An actor since the age of three, any true fan of Corey Feldman recognizes that he likes to assume slightly different personas whenever doing interviews, depending on the outlet he’s talking to. Sometimes he fully gives himself, especially when talking about more serious issues like the rampant child abuse in Hollywood. Sometimes you get the heightened pop star who is excited about his new album Angelic 2 the Core. Sometimes he goes completely off the rails, as he did in a recent episode of Celebrity Wife Swap, where he is portrayed as a Svengali of sorts. Though, most of it is all in good fun. And despite what you may have heard, he hasn’t lost his mind. Nor is he ever out of touch with which side he may decide to show the world at any moment.
Take a recent appearance on Entertainment Tonight Canada for example. Talking about his son and the dangers of raising a kid in Hollywood, you get the true Corey, a doting and very soulful individual who cares about family and spirituality. But in this same interview, he goes onto talk about his new film Corbin Nash, where he takes on the role of a transgender Vampire named Queenie. He suddenly morphs into a Jared Leto-esque method actor who demands he only be referred to as Queenie on set. It’s all very playful. But where Leto is praised and celebrated for his weird behavior, those same individuals doing the praising are quick to claim Feldman has flown off his rocker.
He hasn’t, really. Maybe he’s a little bit more eccentric than the guy next door, but underneath it all, Corey is very down to earth. Especially considering he is an actor by trade, and has been since his very first memories as a child. When we gathered to talk about his new concept album, we got the real Corey. The fun Corey. The Corey who is very open to talking about his past digressions, his critics and the fact that some fans believe he has somehow morphed into Michael Jackson.
He also doesn’t mind exposing the truth behind that wackadoo ‘performance’ on the much talked about episode of Wife Swap that aired last year. Sites, including ours, wondered if he was running an all-girl sex cult. He’s not. But he can certainly understand why some people may view it that way. He doesn’t try to hide from that episode, or even defend it. It is what it is, though he believes there was some malicious sabotage that went on behind the scenes to present him and his Angel movement in not exactly the best possible light.
While Corey has been in the press a lot lately to talk about his abuse as a child and the recent pedophilia accusations aimed at Hollywood as of late, he’s understandably more excited about getting the word out about his new album. Many years in the making, it’s the reason you haven’t seen him on the big screen as much this past decade. But Angelic 2 the Core is available now. And soon, he will rise to his former glory as a celebrated actor with a number of movies on the way. Though, according to him, the time for Goonies 2 may have sadly passed. He would, however, reprise his role as Mouth in a second if given the proper chance and a great script.
We got a chance to talk about that and a whole lot more in an epic interview that spanned over 90 minutes. Never boring, and always attentive, nothing was off the table. Corey Feldman is entering the next chapter in his career, and with this album, a new movie and even more exciting endeavors on the way, it appears the second age of Felddog has arrived. Now check your watch. Is it 2:22 yet? If so, dive in and hold on. You’re about to learn a lot more about the man who gave us The Lost Boys, Stand By Me, Dream a Little Dream, Ascension Millennium and so much more! Here is our full interview with the great Corey Scott Feldman.
Corey Feldman: Everything is a little nutty right now.
You have so much stuff going on, I can’t even believe it. It’s an exciting time for Corey fans.
Corey Feldman: It is exciting. It’s also a little bit nerve racking. It is such a weird business to be engaged in, especially compared to what it was ten years ago. There is such a unilateral process when it comes to any decision making when you deal with press, and media, and media sources. It is a whole different world. That is a positive and a negative. The positive is, that what I’m doing right now, is making an independent label. As an artist, this was literally impossible just ten years ago. It couldn’t have been achieved. At the same time, it’s also a bit scary, because you are throwing yourself out there in a way that most artists shouldn’t have to think. You know? It’s kind of a double edged sword. In some ways you are getting opportunities that are amazing and very exciting. But at the same time it’s a real risk and a real threat, because you are really putting yourself out there. It’s on a whole other level.
The release of the new album coincided with some other issues in the press that are out of your control.
Corey Feldman: Ironically, right? I believe I am God’s favorite comedian. I think he is a really big comedy writer. He writes these scripts. And I just follow along. He just likes watching me bounce into walls and stuff (laughs). That’s the way I perceive things.
The last time we talked, it was right before your book Coreyography came out. I’ve since had a chance to read it. The weird thing is, as soon as I put it down, every day in the aftermath, without question, when I look at the clock, what time do you think it is?
Corey Feldman: (Laughs) It’s 2:22 of course!
Please explain this phenomenon. Why is this happening to me?
Corey Feldman: I have done a bit of research. You can’t just live in this phenomenon and not research it. And why it happens. I’m obviously playing to that, picking the release date for my record as June 22, which is 222 over 22. In 2016. It all makes sense. It’s not like I threw a dart and picked a date. I said, ‘Which date makes the most sense in the next four months?’ July was my first choice. Because it’s my birthday. It would be nice to have it around my birthday. That would certainly give me the time I need. But, oh, wait! Hold on! I looked at it, 6, 22…Those things work both ways. It’s a little bit coincidental and it’s a little bit managed. There is much more ostentatious things that happened that are way beyond the physical realm and way beyond my control. When I grew up going, ‘Hey, I love the number 22.’ That was just a number I liked. There was no barrier, there was no significance. Nothing to reflect on, and nothing to compare it to. I liked this number. It was comfortable. That’s it. It seems to be my lucky number, and it pops up at various places in my life. Then I meet Corey [Haim], and he says the same exact thing. It’s just a strange coincidence. He’s got this 222 thing, and I have this 22 thing. No big deal. But then when you start doing the research. You start looking into Numerology. Power numbers. Angel numbers. You realize all of this stuff. Did you know that 22 is an angel number?
