Peter Steele - Personal Life

Personal Life

Steele was widely known for standing 6'8" (203 cm) tall, giving him a famously menacing stage appearance. Despite this, Steele admitted to suffering from stage fright which he overcame by drinking alcohol before shows, and by drinking red wine when on stage.

Outside of music, Steele spent time lifting weights both at home and on his tour bus. Steele also enjoyed reading books on the subject of science and he had an interest in European culture. Steele liked working on his house and was interested in architecture and civil engineering. Steele also worked on his cars, including a heavily modified 1985 Pontiac Grand Prix he customized himself. Steele had a love for cats and kept several as pets.

During 2005, Steele disappeared for an extended period with no explanation. Rumors of his death, terminal illness, and other speculations increased until the mystery was dispelled in an interview on the 2006 DVD Symphony for the Devil. In the interview Steele briefly mentions his incarceration in Rikers Island and "the psych ward at Kings County Hospital". Steele's family members had staged an intervention and insisted he check into a mental institution. Steele later confirmed he had been suffering from paranoia caused by his heavy substance abuse. Steele had been using cocaine since the age of 35, a decision he expressed great regret about. Steele then attended rehab for cocaine and alcohol addiction, and later served a 30-day prison term for assaulting a love rival. Steele made light of his incarceration by wearing a prison uniform on stage during live performances.

Steele stated in a 2003 interview that he was bipolar, and linked his mood swings to the types of songs he wrote. He also suffered from clinical depression for which he had received occasional psychiatric treatment. During a 2007 interview Steele explained:

“I’ve always been a very depressed person, but that’s only one side of me, you know. It makes me feel better when I can express my depression, my anger, my frustration through music...sonic therapy.”

In April 2007, Steele revealed that he began identifying himself as Roman Catholic in recent years, after decades of self-professed atheism. In an interview with Decibel magazine, Steele explained:

“There are no atheists in foxholes, they say, and I was a foxhole atheist for a long time. But after going through a midlife crisis and having many things change very quickly, it made me realize my mortality. And when you start to think about death, you start to think about what’s after it. And then you start hoping there is a God. For me, it’s a frightening thought to go nowhere. I also can’t believe that people like Stalin and Hitler are gonna go to the same place as Mother Teresa.”