It started as a twisted dream"... 25 years ago in a small town in New Jersey called Lodi. It was there in April of 1977, at the dawn of the punk movement, that the Misfits were born. Taking the title of Marilyn Monroe's last movie as their name in a move to immortalize her image - singer Glenn Danzig and bassist Jerry Only set out to make an impression. They wound up making history and creating a legacy that's power has not only stood the test of time, but transcended into an entirely new generation. Lineup changes followed and by early 1980, the band coalesced around co-founders, Glenn Danzig and Jerry Only along with guitarist Doyle Wolfgang Von Frankenstein (Jerry's youngest brother). Throughout the span of their career, the Misfits audience has developed into an army of "fiends" (the term for die hard Misfits fans) generating more interest today than ever before.
From its inception the music was primitive punk rock, harsh and to-the-point. Yet that aggression was complimented with a strong sense of melody inspired by the roots of rock and roll bred in the 1950's. What further separated the band from their hard-core peers of the 70's punk scene was their inspired fixation on horror movies. It was from that inspiration that they created an entire world out of a passion for the genre. Utilizing B-movie-style artwork, the band appeared with slick, black "devil lock" hair styles and horror make-up. "The Fiend" (a skull icon that became the official symbol of the group) was painted on their leather jackets, boots and equipment. The Misfits cast a fiendish aura of mystery embodied by ghoulish charm and landed themselves a massive cult following. That following continues to expand world wide on a daily basis. The "Fiend Skull" icon, which was once crudely painted on everything the band could get their hands on, can now be found on a limitless amount of merchandise carried in stores throughout the world.
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