The new Static-X singer goes by the name of XerO and wears a mask to make him look like original singer Wayne Static. Wayne lost his life on November 1, 2014. Earlier this year the band announced that they’d put together a summer North American tour in honor of the 20th anniversary of their breakthrough album Wisconsin Death Trip. The tour also features Devildriver and Dope. That’s important because the rumor is that Edsel Dope is actually XerO. Whether it is or if it’s someone else playing this character as a tribute to Wayne, he was recently interviewed by Kerrang! magazine.
“Wayne was a very unique singer. I can’t just be myself with this. That wouldn’t be doing the material justice. Therefore, I really have to be prepared. I have to learn lots of parts…find the right places in my own voice to deliver my best version of these songs…I’m never gonna sound as good as Wayne did, doing Wayne’s thing. That’s just common sense. But I feel really good about it, I believe that I will represent the vibe of the band very well and that we will give the fans a really fun ‘Wisconsin Death Trip’ experience each night.”
In the same interview XerO also confirmed that he is in fact the one that came up with the idea of wearing a mask.
“I’ve spent the last 20 years building my own identity and touring the world with my own band,” he said. “It didn’t feel right for my image or identity to be placed in the center of something that I wasn’t part of creating… It just felt like a perfect way to keep the focus on the four guys that made this great album and started this really cool band. After a few days of living with it, I decided to spike my hair up, just to see what it would look like with the mask on, and I was like, Oh, FUCK. Let’s be honest: Wayne’s hair kind of became the visual identity of Static-X. We didn’t set out to create a ‘character,’ it just evolved naturally. We went to our friend Laney, who also makes the masks for many of the Slipknot guys, as well as Manson’s band, and Rob Zombie’s band, et cetera. Wayne liked heavy metal, monster movies, and monster trucks. He would be honored by the celebration and he would dig the shit out of this.”
The closest the tour will hit to Northeast Wisconsin is July 20 in Joliet, Ill. at The Forge.
