Garza Podcast - 164 - SIX FEET UNDER | Chris Barnes: Cannibal Corpse, Horror & Death Metal Legacy

Episode Date: February 17, 2025

Garza sits down in-person with Chris Barnes. Vocalist for the death metal band SIX FEET UNDER. https://instagram.com/chrisbarnes6FUSPONSORS:Garza Podcast Coffee - https://conceptcafes.com/product/garzapodcastcoffee/43CHAPTERS:00:00 - Live & Sleep Death Metal04:28 - First Podcast After Going to the Show05:15 - Grateful08:22 - How Chris’ Mom Inspired Him to Play Metal11:18 - The Alligator People, B Horror Movies12:39 - Losing Family Members19:21 - Chris’ Upbringing in Buffalo, NY, Moving to FL26:03 - Buffalo Memorial Auditorium, Meeting Paul Stanley29:05 - Meeting Bob Rusay & Paul Mazurkiewicz30:06 - When Chris Started Smoking Weed32:09 - Ultraman, Godzilla34:40 - Gojira, Grammys, Rock Hall of Fame37:54 - Starting Bands Pre-Cannibal Corpse, Airband Competitions43:46 - Joining Leviathan, Chris’ Favorite Band49:09 - Starting Cannibal Corpse50:45 - Writing Lyrics on Weed, Vocal Approach55:52 - Eaten Back to Life Artwork, Vince Locke58:29 - Butchered at Birth Artwork1:00:37 - New Album, Killing for Revenge, Album Cover1:03:40 - Tomb of the Mutilated, Tension Within the Band1:12:50 - Starting Six Feet Under, Leaving Cannibal Corpse1:23:00 - Being in 2 Successful Death Metal Bands1:27:29 - Beef w/ Corpsegrinder, Embracing the Hate1:34:12 - Using Cannabis to Write Music1:38:19 - Cameo Videos1:40:22 - Talking Crap1:47:58 - Having Few Friends1:52:50 - Getting Sober, Smuggling Cannabis1:56:05 - Ace Ventura Cameo2:02:38 - Being a Movie Fanatic2:07:24 - Reading Books on Tour, Sleeping Next to Bandmates2:09:31 - Writing New Album, Killing for Revenge2:12:11 - Working w/ Jack Owen Through the Years2:14:50 - Psycroptic2:16:34 - Internet Hate vs Real Life Impact

Man, I shouldn't even do an intro. Oh. Chris Barnes. It is an honor to be in your presence, man. It's cool. Feeling's mutual, Chris Garza. And this might be their record. Latest podcast ever.

We're going on 10.30 p.m. I'll usually be in bed. Well, this is just my day starting here, it seems like. So you're like, so you usually wake up like a what, like 2.30 p.m.? Yeah, yeah. On tour, it seems like it. Like I said, when I'm heading west, it seems like my schedule starts adjusting a little bit. But like even when I go to Europe, I avoid jet lag.

And like I'll even preparing for a tour of Europe, I'll think about what time will it be on their time zone. So I'll start rehearsing like at one in the afternoon because it's nine hours. head in Europe. So like one in the afternoon, I'll start rehearsing for a 10 o'clock show in Europe. So I build muscle memory and my body's used to rehearsing at that time. So I'll go on stage and I'll be used to that time schedule already. And I usually, when I'm in Europe, I never go off West Coast time. So I go to bed at about eight or nine in the morning and I wake up.

at about 7 o'clock at 6 o'clock at night. So I never see daylight. And I go on stage about two or three hours after I wake up. So it's just like when I'm at home on the West Coast, I'll wake up two or three hours later. I'll do my practice set. So I never see anything on tour. I've never been to the Eiffel Tower.

I've never been to the Coliseum in like, you know, 30 some years of touring, 34 years of touring. I don't do sightseeing. I go on tour to be on stage, and that's, I don't really do any of the external type of stuff that people do. So my life is on the tour bus and on the stage. Hmm.

So you don't, even she doesn't want to go out and like, hey, let's go see the Apple Tower or something. Nothing? No, like I've had my girlfriend on tour with me, and she's, She's like, you know, she doesn't care. I mean, we... That's cool, man.

She hasn't been out for a while, but she knows what I have to do to keep myself in, like, top, you know, performance condition. So she was good with that, but she doesn't come out with me anymore, really. So you go out solely just to rock. We were just talking. You're going on 29 days straight. Yeah, yes. I don't even do that. I can't, well, I can't do that.

Well, the only way you're a pussy. No, you're not. You're not. I need to step up to you. I'm like, I'm up at, okay, I'm up a 10th 30. Yeah, you're well-rested. No more days off anymore. No more days off.

I don't want a day off. I hate days off. I hate hotels. The other day we had a day off, our first day off after 29 shows in a row in like Sandy, Utah. And a lot of stuff around in that. And, you know, hotel and everything. I stayed on the bus all day pretty much at 8 o'clock, which is our usual set time.

I ran through the set and rehearsed the set for an hour. So, you know, I'm not going to sit around. I mean, it pissed me off that we had a day off. I mean, I'm out on tour to be on stage, not to, like, sit at a hotel and wait, you know. So I like being on stage. I don't, if I'm going out on tour, I'm not wasting, you know, 12 days in hotels or whatever.

Like this tour is, I don't know, like 47 shows, and we have three days off. And basically all three days are travel days. You're crazy, man. Yeah, I could tell. Also, this is the first time we've done a podcast right after seeing the band. This is the first time ever. So this is the new experience for me as well. It was cool.

I got like a, okay, I see it. And dude, I was, it was so hard. My favorite thing is, we're talking earlier. My favorite thing is to have beers and just watch a metal band play. That's my favorite thing, dude. I'm like, I was like, I just, this guy onus helps kind of drop the guard. You know, me dropping the guard. I'm like, it kind of gets me in like the zone.

Yeah. But today was like, you know, hashtag professional. Okay, you know. I was like, I'll have no beers. Okay, but I have one. I won IPA, and it was so hard not to get a second one, because we need to leave now. Yeah.

But it was sick, man. It was cool. I could tell that you being an OG, Chris, I could tell that you still love it. I love it. I love it. Yeah, it really chokes me up being up on stage when I see all the fans out there smiling and singing the lyrics and just having a good time. It's amazing, man.

After so many years, too, man. Yeah. Yeah, and it's different for me now, too, because like I was telling you, I don't smoke weed and I don't drink anymore. So before being on stage was a lot different, I felt like I didn't really appreciate things for what they were, you know? And now I have a, like a deeper appreciation for what I do. And it's really, really important to me that the fans are happy and they are enjoying being at the concert, you know. And just seeing people like happy,

I know my purpose in life is to make a difference in someone's life through the music that I'm involved with. And I hear it all the time from people, like doing the VIP, Pete Neat and Greet's that I've done on this tour. You know, it's been 12 years since I've been on tour in the States. I know, man. It's a while, dude. Yeah, and it's like a lot of these guys will come to the meet and greet and they'll say,

Chris, you saved my life. Your music saved my life. Like, this kid was, this guy was in a car accident and he lost his eye, his face was split in half. I mean, he was just, he said he basically shouldn't be alive right now. But he was like, your music kept me alive in the hospital, man. He's like, they played it for me every day I was in the hospital, and it pulled me through, you know. And he's like, he was serious.

