During an interview with Loudwire, former Type O Negative drummer Johnny Kelly recalled his favorite Pete Steele moment.
The rocker discussed his music career, both with his current band Kill Devil Hill and Type O Negative. After recalling his time with Steele in the band and outside of the band, the drummer talked about how much he has been missing his friend and noted that whenever he talked to him, it was about something funny.
The Moment Steele Embarrassed Himself
Following the conversation, he was asked to name his favorite moment of the frontman. He told the story of the singer humiliating himself in front of Pantera’s Phil Anselmo and the King Diamond. Recalling the day the band performed on Ozzfest with the earlier mentioned names, he shared:
“Alright. For instance, we’re on Ozzfest and we’re in Dallas and there’s a whole bunch of us hanging out in Phil Anselmo’s dressing room and King Diamond was there because King Diamond lives in the Dallas area so King Diamond’s at the show, in the dressing room hanging out with Philip and there’s a whole bunch of people there.”
The moment the rocker embarrassed himself happened when he entered the dressing room to ask one thing about the playing music:
“We’re all hanging out and Peter comes into the dressing room and he goes “Philip, what’s this shit you’re listening to?” And Philip just turns around at Peter and he goes, “It’s King Diamond.” And then he points to King Diamond sitting next to him. Like all I thought of was like the Bugs Bunny cartoons. Like, when somebody was a jackass and their face would turn into a donkey in the cartoon. And Peter didn’t even say a word. He was just so humiliated and embarrassed. He didn’t say anything. He just turned around and walked out of the dressing room.”
The Aftermath
After Steele accidentally called King Diamond’s music ‘sh*t,’ every musician in the dressing room gave the same reaction. The drummer shared:
“And then there was like this awkward, silent pause, which was great. And then everybody just started dying laughing. I couldn’t, I loved it. I think this was like the greatest thing that he ever did. But that was just like one. That was just one day.”
He then touched on his friend’s genuineness and ended the story with an unexpected turn:
“Peter was a very genuinely funny guy. And because of how he looked and how he was, he couldn’t go to like the grocery store without something crazy happening to him. You know, like he got mugged.”
The conversation was followed by the story of Steele getting mugged. Despite his height and figure, Steele was robbed a day before their rehearsals. The drummer finished off the story by recalling how funny his bandmate and the incidents he has been through were.
The drummer earlier recalled the passing away of Steele and said it was devastating to lose him while referring to the rocker as one of his family members and best friend.
Even though it has been over a decade since he passed away, he is still remembered for his genuineness by his bandmates.
