Today is a sad day. Another giant has fallen. Blackie Lawless has announced that he has been “born again” as a Christian, which I think means he’s now one of those fundamentalist Evangelical psychos like the ones who host Jesus Camp. He refers to Alice Cooper having being born again earlier this year, so sounds like the same goes for him.

In 2002, Dave Mustaine found God, but I’m not sure which of the almost infinite sub-Christian denominations he is, but soon following him Dave Ellefson found God too. So now they’re best buddies, and I’m hoping this doesn’t turn Megadeth into a Christian band.

But maybe they can step aside like Tom Araya and Dave Lombardo of Slayer do. They are both hardened Catholics, Araya being the most vocal about it as far as I know. Apparently, the subject matter of their songs doesn’t affect Tom when he said “I have a really strong belief system and these are just words and they’ll never interfere with what I believe and how I feel.” So this shows me that Slayer is nothing more than a show-band. That they don’t believe anything they’re singing, and they’re just doing it to cash in. Certainly I can’t imagine Araya and Lombardo hanging out with Kerry King or Jeff Hanneman if their belief systems were too different. It’s my understanding that King is an atheist, but not sure about Hanneman.

Either way, Slayer just come across as a band who are writing material simply to fill a demographic.

Dee Snider has always said he had Christian beliefs, but didn’t let that sour his music, as did greats like Dio, and Ozzy Osbourne. It used to be common to see people like Dio and Tommy Iommi wearing big fuck-off crosses around their necks. But they never really talked about religion, so I see them as believers, but not fundamentalists. The fact that modern artists are making so much noise about it tells me that they are fundamentalists. Especially Dave Mustaine, who already has such low self-esteem and Metallica penis envy that he has really fallen for the whole God thing head-over-heels. This year, in almost every interview, Mustaine has talked about God. It’s sad and pathetic.

It’s my belief that those who find God have either been brainwashed as children — sorry, indoctrinated — or their life is so shit that they have to turn to an invisible friend for support. Nobody who has a happy fulfilled life “finds” God.

Here are a bunch of covers of Steppenwolf‘s ultra-classic Born To Be Wild. These are a lot more metal.

Here’s Twisted Sister doing it live in Wacken. As a huge Twisted Sister fan I’m saddened that this isn’t my favourite version. But I’m also sad that this didn’t appear as a studio recording anywhere.

This might annoy some people, but I feel I have to add it for completeness. Ozzy Osbourne doing it on The Muppets. The orgasmic commentary from Miss Piggy is almost too much for me to handle. Even as funny as her comment of “the frog can wait” is… well, it kind of ruins it, but there is a great rendition of Born To Be Wild under there. (more…)