Chris Holmes slams WASP frontman

Former WASP guitarist Chris Holmes has hit out at Blackie Lawless, saying the frontman tried to pay him less than he was worth.

In an interview with Finland’s Seiska TV, Holmes says he was the creative force behind WASP and that Lawless put him down as a session musician on contracts to avoid paying him his due.

“He wrote me down in the contacts on every album as a session player,” says Holmes, “which means my name shouldn’t even be on the records as a songwriter. But it is, because I’m a songwriter, but he wrote me down as a session player, meaning I just got paid salary.”

Despite the bad feelings, Holmes wouldn’t rule out the possibility of rejoining Lawless and WASP at some point in the future.

“Never say never,” he says. “I’m half of WASP. Even though I’m not the voice of the band, I was the driving force of that thing.”

Holmes is currently in Finland working with Domino from hard rockers Baton Rogue Morgue – and says he’s happy to be away from L.A.

He says: “The music scene in L.A. is kind of declining – the rock music scene. It’s turning into hip hop. Over here, the hip hop scene isn’t that big and I want to play the music I like to do – plus my first and second records went gold and platinum over here.”

Scott has spent 37 years in newspapers, magazines and online as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in 2014 before moving into e-commerce in 2020. Scott maintains Louder’s buyer’s guides, highlights deals, and reviews headphones, speakers, earplugs and more. Over the last 12 years, Scott has written more than 11,500 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog. He's previously written for publications including IGN, Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald, covering everything from news and features, to tech reviews, video games, travel and whisky. Scott's favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Drab Majesty, Marillion and Rush.