A song for my heart broken friends ❤️

After The Mourning is the first record I’ve ever done. I’m very proud of this record. It is about mourning death. This record was dedicated to Bianca Halstead from Betty Blowtorch, who was my girlfriend at one time. We wrote this record by recording a song a day, for 10 days. I wrote this with a guy named Mark Fain, who used to be in a band called Chlorine out of Houston, Texas. We had Mark on guitar, and Antonio Bucciarelli on bass, who is back in Italy. Moon Hill was on drums. He fuckin’ did the drum tracks on the record with no music. Just from memory. I’ve only seen that happen one time, and it was that guy. I was blown away.

Chris Johnson produced, engineered, and mixed this record. He gave me a chance when no one else wanted to, and always fucking gets the best out of me. I’ve done four records with him. He’s a good friend, and a trusted friend. - TONY

1. The song After The Mourning is definitely about Bianca. Finally picking up the pieces. It took four years of hell. I immersed myself in drugs and alcohol when it was happening, and all of it was prolonging the agony.

2. Another World is basically about the place I live in most of the time. I feel like I’m on the wrong planet.

3. Please Kill Me is self-loathing to the max.

4. Beauty in Disguise is about beautiful people who are ugly inside.

5. I Tried is the song that Mark Fain wrote lyrically and musically. It’s the only song Blacklist Union has where I didn’t write the lyrics. I love the groove on this song.

6. Everything You Need is about having everything you need inside and looking within instead of out.

7. Dying To Live is the moment I had peace with Bianca’s death. We recorded it on the four-year anniversary of her death. I had it set up where I went to her grave and did this prayer, and then I went right into the studio. Our producer Chris, and Antonio our bass player, were both there. I sang this song one time, and then I looked at them and their jaws were hanging open. I was like, did that totally suck ass? They were like, no dude, you nailed it all the way through. That was the first time I’ve ever nailed a song through, from beginning to end, without having to rework it a little bit. I have done that since, but that was the first time. When I listened to the playback, I cried. That was the moment I had peace with her death. I swear to God. It was so heavy.  At the end of the song I dedicate it to Bianca.

 8. Out Of Touch is about this chick I dated for a short time, Inger Lorre, the singer for The Nymphs. She’s infamous for pissing on her A & R guy’s desk, and stabbing her boyfriend Rodney Eastman, who was in Nightmare On Elm Street and a bunch of stuff.

9. Back To Zero… I’ve been in and out of AA many many times over the years. Back to zero man, when you have all this time sober and then suddenly you’re smoking weed and you have zero days.

10. Waitin’ On You I wrote this song on guitar. I barely play guitar, but I wrote the riff and it’s just about you know, waiting. The waiting is the hardest part, like Tom Petty said.

Blacklist Union

Waiting On You

Back To Zero

Dying To Live

This is our second record that we recorded in 2007/8 ish. This record was a little different. Our first record we tuned to E Flat. This record we went a half-step lower, so it has a little bit more of a metal edge. There’s definitely some good songs on here. The photo shoot we did for this record was insane. We had three midgets, we had animal trainers, we had a porn star, we had a dog… I tried to create The Last Supper with all the 10 Deadly Sins. This record did fairly well. We did a couple videos... “Breaking Bread With The Devil” and “Sixty Steps Away.” I would say my favorite tracks on this probably would be, “Come Inside”  and “Sixty Steps Away.” I love to sing that one. And of course, “Breaking Bread With The Devil.” 

Breakin Bread With The Devil is about inviting the wrong people into your life. It has nothing to do with the devil, although we got banned from some stations because of the name, but they didn’t bother to ask what it meant or anything. They just assumed, and when you ASSume you make an Ass out of U and Me. 

Wicked Love Song is about the same ol’ same ol’, you know a broken hearted song. 

Feel Me is a song that between After The Mourning and Breaking Bread with the Devil, my first wife Tracie died. And I had an experience with my friend Billy Worth from The Lost Boys. I was living in Hollywood and he said come downstairs I have a joint for you. On the way back up the stairs of this building I heard this crying and my first instinct was, that’s Tracie crying. But I’m like, that can’t be Tracie, she’s dead. So I walk to my apartment and the fucking crying gets louder. I had this girl in my bed, and I thought, oh fuck, she’s crying. I rush to open the door, the keys drop...  The fuckin’ crying gets louder. I open the door and the fucking crying stops. So then a few weeks later I’m on mushrooms, sitting in that house, and I hear the crying again. I said, Tracie what is it? If they’re telling you to go somewhere, go. I forgive you. I know you forgive me. The crying stopped and I never heard it again. So “Feel Me” is about that.

