King Diamond has released a new Instagram filter which allows fans to appear as though they’re wearing the legendary Danish heavy metal singer’s face paint. Several fans have already posted selfies using the photo-editing tool, as seen in various tweets below.
Asked in a 2019 interview with Kerrang! magazine where the idea for his makeup came from, King said: “It started with Peter Gabriel. I’d seen photos of Alice Cooper, but it was when I saw GENESIS live that I thought, ‘If I do something, I have to have a show to go with the music.’ I saw Alice the next year, in 1975, and that blew my mind.”
King also confirmed that KISS bassist Gene Simmons once threatened to sue him over the makeup. “They said, ‘Your makeup is getting too close, you know,’ which I never thought it was. I don’t think they were ever threatened by anything we did. I think it was a business move, because they could get some good publicity out of saying, ‘Hey, this is copyrighted.’ And it was, I saw the patents, but I still didn’t think what I was doing looked anything like what they were doing. Gene Simmons is very smart when it comes to business, and I think it was a business decision.”
In a 2017 interview with “Talk Is Jericho”, Gene defended his decision to send King a cease-and-desist letter over the makeup, saying: “The letter is cheaper than testing us in court. We’ve never lost a case. By the way, I’m a fan. I liked his stuff; I thought he was doing cool stuff. Make up your own stuff. Don’t come into my house unless you’re invited.”
King recently confirmed that he is hard at work not only on the new album from his namesake band, but also the first LP in the 21st century from the reformed MERCYFUL FATE.
KING DIAMOND received a Grammy nomination in the “Best Metal Performance” category for the track “Never Ending Hill” off the band’s last album, 2007’s “Give Me Your Soul … Please”.
KING DIAMOND released a DVD/Blu-ray, “Songs For The Dead Live”, in January 2019 via Metal Blade Records. The set captures 1987’s seminal “Abigail” album in its entirety, twice, and in very different locales: Belgium’s Graspop Metal Meeting in June 2016 and Philadelphia’s Fillmore in November 2015. The performances feature KING DIAMOND‘s current band, comprising of guitarists La Rocque and Mike Wead, bassist Pontus Egberg and drummer Matt Thompson.
MERCYFUL FATE‘s last studio album, “9”, was released in 1999.
