Arrested at the airport in Germany!!!!!!

The present-June 21 1999
Seven days of partying, and (1) Fifty Minute show in a foreign land, Is all that it's cracked up to be! However coming home was a different story. Getting up at 6:00 in the morning, after having gone to bed at 5:30, to make the plane taking off at 7:00. At best this was a close call. As it turned out, making the plane was the easy part. 
At that whacked out Airport in Stuttgart, they would not check all of our bags, 
Even after we gave them $150.00 American dollars And told them these we're the very same bags that we came with to Germany in the first place
The bitch at the counter just rolled her eyes, looked beyond us and said, next!
So I had to carry my wardrobe bag on the plane. 
When I ran it through the x-ray, the lady asked to look inside. 
She slowly unzipped the bag. 
What did she see?
A fresh-dripping- bloody- axe........ 
She jumped back 5 feet with blood on her fingers

In a hysterical voice, she pulled out her walkie-talkie, and within seconds, six or seven German police surrounded me.
They forcibly escorted me through the airport into a little room, leaving Alex and Joey to make the plane (taking off in ten minutes).
The door slammed shut behind me. They put me in the center of the room and took there positions all around me.
"Give me your passport"! (in broken English)
I hand this mean looking German cop my passport and notice the bloody axe dripping down on his desk.
I then suddenly realize I still have makeup, jet-black fingernails and wild hair from the night before.

"What have you done"? 
"Nothing! It's a prop!!! Show business! Show business"!
"Where did this blood come from"? (In a serious voice) I thought to my self any second he's going to look at me and say "is it safe"?..
"I played a show last night, I'm a singer in a rock band called Lizzy Borden." 
"Where did this blood come from"? (In a very serious angry voice)
"It's stage blood! I use it in my show." 
I said, "you know; it's not worth it to me, you take the axe and just let me go so I can make the plane".
He said, "You don't understand, this is a weapon! Why did you think you could bring this weapon in the airport? It's the same thing as having a gun, maybe worse; it has blood all over it". 
"I don't know what you've done to have blood all over. What is this thing? What did you call it"?
I said, "It's an axe"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I finally convinced him to let me go after I promised I would not come back to Germany any time soon.

They escorted me to the plane, without my bloody axe 

The past
At the end of 1989 we played five-arena Show's in Germany. It was called-the Christmas metal meeting. The poster reads like this:
Manowar
Saxon
Lizzy Borden
Fates warning
We we're third on the bill. 
Well at least that's what the poster said.

It's five day's before Christmas, we arrive at the first show in Dusseldorf. We go to the arena for sound-check and the promoter say's "we got a problem". Of course like always we have no manager, so I say, "What's the problem"? He say's "the opening band (sabbot) will not play first", and because there manager is also manowar's manager. The power has shifted out of the promoter's control. So I say "how does this affect me"? He say's, that because fates warning already we're on the road with Manowar they refuse to open the show as well. So he looks at me, and say's, "not only do you have to open the show, you have to cut your set from forty-five minutes down to thirty-five minutes". The promoter is a huge lizzy Borden fan so I say "fine, I can rise above all this petty shit and still kick ass". He say's, "good cause you're onstage in one hour".
I've got walking pneumonia and can barely talk let alone sing. We still have an hour before game time, and that's plenty of time to argue about the set-list backstage. Joey has a hard time dealing with the fact we finely get to Germany after all these years and we can't play our set. I compromise and squeeze in one to many songs.
The light's go out, (ten thousand screaming fans.) We come out smoking' I do the best with what's left of my voice and defy the odds. The stage manager almost boots us off stage for playing one to many songs. We open the Christmas metal meeting with thirty-seven minutes of lizzy Borden mania.

Day two- (trier,europahalle) We Arrive for sound-check, all the bands take an extra long sound-check, We're left with about fifteen minutes before doors. We do a line check no time to play a song. My temperature is well over a hundred and I can barely talk. We're all hyped up ready to go kick ass, it usually take's us two or three day's on the road before we become a well oiled machine, but there's something in the air, we have a take no prisoners attitude. The promoter comes up to me as we are walking to the stage and say's " you guy's we're so good last night, you we're unreal. But I'm sorry to say manowar wants to go on a little early tonight so I'm going to have to cut you're set from thirty-five minutes down to twenty-five minutes. I look at him and laugh and say " it's me against the world" always has been, and always will be.
The lights go out, we're still arguing about what songs to cut, I win, we come out on fire, and with my temperature I think I really was on fire. We kill! we do twenty five minutes of lizzy Borden mania.

Day three- (landshut,etsv-halle) I pass on sound-check, "I mean why bother".
I feel like I might be close to death, so someone from the promoter's office gets worried and try's to find a doctor, with no luck, they found me some cough drops, I'm grateful.
The lights go out, the sold out crowd is going nuts. On our way to the stage the promoter comes up to me and says you guys we're unbelievable last night, you're really making this metal meeting very special, I say But?. "What, do we only get to play fifteen minutes tonight"? He say's no, I don't care what anyone says I'm giving you back ten minutes, I say great, thank you. The crowd is going nuts but there is still time to argue about what songs to put back into the set, Joey gets his songs back. We kick it into high gear.
We do thirty-five minutes of Lizzy Borden mania.

Day four- we drive all day long to get to Aalen, Greuthalle. 
I'm at the peak of my sickness, I feel like death, but I refuse to cancel any shows, it took us six years just to get to Germany, I wasn't about to be defeated by a little pneumonia.
We have a great hotel, and for once all the bands from the metal meeting are staying there. I pass on sound check and arrive at the venue five minutes before we go on, the band is looking at me worried as I can barely stand, I look at them and wonder if I'm gonna pass out or not, it's touch and go.
I'm sweating so badly from the fever that my makeup is running down my face and in my eyes.
On our way to the stage I'm looking over my shoulder for the promoter to come and cut our set.
The light's go out, it's two days before Christmas and the crowd is out of control, they are hungry for metal and from the first riff of master of disguise to the last crash of red rum 
We do thirty-five minutes of pneumonia soaked lizzy Borden mania. There's a party after the show back at the hotel, I spent the night shivering in my room.

Day five- (lichtenfels,stadthalle)-( the last show)- the fever broke, I feel great, the voice is fried from coughing but I feel great.
We had no hotel that day since we we're leaving right after the show to head home for Christmas; we do our line check and get ready for the show. Manowar's road crew had been great to us every night, but we had never met anyone from manowar except the guitar player who was great. Right after we get off stage we're in our dressing room and they all come running in with Bottle's of champagne thanking us for supporting them, That was very cool. Manowar is one of if not the biggest metal band for Germany. 
Contrary to popular belief, I am the first one to toss out the ego to make things happen
It would have been easy to take our money and fly home, let's be honest for some people this would have been hell, to be sick the whole time and to be knocked down on the bill, but for us touring is what it's all about, for the good and bad. If we had walked, I would not have this story to tell, and at the very least of it all,
We still have the poster.

The future:
The contract with metal blade records is now signed in blood by both parties, we are officially Back on metal blade.
We have made our deal with the devil and the first-born will be delivered February 2000

                                                                           Lizzy