Angry Metalhead Rants About Perez Hilton Stealing Danzig Logo

08/26/09 5:06pm

by Keith Carman (CHARTattack)

Have you seen Perez Hilton's latest t-shirt?

The gossip columnist/opportunist has joined the ranks of people leeching off Glenn Danzig, taking the punk and metal mainstay's scratchy logo featuring a demonic, horned beast and replacing the creature's skull with his own face.

For those stuck in A-list tabloid land, here's a music lesson. Let's hope it's not too deep for you.

Danzig is the genius behind horror punk icons The Misfits, underground gore-hounds Samhain and the legendary metal band bearing his last name. Pretty much everything Danzig's done has been copied or ripped off by lesser "artists" over his 30 years in music. His songs are continually covered by all sorts, from Metallica down to garage bands the world around. So the fact that a disco-pop-dance fan like Perez wants to co-opt Danzig's logo doesn't shock us, but it does sound the alarm bells.

The effeminate drama queen clearly knows where to pull a cool design from and how to look great to his minions who'll likely be none the wiser about it. And who knows? Maybe Hilton is a Danzig fan.

Although he does forget to give credit where it's due. It's doubtful he let Danzig know about his slight alteration of the Evil Elvis' main trademark, knowing full well it would probably invoke Le Petite Satan's lawyerly minions.

The greater problem here is that once again, metalheads are forced to see an iconic, lifelong image of our music culture plundered by fashion goons. Don't pretend it hasn't happened before.

Let's not forget the bedazzled Motorhead shirts of a half-decade ago, the blasphemous recutting of vintage concert shirts into boob tops and, well, we could go on about great things you scenesters know nothing of yet wear all the time — Ed Hardy, The Crimson Ghost, Von Dutch... need more?

In my not-so-distant teenage years, I was continually berated and mocked for sporting that very same Danzig image Hilton has co-opted. I was constantly faced with physical violence for being a "metal geek" and wearing "stupid shit like skulls and headbanger shirts."

Now, that same iconic logo will be instantly rendered haute couture to that special segment of flighty airheads who breathlessly hang on to their iPhones, waiting for their gossip god to upload the next image of Britney in a bikini with photoshopped pee dribbling down her leg.

Us bona fide metal fans who know the true history behind such an image will now be lumped into the same glamour-loving asshole territory as Hilton's fanatics. I'm waiting for the day some asinine hipster sees a real Danzig shirt and claims it to be a Hilton rip-off. I'm sure it's not far off.

Once again, the true coolness of metal is raped by talentless opportunists looking for attention and a few extra bucks.

Where has originality and creativity gone? Oh, wait. It's always been there with metal. You fashionistas just steal it, claim it as your own and probably make more money than the creators. Get your own ideas, for fuck sakes. Leave us alone.

[Oh yeah, and he ripped off Poison, too. But everyone's entitled to a stupid move now and then.]