Corey Feldman of the Corey Feldman Band

Child-star turned rehab poster-boy Corey Feldman, best known for roles in late-'80s films The Lost Boys and Stand By Me, is in the midst of a tour with his five-piece band. CL tracked him down in a hotel room in Philadelphia. Laughing often, Feldman seems at ease with his place (or lack of) in pop culture. He knows he's no Olivier, but then, old Larry never rocked like Corey, either.
__Creative Loafing: Since your dad was a musician, you were probably into music at an early age.
Feldman: When I was very little, my parents used to make me sing when I'd go on auditions for commercials. I really didn't have any kind of a voice at all, then as I got older, my voice got even worse. People would go "don't let that kid sing."
When you got the part in the Friday the Thirteenth series, were your people grooming you to be a teenage horror star?
No, it just happened. When I first went to the audition, they said I'd never even make it because I was too small to be the machete-wielding hero at the end of the movie. But I proved 'em wrong. Gremlins came as a fluke. I had auditioned for E.T. and got the part of Elliot's best friend. But my part was cut, so I got a part in Gremlins.
And that's when you became friends with Michael Jackson.
I had been harassing Spielberg to meet him, so he finally got him to come to the set when I was doing Goonies. He recognized me from Gremlins, actually. He was sitting there in a director's chair talking to Spielberg and pointing at me. We became friends. I was very uncoordinated as a kid, but when I was about 12 I started dancing at parties and I'd do a little Michael Jackson routine.
He even called and encouraged you while you were going through the rehab program in the late-'80s. What was that period like for you? It was after your biggest films, so you were well-known by that point.
I got hit hard. No other kid had been busted for drugs yet, so I took the brunt of it. After that, it was everybody. I felt bad about it but I don't regret anything in my life. I'm grateful for every wrong turn; I'm just glad to be where I'm at.
It seems that nearly every movie you've done in the '90s has a two or a four in the title.
Well, I did Ninja Turtles 3 and Dream a Little Dream 2. Meatballs 4 was a fluke. I wouldn't have done a part four of a film that I wasn't a part of originally.
What's your most recent film? All I see listed after Busted is Toxic Avenger 4 in '99.
I am doing a big film next year, which I can't talk about, but speaking of twos and threes, it's a sequel to one of my bigger films.
So what else do you have in the works?
I'm writing songs with people like Rick Springfield and Joe Elliott. My last album had a sort of classic rock feel. This one is gonna be a more modern, industrial type of rap/rock thing.
Tell me about the live show, what kind of crowd reaction are you getting? Are they coming just to see a celebrity?
I think about 50 percent of the crowd come kinda thinking, "Is the music gonna be any good or is this whole thing a joke?" But, usually about two songs into it, we see their look change from skeptical to enthrallment. We've even had stage diving and moshing. I get a lot of bras and underwear thrown on stage. A lot of girls flashing. I mean, it's rock 'n' roll.
The Corey Feldman Band performs at the Opera House in Rome, Thurs., Nov. 30.

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