Type O Negative have a live album that’s nearly mixed, an unreleased Peter Steele song that will be released, and a guitarist who has just explained, for the first time, what the band’s heaviest record actually cost its singer. ‘Peter had a gift of interpreting his emotions, manifesting them into song,’ Kenny Hickey told Loaded Radio. ‘You’re hearing what he was feeling.’ What Steele was feeling in 1999 was the loss of his father, and Hickey’s own advice to him was to put every bit of it into World Coming Down.
This is the Type O Negative segment of a much longer conversation, in Hickey’s words below and on video at the bottom of this page. The full interview, including Silvertomb and Sun Don’t Shine discussion, airs on The Loaded Radio Podcast this weekend.
The Live Album: Nearly Edited, Mike Marciano Mixing, First Quarter 2027
The Type O Negative live album is almost edited, it’s going to Mike Marciano, who mixed the band’s studio records, and the target is the first quarter of 2027.
‘I’m almost done editing everything,’ Hickey says. ‘Getting everything compiled together is simplified. And right now we’re going to give it to Mike Marciano, who was the original mixer for Type O Negative.’ Marciano has a studio at his house in Pennsylvania. The band sent him ‘Love You To Death’ as a trial. ‘He mixed it. It sounds great.’
The timing is manufacturing, not music. ‘Hopefully we’re looking at first quarter next year,’ Hickey says, and when Scott points out a record can’t go out the week it’s finished, Hickey gives the real reason: ‘You’ve got to put in for the vinyl, and making the vinyl takes months.’ The title stays under wraps. When Loaded Radio first reported the live album there was no mixer and no window; now there are both.
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‘Prometheus’: ‘We’re Going To Release It’
The unreleased Peter Steele song Johnny Kelly found on a cassette is called ‘Prometheus’, and Hickey says it will come out ‘at some point, some format’, possibly on a reissue.
‘I love it,’ Hickey says, ‘and I don’t remember it at all.’ He has it on his phone and remembers some of the parts. Is it one of Steele’s epics? ‘It’s medium. But it was in the works. All of his stuff would start medium and then just grow. It would have been a lot longer, a lot bigger.’
‘We’re going to release it at some point, some format, on whatever reissues we do.’ That’s the first time a member of the band has put ‘Prometheus’ and ‘reissue’ in the same sentence. Johnny Kelly told Loaded Radio about the tape earlier this year; this is the confirmation it won’t stay in a drawer.
October Rust At 30: ‘I Didn’t Think That Would Happen’
October Rust turns 30 this year, and the thing Hickey couldn’t hear in 1996 was how far it would travel.
‘What I didn’t hear was how it has transcended,’ he says. ‘I didn’t think that would happen.’ What he hears now is a turning point. ‘It was the point in time where the band really shifted over to a particular sound. Before that we were throwing a lot of colours up on the board.’ Slow, Deep And Hard and Bloody Kisses barely sound like the same band, and Hickey’s view is that this was the whole appeal: ‘That’s what always made Type O interesting.’ It’s also why the singers who try to do Peter reach for October Rust first.
Josh Silver
Josh Silver is still working as a paramedic, and Hickey won’t say more than that.
‘He’s still working,’ Hickey says, and then draws the line himself. ‘He gets annoyed at me any time I mention anything about him. He likes to stay incognito. I’ve got to respect that.’ He’s seeing Silver at Thanksgiving and would like to keep the invitation. If there’s news, Hickey will be the one to say it. Until then, there isn’t.
World Coming Down At 27: The Endings, The Sabbath, And What Peter Was Carrying
Hickey says the weight of World Coming Down came from telling Peter Steele, who had just lost his father, to put what he was going through straight into the record.
Scott starts with the thing every Type O fan has wondered about: why songs on that album, and on October Rust, just stop, mid-chorus, no fade. Hickey’s answer is pure Type O. ‘Sometimes it makes the chorus more poignant if you just end it at this arbitrary spot. It’s got to end sometime. Sometimes Type O songs really need to be shot to end.’ Forty-three minutes in, as Scott puts it, they’d earned it.
Then the Sabbath question. Scott hears Iommi all over the record. Hickey doesn’t disagree, Sabbath is everywhere in Type O, but the intent on this one wasn’t a record collection. Steele had just lost his father and was in a bad place, physically and emotionally. ‘I implored him to just put that into the music,’ Hickey says. His framing of where the band’s head was is the line of the interview: ‘October Rust was Bloody Kisses, it was just cool, and Black No. 1 and dyeing your hair black. But now let’s get serious again, like we were on Slow, Deep And Hard. And that’s what came out.’
‘Peter had a gift of interpreting his emotions, manifesting them into song, into music,’ he says. ‘You’re hearing what he was feeling.’ Is it the best Type O Negative album? Hickey stops short: ‘That’s up for debate. It’s one of the most honest ones.’ It’s one of his favourites, where it sits in the catalogue is a weekly argument among fans, and the songs that came out of that year are still some of the band’s best. The Black Sabbath in it is the sound of a man using the heaviest music he knew to carry the heaviest thing he had.
The Reunion Nudges
Reunion approaches keep arriving, and none yet has money attached.
‘We’ve gotten nudges,’ Hickey says. ‘We haven’t gotten any offers with money attached to them yet.’ Type O Negative, as Scott points out, is bigger now than it ever was while Peter was alive. Everything about Steele has been rediscovered by a generation that never saw him; the business side has noticed, and the band is aware of it. That’s as far as it goes, for now.
