Former Type O Negative guitarist Kenny Hickey said the band is more popular now than at any other point in its career, putting it down to TikTok and the way it brought their music to a new generation.
“`He made the comments in a new interview with Ed Hackimer on «This Day In Metal» (transcribed by Blabbermouth), saying he would not change anything about his years with Type O.
Asked about how their music has travelled, he answered that the band is bigger than ever. He mentioned that his youngest daughter, 24, is surrounded by Type O Negative fans, and that two more generations have been added to the original one.
As an example he brought up the success of the 2003 single «I Don’t Wanna Be Me», saying they had just picked up a gold single for streams and that 250 million streams are needed for that. The track went viral on TikTok and, as he put it, lifted the band, while the rest of their music then reached those kids too.
Under RIAA rules in the US, a gold single requires 500,000 units, with 150 on-demand streams counting as one unit — that is 75 million streams, not 250 million.
Hickey also named Crowbar as another heavy band that benefited from the platform: a doom band with no commercial value now has, he said, 1.9 million listeners on Spotify.
Asked whether the surviving members could put on a tribute show for the late Peter Steele with guest musicians, he answered that it is not feasible right now, but never say never.
He has said in the past that former keyboardist Josh Silver — married to his wife’s sister and a New York paramedic for years — is not willing to commit to a tribute project. He also confirmed that a full live recording is being prepared for an official release, with no details announced yet.
Type O Negative formed in Brooklyn in 1989, after the end of Steele’s Carnivore, and released seven studio albums, from «Slow, Deep And Hard» (1991) to «Dead Again» (2007). The band stopped after Steele died of heart failure in April 2010, at the age of 48.
See also: Moonspell – Far From God and Paradise Lost: Gregor Mackintosh explains why he prefers solitude when he’s not touring.
Source: https://blabbermouth.net/news/kenny-hickey-type-o-negative-is-bigger-than-ever-thanks-to-tiktok