I didn’t know that, no.
Corey Feldman: I didn’t either. But people who are into numerology do. And someone literally brought that to my attention a month or two ago. They said, ‘You know, 22 is the Angel number, so of course it makes sense that you would have that number.’ I’m like, ‘What? What does that even mean?’ Just in numerology that is considered an angel number. It is also considered a strength number. 22 represent a culmination of all positive things coming together. I’m like, ‘Really? That’s cool.’ If you go down numerology, and you figure out your birth date and your birth stone, and you figure out what your number is supposed to be? It turns out my number is…5! Ok. Well, alright. 5 has nothing to do with 22. If that’s supposed to be my number, according to the birthday that was given to me. But then you can go further and break that down. How many times does 2 go into 5? that’s 2.5. That said, if My number is 2, and Corey’s is 222, then there is the 2 and the 3 make 5. But there are a million ways you can go into it and deduce it, but at the end of the day, a lot of it is still unexplainable. All I can say is that there is some reality to the art of this. You read the book. You suddenly look up and see that it’s 2:22. On a daily basis fans come to me and say, ‘Oh, my god, I had the weirdest thing just happen there.’ People will then just randomly send me screen shots of their phone, and it says ‘2:22’. And they are like, ‘Hey, look what time it is! Just thinking of you! I get it all the time.
But that’s the thing. After reading your book, I look at the clock. It’s 2:22 or 12:22…And I can’t help but think of the two Coreys. And for me, it brings me instant joy. It makes me laugh. Just because you guys were my favorites growing up, and I still hold a lot of admiration and affinity for both of you. So it instantly makes me happy.
Corey Feldman: Well, good.
It’s all positive. I have never felt otherwise.
Corey Feldman: As long as it’s making people happy! That is all that matters. The poignancy of saying, ‘Remember 2:22…’ Everyone that is a fan gets it. They go, ‘Oh! Got it!’ Now, if you’re not a fan…If you are a casual fan…You probably have no idea what I am talking about. I have had people write me and go, ‘Remember 2:22? What does that have to do with Corey?’ And I’m like, ‘Read the book, read the book…’
That is the song that has some snippets or samples from some of your movies together…
Corey Feldman: Right.
That’s my favorite song. But again, I have not heard the whole album. I’ve only heard the songs as you’ve released them over the past couple of years. And there are a lot of songs on this thing. From your side of the fence, having worked through this opus, what is your favorite song today? Do you have one?
Corey Feldman: Well, you just wait, buddy. That’s all I can tell you. Asking an artist to name their favorite song is like asking them to name their favorite kid. Which one do you like the most? Well, I raised them all and pretty much tried to be fair with all of them. So. I’m not going to leave one lying under the deg while the rest of them get the nice hotel room. When I listen to another artist, and I listen to their album? Of course there are the two or three songs that I’m like, ‘That’s the one! That’s great!’ I listen to mine…You have to pick singles. You have to pick the ones that will really speak to mainstream pop music and Top 40 culture as it stands right now. And you have to pick those things carefully. I’m not only the artist, I’m also the label. So I have to make those decisions the right way. I think a lot of people are really going to be surprised. And the number one thing they will be surprised about is that I don’t focus on one genre. There is literally something for everyone on this album. Because it covers pretty much every genre of popular music. Without country. There might be some slight accidental country tinges on some things. What we planned was a very evenly divided four part album. So, a double album. It’s got four pieces to it. Those four pieces are EDM, Hip-Hop, Rock and Pop. And I think they are all very well kind of flushed out. It doesn’t feel like you’re getting, ‘Oh, here is a rock song thrown into the middle of this pop album!’ Or, for no reason, ‘Here’s a hip-hop song!’ No. What we did was we literally created a musical journey, so that from the time you start listening to this album…First, it does have the sketches and the little comedic bits. So, it plays out a little bit like a movie. It’s one of those things were you can put it on, and sit, and let it play through the day. It’s an hour and a half long. Its a very long album when you play both discs. You know, its one of those things that starts out as EDM. But it’s not just EDM, it’s EDM pop. That’s where we start to bleed some hip-hop three or four songs in. Then all of a sudden, the next thing you know, you are in hip-hop land. You are completely submerged. But there are some rock tones to it. Then all of a sudden, the next thing you know, it starts transforming, and then it’s a rock song. You know, there are some hip-hop remnants left over. It is like that. If you were going to get in a musical boat, and take it down the musical highway as your vehicle, and you were going to transfer from one city of music to the next…That’s the journey Angelic 2 the Core actually takes the listener on.
I have the press release for the record. It sounds like you don’t have a vinyl version of Angelic 2 the Core coming out because of your stance on the environmental issues that go hand and hand with making that happen…
Corey Feldman: Maybe you are reading it a little bit too far…(Sighs) Let’s put it this way…I would love to do vinyl. Because it’s a cool thing to do. As a guy who loves dance, and going to clubs, and working with DJs…I really love and honor every avenue of music. I think vinyl is a traditional thing that, certainly, brings me back to my childhood, all of our roots…It gives you that nostalgic feeling. I love the idea of vinyl. From an environment standpoint, I know it’s not good. And I know it’s a bad contribution to the environment. But that said, what is 100 or 200 records going to do in the scheme of things? I know that if everyone thought that way, we’d just compound our problems. The next thing you know, we are all like Donald Trump, saying it doesn’t exist. But for the art, I would be willing to make this sacrifice. And I would. But the problem and the reason why I don’t have a vinyl album, to be completely blunt and very honest with you is that, do you know how much it cost to make a vinyl record these days? Holy Jesus! I believe that the cost for the printing of 100 vinyl records is equal to the amount of my entire double album being pressed with a thousand copies. That is just for a single record. Not for a double record.
