In a recently published 2020 interview with Metal Hammer, Manowar’s Ross The Boss explained the truth behind the band’s tour with Mercyful Fate back in 1984.
The rumor suggests that Manowar started the tour as a support act for Mercyful Fate, but the billing was switched after Manowar received a better crowd reaction. The rocker explained what really happened: “We were always gonna be the headliner. What happened was, Mercyful Fate were our special guests. We got to England, and we had all of our brand new equipment – we called it the Wall Of Voodoo. It was so huge, and so new, it was gleaming like a brand spanking new battleship! And they walk into the venue and go, ‘Can we play through that?’ and we go, ‘Er, can we f*ck your wife?'”
He continued: “I mean… no! Y’know? We bust our asses the last few years to get to this point, we’ve spent record advances and expenses and stress, and we’re just gonna turn over our Wall of Voodoo? Joey said, ‘Go get every piece of gear you got, and play through that.'”
Ross says Mercyful Fate never showed up again for the rest of the tour after performing one show with a scaled-down production. “They never called us to say they were quitting, they never told the agents or promoters, they just f*cked off the tour after that first night. This is the damn truth. And they said – they said, we denied them lights and sound.”
He added: “That was a bad thing to say, because every writer in England was at that first show, and they said ‘That’s bullshit! We were there! You had full lights and full sound, they just didn’t hand you the accolades of their audience.’ Which was none of their business. You gotta earn it.”
Even after what happened, Ross says he has nothing against the band members: “I have nothing against them, I love that band. I’m friends with the two guitar players, [ex-band member] Mike Denner and Hank Shermann, they’re great guys. I asked them ‘What happened to you that night?’ They’re like, ‘Oh, I dunno…’ Yeah I know. That’s OK, we know…!”
According to the former Mercyful Fate manager, the band was allowed to bring their gear on stage only half an hour before the show. When the show began, Mercyful Fate was told they could only perform for 25 minutes instead of the 45 minutes they were promised.
Once on stage, they found their sound engineer was not allowed access to the soundboard. The manager further said that Manowar’s sound engineer started messing with their sound, leading Mercyful Fate to demand changes if they were to stay on the tour.
Manowar refused to make the changes, and Mercyful Fate ended up leaving the tour, suffering a big financial loss.