He's like, I wouldn't be here right now if it wasn't for your music, you know. So it's surreal when someone says that. And I've had so many people give me different stories like that. And I have an obligation to the fans to really. perform at my top level so I take it really like you know to heart like it's something that's so important to me right now to to to do this and and I love every one of them man I mean those fans tonight were just so like incredible and every every single show on this tour has been like that you know and um it means a lot to me it really

does. I see it, man. And, uh, for you, um, I really want to, I really want to tell what the history of you. And, uh, I guess you, you know, help me walk, walk through it. I think maybe for you, death metal, like the seed might be planted when you were two to three years old, correct? Like, your, your, your mom would, would tell you a, uh, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, in the morning and a night, correct? You're going to get me to, like, really break down here, Chris. That's what we do here. Yeah, man, my mom passed away about three weeks before the tour started,

so I didn't really think I was going to be out on this tour. I'm sorry to hear that, man. It was terrible. Yeah, she wanted me to, she was really excited for me to do this tour and be back out on stage. And my mom was the kindest, most gentle, selfless person that's been on this planet.

I'm telling you, man, it's so hard to describe her to people. But, yeah, she was everything to me. So, you know, I talked to her on Thanksgiving, and then, like, five days later, she was gone. And it's been really, really hard. for me and but yeah i'm sorry chris yeah my mom would say this little like um this little poem or it was a

and it was dark too yeah yeah and it was about like like like like a hearse yeah it was uh never laugh when a hearse goes by or you may be the next to die first they wrap you in a big white sheet then they throw you six feet deep. It all goes well for about a week. Then your tomb starts to leak. Ants run in. Ants run out. Ants play pinockel on your spout.

And then your corpse turns a sickening green and pus runs out like whipping cream. So never laugh when a hearse goes by or you may be the next to die. And I'd say, mom, mom, say it again, mom, say it again. You were drawn to that shit already. Yeah, yeah. And you were two and three years old.

Yeah, probably five, six, all through that, yeah. And so do you think I might have just planted a seed? Probably, you know. Yeah. So she would tell you this poem and then that was like, that will lead to you being a little bit older like you know six

and then you found the alligator people and then I won't you found the alligator people the movie right the alligator people yes that was the first movie that I saw my first horror film

yeah so this was your first film you saw right it scared the crap out of me Chris yeah that really you've really done your homework man I'm trying to scare you I'm I have a I really have an affinity towards

like B horror film so so so this was the first one that that you saw correct? Yeah it was the alligator people who's terrifying who we hang around with when you're that young we know we were we were at we were at my mom and dad's friend's house down the street

Ed and Maureen Rosinski and my friend Mark Rosinsky's my best friend is when I was a little kid. And this was just on the TV when we were hanging out at their house one night. And it scared the freaking hell out of me. Yeah. You know, I was probably five years old. Yeah.

Wow. That was that's it, dude. That's so funny. That that bash of five years, you really just made your whole life, dude. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. My dad was big into science fiction, too.

And the weird thing about this is my mom passed away and just beginning of December. And then 11 days later, my sister and I found out my dad passed away. Are you? So it's just really strange. And it sucks because I hadn't had any contact with him for a while. And I never got to like kind of say I was sorry. So, you know.

How long has it been since you spoken to him? It was about 12 years. 12 years. Yeah, and it was something so stupid. We both were good at not giving in, you know, and I should have gave it. I should have apologized. And so,

Yeah, that was right before the tour started. So, um... Unbelievable. Yeah. And all last year it seemed like was just death was overshadowing me because I don't have any kids and my dogs for like my kids. And in May, my best buddy, I had to put him to sleep about three weeks after his 10th birthday.

and it was like devastating to me. It just the whole year, that's why I started rehearsing so heavily to get ready for this tour. It was not only to get ready for it, but I had to because when I put him to sleep, I just lost it. And I cried for every day for six months, man.

Every single day, it really broke my heart. I had to like start doing something otherwise I would have probably started drinking again or smoking weed or something. I'm just like, you know, last year was probably one of the toughest years of my life. It was the whole past five years that had been horrible for me, but last year was just like it. So I had to really start just taking this, what I do, being a musician, being a vocalist, like, ultra-serious just to get my mind out of just a lot of real bad pain, you know. So it was tough. It was a tough year.

And that's not even a tough year. There's no word for that kind of year. It was just the worst thing. But just being on this tour has helped me to make sense of everything. And, you know, like I. I said I knew how important it was to my mom that I was going to be back out here. And I know she wouldn't have wanted me to give up. Yeah, that's not giving up, man.

That's, and that would break some people. So a lot of, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, they're have a tour booked and then he announced you know they have a passing of it's usually a mother or a father and then they drop off you have both within the month and you still

went out that's that's a rare thing Chris it's crazy I don't know if I could even do that I consider myself pretty fucking insane there was too many people that were relying on me and I couldn't let them down

you know I couldn't let all these fans that have been waiting all these years, I couldn't let them down, Chris. You know, and my mom wouldn't have wanted me to do that. So I had to do it just for her, you know, so. I don't mean to bring the interview down, you know. Literally, this is the place to do it, man. This is it, man. Would you remember the, because if it's you, then there's no excuse, man.

like a lot of people struggle with with ego and families and a lot of people part you know have arguments with their mothers or fathers and like when do you like the like the the child has a tough time that they need to check their ego and it's kind of let their parents win you know do you do you remember at the last thing you and you and your father talked about um Because then maybe people can avoid that, you know, because you actually lived it, like, like, the worst of it? No, I don't remember the last thing we talked about. I remember what the art, what it was about that caused me not to, to cause me to give up on everything. It was just basically things that were going on for a long time since I was a kid with that went back that much?

Yeah, it did. Because the lady he married after my mom and him got divorced was just... Oh, this is getting deep. I just, yeah, I mean... She was very, like, kind of a mentally abusive person. So my sister and I, at one point, just had had enough of it. And, like, this was back in 2012. And we both just decided that we'd had enough and we couldn't...

Like if it was just our dad, we could have, like, we wanted to talk to him, but it was always her being a part of it, and it was just such a negative thing, and we just couldn't take it anymore. So we cut him out of our lives, and it was tough. I loved my dad. He was. Yeah, that was one of my questions for you, given what you, given what you've done. done in the in the definite scene and what is like what was like what was this upbringing like with

his mom and dad and then uh and then i i found that story of of of the poem i was okay then there's like there's at least some like relationship there yeah what my dad's what was his upbringing like yours my upbringing like oh i had a great upbringing you know when my parents were married and stuff We lived in a beautiful house up in the country across from a ski resort. And a mom worked at the ski resort. And my dad managed a department store. And he's a very smart guy. He grew up on a farm.

And, yeah, I mean, I had a great upbringing. I learned how to ski when I was, like, five years old. I learned how he, after they got divorced, he taught me. me how to drive a stick shift sports car when I was like 11. Fuck you know, I was riding motorcycles. I had a mini bike when I was like 10 years old. He was a big sports car fan. I mean, he's had any British sports car you could think of.

And so my love of automobilia and cars really comes from my dad. And I've also had any type of sports car. You could think of motorcycles. You know, I don't ride anymore because I don't want to end up, you know. Yeah, because, yeah, you already crushed once, so, right? Yeah, yeah, you know about that too. Yeah, what, yeah, you, you crash a four-wheeler and two a fence, correct? Yeah, to a barbed wire fence at like 30 miles an hour.