I had a feeling that there might be an issue with the cost of the whole thing.
Corey Feldman: It’s astronomically expensive. That said, if the album does as well as we hope it will, and we sell thousand and thousands of copies, then I will eventually do a pressing just for fun. But the financial status has to warrant that. And I need to know the supply and demand is there.
If you go that route, you should do it for record store day. Make the vinyl something special you can only get at that time, kind of ensuring people will pick it up as a collector’s item.
Corey Feldman: People want a special thing. It would be a hot point. Everyone would be all, ‘I got to get the vinyl!’ I am much more serious about making this record…I want it to be successful for multiple reasons…But one of the driving factors is that if this pop album does really well, it will really bring a lot more attention to my band Truth Movement, which is a much more serious and artistic endeavor. And that music definitely lends itself to the organic nature of vinyl and the crackling of the record. Most certainly, if all goes well this time, on the solo record, you can beat your bottom dollar that the next Truth Movement record will have a vinyl release.
I know you have a video component that has already been put into play for this record. With some of the music videos that people absolutely love…
Corey Feldman: Well, some love. And some love to hate! (Laughs)
But even then, with some of the ‘Love to Hate’ crowd…I’ve watched their commentary videos. You can’t deny how catchy the song is, Ascension Millennium…The second one is just as good. Those are great short films for what they are and what they are intended to be. But I want to jump to this one point. Because people always call you out. This one component to those videos, and one of the reasons they do garner some hate. The fact that you are dancing like Michael Jackson. And you know this. This major criticism is not lost on you. Recently I paid for the Night Flight app. I have been watching all of these old Night Flight episodes. I don’t know if you watched that back in the 80s when you were growing up…
Corey Feldman: No, I don’t even know what that is.
It was a music video show that launched before MTV. They showed all kinds of weird stuff. I’m watching these videos that have been lost to the dust bin of history. And low and behold, you quickly come to realize that Corey Feldman, while he may be dancing like Michael Jackson sometimes…There is a lot of stuff in your choreography that borrows and takes from a variety of musical genres and artists. It’s really an amalgamation of this genre that you have culminated and transformed into its own thing. It’s really become your own style, when you look at the influences that people have completely forgotten about. From David Lee Roth, to Bob Fossey to Boy George, to something more obscure like Stump or Bow Wow Wow. I don’t get that you are completely and solely imitating Michael Jackson. It becomes very clear that you’ve pulled a bunch of different influences, and you have put them into this blender. It is of this other era, but you have really made it your own. You can’t deny the Michael Jackson influence, because its heavy, but at the same time, this has really been something you have pulled and crafted as your own. Though it definitely reflects the entire 80s time period. You can’t deny the cultural influence. I think it’s completely unfair at this juncture, with this album coming out, to say that you are just simply ripping off Michael Jackson.
Corey Feldman: You, my friend, are a very intelligent man for being the first to hit that on its head. Because it does get frustrating. I’m not going to lie to you. I do what I do as an artist, and by the way, the way that I dress, the way that I look, the way that I dance, the way that I sing…It’s been the same since I was a kid. So it still bewilders me. The articles that come out going, ‘God, why is he dressing like Michael Jackson?’ Or, ‘What is wrong with him? Is he morphing into Michael Jackson?’ It’s like, ‘Guys, I have been dressing the exact same way as I have since my first teen photo shoot since I was 11 years old.’ You know? Obviously not the same clothes. Because fashion changes, and develop, and whatever. I’ve gone through many, many looks. But it’s flare that I think they are talking about. I think there is a certain kind of essence that comes forth in my style. Which may be reminiscent of Michael, but as you said, it’s also reminiscent of Prince, it’s also reminiscent of…You could go back to Liberace if you wanted to…But everything is an offshoot of everything. There is no originality in the world. There is only the originality of each new artist becoming a kind of Petri dish of his experiences and his influences. And it’s going to be like that for any artist. If you go all the way back to The Beatles, and you ask Paul McCartney, and you say, ‘Sir Paul, who are your influences?’ He is going to list off BB King, and Chuck Berry, and Elvis and all these things…That you can easily watch early music videos, and you can see them shaking their leg, and wearing their hair in a pompadour like Elvis. They are doing all the Elvis moves. But that doesn’t mean their whole career is based on imitating Elvis. Their career is based on being The Beatles. Go back to Michael Jackson. He would openly say, ‘I was a fan of Little Richard and James Brown. The BeeGees.’ You hear the BeeGees in his harmonies all over the place. But that doesn’t mean everyone is going to say, ‘You are just trying to be Barry Gibb.’ No one would have thought that. And certainly no one would have called him James Brown. You know? Moving forward. How many people have similar dance styles and similar fashion styles as Michael Jackson? And how many of them have been implicated in music videos for the past 2 decades? I’d say 80% of the pop artists our there. So, when you look at Justin Bieber or Justin Timberlake…Usher…People like that, where it is so blatantly obvious, ‘Yes, I am trying to do a Michael thing.’ Where as with me, I have openly said that Michael and I were friends. He was a huge influence on me, personally and professionally, but he’s not the only influence. And I think vocally…I think you will really understand, and I think this is what makes this album redeeming in some ways…Anyone who goes into it with that close-minded thinking, ‘Okay, he is just trying to be Michael…’ Okay, you might think that if you listen to Ascension Millennium or even Go 4 It…To some extent…But you listen to other songs on here and there is no trace of Michael. There is no trace of that type of music at all. There are songs where you will go, ‘I hear some McCartney influence, or I hear Billy Joel, or Pink Floyd or the Beatles. Even Prince.’ There is a lot of influence. Let’s face it. I grew up in a time where pop culture and specifically the music of that era drove society’s thinking, and mainstream pop culture. So, the way people danced, the way people dressed, it was all a reflection of that generation. Which was the MTV generation. And I am literally a byproduct of that. Love it or hate it, it is what it is, I am a culmination of a great many things.
