Former W.A.S.P. guitarist Chris Holmes has once again firmly closed the door on any return to the band — and this time he has laid out exactly why in stark terms.
"No. Do you know what happened with my publishing? Why would I play with him again? I'd be an idiot to go back," Holmes told Thomas S. Orwat Jr. of the Rock Interview Series when asked whether Blackie Lawless could ever lure him back.
Holmes alleges that Lawless deceived him for years over songwriting royalties. While on tour, Blackie supposedly reassured a disgruntled Holmes — who was earning $500 a week compared to drummer Frankie Banali's $1,850 — that he would "make more off his publishing." In reality, Lawless had already classified Holmes as a session player, stripping him of all publishing rights. "He knew he was taking my money," Holmes said. "He's a malignant narcissist."
Holmes also expressed lingering disgust at the direction W.A.S.P. took from the late 1990s onward: "From 'Kill Fuck Die' on, W.A.S.P. was nothing but a depression to play with live because they were sampling. It's not live. It hurt me in my heart, knowing I was faking it."
The guitarist recently canceled a scheduled UK and Scandinavia tour in May 2026 due to a prostate issue requiring immediate treatment. He had previously overcome throat and neck cancer diagnosed in February 2022, completing seven weeks of radiation therapy before declaring himself fully recovered.
Blackie Lawless, for his part, dismissed any reunion in 2024, praising his current lineup as "world-class musicians" and calling a step back to the original lineup counterproductive.