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In 2005 Type O Negative kinda faked Peter Steele’s death – as it turns out, he had been in jail, in rehab and in a psychiatric hospital prior to release of the Dead Again album. So when I started to see rumours on Twitter last week that he had died of heart failure, I refused to believe it was true until solid news came through.

Sadly, a few hours later it was confirmed: Peter Steele, dead at 48, from causes as yet unknown, apparently after a short illness. As outpourings of grief and sympathy swept across Twitter and the online metal networks, I couldn’t help thinking what the frontman would have thought of all the fuss. I’ve read that people who knew him said his famously dark and self-deprecating sense of humour hid a lot of insecurity. It seems sad to me that he would never see the impact he had on so many fans and so many of his fellow musicians. I wonder if he’d ever had any idea how massive his legacy is.

I was late to the Type O Negative party – Dave introduced me to them in about 2001, when we first started going out. He played me Love You To Death and it’s still one of my favourite Type O songs. “Her hips move, and I can hear what they’re saying, swaying… they say the beast inside of me is gonna get ya, get ya, get…”

And then of course there was the infamous Playgirl centrefold, where Pete changed the game by only agreeing to pose if he could do so erect. He talks a bit about it in this Ink interview from 2003:

‘I said to myself, "How come these guys are flaccid? Who wants to look at this?" So I said to them, "I’d like to be hard, do you have any problem with that?"’

Now that’s metal.

Check out this segment on the Ricki Lake show in 1996, where he reveals he did it for $2000:

And then there’s this bit on the Jerry Springer show.

Jerry; Are you happy to be here Peter?
Peter: I’m less miserable.

I never got to see Type O Negative live, and that really sucks.

I love the video for Black No 1 – not only for the delicious pronunciation of words like “trick or treat”, or for Pete’s awesome stand up bass (that he slings over his shoulder like a regular guitar – man that guy was huge), but because it’s a song written about hair dye. Cos that’s serious shit:

After his prison sentence and stint in rehab, Pete found God and got religion. He wasn’t preachy about it though, which makes it ok by me. And of course, I’m sure that Pete’s idea of God was one that was ok with him having two girlfriends:

RIP, Pete. We miss you already.

• Pete’s band mates have posted touching and sometimes quite funny statements about him on their official web site.
• Metal Underground dedicated this week’s Sunday Old School column to Petrus T. Ratajczyk.

Posted in music
Tags: peter steele, type o negative