When I listen to the music by itself without the video component, I don’t think of Michael Jackson.
Corey Feldman: That’s good. I appreciate that. You are going to see in the new video…I’m really excited about the new video, it’s really beautiful. It’s not quite as much storytelling as the previous videos. The previous videos were more heavily story oriented. Whereas this one is really about the dance. One of things that I felt that was unfortunate, and maybe even disappointing to some of the fans, is that the dancing was very limited in the first two videos. With Ascension Millennium, call it a faux pause. It wasn’t supposed to be like that. The video that you see, which became a big viral hit, is actually 10% off its mark. Because when we did the dance sequence it was supposed to be a much wider frame. You are supposed to be able to see my legs. You are supposed to see all of the dance moves. What happened was, on that particular take, the camera man didn’t go all the way back to the mark. Unfortunately, you only get half the shot. That said, with the style of the video and what it was, you have 100 people working simultaneously together to create a natural, free-flowing, it happened in real time event…In order to make that happen, you have 100 people working simultaneously. There are big major lightening changes. There are set changes, and cast changes, and wardrobe changes. All this stuff. It’s got to happen live, and it has to be real. We did the take after we rehearsed it thirty or forty times. Then we did 10 to 15 takes. So you are talking about 50 times in a row that these camera guys had to run up and down a winding staircase twice within four minutes, wearing a huge shoulder and chest unit, which is strapped around them, which has a steady cam unit on it. So, if you know the weight of those things, they are incredibly heavy. We had to keep doing this over and over again. What happened is, halfway up the stairs, the guy’s legs would start shaking, he’d have to put the camera down, there is your take, and it’s gone. So that happened repeatedly on many takes. There were some takes were we were like, ‘Oh, man! We got the dance sequence perfect! It looks amazing! It’s the perfect shot. You can see our feet. You can see everything that is going on.’ But right after we get back to the staircase, he loses it. Or the focus doesn’t pull at the right moment. One little hiccup throws off the entire take. Unfortunately, to make a long story short, we didn’t have a lot to work with. We basically had that and one other take that basically got everything that was supposed to happen, happening at the right time. Unfortunately the dancing got the brunt of it. The lower end of the stick. And so we tried to make up for it with the DUH! video. With the DUH! video, again, it became such an interesting storyline, and there was so much going on, that there really wasn’t much time to stay on the dance sequence. It was like, damn it, we have to tell this story. We have all this great stuff, you have to see Ricky, and all these characters. Again, it became another thing. With this new video, we thought, you know, what the fans want to see is that I’m not like an old man and I can still dance. (Laughs) That I still have the moves. And they are original moves. That I’m not just copying Michael or Prince, or anybody. This is all original coreyography. So this video is a celebration of that. It is a celebration of all the styles and techniques that the dancers used. There is everything from ballet to ariel artists, to hip-hop and pop-and-lock. It takes you through many generations and ideas of dance, which I love.
Ascension Millennium had a Sean Astin cameo, which was exciting for all the Goonies fans out there.
Corey Feldman: I’m still very grateful that he was kind enough to lend his time and spend the afternoon with us. Which I said, ‘Hey, come over for an hour, it’s a one shot thing. It will be in and out. I literally just need you at the bottom of the stairs, you’ll stand there for a minute, and then we’ll move on.’ He was like, ‘No problem.’ Then next thing we know, he’s co-directing the video with me. But that’s Sean’s good nature, and that’s why I love him so much.
Maybe it’s because you don’t want to taint the legacy, and I know both of you have talked until you’re blue in the face about Goonies 2…But if that isn’t happening as quickly as the fans want, how come you two have never teamed up for a non-Goonies sort of adventure movie?
Corey Feldman: I’d be open to it. I’m not opposed to it. I’d certainly like to work with Sean on a bigger scale. We do the Ninja Turtles together. So, we do tend to work together from time to time. It’s just something where we’ve never even discussed doing something like that. There is a movie I’m supposed to direct, that I co-wrote with Stephen Rowley, who brought me this incredibly funny comedy called the Straight Man. I actually acquired it and put it into pre-production. And Sean was going to play one of the leads in that movie, which would have put us in some very interesting scenes that would have definitely sent the audience through the roof. That said, the movie has not gotten made. We are just about to get it set up, it was all financed and ready to go, and that was right at the time the Two Coreys ended up moving forward as a TV series. Then we all know what happened. I went into Lost Boys 2, and then back to the Two Coreys, and then I did Lost Boys 3. It ended up we were four years later, and its like, ‘What happened to that movie? What happened to my solo album?’ Well, there’s the reason why this record took a decade to make.
You bring up Lost Boys 2 and 3. You were fulfilling some of the incentives for your Angelic 2 the Core IndieGoGo campaign, and you were doing some of these special photos for fans. You actually dressed up like Edgar Frog.
Corey Feldman: Right, right!
Is this a hint that this character is still living inside of you? Is this a little tease that Edgar might make a comeback?
