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This article is about the band. For other meanings of wasp, see Wasp (disambiguation)
W.A.S.P. is an American heavy metal band formed in 1982 which gained noteriety for its " shock rock" image, music and live performances.
The band, formed in Los Angeles, California, initially consisted of Blackie Lawless, Chris Holmes, Randy Piper and Tony Richards . The band initially became famous for its raunchy and at times shocking live shows; Lawless was known to tie semi-naked models to a torture rack and hurl raw meat into the audience. The band's debut single, entitled "Fuck Like A Beast" was equally contoversial.
W.A.S.P signed to Capitol Records for their debut LP, W.A.S.P. in 1984 ( 1984 in music). The bands first single "ANIMAL" was omitted from the album in the United States in order to prevent the album from being banned from major chain stores. Capitol planned to release it as a single only in Europe, in a black plastic bag with a sticker warning of offensive lyrics. Eventually, however, Capitol was convinced to release the album with its original packaging in April of 1984.
"L.O.V.E. Machine" and "I Wanna Be Somebody" helped the album sell well, and set the band up for "Blind in Texas" (off The Last Command from 1985), the band's biggest hit.
W.A.S.P became a target of the Parents Music Resource Center, an organization led by Tipper Gore and dedicated to opposing violent and sexual lyrics. The publicity helped sales greatly, though PMRC's efforts were unsuccessful.
Inside the Electric Circus was released in 1986. The album, which saw Lawless switch to guitar (replacing the departed Piper) received poor reviews and the band's popularity began to decline.
The later 1980s saw the band's fortunes dwindle swiftly and the band effectively disbanded in 1989 ( 1989 in musicSee also 1988 in music, other events of 1989, 1990 in music, 1980s in music and the list of 'years in music' Events January 7 Genesis'88 and Sunrise/Back to the Future stage large-scale illegal Acid House party in London January 14 Paul McCartney releases). Mainman Blackie Lawless started to work on a solo project, but felt that the result sounded so much like WASP that he finally released it as a WASP album. Ironically, many critics feel that this album ("The Crimson Idol") has been the best WASP output so far. Chris Holmes returned to WASP in 19961996 was a leap year starting on Monday (see link for calendar), and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty''. Events January January 5 Hamas operative Yahya Ayyash is killed by an Israeli-planted booby-trapped cell phone Jan and left again in 2002.
In April 2004 WASP released the first part of "The Neon God", a concept album about an abused and orphaned boy who finds that he has the ability to read and manipulate people. The second part was released in September 2004.