MOTHER has the raddest children: JW WATSON

For me, it was just one DANZIG group among others I did not care about. Just meaningless opinions and posts of DANZIG songs I already know by heart. That was what I thought, without checking out any of the actual content of the forum. After a couple of days, I went back to see if there was any feedback. I did not expect too much, because all MOTHER  had to offer at that time were photographs.

His brutal honesty, his strict enforcement of the house rules set by him and his non-conformist views have earned him not only love. JW is one of the most controversial figures in the world of social media DANZIG fandom. Our singer Frank has interviewed the man.

JW Watson, that sounds like a cool gunslinger name in a Western. What does the “JW” actually stand for?

They’re just my initials.  I used to use fake names on Facebook because there are so many weirdoes online and I prefer to use an assumed identity.  But those same weirdoes reported me too many times and Facebook made me use my real name.  But since it sounds Western to ya, I’ll give ya a Western answer.  JW stands for “Just Walkin’ through”.

With a successful official DANZIG forum like “7^th HOUSE” in existence, how did the idea of founding “Keep On Danzig” grow on you?

I never considered 7^th House successful.  And when I started K.O.D. I was only aware of 7^th House from their old online bulletin board / chat room (not Facebook).  I thought the board was embarrassing.  A bunch of insecure people in an apparent ass-kissing contest who seemed to operate with the assumption that Danzig watched them on the Internet and would reward their sycophantism.  They were unable to enjoy jokes or entertain any possible critique of our Dark Lord’s work.  I just wanted a group that was interesting and fun and which I could set up and govern the way I liked.  I hated the way most online groups operated.  They are so spineless and ineffective.  People worry about making others mad and there are rarely any good rules or enforcement thereof.
Initially I figured my group would only have about 50-100 people whom I could joke with and share my art or writing with, but it just grew by word of mouth.  We have almost 6000 members currently.

What distinguishes members of K.O.D. from regular metal, post punk or even “normal” DANZIG fans?

K.O.D. was founded as basically a protest of what I’d observed or assumed to be the “normal” Danzig fans as well as my disgust with the “haters”.  In the world of Danzig (and this could be demonstrated simply by looking at the comments of any Danzig YouTube clip there were typically two groups of people.   The first was exemplified by the prototypical goon who claims a strong allegiance to Danzig but has no sense of humor and no ability to laugh at himself or his idol.   The second group, which I despise just as much, are the idiots that have no actual knowledge or understanding of Danzig and no appreciation for the man and his art.  They know Danzig only as “the guy that sang Mother” and/or “the guy that got punched”.  They would all claim Danzig is a dick and Danzig sucks and scream about how they hate Danzig, but they never had anything interesting, intelligent, or original to say.    
I started K.O.D. to fill a niche, though I wasn’t sure at the time if there were many others in that niche besides me.  That niche exists of people like me who absolutely adore Danzig but are able to not only have a laugh about Danzig but a good laugh at ourselves too.
We are not at all like other metal or punk groups you find online.  Those groups tend to be filled with people (primarily oversexed idiot males) who are concerned about being “metal” or “punk” and they tend to stifle their membership and what people are comfortable sharing.  We don’t care if anyone is punk or metal.  We only care if you love Danzig.  So if you’re a cheerleader who usually listens to Britney Spears and Taylor Swift but you love Danzig, you are welcome.  Or if you’re a farm boy who likes Garth Brooks and Toby Keith but you also love Danzig, you are welcome.  We’re not dominated by people of any particular subculture or music genre.  We made our own subculture and in the process we also made a community.

DANZIG memes are a big thing in any DANZIG community. For outsiders, it may seem absurd how you can worship somebody and make fun of him at the same time. What is it that these people do not understand?

I don’t actually like the phrase “make fun of”.  I think it cheapens what we do.  I prefer to say we “celebrate” Danzig.  Because that is what we do.  We love Danzig so much that we just want to see him in every picture, every movie, and every situation you can think of.  Yes, there’s an absurdity to it and people may think we’re dogging on the guy, but we’re not.   It’s all out of love.  When you have a group of friends that you adore, a large part of social time is cracking jokes on each other.  Why would we exclude the one person who we adore even more than our friends and family?  It would be disrespectful.  So, yes, we talk Danzig all day, every day.  Some of it is going to be silly.  Okay, a lot of it is.  But we’re very serious about our silliness.

It is inevitable that members of KOD stick to a set of rules, set by you. They are simple, yet it seems that it is hard for some individuals to follow them. How do they fail and what happens to them?

They are very simple rules to follow and simply by requesting to join KOD you are asked to promise to read them, understand them, and abide by them or leave the group.  Only people who return the entry exam with confirmation of this agreement are even permitted to join (we reject about 90% of all applicants).   The rules act as a great filter.   When someone falls short of them they are typically asked politely to confirm that they’ve read the rules and understand them and agree to them (same as when they joined).  This is where it usually falls apart as people get defiant or demand that they are told what rules they broke.  If they read the rules they’d know.  And a simple, “I’m sorry.  I’ve read the rules.  I won’t do that again.”  would really suffice to welcome them back.  Instead they usually throw tantrums and get thrown out in disgrace.  Problem solved!  We don’t want those idiots in our group anyway.

MOTHER pays tribute to DANZIG and only to DANZIG. We do not support any “Gravesdigging”. What is that term and why should real DANZIG fans stay away from it?

“Gravesdigging” refers to the act of supporting Michale Graves (singer for “The Misfits” after Glenn Danzig) in any manner, whether by listening to and buying his garbage music or by defending him or praising him online.  We have a ZERO tolerance policy on Gravesdigging in K.O.D.
Gravesdigging has no place in the life of a Zigger (hardcore Danzig fan / K.O.D. member).  Graves is not Danzig.  He is the exact opposite of Danzig and is diarrhea to our eyes and to our ears.  But our No-Gravesdigging policy is also a direct response to the idiot Michale Graves fans that attempt to stink up our wonderful group.  They are the lowest of the low. The absolute dumbest scumbags you will find on the Internet.  And instead of sticking to their own moronic groups they feel the need to come to our sacred group which is reserved for all things Danzig and only Danzig.

KOD has thousands of members in all parts of the rocking world. How do they recognize each other at DANZIG shows?

We’re probably the ones most likely to be smiling, buying someone a beer, or going crazy down front.  We’re very friendly and social, so we typically send out a call to others beforehand so we know who to look for and where.  Aside from that, many of our members have official K.O.D. t-shirts which make spotting quite easy when they wear them to shows.  I have plans to issue K.O.D. hats in the near future too, though it’s always a slow process getting anything made.

KOD has the best information about DANZIG’s private delights. What should a true DANZIG fan have for breakfast, lunch and dinner? And what do we feed to our cats?

For breakfast, one can just grab a few Dunkin Donuts on the go (glazed raspberry jelly type).

For lunch, nothing beats a Wendy’s Crispy Chicken Sandwich and a Minute Maid lemonade.
For Dinner, the go-to choice would be French Onion Soup.
Cats should be fed Fancy Feast Flaked Fish and Shrimp flavor.  And when that comes out later, it better be into some Fresh Step brand kitty litter.

Is there a worst DANZIG song?

“The Revengeful”.   Because Tommy Victor.

DANZIG?

Danzig.

This the second Keep On Danzig zig-sourced music video for the song "Am I Demon" by DANZIG. Twenty video submissions were edited down into this awesome piece of demonic insanity by K.O.D. member Xian Lesp.