Corey Feldman: Unfortunately, I don’t know what is going on with any of that…But what we did here, we basically said you pay whatever it was, ten or twenty bucks, and send us your request, exactly what you want me to do in your picture, and I’ll do pretty much anything you say or want as long as it’s not, you know, offensive or dirty. So they send in their requests, and one of their requests happened to be, ‘Would you mind putting on an Edgar Frog costume?’ Which I happen to have, its the first thing in the closet. ‘So, sure, I’ll do it once.’ Then, of course, everyone wants the Edgar Frog. That just became a thing. It’s not like I was trying to rally any support for another movie. In regards to that topic? Is there a possible future? Is there more life in the Frog Brothers and The Lost Boys? Absolutely! There is always the possibility. That is one of the things I’m most proud of. I’ve been instrumental in helping that franchise come back to life. And being a big part of it. Do I see a future with possibly more Frog Brothers movies? Absolutely! Is it a guarantee? No! Do we have something on the table at the moment? No. But there might be some ideas kicking around. Lets just say, at this point, they are at the idea stage.
Netflix series!
Corey Feldman: That could be a possibility. Anything could be an option. If anything now, if I were to go back to Edgar, it would be along the lines of part four, or a theatrical version of the film again. I think that’s where my mind’s eye is.
Back in 1988 there was talk that Lost Boys 2 was going to happen, and it was going to be an All-Girl Lost Boys called The Lost Girls. That was thirty years ago. Right now, all-female reboots are a big trend….
Corey Feldman: After what happened with Ghostbusters, I would veer to stay away from that idea. I’m not a hater. I encourage all artistic endeavors. And I support anything as long it’s good. I just hate seeing crap, and I hate seeing schlock. And I hate seeing when they take a very valuable and positive franchise and destroy it with something that sounds like a really good idea, but is not. I’m a firm believer in give the fans what we know they want. And give it to them the way they want it. It’s always nice to throw some surprises in there. But I am also not a believer in the reboot. I do not think it is a good idea. I don’t like it. I think when fans want a sequel to their favorite films, they want to see their favorite characters, and their favorite actors playing those characters, and they want to know where those characters are ten years later, or a few years later. And that is the fun of a sequel. That is in my personal opinion as a filmgoer and a movie maker. That doesn’t mean I’m right. Everyone has the right to their opinion.
But if you made a Lost Boys 4, and it is Edgar and Alan Frog fighting a coven of All-Girl vampires, you could have a lot of fun making fun of this new trend in the genre.
Corey Feldman: I have to make sure my intentions are pure. Obviously, owning a company called Corey’s Angels, where we work with beautiful talented women, it would only behoove my best interests to move a project like that forward, because I could put a bunch of girls to work. I just don’t know that it makes sense for the franchise. That’s the bottom line. It seems like a stretch. It just doesn’t sound like the most appetizing way to move forward. This is a good way to put it for a vampire movie. That sounds like a gimmick. That doesn’t sound like a good reason to go there. If there was a good story line, that happened to take place in a sorority…I don’t know…But if it were a brilliant script, I would certainly consider it. But I think even as I say it, that it’s not right to even go there.
Just recently Sean Astin said we can all look forward to the return of One-Eyed Willy in The Goonies 2. Yet, it just doesn’t seem like that is actually happening. Is there any movement on Goonies 2 at all?
Corey Feldman: Unless Sean has a magic ball somewhere…One of those magic eight balls which is telling him that One-Eyed Willy is going to be starring in a new Goonies film…I have no idea what he is talking about. As a matter of fact, I read that. I was like, ‘What?’ I think that is one of those little asterix quotes if I know my buddy, and I do know my buddy…So, I’m pretty sure he doesn’t have any information that I don’t have. And if he does have that information, I’m sure he would have shared it with me. I think its just one of those good old fashion Hollywood rumor mills working again.
These sequels, people seem to really want them, but then it comes out, and fans are upset…They never like it, and they wish it never happened…Fans could very easily be upset about whatever gets done with Goonies 2.
Corey Feldman: That’s right! It could have a very bad backlash! At the end of the day, and I have said this before, the only way a Goonies sequel happens, and is forgivable to the fan base…Is if it is done right. And what does that look like? Obviously I don’t know. Because I’m not Steven Spielberg, I’m not Richard Donner, I’m not Chris Columbus. Those are the guys that make this decision. I know that they are all geniuses. And I implore nothing but the highest levels of respect and trust for their process and what they do. If, at the time, they want my opinion, I will certainly be happy to give it to them. As I’m sure you read, Sean and I actually did create a treatment which we brought into Richard Donner, which he actually liked quite a bit. Unfortunately, he felt it was too expensive for what they have in mind. That said, I’m not a mind reader. I don’t know what that special magic recipe is that they are looking for. I know that everyone’s fear is, ‘What are the odds of capturing magic in a bottle twice?’ It’s a long-shot. At the end of the day, I think if everyone was going to get involved and do it, it would have to be something that was just so magical, so awe-inspiring and breathtaking, that every person said, ‘This is a home run, this is it, we’ve got it, this is the one.’ I know if that script comes in, we’ll be getting that call. But I also know that Richard Donner is 87 years old. No one really wants to make it without him. He’s the driving force behind it. He says it’s still alive. But as we all know…When you get to that age, things slow down quite a bit. There is a big possibility he might not want to keep driving it. I think without him, it doesn’t happen. Every day that passes, that he doesn’t do it, there is less and less chance that it is ever going to happen at all.
And didn’t Jeff Cohen already say there is no way he’s coming back as Chunk?
Corey Feldman: Yeah, well! When there’s a script and an offer on the table, and Spielberg calls and says, ‘Ah, come on!’ I have the tendency to feel he might change his mind.
Let’s go back to the album. Angelic 2 the Core is a concept album with a clear cut story, right?
