Dope frontman Edsel Dope is widely believed to be Xer0, the current and masked singer of Static-X. The band’s former singer, Wayne Static, passed away in 2014 at the age of 48 after mixing prescription drugs and alcohol.
Static founded the group in 1994, and the band achieved commercial success with their album, “Wisconsin Death Trip,” notably on the back of the single, “Push It.”
Dope was asked by Anne Erickson of Audio Ink Radio about why he chooses not to publicly announce his identity as Xer0. Dope re-iterated what he has said in the past — he wants to respect the Static-X brand and the memory of their founding singer.
“Really and truthfully, it’s not so much about it being private as it is about respecting the brand of Static-X and retaining the respect when writing or discussing it. And a good example I can use for that is Ghost. Everybody knows that there’s a dude called Tobias that’s behind the paint, but when people write about Ghost, they don’t call him Tobias; they respect the entity and they call him Papa whatever the f*ck he is. And that’s because they respect the creative, they respect the artistic integrity of it enough to honor that.”
“With Static-X, we knew very early on that we were not going to have the overwhelming support of the media and the community,” Dope continued. “And in the world that we live in, most people’s goal is not to be supportive; it’s to try and tear things down. It’s to try and be the one to uncover and let you know that there is no Santa Claus or whatever it is. So, for me, it was more about making sure that Static-X was properly represented, because I would never be interested in looking at a photo of Static-X or reading a liner note that mentions me as being the singer of Static-X. Edsel Dope has no interest in being the singer of Static-X. There’s one living, breathing singer of Static-X, and that’s Wayne Static. And then there’s a character, an entity, for lack of better words, that was created in order to allow Static-X to have a future and to continue and be the legacy act that they are and tour and perform, and we gave that character a name that is respective to Static-X and fits the branding of what Static-X is, and that’s what the importance is. It’s the importance of recognizing the character as opposed to recognizing the person behind the character.”
He continued: “You have to understand that if we didn’t make that an absolute mission of ours that people would sh*t all over it and they would have done everything they could to discredit it. And if it were Edsel Dope singing for Static-X, it would be, ‘Oh, it’s Static Dope.’ Or if it was Burton [C. Bell] from Fear Factory, it would be, like, ‘Oh, Static Factory.’ It’s, like, ‘Go f*ck yourself.’ You can’t give people the ability to control your narratives or else they’re gonna control it in the worst f*cking way possible, because, for whatever reason, that’s the culture that we currently exist in.”
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