You got, how did you, you really have done your homework, Chris? Oh, well. Jeez, man. Yeah, so my upbringing was great. And then my dad decided to move the family to Florida in 1981. So he wanted to move to Florida to be closer to his mom and take care of her. My grandmother. And what part of Florida?

Well, first we moved to Pensacola. for about a year and a half. Oh, shit, you're out there, dude. Huh? You're out there. Yeah, it was right on the bayou across from the Air Force Base, so I remember watching jets go up. But I only lived there for a summer,

and things were, like, really bad at that point. I didn't, I couldn't take his wife. I mean, it was coming down to a point where... That's how, oh, so that's why you mentioned the... Yeah, I was 13 years old, and I was just... I was hating things. I haven't really told anybody this other than my family, but I had it in my mind I was either going to kill her

or I was going to jump a freaking freight train and go back and somehow find my way back to New York. It was that bad, man. So I just asked my dad if I could move in with my mom back in New York. And he sat me down and asked me why, and I just told him I wanted to get away from him. this place, you know, when surprisingly, he let me, which was really strange because when he left my mom, he left her with nothing. My mom was the sweetest, just the sweetest lady, and nothing ever

got her down. I never saw her upset. She was always happy. She never yelled at me once. she always was just the kindest, kindest person. The only time she ever got mad at me was in 1985. In January of 1985. Oh, my goodness. It was during a blizzard in Buffalo when I had lived with her for about four years. And Metallica was playing at the Salty Dog Sky Room in Buffalo. We had tickets, but it was a major blizzard.

And she didn't want me to go. She was afraid that something was going to happen. I was like, Mom, it's Metallica. It was a ride the lightning tour. Oh, my goodness. So me and Paul from... Is this hit the blizzard? Yeah, blizzard of 85.

It took us three different rides to basically get six miles to the gig. Oh, my goodness. How do you drive in that? That's literally... By the end of the night, it had been... It was six feet of snow. there was snow up to a top of a fence, you know, like a fence around a yard. I remember seeing it.

So we got to the show and I said, Mom, I'm going. She's like, I'm going to kick you out of the house. She didn't mean it. But that was the first and only time my mom had ever spoken to be like that. I was like, I have to go to this concert. So we went. And so there was only like 50 people in the room. That's how bad the snow was, you know.

That's those, man. It was armored saint, Metallica, and was. And it was so bad that after the gig, all the bands were stranded. And they held up in like this little restaurant next door. I didn't stay because my teenage self wanted to go get weed. Of course. So me and me and Paul and our other friend, we left. and to go meet someone who never showed up.

So we, uh, the next day we found out that everyone, all our friends partied with Metallica all night long. Oh, wow. So it was like the biggest missed opportunity. Maybe it was just meant to be, you know? Yeah, yeah. So I didn't get kicked out of my house or anything, but, you know, um, yeah. So my dad let me move in back.

My dad let me move in with my mom and I got to go, you know, live in New York again. Was this, so this was like, was this, was this, was this the outskirts? Was this actually you're in Buffalo? It was in the suburbs of Buffalo. Yeah, we lived in, I went to school in Orchard Park, New York. It was basically by where the Bill Stadium is where Buffalo Bills play. We lived like right down the street from there. Okay.

So nice. Yeah. What's up with like Buffalo? Because I know you're a sports fan. What's up with like Buffalo? They have like a dark cloud over their sports, man. Yeah. So don't get me started.

I mean, those four losses really kind of soured me to football. I really don't watch football anymore after after that last loss. Oh my God. I do, you know, still can't, I'm Buffalo fan, you know, Buffalo Sabres. Sabers, yeah. Yeah, and Sabres played the odd, correct? Yeah, the old odd was amazing. The old odd was, I saw so many concerts there.

What was your first concert there? Kiss on Dynasty Tour January 1980. 1980? Yeah, 1980. 1980, a band called New England opened up. The band was called New England? Yeah. Never heard of them.

Yeah, really cool band. New England, okay. But later on, probably about, well, this was, 2009 I was doing a tour we were about to start a tour of Europe is that is that it and yeah 45 years ago that's right not a big deal sorry man no it's okay man um well yeah I met Paul Stanley in this hotel we were staying at yeah he was coming out of his hotel room I was walking down the hall with my girlfriend and I had to go up to him and say hello and yeah you know I said Paul I just want to introduce myself

Chris Barnes, I used to be a Cannibal Corpse singer. I'm six feet on. He's like, oh. Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, it's tight. You know, I was like, yeah, the first concert I ever saw was, uh, kiss on the dynasty tour of January of 1980.

He's like, oh, yeah. He's like, who opened for us? I was like, uh, New England. He's like, that's right. He's a great band. Yeah. And, uh, I was like, I just want to thank you, man, because it was my first concert. And I think it really put.

put me on a path, you know, to become a musician. He had bumped fists and he was really nice. It was cool? Yeah, he was really cool. That's awesome, yeah. It was a good experience, so I, yeah, so I saw, like, I'd have to say I saw hundreds. You'd probably, like, mention a band.

It'd be easier to mention a band that I didn't see because I saw so many concerts growing up. I mean, so many. I mean, second concert was, ACDC on for those about to rock third concert was Ozzy Osbourne

a couple weeks after Randy Rhodes died on Diary of a Madman tour still that's my all-time favorite concert I ever saw oh my goodness yeah yeah yeah so you saw Randy Rose's rip in dude yeah he just had passed

away there's two weeks before after he passed away was after yeah fuck it's sad yeah that sucks dude Bernie Tourmet was the guitarist. It was before Brad Gillis joined on that tour. So you, I guess we just kick into it.

So you went to high school with Bob, correct? Bob Roussay and Paul Muzerka, which were also in my class. Yeah, 1986 was our... Also, so Paul was in high school with you too. Yeah, I knew Paul before. I knew Bob, actually. Yeah.

I grew up, Paul's house was like, like, one show. street behind me. So we met when I moved in with my mom into the neighborhood. He was already there. Oh, shit. He came friends like, we actually weren't friends right away. We were playing football in the street and

he didn't like something I said to him. And he'd chucked the ball at me right in the groin. You definitely said something you fucked up. Fuck you, you boss. Yeah. So, yeah, that was how we met pretty much. Wow, you probably be probably

a high in trunk. No, I don't think that at that point we weren't. But we did like smoking weed though early on. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. How old were you when you first started to smoke? I basically have probably 1978. My dad, you know, my dad and his wife were part years.

They liked to smoke weed. My dad grew weed a little bit. and he sold it. So, like, I remember him having quarter pounds of, like, Acapulco Gold and Panama Red, the Rio Panama Red and Acapulco Gold. And I remember one afternoon I was going to go take a ride on my little Honda CT70 mini motorcycle, and took a couple of roaches out of the ashtray and went off riding with one of my friends and we took a break by the railroad tracks and smoked some weed and kind of the

world opened up to me yeah yeah yeah as it does yeah the whole is a whole other dimension it did everything got bright and i was like you know one one last thing so uh we got we got the poem into the horror movies it's when did you start so you saw it which i didn't know this genre up until today, actually. So there's a... So I was thinking like, what was Chris Barnes reading? It was, was it fiction or non-fiction? But then I found out there was something called true fiction.

Yeah. When did those books come to play? That was later. Yeah, that was later. I didn't start really exploring that stuff until, um, like, Right before Cannibal Corps formed, like probably, I'd say probably 87 or something.