Corey Feldman: Let me back that up. It is not a clear cut story. It is not as much of a concept album as Technology Analogy. Which was the last Truth Movement album. Or something outside of Tommy or the Wall, where you’re like, this is telling a very clear story, and it has a beginning, a middle and an end. There you go. It is a concept album in the sense that it does ties together, it does have a fluidity to it. And it does definitely take you on a journey that is connected. It is also different in that it is not a rock album. There is a rock album element to it, because there are two discs. One disc is a dance album, one disc is a rock album. With pop music, it is hard to tell a real story. because you have to repeat the chorus several times, and you get less words to work with. To make it pop at all, you have to be repetitive. So I don’t think it has the same consistency as a rock opera. But there are definitely enough concepts in the album that tie together, and throughout the album, that you can follow some sort of story. You can certainly follow it through the art work, and the connection to the art word and the lyrics in the songs. It’s more like Sgt. Peppers, which is more how you should compare it, where it is a bunch of songs that represent a package of thought.
You bring up Tommy and The Wall. Those are both movies. Classic movies. Are we going to see an Angelic 2 the Core movie?
Corey Feldman: I probably wouldn’t go there. I don’t see it at this point. Again, because of the pop nature of it. It doesn’t strike me as something that would work. Who knows? I certainly think that there is a musical film in my future. I think I could definitely see myself writing and composing a concept album that would play out well as a film. Technology Analogy was almost there, but not quite. I think, in the future of Truth Movement, I could definitely see us doing something that would very nicely lend itself to a full film.
Now, I want to bring up something that I saw you respond to on Twitter. We ran a story shorty after your appearance on Celebrity Wife Swap that asked if you were running an all-girl sex cult. I know that didn’t sit well with you. But it was a disturbing episode. I’m hoping we can talk about this. Do you feel you were misrepresented by your appearance on that show?
Corey Feldman: Are you seriously asking that question?
Yes. It seems like you just have not had good luck with Reality TV. The first one…
Corey Feldman: Surreal Life…
The Two Coreys seemed to be a positive experience. I’m not as familiar with what happened with the Ice Skating competition show, because that wasn’t shown in America. But time and again, it seems like you find nothing but trouble when you go on one of these shows.
Corey Feldman: Now, I was literally compared to Charles Manson on your website. That is pretty bad backlash. Wouldn’t you say?
Yes. But realize, we weren’t the only ones bringing this up. People saw the episode, and it was more than just a little weird. Just knowing you through interviews, and reading your book, I don’t feel like you were clearly represented on this show. Maybe I’m wrong. But what can you tell us about Celebrity Wife Swap that we don’t know. I mean, was that the real Corey on that show? Because that Corey was a little scary.
Corey Feldman: Obviously not. The point being, I run a company that is a real company. It was designed to help beautiful women who are artistically unable to have real potential for a real future, to hone in on their craft, and to hone in on their art, and become the best version of themselves they can be. Which means not taking that gig to go do a nudie magazine, without naming names, or going to become a stripper, or not joining the world of porn, all these avenues that beautiful women tend to get sucked into. Because there is easy access, there is an easy way out, where there is finical stability and security. My company was literally created because…This is a very long winded answer, so brace yourself. But since you brought it up, I’m going to do the full-length version.
I want to know the full-length version. Being a fan of yours, then watching this episode…I felt your were being misrepresented on the show. I definitely saw what we wrote, I saw what some of the other people wrote…
Corey Feldman: With Celebrity Wife Swap, I’d say it was purposely, and I’d even say aggressively, kind of almost in a way, intentionally evil to vastly, vastly misappropriate my character, and my intentions, almost to the point where you felt there was some other agenda involved. What would the agenda be? Why would someone go so far out of their way to paint me in that light? Which couldn’t be further away from the reality of what the situation is. That is the question you have to ask yourself. I noticed every time I put something out, it was like the fans were eating it up. They were going crazy. But there was this other thing. This dark side, if you will, that was pushing back on a very vocal and public way by trying to destroy my reputation with everything that I was doing. And it was like, every time I put something out, there as this negative backlash. And there was no controversy, or, oh, somebody got murdered, or someone got raped. Or someone got killed. None of that kind of stuff. But they did have my house SWATTed. Who ever was behind this, it was very well orchestrated. Because my house was SWATTed several times within a small period. Every time it is on TMZ and it’s on Perez Hilton, and all this crap. And all these bottom feeder press people keep putting these stories out. The biggest one is Vice magazine. Which I don’t even like to say their name out loud. They are the ones who sent in undercover spy reporters who promised they were there to do a puff piece on my event. And they ended up literally going for blood and attacking me on such a monstrous level, I have never experienced anything like it in my entire career. I have never seen such hate and negativity and anger, and such vile displacement of the truth. On any level, about any celebrity. I can only compare it to Michael Jackson. Bottom line is, they just kind of kept coming at me, these attacks. And I can’t say 100% I know where they are working or coming from. I have my ideas. Because along with that, one of the companies I was working with got under new management. And new ownership. The people I was friends with, and the people that were my family at that company, were no longer there. They were there, but they were being governed by a corporate source. And that is around the time all of this stuff started happening in the press. I do believe the whole thing was a big violent attack against me. Against my character, against my persona, and I believe somehow, I don’t know how, but somehow that is connected with what happened on Wife Swap.
So maybe this has been orchestrated against you, especially with you being one of the more vocal people taking a stand against this rampant child abuse in Hollywood…
Corey Feldman: Now you’re getting it.
I went back and read the piece we had up before I talked to you. Because I didn’t know if you were going to bring it up, since you called us out on Twitter. In that article, we say we do not believe what is shown on Celebrity Wife Swap is a full representative of you.
