the group’s classic songs.
Graves, who also worked with PRETTY BOY FLOYD and DOPE, passed away in May 2018 after a year-long battle with cancer. He was only 45 years old.