The Full Interview: Silvertomb, Sun Don’t Shine And More, This Weekend
This video is one segment of a longer conversation. The complete Kenny Hickey interview airs on The Loaded Radio Podcast this weekend.
Kenny Hickey is working now, not just remembering, and the rest of the conversation is about that: Silvertomb, Sun Don’t Shine, and a lot more Type O Negative, including stories we’re saving for the full episode. It’s on the free Loaded Radio app and wherever you get podcasts, this weekend. For thirteen things about Peter Steele to read while you wait, start there.
Watch: Kenny Hickey’s Type O Negative Update
Watch the full segment above. The complete Kenny Hickey interview, including Silvertomb and ‘Sun Don’t Shine’, airs on The Loaded Radio Podcast this weekend. Follow Loaded Radio so you don’t miss it.
TL;DR
The Type O Negative live album is almost edited, Mike Marciano is mixing it, and the target is the first quarter of 2027. No title yet; vinyl lead time is the reason.
‘Prometheus’, the unreleased Peter Steele song Johnny Kelly found on cassette, will be released ‘at some point, some format’, possibly on a reissue.
World Coming Down’s weight came from Hickey telling Steele, who had just lost his father, to put it all into the music: ‘You’re hearing what he was feeling.’ Hickey calls it ‘one of the most honest’ Type O albums.
October Rust turns 30; Josh Silver is still a paramedic and off limits; reunion nudges keep coming, none with money attached.
This is one segment. The full interview, with Silvertomb and ‘Sun Don’t Shine’, is on The Loaded Radio Podcast this weekend.
FAQ
Is Type O Negative releasing a live album?
Yes. Kenny Hickey says the editing is almost finished and the album is being mixed by Mike Marciano, who mixed the band’s studio records. The target release window is the first quarter of 2027. The title has not been announced.
What is the Type O Negative song ‘Prometheus’?
‘Prometheus’ is an unreleased Peter Steele song that drummer Johnny Kelly found on a cassette. Kenny Hickey has the recording and says it will be released at some point, in some format, possibly as part of a future reissue. No date has been set.
Why does World Coming Down sound so much like Black Sabbath?
Kenny Hickey says the intent was emotional rather than musical: Peter Steele had just lost his father, and Hickey urged him to put what he was going through into the music. ‘You’re hearing what he was feeling.’ Hickey calls it one of the most honest Type O Negative albums.
Is Type O Negative reuniting?
Not currently. Kenny Hickey says the surviving members have received ‘nudges’ about reunion shows but no offers with money attached. Josh Silver is still working as a paramedic and does not discuss band matters publicly.
Where can I hear the full Kenny Hickey interview?
The complete interview, including talk about Kenny’s other bands Silvertomb and Sun Don’t Shine airs on The Loaded Radio Podcast this weekend, on the free Loaded Radio app for Apple iOS and Google Play and on all podcast platforms. The video on this page is part of the Type O Negative update segment.
What would you have asked Kenny? Tell us in the comments, and come back this weekend for the full conversation on The Loaded Radio Podcast. Follow Loaded Radio for the live album title the moment it’s announced.
Jim Bakker, the televangelist who inspired Ozzy Osbourne‘s Miracle ManGenesis‘s Jesus He Knows Me and Iron Maiden‘s Holy Smoke, has died at the age of 86. The news was confirmed in a social media post by Bakker’s wife, Lori.
“It is with a broken heart that I share that my beloved husband, Jim Bakker, went home to be with the Lord this evening,” she wrote. “For 66 years, Jim gave his life to preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He was a pioneer of Christian television, but to me, he was my husband, my best friend, and the man I was honoured to walk beside through so many seasons of life and ministry.”
Bakker rose to prominence in the 1970s and 1980s alongside his first wife, Tammy Faye, as hosts of The PTL Club, a late-night Christian televangelist chat show (the ‘PTL’ was short for ‘Praise The Lord’) broadcast from the couple’s 2500-acre theme park in Fort Mill, South Carolina.
The show attracted millions of viewers and millions of dollars in contributions, but it all came crashing down in the late 1980s when Bakker was accused of sexual misconduct by Jessica Hahn, a church secretary, and imprisoned after being found guilty on charges of mail fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy. He was sentenced to 45 years in prison. On appeal, the sentence was reduced to eight years, and Bakker was released in 1994.
Bakker’s antics – alongside those of fellow televangelists Jerry Falwell, Jimmy Swaggart and Ernest Angley – were the inspiration for Genesis’s 1992 single Jesus He Knows Me, a song featuring lyrics which addressed televangelist hypocrisy directly.
I believe in family With my ever lovin’ wife beside me But she don’t know about my girlfriend Or the man I met last night Do you believe in God? ‘Cause that’s what I’m selling And if you wanna go to heaven Well, I’ll see you right
Ghost later covered Jesus He Knows Me on their 2023 EP Phantomime, while other songs to address televangelist behaviour include Ozzy Osbourne’s Miracle Man, Iron Maiden’s Holy Smoke, Poison’s Something To Believe In, Frank Zappa’s Jesus Thinks You’re a Jerk, The Hooters’ Satellite and Black Sabbath‘s TV Crimes.
In 1987, Tammy Faye Bakker – who’d already recorded several albums of Christian pop music – released The Ballad Of Jim & Tammy, a song that addressed the collapse of their ministry and criticised Swaggart and Falwell for turning on them. Tammy Faye died in 2007.
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