Corey Feldman: Yes, it says he’s either a genius or he’s seriously twisted. So, it’s one of the two. It probably is that, maybe it is a little of both. But aside from that, I definitely am not running a sex cult. And I’m definitely not trying to be Charles Manson. That said, I can see how your perspective of it could have gone in that direction. Based on the way my character was presented on that show. Which was grossly inappropriate. We’re sitting here teaching girls about spirituality, and positive energy, and believing in themselves. And they have it look like we are brainwashing them with mantras, you know? Half of the things we did on there, just so you understand…I’ll give you a very clear break down to be more specific, but lets take the example of where I am on the lounge chair, and the girls are working out. And it looks like I am making fun of them. Which is something I would never do. Because the most important thing for us is to build the girls’ confidence and let them know that they’re beautiful and perfect the way they are. And that they don’t need to change for anybody. That is really our whole M.O. It’s like, look, you are beautiful just the way you are. You don’t have to change for anybody. I know. Because as a kid, my mom made me get a nose job when I was just 11 years old. I know what it is like to be told you are no pretty enough, you are not good enough. So we don’t go with that approach. Our approach is, you are perfect the way you are, or you wouldn’t be here. In the first place. But if you want to improve yourself, we will support you in that. And if you want us to help you shape what things we feel you could have more success at, or if we can help you in one area or the other like diet, or nutrition, things like that, we will definitely voice our opinion. But, the producers were coming to us and going, ‘What do you think of Tommy’s wife?’ ‘Well, I think she is great. I think she is a really sweet lady.’ ‘But do you think she is attractive?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Okay, tell her you think she is attractive.’ ‘Oh, yeah, I think you’re an attractive girl.’ ‘Ok, but do you think she can be an angel?’ ‘Eh, no, not really.’ ‘Why?’ ‘She’s not the type.’ ‘Why don’t you tell her why she’s not an angel. Tell her what that means.’ ‘Uh, okay. Well, you are married. And this is not in your realm. And it’s not what you do. And this isn’t your goal. And you are not inspiring to do this. It’s apples and oranges…So what do you need?’ And they are like, ‘No, no, no! Break it down for her. Like, do you think she has a good body? What advice would you give her?’ And I’m like, ‘Well, we don’t really do that. That is not how we operate. The way we operate is if a girl says to me, “I feel fat” or “I feel this” or “I feel that”, I go, “I’m sorry that you feel that way. And if you want to tone up, or you want to improve yourself, we will help you get there. But, we’re not going to go in and invest ourselves as a company, and put money behind marketing you, and all that stuff if we don’t feel you are 100%. Because someone has to believe in themselves 100% or they’re not going to go anywhere. That is just a given fact. So the bottom line is you have to believe in yourself for us to move forward with you. And we have to know you are the best version of you that you can be.’ Which I think we did say several times on that show. So you take an example of me saying, ‘I don’t think you have a good body.’ Or, ‘I don’t think you are hot’. Whatever it is, I don’t remember, but it was pretty insulting stuff. And again, this was literally feeding back what they had asked me to say to her. Because they wanted to make a scene where I’m giving her an analysis, but they shot her asking me, what do you think about this or what do you think about that? But they don’t show her asking, ‘What do you think about this? What do you think about that?’ They just show me, where it looks like I am attacking her. There is another scene where I am sitting outside, and they are like, ‘We just want you to lay in this lounge chair while the girls are exercising. And you are doing your own thing. You are working.’ I’m like, ‘That’s great. No problem. I’ll lay here and work and do my thing.’ But then they are like, ‘Ok, can you maybe give them pointers on some of the stuff?’ I’m like, ‘Look, I have very specific exercises that I show the girls. And I have no problem showing them. If you want to do that, I’ll do it.’ They are like, ‘Yeah, if you could show that, it would be great.’ I’m like, ‘Okay.’ So I’m sitting there working with them, showing them the exercises. They are like, ‘Okay, that’s cool. But now maybe you can banter a little bit. Make some jokes back and forth.’ So one of the girls said something, and I joked back and forth with her. And of course they cut out all of the stuff around it. And they just showed the punchline of whatever it is I’m saying. And they make it look like this is just me laying there, criticizing these girls. Which I would never do. The whole thing is totally out of character. And totally out of context. That is what happened. It was done very maliciously, and very purposely. I’m furious about it. But at the end of the day, they say karma’s a bitch. Well, the show was taken off the air right after that happened. I don’t want to say I had anything to do with it. But I’m pretty sure that the backlash affected them. The whole reason I agreed to do the show was that it is a good clean lighthearted show. And it never sets out to make the celebrity look bad. Otherwise they wouldn’t keep coming back and doing the show. But they go and make me look bad. Who else is going to want to do it? Well, it didn’t matter. All bets are in. They are pulling the plug. Done. So they can get away with anything. That kind of gave them a license to kill. Which, unfortunately, is what they did.
I have friends that work in reality TV. I know how this goes. I know what they bring in, and a lot of it is fake. They manipulate scenes. The story is in the editing. And people love to watch this kind of thing. It’s no fun to see you bantering back and forth, when you can just show a piece of it and completely change the narrative.
