W.A.S.P. frontman Blackie Lawless recently provided an update on his highly anticipated memoir, currently being developed under the working title “Tales From The Square Mile.” During a recent interview with Matt Wardlaw of Ultimate Classic Rock, the heavy metal icon detailed the grueling writing process and the emotional weight of revisiting his deepest past.
Acknowledging that the project has consumed his life for the past five years, the musician admitted the undertaking has been far more demanding than recording a studio album. “My head has really been into this book that I’ve been working on. And it’s really consumed most of my time. And it’s been way more work than I ever thought it was gonna be. It’s easily as much work as making a record, but probably more, because I’ve been working on this now for five years,” he explained.
“Since we came home [from tour] last November, I have really, really buckled down and started working on this,” Blackie continued. “I’m probably halfway done now, but the amount of research that it took to get a lot of these stories correct is really time consuming. And I find that there will be times where it’ll take me six, seven hours to write two paragraphs because of the amount of research that’s going on.”
He noted that the book evolved significantly from his original vision. “Because when I first started this, like probably everybody else, I would’ve thought it would’ve been my singular story,” he said. “And that seemed reasonable at the time. But the more I got into it, the more I realized it was not just my story.”
Explaining the inspiration behind the title “Tales From The Square Mile,” the frontman pointed to the specific area of Hollywood he resided in and its deep historical connection to the entertainment industry. He discovered fascinating parallels between the movie studio systems of the 1920s through the 1940s and the later evolution of the record business. He promises readers a unique perspective filled with intriguing historical nuggets and bizarre coincidences, stating it will not be a standard rock star biography by any stretch.
“What it’s about is that square mile that I was living in in Hollywood at the time, and the influences that the town itself would have on not just me, but the music industry overall, and we are all tied to it, whether we know it or not. Because the way the movie studio systems were set up in the ’20s, ’30s and ’40s had a direct influence on what the record companies would be later. So all this research, like I said, that went into to uncovering a lot of what I’ve been doing has just taken an enormous amount of time. But the little nuggets that I’ve discovered that I think people will find interesting for me were fascinating when I would uncover them. And there’s a lot of goofy coincidences that have happened in it too, the things that have been uncovered. So, like I said, I think it’s gonna be an interesting read when people see it. It’s not your gonna be your typical rock and roll book by any stretch.”
Diving into his memories proved to be an intense, psychological exercise for the veteran rocker.
“Well, when you write a book, especially something like this, you realize you saved yourself about 40 years of being on a psychiatrist’s couch because the rabbit holes that you have to go down… It’s really revealing, because we have surface memory of events that have happened in our lives, but it’s not until we go to really start digging deeper at any specific event that might have happened in your life. You think you remember it, and you do on the surface, but it’s not until you start really going back to wherever that event may have happened in your head and you start looking and visualizing everything that was going on at the time. And man, I’m here to tell you, there’s a lot of stones that you uncover that some are good and some are not so good. But I’ve come to the understanding that this is not a book I could have written 20 years ago, because I wasn’t in the headspace to write it. So it’s been — as the old Grateful Dead song says, ‘What a long, strange trip it’s been.’ It’s been that.”
Regarding the specific section of the book that proved most challenging for him to write, Blackie immediately pointed to his youth. He detailed a nomadic upbringing driven by his father’s construction career, which forced him to attend 13 different schools before graduation. The constant relocations made it nearly impossible to maintain friendships. The musician noted that continually being the new kid and being tested by older peers led to a brutal adolescence that impacted him far more than he had previously realized
“Childhood. Because that too is where you start going down these rabbit holes and things that you think… It reminds me of the old Peter Gabriel song, ‘Digging in the dirt to find the places where we got hurt.’ My dad was in the construction business, and we traveled a lot when I was a kid. I ended up going to 13 different schools by the time I graduated. So I was constantly the new kid. And it’s hard to make friends. And the friends you do make, as soon as you make them, you’re gone again. And that ended up having quite a bit more of an impact on me growing up than even I gave it credit for. And as men, or as boys, we were constantly being tested by the older kids and stuff like that. So there was a lot of brutality that went on with it. But I would say in a word, childhood.”
In addition to his literary work, W.A.S.P. is preparing to hit the road for the “1984 To Headless” 2026 North American tour, featuring special guests KK’s Priest. The trek launches on September 10 in California and concludes on October 31. The setlist will strictly feature material from the band’s legendary first four studio albums: their 1984 debut W.A.S.P., 1985’s The Last Command, 1987’s Inside The Electric Circus, and 1989’s The Headless Children.
Fans can purchase exclusive VIP packages via the band’s official webstore, which include a meet-and-greet, a personal photo, autographs, a Q&A session with Blackie Lawless, and access to an updated traveling museum. Following the North American leg, the “1984 To Headless” tour is scheduled to expand into Europe and globally throughout 2027.
“1984 To Headless” 2026 Tour Dates:
- Sept. 10 – El Cajon, CA – The Magnolia
- Sept. 11 – Los Angeles, CA – The Wiltern
- Sept. 12 – Riverside, CA – Fox Performing Arts Center
- Sept. 13 – Phoenix, AZ – Celebrity Theater
- Sept. 14 – Santa Fe, NM – Buffalo Thunder Resort & Casino
- Sept. 16 – Austin, TX – Emo’s
- Sept. 17 – Tulsa, OK – Tulsa Theater
- Sept. 18 – Dallas, TX – House of Blues
- Sept. 19 – San Antonio, TX – Aztec Theatre
- Sept. 20 – Houston, TX – House of Blues
- Sept. 22 – Clearwater, FL – Ruth Eckerd Hall
- Sept. 23 – Daytona Beach, FL – Peabody Auditorium
- Sept. 24 – Jacksonville, FL – Florida Theatre
- Sept. 25 – Raleigh, NC – The Ritz
- Sept. 26 – Jim Thorpe, PA – Penn’s Peak
- Sept. 27 – Portland, ME – Aura
- Sept. 29 – Boston, MA – House of Blues
- Sept. 30 – Hampton, NH – Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom
- Oct. 01 – Wallingford, CT – Toyota Oakdale Theatre
- Oct. 02 – New York, NY – Palladium Times Square
- Oct. 03 – Carteret, NJ – Carteret Performing Arts Center
- Oct. 05 – Montreal, QC – MTELUS
- Oct. 06 – Ottawa, ON – Hard Rock Casino
- Oct. 07 – Pickering, ON – Pickering Casino Resort
- Oct. 09 – Des Plaines, IL – Des Plaines Theatre
- Oct. 10 – St. Charles, IL – Arcada Theatre
- Oct. 11 – St. Charles, IL – Arcada Theatre
- Oct. 13 – Glenside, PA – Keswick Theatre
- Oct. 14 – Harrisburg, PA – Capitol City Music Hall
- Oct. 15 – Cleveland, OH – Agora Theatre
- Oct. 16 – Milwaukee, WI – Pabst Theater
- Oct. 17 – Green Bay, WI – EPIC Event Center
- Oct. 19 – Winnipeg, MB – Burton Cummings Theatre
- Oct. 21 – Edmonton, AB – Midway Music Hall
- Oct. 22 – Calgary, AB – The Palace Theatre
- Oct. 23 – Coquitlam, BC – Great Canadian Casino Vancouver
- Oct. 25 – Seattle, WA – Moore Theatre
- Oct. 27 – San Jose, CA – San Jose Civic
- Oct. 29 – Rancho Mirage, CA – The Show at Agua Caliente
- Oct. 30 – Las Vegas, NV – House of Blues
- Oct. 31 – Anaheim, CA – The Grove
