Johnny Kelly, born in Brooklyn, New York was the drum technician for Type O Negative in the early 1990s.  Following their release of their third record Bloody Kisses in 1993, their original drummer left to join Life Of Agony…leaving a void to be filled. Johnny then joined the band and has been playing drums for the band which consists of Johnny Kelly drums/ vocals, Kenny Hickey guitar/vocals, Josh Silver keyboards and Peter Steele bass/lead vocals… ever since.

RHYTHM, ART & GROOVE- How’s the tour going?

JOHNNY KELLY- It’s almost over! We have 3 shows left including tonight. It was cool. I had a great time. I mean a lot of it’s a blur. I’ve been abusing myself so bad on this trip (laughing). Just looking to escape all the time. But really…it’s been cool. I’ve met some new friends. The Cradle Of Filth guys are really cool. They’re a lot of fun to hang out with. To me…that’s a success itself.

RAG- Have you had any great experiences?

JK- There really wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. I had a great time in Vegas! We had a day off there. The place damn near killed me! I really nearly killed myself. I’ve just been trying to have as much fun as possible. I try to stay out of the “stress zones”

RAG- Any bad experiences?

JK- Oh yeah! There have been a million bad ones. It’s all good and bad. There’s hardly a day goes by that something doesn’t happen. You’re going from one emotional extreme to the other. That’s something you deal with everyday. You get pretty used to it.

RAG- What were some of the bands that you’ve toured with?

JK- We are out with Cradle Of Filth and Moonspell. The tour before this one we were out with Lacuna Coil.

RAG- How did that go?

JK- Great…it was great! A great bunch of kids. They’re such wonderful people. It was great just to be around them. Let’s see…Motley Crue, Pantera, Queensryche, Danzig. We’ve toured with Nine Inch Nails. Did Ozzfest. Over the years we’ve toured with so many bands. We’ve toured with Drain, Stuck Mojo and Life Of Agony…years and years of touring. I’m only mentioning a handful. We took Coal Chamber out on a Halloween run.

RAG- The Misfits too!

JK- The Misfits did one show once in Columbus, Ohio. They also came up and played a couple of songs when we played The Roseland in New York City. Then Kenny (Hickey) went up and sang with them.

RAG- Are there any other bands that you’ve played in other than TON?

JK- I’ve played for Danzig for 8 months. I went on tour with him last year. I did a couple of shows with him this spring also. When Type O began to get busy again…I had to let the gig go. I also play in a Led Zepplin cover band back home.

RAG- What’s the name of it?

JK- Earl’s Court…it’s named after a bootleg from Earl’s Court. Now all that video footage is on the new dvd that got released.

RAG- Do you prefer smaller clubs compared to festivals like Ozzfest?

JK- I couldn’t care less… I guess I do prefer the small club. It’s more intimate. You don’t feel so separated from the audience. But you know…that’s just for me. Peter and Josh prefer not to be on stage at all. They don’t like performing. Kenny enjoys it!

RAG- Define your style of music.

JK- I don’t know…it’s an influx of a lot of things. Mainly it has a lot of the Beatles and Black Sabbath influences. There’s a lot of eighties new wave pop that’s kinda made it’s way in there. The underlying melodies…stuff like that. Some of the textures they used, have been borrowed from that element. Really it’s just the sum of all the experiences that we’ve been part of…so many of the things that we’ve listened to over the years. A lot of it finds its way into our music.

RAG- Who do you consider to be your major influences?

JK- Mine was when my father brought home KISS Alive when I was 7 years old. That was it for me. I didn’t need to hear anything else!

RAG- Peter Criss!

JK- That was it! From there I found Led Zepplin, Black Sabbath…stuff like that. Then I got into heavy metal stuff. Bands like Judas Priest and Iron Maiden to Venom…just all of it.

RAG- How did the band come to be?

JK- Ironically enough Sal (Abruscato) the original drummer, started the band. Carnivore had broken up and Pete (Steele) wasn’t really doing anything musically. Sal approached him about putting a band together. Sal brought Kenny (Hickey) in. Peter brought Josh (Silver) in. This was back in 1989 or somewhere around there. Sal left in 1993 to join Life Of Agony. That’s when I joined Type O.

RAG- How did you come up with the name Type O Negative?

JK- I believe what happened was the band’s name changed a number of times. Peter heard something on the radio about a blood drive and they really needed type o negative blood. That was it. He was like “That’s the name of our band!” It worked out well because they already had tattoos of a circle with the minus sign in the middle. The band was going to be called Sub Zero up until then. So the minus sign and circle went from standing for Sub Zero to standing for Type O Negative.

RAG- Where in the U.S. is your biggest fan base?