Corey Feldman: If anything, you can understand where I’m coming from. You can kind of flip it, you can cut the pieces together. You can read between the lines. That said, There was something bigger going on there. But I’m not going to go pointing fingers. I’m not paranoid. I’m not going to say that secret groups are out to get me. Not anything like that. I’ll just say that it has been pretty pointed and pretty obvious that every time I try to do something positive, there is a negative backlash. Now, you don’t see ‘Corey Feldman and the Angels went and created a day for charity where they organized people all over the world to do positive things for their communities.’ I didn’t see one piece of press on that. I didn’t see any press on the fact that me and the angels volunteered at the children’s hospital. I didn’t see any press on the fact that we spent four or five days during the Christmas holidays visiting the children’s hospitals, working with individual kids, and all the sick kids. I don’t mean to toot my own horn, but we are a company that prides ourself on doing positive things for people. And to me, that is much more newsworthy than what did I wear that day, or was I looking like Michael Jackson. It’s much more important to know that celebrities are out there trying to do positive things for the world, and help people. Because that conveys and spreads a message of love, that this society as a whole needs so badly right now. We are so deprived of positive thinking. There is so much negative thinking, and it’s almost cool to be dark, it’s cool to be negative. It’s cool to be rude to people. To me, I don’t get it. That doesn’t make sense. That doesn’t add up. To me, it’s cool to give back, and do the best you can to help others, and be a positive light and a positive influence. And that’s what I send. If you read the very first article that was ever written, or the very first interview that I have ever given, I can guarantee without looking at it that I mention God, and that I say I want nothing but positive things for the world, and I am here to lend my talent, and my voice and my art in any way I can for positive things. The fact that I’ve been so badly mis-painted and misconstrued through the years, it effects you very personally. It really does. It effects you on a very deep, emotional level. I’ve devoted my whole life to god, and love and positive light yet I’ve been painted as something that gets compared to Charles Manson.
At the same time right now, especially when speaking about child abuse and pedophilia in Hollywood, a lot of that stuff gets swept under the rug. But you have been a leading force in getting people to open their eyes. And they are starting a conversation about it. You are helping to draw attention to this giant problem, which is a very good thing…
Corey Feldman: That’s for sure, I’m glad we can bring this into the light.
Not to name any names, but you will hear big prominent names, stuff gets in the press, then it is quickly covered up. It disappears.
Corey Feldman: It’s locked away. Like that movie Open Secret. It came out, then it disappeared. No one wanted to talk about it. It never got a premiere. It never got a real run in America. It was swept under the carpet. Ironically just like my movie The Birthday. Which might be the greatest performance I ever gave. Like this brilliant piece of filmmaking, for whatever reason, although everybody who saw it said it was brilliant, from Guillermo Del Toro, who called me personally to say it was one of the most brilliant films he’s ever seen, and that my performance was breathtaking, to Oliver Stone, who said practically the same thing to me. Quentin Tarantino, all these guys saw this movie, and told me how brilliant it was, and how I should be getting all of these accolades. And yet, it is never seen in America. Just like Open Secret. Is there a connection there? Is there a reason every time I put out something that is brilliant it gets hate or it gets washed away? I don’t know! Maybe it’s just a coincidence. I mean, hey, it’s kind of like the X-Files, right? The truth is out there. At the end of each episode, you are still left with the same feeling. Maybe. Maybe not.
When you enter some of the bigger media streams, and you talk about the young actors in Hollywood, and the rampant sexual abuse, you are always asked about Michael Jackson. Even though your book tells the entire story. As you know it. You’ve talked about it before.
Corey Feldman: As clearly as possible.
But you have these underground news sources. And other names get brought up. But you don’t hear those names in the main stream. At the same time, there isn’t an outright denial about those names. For instance, a former co-star of Corey Haim who is an extremely huge presence. There are allegations that this person is responsible for some of the abuse. But some of these mainstream outlets don’t dare say that name out loud.
Corey Feldman: All I can say is that the bigger the name involved the more money they have to pay for the publicity machine. And those publicity machines spin that perspective to their benefit. You know that as well as I do. Now the question you have to ask yourself is, is it just that celebrity? Or is it the ghouls who are handling all of this for themselves? Or is there a bigger organized corporation? Or organization that is puppeteering all of these wonderful displays of cover-ups and wash-aways? That is what you really need to ask yourself. Again, I don’t have the answer. If I had the answer, I’d probably be dead already. If it were real, per se, and I knew it, and I came out and said it…Then they would have done away with me. Fortunately or unfortunately I don’t have that answer. And I don’t think I want to go there. Because I want to protect my family and my security. At the end of the day, I don’t know anything about anything being organized, I don’t know anything about organized crime, I don’t know anything about underworlds or cults or any of that kind of stuff. All I know is that I have been gravely mistreated. Quite a bit. Which means the more positive you try to be, the more backlash you get. And that’s not right. I would like to see the world recognize…When someone like me has an opportunity to come forward and say, ‘Hey, this is my story. This is what I’ve been through.’ I wish people would respect that I’m giving as much as I can, instead of coming down on me, and being upset because I won’t go any further. But what good is that going to do? It’s not going to do anything except start a wild goose chase. At the end of the day, what is the resolution, what is the result? What can we obtain from it? Nothing. Because the only thing that is really going to change anything is changing the laws themselves. There is a constitutional law that says there is a statute of limitations on rape cases.
If anyone wants a bigger answer as to why someone like you wouldn’t come forward with more information, just look at what happened to the kids in that high profile case from a few years back that we won’t name, so as to not cause any confusion or problems. But they are swept under the rug. You never hear from them again.
Corey Feldman: They are washed away. And you never hear from them again. They are intimidated…What it feels like is people literally want me to put myself out there with a hangman jury. And, it criminalizes me for not throwing myself out on the suicide block. (Laughs)
And that said, you can check out Corey Feldman’s new record right now. Angelic 2 The Core has been a decade in the making. The completely eco-friendly and biodegradable double CD set is available on both physical, & digital platforms, including Amazon, CD Baby and some retail locations. The double album contains a total of 22 songs featuring collaborations with five generations of Hip Hop artists such as Fred Durst (Limp Bizkit), Snoop Dogg, Doc Ice, Kurupt. Kaya Jones (Pussycat Dolls), R1ckone (Black Eyed Peas), Scott Page (Pink Floyd), B.Howard, POET (Black Eyed Peas) and many more. This release contains the exclusive mind blowing cover art and the album is truly a musical journey unlike anything anyone has ever heard before.