Michale Graves in Rolling Stone Magazine!

Original article here

ENGLISH:TRANSLATION so its kind of rough:

Character really special and not immediately accessible assimilation, Michale Graves. Known by most for being the frontman for some time of the famous band The Misfits, Michale has long been active with Marky Ramone Marky Ramones Blitzkrieg in the project. But his is not a krieg limited to one field.

Singer with a voice of thrilling, top-quality performer (he can transform his concerts real show), but also a director of short films really intense, committed at the forefront of many social battles, a deejay known U.S. radio program and particularly proud husband and father, Michael is one of the most versatile rock scene that animate the world.

Away from the mainstream and the red carpets, Michale years bears his contribution to the rock scene seamlessly, engaged in numerous initiatives with the dedication and above all the enthusiasm of a neophyte, and with the humility of one who, from life, not has never stopped learning, but continues his personal progression in a particular path that stretches 360 degrees from music to movies to art in general. Difficult to label, Michale is outside of any standard canon. It ‘a surfer, and he applies his particular philosophy to every aspect of his life. Hang loose, as he says.

“I know I’m a very special person,” she admits. “Often my consistency and my commitment to some important issues I have brought many circuits in the automatic exclusion from canonical punk. I am driven by core values: belief in God, believe in my country and I believe in family. I believe in respect for others and hard work. And this, in the punk, I brought criticism from many of those who call the purists of the scene, critics who consider their cultural insignificance a flag, and use it to attack me where my thinking is not approved, what believed to be the thought – one of punk rock: anarchy, lawlessness. All bales. I believe in God and believe in my family, and I’m not afraid to say it, “says Michale with pride but also with a certain shyness.

A few years ago, at the end of his adventure with the Misfits, went through a bad period. And ‘he tell us about. “All my old friends have abandoned me. All of a sudden, more than 30 years, I found myself alone. And this led me to reevaluate my choices and different decisions. ” In this dark period of his life, two very important meetings.

“The first meeting was with the story of Damien Echols. I was crossing one of the darkest periods of my life, when by chance I found a book by Damien in which he spoke of his particular human case. Convicted in 1993 for the murder of three children, Damien would later be acquitted by the use of new scientific evidence such as DNA analysis, but the American justice system is very unique, and often end up on death row are people from most disadvantaged strata of society and with little hope in a just defense. From this chance meeting, I found new energy for life, and made his personal experience of a new starting point for my life. I’m not the only one to have passionate story of Damien: Eddie Vedder also, for example, has mobilized to him. With Damien I wrote 5 songs, and I went to record their own in Arkansas, where he is being held on death row awaiting execution: Frost Pie Wornhood, Nothing, Thousand cracks of daylight and Silent Partner. Damien has a website and invite everyone to visit: www.wm3.org ”

But it is the second encounter of his life to score the difference. The encounter with his life partner, Renee. “Renee has saved me. I know it sounds strange to hear about love that lasts a lifetime by a punk, but it is. Renee is my reference point, I think the first thing in the morning and the last I think about before falling asleep. She and our daughter Olivia. Watch – and shows me a tattoo that covers the entire shoulder, a broken heart with the words and Renee Olivia – Olivia was born with a malformation of the heart that has forced several weeks in hospital. For weeks we have Renee and I feared for his life, and I dedicated it to her that if and when the last song I recorded with Marky Ramone. The experience of having a daughter in the hospital, a small defenseless creature, it changed my life. And ‘God that I addressed my prayers every morning, for the sake of my little angel. And the prayers are served. This experience has strengthened even more the link between me and Renee: She is a very patient woman, knows that I have to be often away on tour and that life is not easy, but it takes hard it is my first fan. And I love her with all my heart. ”

To hear him talk about his love for his wife and daughter, will you squeeze the heart. When he talks about Renee, she does it with enthusiasm and transport of a lover, was struck by the passion and love. And ‘Michale sincere, honest feeds on feelings: love for his woman and his family, his values ​​and ideals, the same ones that often drew criticism from many in the environment.

