Thomas G. Waites Reflects on ‘THE THING’ (1982) and His New Music

Respected actor, writer, director, and musician Thomas G. Waites has spent decades building a career that spans film, theater, television, and now music. Best known to horror fans for playing Windows in The Thing, Waites recently released Heartbreak Waites, a raw and soulful album blending rock, blues, Americana, and deeply personal storytelling. Alongside powerhouse performers Tony Daniels, Cedric Allen Hills, and Annie McGovern, Waites channels heartbreak, resilience, politics, humor, and hard-earned life experience into music that feels honest and lived-in.

In this conversation with Pop Horror, Waites discusses his songwriting process, the origins of Heartbreak Waites, surviving the pandemic, and of course, his memories of working with John Carpenter on one of horror cinema’s most enduring classics. Thomas G. Waites & Heartbreak Waites will be Live in Concert on June 26 @ 2:00–4:00pm, at the New Hope Winery, in New Hope, PA.

[NOTE: This interview has been edited for length and basic grammar reasons. Also, the full interview will be available completely unedited on the podcast Critical Wade Theory.]

Songwriting, Acting, and Heartbreak

PopHorror: So some of my questions will be about your music and your album, but I’m going to have like half of them be about, of course, the classic horror movie that you’re known for.

Thomas G. Waites: The Thing.

PopHorror: The Thing. I’m sure you expected that, right?

Thomas G. Waites: Yeah, and I’m happy to do it. You know, I’d do anything for John.

PopHorror: Do you approach songwriting the same way that you approach acting?

Thomas G. Waites: I would say I probably do in that it’s a creative process. There’s this space you have to get in with yourself alone. That’s between you and your shadow self, and you have to come up with a story.

In that regard, it’s the same. As a young actor, and as a director too, I spent a lot of time alone with the script, studying and going over the words. “What am I missing?” Looking up politically and socially what was going on at the time and all the amalgamation of events that create this thing called a play or a movie.

Now in TV, it’s just, “Get in, hit your mark, say your lines, and get the fuck out as fast as possible.” Shows like The Punisher or Homeland have to move at such a rapid rate. It’s like an assembly line.

Whereas a film like The Thing, you get two weeks to rehearse. That’s a luxury you can’t even imagine as an actor. You get to find a character and create relationships. “How do I feel about this one? How does he feel about me?” John engendered a beautiful atmosphere for us to work in.

But yeah, I’d say I approach songwriting the same way. Just as passionately. I know I’m 71 and people think, “Are you out of your fucking mind going out on the road and trying to play music?” Maybe I am. But the point is, I’m driven.

PopHorror: Out of your mind in a healthy and creative way.

Thomas G. Waites: Right. I’m not out murdering anyone. I’m just trying to get people to sing along with me.

PopHorror: And with a group name like Heartbreak Waites, what was that about?

Thomas G. Waites: So John Goodman is a mate of mine. We came up together and did a TV prison movie back in 1982. We spent a couple weeks in Dallas together and closed down more than one juke joint while we were there.

I used to have this line when I’d try to pick up girls when I was younger. I’d say, “Don’t fall in love with me, baby. I’ll break your heart.”

Then I had a punk band in the ’80s called The Pushups where I’d take my shirt off and do one-handed pushups as part of the act. John Goodman sat at the bar yelling, “Heartbreak Waites! Heartbreak Waites! Let’s hear it for Heartbreak Waites!”

Thirty-five years later, I thought, “You know what? I’m naming my band Heartbreak Waites.”

Turning Pain Into Music

PopHorror: Were there specific life experiences that shaped the core of the album?

Thomas G. Waites: Yeah. Specifically, heartbreak.

We’ve all had our heart broken. It could be romantic, fraternal, parental. Someone you’ve opened yourself up to suddenly puts a knife in your back and it’s like, Et tu, Brute?

That happened to me with a certain group of people I won’t mention. I was shocked they would betray me that way. Then I thought, “How long are you going to sit around feeling badly about this?” So I picked up the guitar and wrote a song called “Heartbreak Waites.”

That triggered years of writing I compiled during the pandemic because there was nothing to fucking do. I got really, really sick. They wanted to put me on a ventilator and I said, “No, man. If I’m going to cack, I’m going to do it right here in my apartment.”

I ate a chunk of raw garlic and sweated it out one night. The sheets were soaking wet. But when I came through that, I said, “I want to do two things before I die. I want to write and direct my own movie, and I want to be a successful musician.”

I did achieve making the movie, and it’s really good. But distribution now is like the Wild West. You’re lucky if your film gets shown at all.

PopHorror: And then they publicize it. You’re always having so much competition.

Thomas G. Waites: Yeah. Every kid with an iPhone can make a movie now. I made mine for $150,000 and people are like, “Are you fucking kidding me?” But I did it. According to union rules too. Somehow, I pulled it off.

PopHorror: What drew you toward Americana and folk rock as a style?

