In the world of heavy music, Glenn Danzig is one of the top artists most people wouldn’t really want to bump into in a seedy back ally. Outside of his songs with the Misfits, his unique brand of heavy-as-hell rock and roll has made him one of the greatest icons in horror punk and beyond, doing things his own way and stomping over anyone in his path. Then again, not even one of the kings of the genre is invincible.
After one of Glenn’s solo shows in the early 2000’s, one of the opening bands North Side Kings were none too pleased with having to go on after Danzig, which led to him and North Side Kings guitar player Danny Marianino getting into some fisticuffs backstage.
Marianino had said: “The show fell behind due to the promoter being disorganized. Glenn refused to push his time back and we, along with three other bands, were forced to play after him on the condition that he announced the other bands.
He didn’t announce the bands and closed the show, so we all got fucked over. I went to talk to him. He started yelling, so did I, then he put his hands on me. He pushed me into a wall and yelled “Fuck you motherfucker!” I defended myself.”
Though Danzig maintains that he didn’t lay a finger on him, video evidence tells a bit of a different story, with Glenn asking the confrontational Marianino what else they could’ve done given the situation: “we went on exactly when we were supposed to… why couldn’t you go on after us?”
As words and tempers escalated, Danzig then shoves Marianino, who quickly retaliated with a knock out punch.
Danzig has since commented on the incident, saying: “that was him [Marianino] trying to get me on camera punching him so he could sue me or some shit. I forget what it was. When everyone was breaking it up, he coldcocked me. What are you going to do?
Danzig went on to maintain that the whole was a coordinated, pre-mediated attack: “those were his [Danny’s] guys with the camera. No one knows that. Well, back then they did. It was a setup.”
When asked about clocking Danzig, Danny had said that he was asked by cops if he wanted to press charges, to which he declined. That was just the beginning of the fallout of everything though, with fans blasting Marianino for years for tearing down their icon, with Danny saying:
“I think it is hard to accept anything discouraging from someone you look up to. People get clouded. They believe their idol can do no wrong, but let’s face it; we are all human and make mistakes. No one is invincible.”
While there has been some fallout surrounding this for the past few years (Marianino even ended up writing a book about the harassment he endured for years from begrudged Danzig fans), the only thing that really seemed to get wondered here was some egos.