“Cradle Of Filth had a gay movie, apparently”: 13 Questions with Dani Filth

On October 19, something wicked comes to London. Ahead of the remastered, deluxe re-release of Cradle Of Filth's classic Cruelty And The Beast album from 1998, the band will play the whole thing in full at the Palladium, a fittingly theatrical venue for the Hammer Horror of British black metal. To get warmed up, here's frontman Dani Filth answering 13 of the most probing questions he's ever faced. Let's just hope he doesn't throw on Highlander to kill time before the gig on the night…

Why should people come and see Cradle Of Filth play Cruelty And The Beast in full at the Palladium?
“We’re celebrating the album, and we’re putting on a killer show. There’s gonna be pyro and stuff, but I’m also going for a look round the venue to see what we can do, because apparently there’s trap-doors and stuff. It’s going to be really amazing.”

What happens when we die?
“Well… what?! That’s a bit of a deep question, innit? We rot.”

Where’s the best place you’ve ever lived?
“Ever lived? Parkgate Studios. No, wait! Upstate New York – I lived there for a month doing vocals for the Thornography album. It’s great, Upstate New York. They have lots of those towns with a big, wide main street, like you see in American movies. Very Stephen King-y. It’s miles away from Maine where he lives, but it’s got that same vibe. We were near Alfred Hitchcock’s estate, though.”

What would you like it to say on your gravestone?
“'I told you I was ill’ (laughs). No, something nice. Für die Toten reiten schnell – For the dead travel fast.”

When did you last vomit?
“Not so long ago. An airline lost some medicine I was on for a bad shoulder, and as it went out of my system it made me really fucking sick.”

What’s the best rumour you’ve ever heard about yourself?
“Cradle Of Filth had a gay movie, apparently, which happened on our bus one night. People said they’d seen it, this gay orgy. It got a bit worrying at one point because we were thinking, ‘Fucking Hell, did this actually happen? Did we get so pissed that we did something like that? Or maybe we just went along with it because we thought it would be really funny or cool?’”

What’s the most illegal thing you’ve ever done?
“Well, I’m not gonna say it to the press, am I? That’s ridiculous!”

What’s your biggest fear?
“Normality. Although normality is quite comforting sometimes, I’ve spent most of my life trying to get away from it. Sometimes I like a nice cup of tea.”

What’s your worst habit?
“Overthinking. Or, if you ask my bandmates, I’m sure they’ve got a list.”

What’s the most disgusting thing you’ve ever eaten?
“I’ve eaten lots of disgusting things: insects, uncooked meat. I’m sure I had a tapeworm at some point. I really like seafood, and I thought once when I was in Spain that it would be terribly goth to have one of those black paellas they do, made with squid ink. I thought, ‘Yeah!’ Fucking horrible.”

What’s the worst injury you’ve ever suffered?
“Damage to my ego. I dunno, I seem to have a forcefield around me. Oh, actually, my bone came out of my arm. I did it skateboarding when I was a kid. We built a half-pipe, and someone hadn’t done it properly. My wheel got stuck in a crack and I went flying. I would have been alright with it, but my mate wen’t, ‘Nah, it’s not broken, because if it was broken, I wouldn’t be able to do this’ and yanked it. It was totally Beavis and Butthead.”

If you could turn off the internet, would you do it?
“I’d do it for at least a day, just to walk around laughing inwardly at everybody. The world would go to shit. It would be like America without fuel – nobody would know what to do. There would be mass rioting, I think.”

What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever hallucinated?
“When I was young I took a load of magic mushrooms. We put on a film, which happened to be Highlander, which I’d never seen before. As soon as he dies at the beginning in that Scottish battle and everything starts coming into play – it blew my mind. I left the planet, and I actually believed that I knew everything and that I had actually been present in every single thought of every single person who’d ever lived. It was monumental, I was like Galactus. Everything was coming to me in binary code in my head, working out mathematical equations for, like, planets – I literally knew everything. Then the bubble burst, I dropped out of the sky and came to in a flat in Colchester.”

Cradle Of Filth are reissuing Cruelty And The Beast on November 1. They will also be performing the album in its entirety at London Palladium on October 19. Get your tickets here.