Okay, so, okay, so the timeline's pretty close. Okay, we got, okay, poem, movie, you're watching Ultraman. Dude, you're blowing my mind right now, man. Like, really, you have really dug down deep, man. Wow, man. Fuck everybody, dude. Yeah. Because I hit me.

Godzilla Ultraman. That was early on. Yeah, so I think at the time on. I want to listen to Washington. We're going to type to F supplemental, but I just want to set the whole stage because because your lyrics are stolen. Well, what I'm trying to do with this, Chris, is that I've been talking about this the past six months as randomly.

Like your lyrics are so different and there's something to them. So I'm trying to get the whole picture before we. we start talking about that. And so once I started through the day game, I'm like, Ultraman, I was an Ultraman fan. And I never heard someone actually say it other than me.

Oh, dude, Chris Barnes's like, Ultraman, of course he does. Ultraman was sick. Yeah, man. Remember what was it? It was a, it was KV toys. Yeah. And my mom bought me an

Ultraman. Mechana Godzilla, yeah. Was Ultraman? That's the only super. left from Godzilla. The original suit is mechanic. Is it? Yeah. Oh shit. Yeah. Well, is this Godzilla versus? Mechaniczilla, yeah.

Oh, and Ultraman. Mecca Godzilla. Oh, shit. So Ultraman was one of those shows where they took it from Japan, correct? Yeah. And they brought it. It was on TV, like on Sunday mornings or something, and I used to watch it like every Sunday

when I was a kid. Wow, me and Chris Barnes are watching Ultraman. Yeah, man. Fuck all you guys. Yeah, he had that triangle thing on his chest. Yeah, and he'd kneel down or whatever. Dude, I made one out of paper. He was sick.

I think it was fluid. Ultraman, dude. He had. He was sick. Yeah. I loved Ultraman. I mean, I loved Godzilla, too. Last year I got back on this Godzilla trip

where I started watching all the movies again from the first one all way through. Yeah. And then I went to see, you know, the Godzilla versus Calm that one at the theater and just really enjoyed it. Fuck, yeah, dude. Yeah. Well, shout out to Ultraman.

Yeah, the first Godzilla is still the best man. Gojira, right? Gojira. That's where they got the name from. Yeah, now it's a fucking sick-ass band. Now their Grammy Award winners, right? It just happened, too. Congrats to them, man.

It's fucking sick. Yeah, I mean. It's tight. Yeah, it is. Putting it heavy music on the map. Why not? I mean, they all say, like when Metallica won everything, people are always like, well, it's great for metal.

I don't know. It's great for us metal heads, really, right? Because does it do any of the normies really ever go like, oh, I'm a metal. I love Metallica now. Or like, do any of the Normies, are they all going to be like, I'm a Gojira fan, you know? That's the question. I don't know. I don't know.

I don't know. And how do you? It puts it out into the. into the ether, I guess, a little bit more. But I don't know if, like, you know, if, you know, mom or dad Smith are going to really, like, start digging Gojira. Mr. Smith.

Mr. and Mrs. America are like, you know. It's true. I'm always like, yeah, how do you gauge that? Like, okay, people are going to watch this and, like, yeah. Are they going to, like, follow the three okay now. I'm going to listen on Spotify, at least. I don't know.

I think it maybe solidifies. heavy metal as a true form of rock and roll and something that's more real than people give it credit. Yeah. I'm waiting for bands like you guys to start slowly being like inductees of like the Hall of Fame. Oh, well, our tour manager, she visited the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and voted for us. Sick. I think this is a matter of time I think death metal is going to be the first genre

that eventually is going to come out nowhere oh shit they're going to allow now now these bands are in the fucking and then it's going to go death metal so bands like you guys are going to be on a forefront so this is my opinion I think death metal is going to get in there because they can't

deny it they can't deny it anymore and then once step metal gets in there they don't be new metal and it hopefully be death core I think new that's my Chris I think new metal will make it before death metal. I think so? Yeah, I think they'll induct corn or slip knot

before they do any of us death metal bands because we're too scary for, you know, we do, we sing about some real heavy subject matter. Yeah, yeah. It's just not appealing to the mainstream still, you know? Yeah, it's true. You know, so I think, you know, those guys like the slip knot guys and the corn guys

will probably be inducted, sooner than we think probably, you know. Yeah. Because they've sold so many records. And it's, they're kind of still in the shadows, but they've sold, I mean, platinum, you know? I mean, big, big numbers, you know?

So, you know, we're still the little guys, the death metal bands and stuff, I think. You never know, man. You never know. You never know. You know, I didn't expect it to be this great. So I'm good with it, you know. Yeah, yeah, man.

Okay, so we got Ultraman. So you're going to high school with Paul. With Paul and Bob, yeah. Yeah. So there was a band that was pre-cannibal, right? Yeah, yeah. It was. Tyrant?

It was actually called Satan's Angel first. I named the band Satan's Angel. Of course you did. Nice. But Paul's mom. And he'll tell you this, it's true. She thought it was, it was, you know, too satanic. So I got to practice the one day, and he had changed the name to Tyrant Sin.

Yeah. So I was like, I guess I'm outvoted again, you know? Yeah. But I had made T-shirts and everything in school. He made T-shirts? Fuck, yeah. He printed them and everything in my art class. And so, like, it was me, Paul.

and our friend Rich on bass. And I didn't have a PA, so I was singing out of Rich's other channel on this little bass amp. It's tight. Yeah, so. And then I was in, I had health class, and I met Bob.

Bob was in my health class. And I was like, this dude's cool, man. He's got hell bet for leather painted on his gene vest, you know. Fuck, yeah, he does. Yeah, yeah. So I asked him, I'm like, hey, we're like getting this band together. Do you want to be in this band? And so I brought Bob over to Paul's house because he played guitar.

And so we like, and Paul played drums because his cousin was a really good drummer. And Paul kind of learned how to play drums through him. And Rich played bass. He was really a good bass player. He took lessons. And before that, though, when we were. like see this all started from like we all four of us or we would we would like hang out in our friends bedrooms and we would like put on our favorite metal band record and we would all like airband

to the music right that was a big thing back then was like air banding you know you just I never heard that word ever. Air band. You pretend to be in the band and like jam. That's a way to start a band. We're going to be an air band. That's right. And we actually entered air band competitions.

Excuse me? We did. Yeah, we did. And we... So there's multiple air bands. Our school had like a school dance and it was an air band competition. Oh, what? On stage.

So even other friends that I was hanging out with, not with Paul, Rich, and Bob, but these other dudes, we entered the school air band competition and did run to the hills, Iron Maiden. Okay. So we didn't win, but so we, I entered, I entered that one, right? And then, like, when we started, me and Paul and Rich and Bob started doing it, this was before we even picked up instruments. I was like, I want to play bass. And they were like, no, you, Paul was like, you look more.

like a singer. So that's how I like became a singer. That's how he became a singer. Yeah, it was being a singer in an air band. Wow, dude. So like we entered this air band competition and we did Man o' War, kill with power. And it was for a radio station. It was a pretty big, you know, they sponsored it, this radio station like locally in

Buffalo. And we, we won it. So we won this fricking air band competition doing, there was. go there's some air banding um so we did kill with power by mann war because we loved manna war and uh we want it so then like we were like well we can fake it pretty good so why not let's try to pick up some instruments and that's when we started practicing it in paul's basement and his finished basement and um paul played drums rich played bass i sang bob played guitar and the first song we ever

tried to play was a dethroned Emperor by I think it was Hellhammer Okay Celtic Frost yeah Oh wow

Yeah but yeah Yeah So Yeah Celtic Frost So Yeah Don't

Dun Dun dun dun Do you Okay Got the Calgo? Heavy as hell man I love this song. When has come out?

