Type O Negative guitarist Kenny Hickey has confirmed the surviving band members have been approached about a possible Peter Steele tribute. Speaking to Loaded Radio, Hickey is asked by host Scott Penfold if any conversations had taken place.
"There has, yes," Hickey says. "A lot of people approaching us, you know? There's money in it. The more the value goes up, the more they're gonna hound us."
Type O Negative's last show was on October 31, 2009 at Harpo's in Detroit, MI. The group officially disbanded in 2010 after the death of singer Peter Steele on April 14 that year. But although they split, guitarist Hickey and drummer Johnny Kelly later came back together to play in the bands Silvertomb and, more recently, Sun Don't Shine, which also brought in Crowbar vocalist Kirk Windstein.
But although Hickey and Kelly have remained active, keyboardist Josh Silver retired from music after Type O Negative's split, becoming a paramedic in his native New York.
"Josh is really, at this point, he's very... resistant," Hickey concedes.
When Penfold suggests that it wouldn't "feel right" to proceed without Josh, Hickey is quick to not rule out things entirely, however. "That's correct, but we'll see," he says. "We don't know what's gonna happen, Josh is about to retire soon. We don't know what's gonna happen. It all depends on how much money it's worth and how much is waved."
Speaking to the Talk Toomey podcast earlier this year, Hickey had expressed an interest in getting guest vocalists to provide the tribute.
"At this point, the band seemed to transcend into a whole new generation and stuff," he muses."I think it would be really cool to get a couple of key singers, real guys, or maybe one guy or whatever, to come and do it as a tribute. Absolutely. Maybe four or five shows, something like that. If we can get Josh to do it, yeah."
Hickey also admits in the interview that one of the biggest challenges - beyond finding a vocalist - is to find someone who could imitate Peter's style of playing bass.
"His bass playing was more unique than his vocals," Hickey explains. "Deep, baritone vocals — a lot of people with a deep voice could do that shit and roll your Rs… But his bass playing was very, very unique."
Elsewhere in the interview, he jokes about getting Axl Rose to front the resurrected project.
"He does do gigs outside Guns N' Roses!" he says before doing an imitation of Axl singing My Girlfriend's Girlfriend. "That'd be fucking brilliant. So Type O: the exact opposite of what anyone would expect or want."
Watch the full interview below:
