Fright Night

Did you ever have anything like Halloween growing up in South Africa?

People had Halloween parties, but we never really did the trick-or-treating and all that.

What was your best costume?

I always used to dress up as a woman for some odd reason.

That can be scary. My fiancée grew up in Parktown North [in Johannesburg], if that means anything to you.

Actually, I know the name, because we have a breed of cockroach that's particularly hard to kill called the Parktown Prawn. [You can] throw a whole bottle of insecticide on it, and it won't die.

She'll be happy to hear that. What scares you besides Parktown Prawns?

It doesn't really scare me so much as gross me out, but spiders. Any form of bug, really. Back home, they get sizable, like, 4 inches long.

Hmmmm. Fun. Who's the scariest musician you've ever met?

Not many people creep me out. You get some bands like Cradle of Filth that are a little scary, but everyone is cool for the most part. I'm a big Manson fan. This is going to be the first time I see him live, so I'm excited.

What are some of the scariest cities you've played?

Detroit's really scary. I have this uneasy feeling whenever I'm walking around there. Birmingham, Alabama -- people are a little bit different down there. Cincinnati, too.

I hear you. I read you're a Stephen King fan. What's his scariest book?

The Mangler was good. It is my favorite. I own the movie and watch it about once a month. But to be honest, I'm more of a Dean Koontz fan. Koontz's stories are a little weirder. They fuck with your mind a little more.

You're a fairly new father. What's scarier, changing a diaper or playing in front of 20,000 people?

I'd definitely go with the diaper. When you play in front of 20,000 people, you can close your eyes and pretend there's only 10 people there if you want to. When you have a diaper full of ... stuff ... in front of you, you can't close your eyes. You just have to deal with it."

Planning anything special for the Freakers Ball?

I don't know -- we should dress up or something.

As a woman?

I could get away with that as a kid. Now, I don't know.

Seems to work for Manson.

That's a good point. I could wear a skimpy negligee. That would definitely be pretty scary.