What? Probably. It must have been like... I hear it. I hear it. I hear it. Something like that, right? 84 maybe.

Okay, so I'm born 85 and you're in your air band and you just... And we're just starting to band. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. It's going good. So, yeah, Tyrantson kind of kept going. And then, yeah, then how did you meet a...

Cover songs. We were just playing cover songs. Playing covers? Yeah. Diafrost, Man of War. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

There it is, dude. Yeah. Mutant supremacy. Yeah. Did you put that on... Well, the thing with that one was... Mutant supremacy. Let's go.

So I quit Tyrants in at one point. And then... This is a pretty long story, but what happened was... I was hanging out with one of my... friends who was a drummer and I was doing cover songs with him in his basement and like docking and van halen and all sorts of stuff like that was horrible at the regular metal like i couldn't i could sing the celtic frost stuff that was like okay but like trying to sing like rob halford or david lee roth really wasn't that good at it so um anyways so there was

we went to see this band Crow Magnin at the at this skating rink in Lackwana outside of Buffalo and just so happens the bass player in Crow Magnin was Robbie Goo from the Goo Goo Goo Goo Dolls

who ended up being in the Goo Goo Goo Goo Dolls, right? Oh wow. So they lost their singer Crow Magnet did so I was like that band's awesome. I'm going to try to audition for them. So like I practiced in my room and got ready for it and I auditioned for this banquero magnet and they were doing original music it was not cover song nice

so I auditioned for him and then I never heard from him so I called Robbie I'm like you know what do you guys think and they're like man you're just too too much you're too thrash you're too thrash for us that's what he said so I was like okay and so like too and too high too yeah probably So it was like basically a couple months later I got a call from this kid Practicing at this this rehearsal space called Absolute Storage and he calls me his name was Jeff and he calls me he's like hey Robbie gave me your phone number he says you're a thrash metal vocalist we're looking for someone do you want to come down an audition and I'm like No I'm kind of not really into doing that I wanted to really

sing like regular metal so i said no but he called me back like two weeks later he's like are you sure you don't want to come down just come down and check us out so i had a friend of mine drive me to buffalo's like a 20 minute ride got to this rehearsal space got off the elevator and i i'm hearing this this fucking man man it sounded like slayer i like i could hear this drummer man like it was incredible this kid was how he was playing the drums. I got to the door. I'm like, man, this is unbelievable. So I kind of walked in with my friend and I kind of was like playing it cool, like, you know, but I was blown away when they played the music for me. Like this drummer, he was 16 years old. And I'm telling you, man, he was as good as Dave Lombardo in 1987. He was 16. And he just,

Incredible, man. So, like, this band's name was Leviathan, and I joined them, and they were playing all original music. So I just started going to Buffalo and rehearsing with these guys, and we started writing music together. And the name of the, there it is, yeah, the name of our first demo was Legions of the Undead. And just phenomenal.

This kid, Ange, man, Angela Loco, Angela Loco, the drummer. He freaking, I could, I'm not kidding you, man, sending a shiver down my spine right now. But I sat in his room one time and he played Neil Peirte's drum solo from exit stage left. And if you were blindfolded, you would think you were listening to Neil Peirt. Oh, wow.

He played along to that solo, beat, for beat, every Tom hit, everything. Just a freak. He was a freak of nature. I mean, he could play, he would think you were in the room with John Bonham. He could play like John Bonham at like 17, 18 years old. Wow.

He was really a prodigy, and he was, he's still probably the greatest drummer I've ever played with. So these guys were like, we were, it's really my favorite band I've ever been. with because it's just really my it's my real start there we are right there wow there it is yeah and 1988 7 yeah so what um that logo yeah well that's really that's someone someone did okay well see the other logos don't don't don't fucking lie to me dude you you you fucking drew that logo there's that's the logo and jeff the guitarist girlfriend drew that so a little bit better yeah yeah

but uh it was really such incredible time for me with that band but we broke up and um i joint rejoined tyrant sin to do that mutant supremacy demo and uh after a like a few months tyrant sin kind of broke up and we all kind of stop but me rich bob and paul were working um doing drywall finishing together oh wow yeah we were drywall finishers and I remember we were all in the same room. Actually, it was our other friend Scott. He was going to play bass, and he did play bass for a little bit. But I was like, look, we're all a band in the same room.

We were smoking joints. It was on our break during finish drywall. Yeah. So we let's reform, let's make a new band. So we went down to this weird rehearsal space and started practice. And I think we were together maybe a couple weeks, and we found out that Alex and Jack's band Beyond Death had broken up and became available.

Oh, timing. Yeah, so Alex and Jack came over to rehearsal studio with me, Paul, and Bob, and that's when Cannibal Corpse was born. Wow. Yeah. This timing, man. When someone like, when you hear, that's happened to me when you hear like someone's band broke up yeah yeah yeah just did those those

yeah exactly somebody call him someone call them there's a timing man it's it's fate you know yeah it was it was so elix named the band campbell corpse in the first song we wrote was a skullful of maggots you serious yeah wow so i heard that uh that you write um that you write um You write lyrics high, correct? I did, yeah. Every single song that I wrote lyrics for was with the use of cannabis, except for one, which I wrote on Killing for Revenge, when the moon goes down in blood.

The only song I did a full song of lyrics for on that album. But that's when I had quit. I had quit smoking weed and, you know, drinking. I'm drinking non-alcoholic peered. Yeah. There's a, there's a quote, verbatim, quote, Chris Barnes. Smoke, I smoke a joint, kind of sit back and it's kind of hang out. And I was like, and the way you would, I'm just trying to get to the bottom of your subject matter.

You said you would sit and you get the music first, correct? The music, yeah, always comes. first okay and then you would and you would sit with uh and you sit with like a subject matter and then you just kind of go in to that yeah like through the use of cannabis i would really meditate and go into like a just a meditative state where i would let the music speak to me and maybe within my my archive of song titles or album titles I would hear something would tell me what it was and a lot of people like a lot of death metal vocalists just do a blanket type of death metal vocal style to their stuff I let

the music speak to me and that dictates what my vocal tone's going to be or what my approach is going to be you know so like I don't think of myself I I am a death metal vocalist but i don't think of myself as a death metal vocalist it's the lyrics and the the song that dictates like if i'm going to have a vocal approach like feasting on the blood of the insane or vocal approach like even in cannibal like a vocal approach of um stripped raped and strangled or hammer smashed face or even songs on the same album are slightly different tonally or attack you know so the lyrics of the song are really important to me because I like a story and I like to tell a story and I like there to be a theme you know I don't want it to

it can't just be words like spouting off words it's got to tell a story and sometimes telling the story takes me away from being just a solid, guttural death metal vocalist. And it's kind of a trade-off. And I find it to be more important to tell the story the way the song kind of needs to be, it needs to feel, you know. Yeah. So I get a lot of criticism. because people think that I'm a,

I'm, like my vocals in Campbell Corpse, like I'm not that anymore. But I don't, I never really dwelled on that. Even when I was in the band, I never, I never really tried to be the same on every album. I mean, there's, you can really kind of, I can tell, like the vocals are even, from Butchered at Birth to Tomb of the Mutilated,

they're different from, tomb to the bleeding they're really different yeah i mean eating back to life they're nothing like any of the other four yeah not even close i mean people say well you were just starting out but you know i mean i was i was feeling my way through it at that point something clicked though on the last song for that album which was uh buried in the backyard that was the last song we wrote on eating back to life and what what clicked uh the guttural thing i think i just i like discovered it within myself like that that like the matching of the sound of the distortion the guitars to like the vocals being within that like in a

way like at one with it so that's what i really started focusing on that was yeah what's up the wrong logo book. Jay, you literally read so that's an updated cover but you literally read my mind. Yeah, that was the shitty remasters that they did to try to destroy my performance. Oh, yeah.

