Almost every song featured on The Vampire Lestat this season is a brand-new song written for the vampire himself. But one song, featured in episode one, has actually existed for 16 years already. And that The Vampire Lestat song is “Black Licorice,” the latest The Vampire Lestat tune you can stream wherever you get your music. (“And you’d better,” the diva himself tells us.) It turns out, composer Daniel Hart had written “Black Licorice” way back in 2010. But when showrunner Rolin Jones heard it, he felt it was the perfect song for the season’s opener. Listen to “Black Licorice” below, and then check out everything Daniel Hart had to tell us about the bop and how songs moved around to create the perfect narrative accompaniments in The Vampire Lestat.
It turns out Daniel Hart was fated to write for The Vampire Lestat… So much so that he wrote a song for Lestat without even knowing it. In a conversation with Hart, we learned more about the process of fitting songs into The Vampire Lestat and the origin story of one in particular, “Black Licorice.”
In answer to whether any songs were cut or moved around, Hart noted, “Yes. There’s a song called “Big Bad Wolf” that we played last night at the premiere concert, and that song was originally written for episode one. It was written for the scene in which Lestat is on stage with the band, and then he has a sort of breakdown on stage in the middle of the song, and that song was intended to be the song for that scene. And somewhere along the way, [The Vampire Lestat Showrunner] Rolin [Jones] heard a song of mine that already existed called “Black Licorice” that I’d written in 2010, and he said, ‘Can we switch them out? Can we please switch them out? I want to use this one instead of that one.’ I said, ‘Okay, that’s fine. What do I do with this other song that already exists’ He said, ‘Oh, we’ll find a place for it. We’ll find a place for all the songs,’ which mostly happened.”
Hart laughs, confirming, “Most of the songs are in. Sometimes in different places than they were originally intended to be.” Listen, it’s all in the process, and, as Armand might say, you can’t script a hurricane, or, perhaps, Rolin Jones. In the end, we’re glad that we got both “Black Licorice” and “Big Bad Wolf” in The Vampire Lestat. By all accounts, The Vampire Lestat’s fans, the fledglings, are loving it.
The Vampire Lestat airs at 9 pm ET/PT on AMC and AMC+. You can also read The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice today as you wait for the next episode of the series to air.
The Vampire Lesat “Black Licorice” Lyrics
[Verse 1]
I caught a real, live one
Didn’t blink, didn’t try to run
I caught a real, live one
Suckin’ on the sun
No time for glowin’ up
No time for throwin’ up
No time for vibin’ out
Your phone is blowing’ up
I caught a real, live one
No time for “I ride my stepbrother til’ he come”
[Chorus]
Doo, doo, doo, da, da, da
Don’t wanna smash your slack or be your morning star
Don’t wanna learn another TikTok dance
Wanna stay in bed, eating black licorice!
(Woo!)
[Verse 2]
Give me a million more screams
Keep ‘em scrollin’, rollin’
Fire emojin’ aubergines
Give me a million more screams, ha
And a million memes
I’ve been a bad boy
Deep down in my heart
I’ve kept a million dark secrets from the very start
Give me a million more screams
Means exactly what you think it means
[Chorus]
Doo, doo, doo, da, da, da
Don’t wanna smash your slack or be your morning star
Don’t wanna learn a fuckin’ TikTok dance
I wanna stay in bed, eating black licorice!
[Violin solo]
Uh!
Uh, uh, uh, uh!
[Bridge]
Ah, ah, ah-ah-ah, ah
I wanna stay in bed, eating black licorice!
Ah, ah, ah-ah-ah, ah
I wanna stay in bed, eating black licorice!
Ah, ah, ah-ah-ah, ah
I wanna stay in bed, eating black licorice!
Ah, ah, ah-ah-ah, ah
I wanna stay in bed, eating black licorice!
Rotem Rusak is Editor-in-Chief of Nerdist. She hasn’t stopped singing “Your Biggest Fan” by The Vampire Lestat since it released.
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