http://www.metalisrael.com/?p=48
King Diamond: "Time will tell, at the moment we are focusing on KING DIAMOND, and there are some very specific reasons for this. The way that the music business has taken a turn because of all the downloading stuff — a lot of these sites that say that they pay artists money, well, they don't pay shit. They don't do accounts and they just sell it and they ask you for a license to sell it, and they have none and it's a mess! I think most of the labels have lost 30% of their sales, and that a big thing. And when it comes to MERCYFUL FATE compared to KING DIAMOND, well, KING DIAMOND always sold more albums than MERCYFUL FATE. KING DIAMOND always had better record contracts, more people at the shows and this and that, in general has always done quite a bit better.
"These days we do have a contract for MERCYFUL FATE, so if we were ready to do an album we could do it, but the thing is that today, because of how the scene is, it's impossible for me to live off MERCYFUL FATE. I still love what I'm doing, otherwise I wouldn't do it, I'd do something else. But I still love the music so much, but it is also a job. I'm fortunate to live off my hobby, you could say, but you have to put bread on the table, you know, and if there was only MERCYFUL FATE today I'd have to do something else. MERCYFUL FATE — I could not live from. I can still live from KING DIAMOND, and since that's what I love to do we're continuing that way. MERCY might do an album if suddenly there is a time period where there is nothing to do for KING DIAMOND. Because it has to be like just a hobby, not a thing where I can take time out and do MERCYFUL FATE because I'll make no money in it. It would be the same like if I said OK I'm going on vacation for 5-6 months and have no income at all — you can't really do that with KING DIAMOND, it's a different thing. So, that's the reason why there has been no MERCY for a while. It's the way it has to be with all the free downloading and stuff, it hurt MERCY more than KING DIAMOND. It became much more difficult that way."