Oh, did I say that out loud? Let's go. I was going to ask you, I wanted you to see that cover and then, I was wondering, I was wondering like what I wanted to know like maybe like a single author top memory.

that that you have from from that cover was well i love vince locke's work on dead world comics and stuff so um i i kind of there's a story i kind of stalked him down i hunted him down and you know this was before the internet this was 1980 89 or whatever yeah so i called up information I saw on Dead World Comics, like, where he lived in Michigan. Yeah. So, like, I found out where he lived, like, generally. So I called up information in Michigan. I said, you know, I'm looking for Vincent Locke.

And she gave me the number. And I called him up. I said, Vince, I'm Chris Barnes. I'm in a band called Cannibal Corpse. I would like you to do our album cover. And he was like, oh, okay. He's a very, really mild-mannered type of person, but he was interested. And it was just wild.

So anyways, he started working on eating back to life. That's, yeah. So, yeah. Oh. Yeah. So if you look at that, that's number one. Yeah, that's number two. that's number two he's actually last year he gave me number one and number two signed wow but

um that's so you want to so like the funny thing about it is um i've never met him never met him no no i mean we just talked the other day on instagram he sent me a message he's like chris i didn't know you were in grand rapids i thought it was in february and i'm like I should have told you or something because we were talking. But I don't know, the universe hasn't, we haven't met yet in all these years. Okay, so you already, six years. 36 years. I haven't met him.

Well, now you've got to do another tour. Yeah, yeah, I will. And, but the thing is, my memory of eating back to life is him sending it to me and me opening that package up and seeing that. And it blew me away. Did it? Only to be seconded by when I got butchered at birth. And I opened that. I was the first person to see that too.

And when I saw Butchered at birth, I knew something was going to happen. Because that album cover is the ultimate death metal album cover still to this day. It is. That's the ultimate cover, dude. Yeah. And when I saw that... What the fuck? When I saw that and I opened it.

And I was like, holy fuck, this is something's going to happen because the music, to me, that's the best album. The thing about, it's really important. The thing about your second record is, Convierte your passion in a business with Shopify and bathe records of ventas with the form of the power of pay with a better conversion of the world. Has you know, the best version of the world. The incredible system of Pago of Shopify facilitates the purchases in your site web, in the

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on Shopify pointe bar records even when people talk about it today it's like dude

that's a that's a fucking brutal definal record to everything like the songs the vocals

it's like a perfect insanely brutal record but that's what 92

991 1991 One. One. Yeah. It's like, fuck. So, so this question ties into the first two covers. He, so he already had some experience with kind of that artwork.

Did you tell him, like, hey, these are the lyrics? He, he, he, I send him the lyrics. He's always, he always wants to work off of, like, certain themes from the, from the lyrics. So, yeah, for Eat Back to Life, I send him the lyrics. for I wonder what he thought for killing for revenge I sent him the lyrics that

you know because he did that album cover yeah yeah yeah so he he gained the idea for killing for revenge from the song

um uh accomplice to evil deeds which is set in a kind of a shack jack wrote the lyrics for that but it's uh that makes sense

you accompany to a shack yeah down And real quick, this record just came out. Yeah, last year, May. So we got to tell the world. Yeah, killing for revenge. What month did it come out? It came out of May.

Geez, I don't want to say. May, nice. Like second week in May, I think. May 13th or May 11, something like that. So it's probably a little bit easier to find him, right? It is. Now it is. Yeah.

A little bit easier. Yeah. It's just an IG DM? Boom. Yeah. You want you a cover? Yeah. Yeah.

It was interesting because we had talked about it probably 20 years ago. Like I was like, man, I'd love you to do the six feet under album cover. And he was like, yeah, man, sure. And we just never got together on it. And then I said something to Jack about it. When we were working on Killing for Revenge, he was like, you know, at the end of it. And he was like, yeah, that would be really cool. so what did you

okay so uh you mentioned that you feel something was gonna happen when you saw that album cover did what was like uh what what were you thinking and feeling i i just gonna get a fucking band oh what's like you know i didn't think that but i think metal blade might have was it did cause a lot of controversy when they released it to the point where they had to re-release it with um they had the idea to uh wrap it in butcher's paper with the logo on it as hard as a censor censored version because a lot of places wouldn't take it so it caused a lot of controversy

but in the same time it it really propelled the band um eating back to life did really well too people still tell me i saw this long box of the seat CD cases and just album cover was, you know. Wow. So, yeah, I still have a original one that's in the butcher paper still somewhere. So you had a first point to see it. It's like, my, this is. Yeah.

Yeah, I just thought it was something was going to happen. Like, I thought the band was, it was just going to propel us, like, for some reason. Just like when I was writing the lyrics to Haunted, I had a vision in my head. of like being on stage in front of the fans and them enjoying those songs on haunted is right when I was writing lachanthropy you know and I wrote haunted five minutes like the rest of the songs from haunted I wrote five minutes after I got done writing the lyrics for the bleeding oh shit yeah there it is there's an original right there yeah oh yeah it's yellowed from time but yeah it used to be completely white wow dude that's fucking crazy yeah hey jay can you pull up the

uh next record tomb yeah now this one i told vince the idea for the cover i was like um yeah yeah i said i wanted a corpse performing cunnelingus on a female corpse so that's what he came up with And then Metal Blade wanted a censored cover, which is the brown tones. Yeah. And I personally, I hate to say it because the other cover was my idea. I like the censored cover better, actually. But when I talked to Vince doing Killing for Revenge, I said, man, I love the color tone of the censored tomb of the mutilated. Can we use like that as a theme for killing for revenge? He's like, oh, yeah, I like that.

So, but like I, I came up with the album title, Tomb of the Mutilated, and I came up with the album title, The Bleeding, and Paul came up with the album title for Eaton Back to Life and for Butchered at Birth. Nice. Yeah. What? So, so. Yeah, that's interesting.

When you see this cover, what, what memories, does it? spark for you the band and that time um it sparks um that photo shoot um it sparks the complete control tour that we did with uh agnostic front obituary and mollashy creation in in this july and August well it was almost yeah two and a half months in the summer of 1992 and then um tune muley came out like right at the tail end of the uh tour so we were playing hammer smash face on that tour and people were going nuts for it but i i'm just i i have different memories about it a lot of it has to do with being in the studio recording that album them and that was kind of there was personal problems going back to butchard at birth but there was

professional differences and um things that started during tomb of the mutilated where scott burns kind of got between things and i thought overstepped really as far as being a producer and just concentrating on making a good sounding record, he didn't want Bob to play any of the rhythm tracks. And he wanted Jack to do all the rhythm tracking. And it caused a big rift in the band. And it isolated Bob. I think it really hurt his feelings.