 

“And ‘the reason why I started to not be afraid to speak my mind. In a world often conveniences, I noticed that what people perceive to my concerts were just the tip of the iceberg, hence the need to speak directly to the public, to tell him my point of view unfiltered and uncensored . For this reason I was born on Deadly Radio program, which anyone can listen to streaming at www.radiodeadly.net “. I have often had problems with my beliefs: many said that talk of love for their nation, for God and family are not “punk” as if “punk” was a stereotype that having to adapt to strength, not a way energetic live life, but an empty set of counter-values ​​that have always rejected. I strongly believe in spirituality, you see it too. If spirituality has to do with whether or not punk, this is not for me to say. But you remember well the last night: that girl who took my hands and crying, or that child whom I dedicated the song … tell me if those are moments that transcend the man, if they are not worth a life time “. Michale refers to just two concerts took place, at the time the song Poison Heart. The first time, in Barcelona, ​​a girl took her hands them to him and he has held for the duration of the song, while the girl was crying and lived experience that only she can understand, as if he were emerging from its depths something , something that no one else could understand. The second, more Poison Heart, but this time in Marseille: Michale stooped and took the hands of a child, and sang the whole song, as if it were written just for him. “Believe in your dreams”, she said. Two very exciting moments.

But this candor has cost him dear: at first many locals have started to cancel his show and to boycott the promotion of music. Michale beautifully he’s screwed, and embraced another cause “uncomfortable”, that of war veterans from the Wounded Warriors Foundation supported mutilated. “People tend to identify too the army and the marines with an abstract entity, as if they were formed by men, more often by children who leave everything to the need to find a job, most often poorly paid and thousands of miles from home. These are the true heroes of our day: 18 kids, 20 years to go on mission, because they love their country and need a job. Unfortunately for many of them as means to be maimed, losing an arm or a leg in a firefight. And unfortunately, many of them to return home awaits them wait a year before they are recognized their compensation from the government for which they sacrificed their lives and youth. And ‘why associations such as the Wounded Warriors born: to provide immediate assistance to veterans who return home with permanent injuries and that once at home can no longer find anything, often abandoned by the authorities who sent them to fight in a war that was not theirs. No policy on my part in this: I love my country, but sometimes do not agree with some choices and contradictions, as in the case of the death penalty or the lack of aid to veterans. My action is driven only by an enormous boost for human solidarity with those who once were my peers. Only humanity, no politics. And ‘that often people do not understand. ”

Social work, music, tour, radio show: Michale is a person unable to stand with our hands. All this adds his recent involvement in the film as a director behind the camera: The Blackness and The Forest is his first film, enjoyable for all of his youtube account www.youtube.com / radiodeadlyshow … her narrative voice is intense, fast-paced, a bit ‘like his show. In short it also speaks of his life, its difficulties, of how he faced and overcome and all the situations that have become the person is now.

(Photo by Alexander Aron)

The same show where he used the increasingly large crowds of fans, that everywhere, from South America to Europe to Indonesia, following it faithfully. And, to see his last concert together punk icon Marky Ramone, one can understand why. Michale does not stop for a moment, for 90 minutes gives you body and soul to the audience: sing, dance, sweat, makes the bystanders, jump. “I do not save when they are on stage. I know that for young people to buy the ticket for a concert is a sacrifice. And when they make this sacrifice, is not just for a concert is to go see a show, a concept, the idea of ​​rock’n'roll. And I have to disappoint them. People do not often see what is behind the scenes of a tour: miles and miles in the car all day in a given city, often a different country. And ‘stressful, but it’s my job. And do not spare myself. People pay me to see me at 100%, it is my duty and I do a good job, send them what they paid for the ticket, give him a memorable show. And sometimes, as in the case of the adolescent or child, even more. ”

But in all this, Michale is a little ‘space for himself? “Sure. I continue to cultivate my passion for surfing, not a sport, but a real lifestyle. Sometimes when I’m home in New Jersey, I take on my surfboard and go out in search of a spot. When the dawn light up the beach, put on the table and swam off. There I wait for my magical moment, we are alone in those moments, I immensity of nature. There I was, and I want to go there. And one day, hopefully not too far away, I wish I could take my daughter Olivia: I, you, a blanket … and the immensity of the ocean. The spectacle of nature that he wakes up. At that moment our daily actions seem to me to resize again so small. At that moment I feel part of an immense. Only a small cog in the enormous game of human existence. ”

Ride your wave, Michale. And it’s the highest wave of your life.