Say Hello is about the birth of my son, which saved my life. With all this death, birth was a beautiful joy. “Say Hello” is a very special song. It was inspired by the Mötley record Generation Swine, which is my favorite Mötley record and is often shot down and overlooked. Tommy had a song about Brandon his son, which is a really beautiful song and I wanted to create something about my son. 

Come Inside, of course, has the sexual innuendo, but it’s about coming inside to my heart and seeing who I really am instead of just seeing the gruff exterior and believing all the lies and rumors about me. 

Kiss The Monkey is basically telling everyone to suck it. 

Bleed For Me is a song I wrote about my son’s mother. We were briefly married for three months. We have a beautiful son together. We have a rough go at it, me and her. 

Sixty Five Steps Away is about Tracie and Bianca’s graves in Hollywood Forever.  It’s how many steps their graves are away from each other. It was pointed out to me that it’s 65 steps away for me, cause I’m so tall. But compared to some other people, they were like, it’s not 65 steps for me. I’m like, oh.. The video is amazing. We guerrilla shot it at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. It looks like a fuckin’ million dollar video because of that. Dylan was in it. He was just a little baby when we did that video. I love that video. 

Liars, Cheaters & Thieves is about Hollywood, pretty much. Although, you gotta look at yourself and see if you’re doing those things in life. No matter what that is it’s just not okay. Mostly it’s about my experience in Hollywood.

King Of Fools is about this bass player that I had who would cry on the road in the bathroom of the RV. I’d be like, “dude, you need to chill out and smoke some weed or something”. He would call his girlfriend and be like, “Tony West is pushing drugs on me.” That’s what that’s about.

Breakin Bread With The Devil

Liars, Cheaters, & Thieves

Sixty Five Steps Away

Back To Momo is very special for me. I wrote it with Todd Youth. Out of all our records I have to say this is my favorite, collectively. The first three were about pain and casting out darkness. For me this was about getting back to the rock and having fun. The record was effortless to write. Todd... I miss him and love him. Momo is a whore house in West Hollywood, California that I used to frequent quite often. I took the pictures inside of the place. The picture on the back cover is actually Momo. Me and my road guy Scott Willis jumped out of my SUV and took pictures of it because I needed a picture for the back of the album. The next time I went to Momos after that the madame was like, “We saw you take picture!” I’m like, “no, I didn’t take no pictures.” She’s like, “you take picture.” I was like, “okay, yeah, we took a picture”. (LAUGHS) 

There are thirteen tracks on Back To Momo. Again, I’m very proud of this record. It was very well received. I just worry about topping this one because it’s so good. Margot Shea, who is a girl I grew up with in New York, came up with the concept for the cover. Doni Gray did the graphics and put it all together.  - TONY

Alive-N-Well Smack In The Middle of Hell That’s been a saying I’ve had for a long, long time. It’s pretty self-explanatory. It’s kind of about keeping your sanity despite the chaos that’s going on around you. We have a great video for this song... Complete with midgets jumping out of boxes, a porn star, and all kinds of stuff. 

Shake It Off is about all the pain I’ve been carrying around forever, and I just need to let that shit go. 

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall is about looking at yourself… Self-reflexion. Stop blaming everyone else. Look at yourself. 

Evil Eye is about my mom, and what I went through as a kid. We have a video for that song. 

Superjaded… is one of my favorites. The Cult was an inspiration for this song. I’ve been in Hollywood a very long time, so I’m “SuperJaded.”

Rock N Roll Outlaw was done at the persistence of Todd Youth, you know, cause people call me “Rock N Roll Outlaw.” It’s a Rose Tattoo cover. We both love Rose Tattoo.

Back To Momo is the title track, and it is one of my favorite songs to sing. I’m really proud of the lyrics. The title Back To Momo comes from failed relationships and having to pay to get you some minus the drama.  

We Are Not Saints is actually a quote taken out of the preamble of  how it  Works in AA. We are not saints. Everyone does wrong sometimes. 

It’s All About You is about my daughter’s mother. 

Meet Me On Zen Street... I wrote that when I was on a retreat in the desert trying to get zen and centered. This is another one of my favorite songs on the album. That was definitely inspired by The Ramones. The Ramones are a huge influence and inspiration for me.

Graveyard Valentine is one of my favorite titles. It’s about having loved ones in the fucking graveyard. 

Wined, Dined & 69’d was inspired by Motörhead. 

Read Between The Lines was an inspiration from Andrew Wood. I sang in Malfunkshun, which was his band before Mother Love Bone. He was a huge influence on me. He was my muse. I got to see some ugly shit in his circle and got to read between the lines.

Back To Momo

Read Between the Lines

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