I've been there. It sucks. And it really, I still, to this day, I'm getting choked up. talking about it because Bob was like my best friend in the band I thought you know and I I didn't like the idea of it but I was and Jack Jack didn't either but I was outvoted and I was always out voted but um and people will say oh Barnes just won't let go with these things or he's still holding on to these things I'm not I'm just telling a story you know and i don't being kicked out a cannibal corpse was probably the best thing that

ever happened to me in my career as a as a musician or a vocalist it was i was so unhappy things have got i had gotten so weird with like people clicking up within the band and stuff and you know it it just it started kind of early on I don't want to get into any specific. It's not fair to talk about stuff that. But I was, I, I didn't like that, that Bob wasn't involved in tracking the guitars. And so it hurt his feelings.

And it wasn't necessary. His guitar playing was great. If I have to say, he wasn't the weak link in the band at all. I mean, I don't want to say who was. or who still is, you know, but the way I see it, you know. So it just kind of, that whole thing just kept snowballing. And to the EP, even when we did the cover songs for Zero, The Hero,

and The Exorcist by Possessed, when we did the Hammer Smash Face EP. And, and again, outvoting. Bob didn't do any of the rhythms on any of the, you know, guitar tracks or the rhythm tracks. Like, was it just two? Because I heard you mentioned that. Like, you've always, which took some pretty deep diving to find this. But you, like you said that there's always personal tension, always. But I was like, well, he went to high school with this guy.

It was kind of like, but sometimes that, that just happened. Like you just, like, you're like, there's like this ego, but there wasn't, it wasn't really too much ego, I don't think. I mean, there was arguments and stuff and fist fights. The fist fight, let's go. Yeah. And, and, and I'm, I'm, I take, you know, responsibility for being an idiot, you know, so. I always have had a short fuse, I guess, you know, but I've been working on that. Still working on it.

Yeah, yeah. We're all still working on it. Yeah, man. Yeah. So, you know, it just was stupid, stupid stuff. And, yeah, so there was always kind of a underlying thing like that. and I don't think there was I don't think

I think there was jealousy and I didn't feel like I was respected like a lot of the times because I didn't play an instrument I was just a vocalist you know but I was getting a lot of attention people wanted to talk to me

in the press and that wasn't my fault but you know so I think that that I've been told that that was kind of an underlying thing, you know. Yeah, and you're way younger. You don't really know how to, like, handle it? No.

You know? No, not really. I wasn't, I don't, I don't feel like I've ever had an ego and people, I'm like, oh, you know, but no, I mean, I don't, I don't think of myself as like, I don't, like, it surprises me when people talk to me, like, and tell me stories. like that. It's like I don't think of myself as anybody but just a regular dude that walks down to the corner store and talks to people at work there and, you know, like I just, I'm a regular guy. Like, I don't, in my daily life, I rehearse, but I don't think of myself

as I'm, oh, I'm a fucking vocal god or some shit. I don't think of that, you know, I'm not saying I am at all. I'm just of how other people view me. And I don't, I don't really, As far as that goes, I'm pretty egoless as far as that goes. I just want to do a good job, and I try to work hard. And I've always had a good work ethic as far as being a musician. So I just, when I, I didn't feel appreciated in that band. And those guys, they had certain ways of, like, poking at you. And I just, at one point, I just didn't want to be around them.

so when I started demo and stuff out for six feet under I was it was like something so different there wasn't any of that type of like chaos and was that was that what kind of like when you felt like not not respected that was that kind of like that kind of opened up the pathway hey maybe I should maybe I could start something else what's maybe I could yeah pretty much like Maybe I could hit Balin. Yeah, well, what happened was we were on that tour in 92 when we were in New Mexico and Albuquerque. Elbuquerque did a show at the university there.

And I got off the bus and Trevor was there. So I started walking with Trevor. We were going to go join or something. Yeah. And I was like, man, I love that meat hook seed thing that you're doing that side project. I was like, I really want to start a side project. but I was going to ask you, but you're already doing one. Because Trevor, I knew Trevor more than the other guys pretty much.

He's like, Big Al's got some songs. He's been wanting to do something. I'm like, oh, I haven't met Al yet on the tour. He's like, oh, you haven't met Al? He's like, come on, we'll go and smoke up there on the bus with it. So I met Al and Trevor was like, he wants to do a side project. And Al's like, yeah, I've got some songs, you know. Al's that really kind of, you know.

conservative dude and stuff and he's like yeah so we started talking and then we just kept talking early 93 i'd go down to um Tampa from buffalo and and demo some stuff out you know so just started working like that and it was it was it was fun it was just really fun we were doing like four track recordings and stuff and some guy's trailer and Nice. Yeah, and like Riverview or something. Nice. Yeah.

And were, uh, would those songs eventually become, uh, haunted? Yeah, they were, yeah, like, we did, I think the first three songs were like human, well, the first song was still alive, human target. And, uh, I think it was, uh, uh, I think it was, uh, uh, I think it was, uh, uh, uh, I think it was, uh, uh, Maybe tomorrow's victim. So you're doing these songs and also at the same... Was this during, like, the bleeding touring time? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, no, it wasn't during bleeding.

It would have been in 93. Because we... It was after Bob got kicked out of the band, so... Uh-oh. Yeah. Yeah, because I met my girlfriend at the time on the 93 tour in, like, March or April. So then I would go down and visit her in Florida and then demo stuff out with Al. So it was probably like summer of 93.

So it would have still been on like Tomb of the Mutilated. Oh. Touring cycle. I didn't know that it was that soon. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And that was... Yeah, so...

You had a feeling? I did. I did. And what happened was... So I started... I finished writing all the songs for Haunted after I got done with the lyrics for the bleeding in December of 94. And, you know, then we did the bleeding tours.

I mean, it was like... we had three months off in 94, but, you know, so it was like nine months of touring that whole year for that album. And so then basically in September, end of September of 94, I think I'd just gotten back from the Concrete Foundations Forum in California, in L.A., which was an awesome job. deal. I went 93 and 94 and it was so much fun. But I got back at the end of September and went to

rehearsal and I was just like, so you guys, I just overheard someone talking about Florida. And I'm like, so you guys are moving to Florida? And they were like, yeah, I'm like, okay. I was like, they never even asked me to move to Florida. So I just was like, all right, you know. I had met my would-be wife at that Foundation's Forum in 94, so I was really, we were crazy about each other, so I packed up everything and they went by themselves and I drove down by myself and moved to Florida. So moved in with her and we got married.

like four or five months later but nice yeah so it was it was kind of wild yeah yeah some uh some weirdness you know yeah it was really weird so yeah my band said they're going to move somewhere didn't i didn't tell me yeah i'll be fucking pissed it was strange man i felt really like like what's going on you know but so um yeah that that's i think things were really just weird from that point and then um 95 we were working on um created to kill which became vile yeah you know that whole whole year pretty much like it was a hard album for me to write lyrically because the music was so different it was really like technical and i i it was really a tough album for me to roadmap the vocal parts

out on. I worked really hard on that album. And I loved it. I thought it was some of the best work I had done. It was really interesting to me because, you know, and I collaborated with Alex on a song, Bloodlands. He wrote half of it and he's like, okay, finish

it off. And that was really cool because I hadn't done that since eating back to life. And I'd gone up to rehearsal and I'd been rehearsing with them and they were they heard my vocals they heard this the lyric you know they heard everything just like every other rehearsal for every other album we put together but paul didn't says to this day he didn't really hear how it sounded until i got in the studio which is bullshit you know they they heard what i was doing and they didn't say anything bad about it until we're in the studio and

scott burns started playing producer and trying to have me change things that he didn't think were right, but I felt were really interesting. And I changed some stuff. I did. I changed some stuff, and it wasn't good enough for him, you know. But it's funny because they used my roadmap for the lyrics and the vocals that they rewrote, you know, but they didn't think it was good enough the way I was doing it, but they still used the roadmap for all the vocal parts for vial after they kicked me out of the band. So it came down to I was in the middle of that session for Created to Kill And we were about six feet under

Was about to go on our first tour Of the States in 95 for Haunted And they wanted me to cancel it To finish the record the way they wanted to And I was like, I'm not canceling this tour guys I'll finish this when I get back and I went out on the road and it was amazing

in that tour in 95 I was like free and I was like you know I saw the crowds just like I saw when I was right in lecanthropy the you know two years before or whatever

and I was like this the shows were packed it was awesome you know and I came back and pretty much Alex called me and was like we're going to go a different direction with the vocals. And I laughed, man.