Thomas G. Waites: Honestly, that’s just what came out naturally. A booking agent once told me, “What you’re playing is Americana.” I said, “Oh.” I was just writing songs about what was going on.

I also wrote a musical based on plays by Robert Louis Stevenson. I wanted it to be rock and roll music set in 1820s France. Eventually I ended up writing the music myself.

We did a reading in London’s West End with Kelsey Grammer as the lead. The singers there were unbelievable. You can’t even imagine how talented these people picked up songs like you pick up a piece of paper. I would play it for them once, they’d be like, okay, no problem…it was quite a highlight in my life as a musician.

Music, The Times, and Personal Convictions

PopHorror: That’s also part of your musical message. You’ve got songs dealing with political topics too.

Thomas G. Waites: Yeah, though I’ve got to be careful with the band. When I play solo, I let it all out. But I don’t want to jeopardize anyone else with my observations about what’s happening in the country.

I grew up seeing the civil rights riots outside my window as a five-year-old boy. A lot of Black people looked out for me in New York. A lot of Black guys stood by me in my time of need more times than I can count.

I’ll give you a recent example. In 2021 I slipped on ice jogging home from Central Park and tore my hamstring. I’m lying there screaming while everyone walks by me. A young Black couple came out of church and helped me get home.

So I’m not going to stand by without speaking up when I see injustice.

Looking Back on The Thing

PopHorror: Going back to The Thing, what was it like seeing the special effects being put into place and coming to life on screen?

Thomas G. Waites: You know, when I first watched it back in 1982, I didn’t pay attention to the effects at all. I just thought, “I’m terrible. I’m the worst actor in the world.”

Actors are very self-critical. But later, when I watched it again, I realized what a fine film it was. John had this vision. The photography, the music, the story. It predicted the future in a way.

Are you talking to a real person or an artificial representation? A hologram? John nailed that 45 years ago. That’s called being prescient.

PopHorror: It’s brilliant. It’s paranoia, isolation, and lack of trust all wrapped together.

Thomas G. Waites: Exactly. And you’re isolated. I think it’s great.

Since the pandemic, isolation has become even more intense. I’m an acting teacher, and I see younger people struggling with interpersonal skills because they were conditioned by screens during that time. I feel badly for them. They were robbed of social opportunities.

Then a few years ago, I watched The Thing again during a screening in Manchester. This time I focused on the effects, and they were astonishing. Primordial, grotesque, and beautiful at the same time.

PopHorror: Did you have any idea the movie would become such a beloved horror classic?

Thomas G. Waites: Not at all. It got panned when it came out. My agent told me, “Forget about The Thing. It’s going nowhere.”

Then VHS happened. Then the internet. And it exploded.

And it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy because John paid a price for that movie. He lost projects after it bombed. But he believed in his vision and stuck to it.

He always said, “If you make something beautiful artistically, eventually people will find it.”

John Carpenter’s Personality and Lasting Connections

PopHorror: Some people say John Carpenter has an attitude. What do you say to that?

Thomas G. Waites: Everybody has bad days. John’s not really a people person. He’s happiest making movies or playing music.

He once came and spoke to my acting class when he absolutely didn’t have to. Very generous of him.

I’m an actor. I deal with situations all the time. Spontaneously, I can improvise on, you know, on a dime. You can put me in front of 50,000 people with no script, and I’d still figure something out on the spot, right? Because I’m an extrovert by nature. John is the opposite. He is way deep inside. Like a writer.

And so people [should] expect that.

They’re like, “Who’s the real thing? He’s like, “Go fuck yourself,” you know?

PopHorror: Yeah, like that’s something that’s even easy to figure out or something, you know? You wouldn’t want to spoil it anyway.

Thomas G. Waites: He wouldn’t want to tell you anyway.

PopHorror: It’s kind of like revealing the KFC secret recipe or something like that.

Thomas G. Waites: Right, right. I mean, come on.

PopHorror: You could bash KFC all day long, but you got to respect their recipe secret, you know?

“I Want to Connect With People”

PopHorror: When audiences leave a Heartbreak Waites performance, what do you hope stays with them most? The stories, the emotions, the healing?

Thomas G. Waites: The connection.

I want to connect with people. I want to move people to feel. I want to make them laugh. Inspire them to feel.

That’s my objective. To break through the mask we all wear and let people’s hearts come out.

PopHorror: Kind of like the Grinch. His heart grows multiple sizes by the end.

Thomas G. Waites: That’s exactly what I’d like.

PopHorror: Well, it’s actually been 29 minutes. That flew by.

Thomas G. Waites: Fantastic.

PopHorror:Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Thomas G. Waites: Well, please purchase my album on Apple Music. It’s not on Spotify because they advertise for ice, but it is on Apple Music. You can download it…it’s a really good album.

We took a long time to make it. It’s perfectly produced. Tony Daniels, my guitar player, recorded, engineered, and produced it. So, from a technical standpoint, it’s as near perfect as you can get And I think some of the songs are really great. There are a lot of love songs on there. A lot of love songs. To my ex-wife.