JK- The northeast is definitely our strongest market. That’s where we’re from. That’s where we play the most. Detroit, Chicago and Milwaukee have always been good for us. Texas is really good for us. Phoenix is a really strong market. California is a weird place though…the whole west coast thing. There are places that we haven’t played in years. We haven’t done any shows in Alabama or Mississippi, Tennessee or Kentucky lately. We used to hit them all the time and now the last few tours, we just haven’t hit those markets. I think we’re done touring for this record now.

RAG- What about over in Europe?

JK- Europe was pretty cool! We’ve only toured Europe for this record. We only toured for 3 weeks over there. That was it. We did some festivals and everybody felt it was successful enough that we didn’t go back. I would like to go back there though…sometime.

RAG- What about in Japan?

JK- I’m the only member that’s never been there. We’ve never played there. We’ve never played Australia, New Zealand or South America either. I’ve always wanted to go to those places…I would love to go there.

RAG- What’s your opinion on file sharing, Napster, RIAA lawsuits, etc.?

JK- Guilty! (raising right hand)… I do it. But…I have to say everything that I’ve downloaded…I’ve bought. I check it out and if I like it, I buy it. A lot of times I look for things but I’m just not gonna find it. I know I’m not gonna find it. A bootleg…you’re not gonna find (Led) Zepplin bootlegs in a store. This fan just gave me like 30 cds worth of Zepplin bootlegs. I swear to God! He gave me a list, pages of stuff man…outtakes of Physical Graffiti and Cologne 1980. This is crazy stuff…Stairway To Heaven demos and outtakes. I met this kid on the street some time ago, when I was just going to get something to eat. He said something to the effect of “I have a few bootlegs of Zepplin if you want, give me an address, I’ll make copies and you can have ‘em.”  I told him that the next time we came to the area, I would put his name on the guest list and hang out and he could give them to me then. So, when we came through, he had a stack of cds for me. It was really cool of him! He just sent me an email again saying he’s found a few more.

RAG- What do you think Napster is doing to the record industry?

JK- It’s hurting the record industry, but not the music industry. Bottom line is everybody is going to have to learn how to deal with having less. It’s (file sharing) not going anywhere. We’re not going to get rid of it. We’re not talking about beta max tapes here. Until they find a way of keeping the medium regulated, we are gonna have to live with it. Bands are still going to make their money on tour…selling t-shirts…stuff like that. They (record labels) were talking about lowering the prices of cds. They haven’t yet! They’re not really making any adjustments yet. They’re just complaining about it. They let a band like Metallica go after these things.

RAG- I think they (Metallica) lost some fans because of the whole Napster thing.

JK- I don’t think it’s because they sued Napster (laughing). I heard the new record and it’s kinda cool…in its own way. It’s not Master Of Puppets. I’ve been waiting since 1986 for a record as good as that. The Black Album was so successful! It put them on a whole different plane. But, still to me it’s Master Of Muppets. I don’t know maybe it was Cliff (Burton). Maybe Cliff did play that big of a role in the whole thing.

RAG- Has the band received any static over the song “I Like Goils” from your new record Life Is Killing Me?

JK- Nothin!  A lot of people have asked that question in interviews. “Do you expect to get any kind of flack from it…has anybody whatever…?” I tell them “NO…we’re still waiting” but nobody’s really said anything (laughing). Nobody could care less.

RAG- You guys do a cover/remake on most of your records. What made you decide to do “The Angry Inch?”

JK- Really it was just one of those things. Peter saw the movie “Heldwig And The Angry Inch” and was like “I want to cover the song”. I was like “You saw that movie?”  He goes “Yeah…I loved it!” I (Kelly) saw the original play. I took my wife to see it as a surprise. I was very aware of the whole thing. It’s a great song! The original is great. I thought what we did with it was interesting. After it was recorded, we were like “Wow…it’s not so bad. We’ll keep it.”

RAG- Are there any future plans for you or the band?

JK- Yeah…of course! We’re working on getting a new record deal secured right now. We’ll probably do another record, go on the road…keep goin’. Kenny and I are working on something now outside of Type O.

RAG- The same type of music?

JK- No, no…it’s more like Black Sabbath and Soundgarden.

RAG- What stage are you guys at right now?

JK- We’re still writing. We’re hopin’ to have a bunch of songs completed by February 2004. Then start doing some gigs and stuff. Let that do it’s own thing. We’re hopin’ to keep busy enough between both bands, that we’re always working.

RAG- Is there anything that you would like to say to your friends/fans?

JK- It seems like it’s been so long since I’ve seen them. The tour is already over. I can’t believe it!  Thanks for having us back!