Creativity Quote by Boyd Rice

Boyd Rice’s line is a classic act of subcultural misdirection: he reaches for “Satanist” because it’s the loudest available label, then immediately drains it of literal content. The comedy is dry, but the maneuver is strategic. “Satanist” functions here less as a theology than as a flare gun - a way to summon scandal, signal transgression, and force the listener to negotiate their own assumptions about evil, rebellion, and sincerity.

The syntax tells on him. “Well” buys time, a conversational shrug that frames what follows as clarification rather than confession. “I use the word” foregrounds branding over belief: the term is a tool, not an identity. Then comes the hedging stack - “I don’t know,” “if I ever,” “really,” “considered myself” - each phrase softening commitment, pushing the self farther from the charge. By the time he lands on “somebody who’s into Satan,” the grand, occult-sounding “Satanist” has been reduced to something almost dorky, like a hobbyist category. It punctures the melodrama.

The subtext is about control. Rice, long associated with provocation in industrial/noise art and adjacent fringe scenes, treats taboo as material. The point isn’t to worship a devil; it’s to exploit the cultural circuitry around the accusation. “Satanist” becomes an aesthetic and an accelerant: it tests how easily audiences, media, and moral entrepreneurs will mistake posture for doctrine.

What makes the line work is its evasive honesty. He’s admitting to the label’s utility while refusing to grant it the authenticity critics want. It’s a neat way to keep the controversy and dodge the sermon.