And I think it's surprised at me. Like, I was like, okay. I was like, no problem, man. Because I was just fucking high from that tour, man, and the crowds and just like being out there with the new band. And it was effortless. It was an effortless, it was an effortless transition for me. So that might be at the showcase, actually.

yeah yeah so it was incredible it was just i didn't i didn't i didn't cry i didn't i wasn't unhappy that i got kicked out of camel corpse i literally felt like a weight had been taken off my shoulders so and i think it really surprised alex that i didn't argue with them and i didn't like ask why even you know so that's why It was just the best thing that ever happened to me as far as being a musician was being out of that band. And a lot of people think I'm sour about it. I'm not. I never was.

I think that's always the question people have. It's like Chris Barnes is bitter. Yeah, no, and I'm not. And even Brian Slagel told me last night, I mean, it's something that's true. In the mid-90s, six feet under, it was bigger than Cattle Corps. We sold more records.

We were a bigger band, Touring-wise. Something that people don't talk about you, Chris. So my also one of my things is if I'm ever around like an OG that's done something, I always say publicly because they don't, people like, people just forget because all these new bands keep coming out. Oh, this is, like this. Like people don't know that six feet under is one of the top selling definitely bands of all time. and to be in two

now cannibal was and then two bands that's crazy and when we're talking about physical sales when when it really meant something when someone you know you know I mean I don't have like single gold records or platinum

records on the wall but I have a gold record from like four four or five albums that you know that reached 500,000 copies for a death metal band that's pretty freaking amazing and for my time in Campbell Corpse. There's a couple albums that they did after,

like Vile and like Gallery of Suicide and one other. Yeah. But there's a platinum record that I was involved in helping to achieve with the four albums that I sang on for Cannibal Corpse. So like to me, that's, I'm so proud of that. You know, and when you say that we're one of the top selling six feet under of death metal

bands, And Nielsen sound scan, you know, for the time when there was physical sales. So I am very proud of that, you know. Because, and like you said, two bands that are incredible still to this day. To this day, yeah. You know. So I... People forget.

Yeah, people forget. And people weren't there at the time. Like you showed that show that I think was from Corona from our front. first tour. People weren't there, man. They didn't see what, how intense those shows were. You know, before the internet, they were controlled fucking chaos. It was insanity. Like, even when I was in Cannibal Corp, some of the things that I saw was, it's just, it could never, you could never see it again. Like the Milwaukee Metal Fest in 92, that crowd was just insane. It was at the, where the, I was at one of the Coliseums.

It wasn't at the Eagles Club. That was the one where they moved it. But there's some, there's some footage from that. That's just out, it's insane what the crowd was doing. It was, and just certain things. Like I remember playing the thirsty whale in Chicago. And I always like, I don't like to hang out backstage or something. so I would like try to find a way out of the gig.

So like I would stage dive and literally the crowd that night carried me, crowd surfed me all the way from the stage out to the back of the club and I landed at the fucking backst, at the entrance of the club and just opened the door and walked out of a packed club. Yeah, this is. Can we crank this shit? Yeah, mecca arena That is literally

That is literally death funnel At his finest dude Yeah Be should be very Very proud Yeah People forget dude Fuck him

Yeah no it's okay I can take the criticism Some people say I don't Because I just block people But I do because I don't want to engage In shit that you can't win with people nowadays on the internet you can't dude dude is and there'll be thousands of comments on this and people ripping me to shreds like i wish you would just shut up or something and i they're

gonna say that yeah i wish you would but so what they should shut up uh is corpse crumner still blocked i don't i haven't had him blocked no no in fact i on instagram i follow him and i don't know if he follows me but at one point at one point i confronted him because i saw a video on youtube where during a live performance he he's he's poked at me pretty good and and i wrote him because i was like look man i never have said anything nasty about you at all i don't know why you're doing this on stage about me you know and i said um I said, we met and I thought everything was cool that one time. And listen, I'll give you my phone number if you wanted.

I still have the message. I'll show it to you. But I said, you know, if you want to talk on the phone, I'll give you my phone number. We can talk it over. And, you know, I send him the link to the YouTube video. And magically it got, it disappeared. after that. But he never responded to me. He saw the message because it said, seen, but he wouldn't talk to me about it. So, and I mean, I don't think he sings my songs very well, but, you know,

I don't, I think he walks through him, you know, and I, and on this tour of three nights, I poked back at him a little bit just because, you know, I felt like it was funny, but it was all in good humor. Yeah, I was just wondering, like, I've been around him, and I think, I think there's, I guess something else.

I think, I think there's a genuine love there. Maybe he just, maybe you see, like, the other side. I mean, I saw a couple interviews with him where he, he said that he,

he believed that my, my songs that I wrote are more his now. And that really upsets me, because they'll never, be his. He's a karaoke singer when it comes to my songs. You know, he is.

Those aren't his songs. He says they're his songs because he sung them more times than I have. He didn't write them. He doesn't get publishing checks from them. Those are my songs. Those lyrics are from my brain.

And for him to insult me that way, I take that really serious. And I think that that's, So ignorant and just so Just wrong, you know, and I I think it's wrong that he even signs the CDs that you know or The album covers that he didn't perform on you know I don't sign Gallery of Suicide You know you don't no why would I wasn't on it? Yeah, you know

So Um Hey, if you wants to settle it like getting in a race car on a track so you can drive better but i know he doesn't know he doesn't know how to drive so i'd probably win that race too man i think you guys just need to get in a room or something man just talk though i listen man i tried to i tried to i've got no problem with him like i said when i met him i thought everything was cool you know because we got we got into a room we were at an iron maiden concert in one of the boxes

And Slagel kind of got us all together in the same room. And I was talking to him. I was having a good time talking about video games, you know. Mm-hmm. So I'm a call-a-duty guy. He's a Warcraft guy. Yeah. Two different types of games, but.

Man. So I, you know, I respect that he's been a great vocalist for the band for many years. I just don't like, I don't like being poked at. I've never done anything to the guy, you know. Mm-hmm. So. Yeah, I was wondering, I knew like something probably sparked it. Because somebody, I see something online that it pokes me.

I'm like, fuck you. Yeah, I mean, I'm only human. I'm going to get pissed off about stuff. We're all human, man. Yeah, I mean, it hurts my feelings. A lot of things hurt my feelings, you know. People like to make fun of me. What I do love about you, Chris, is that you don't,

like, you don't mind being hated. No, that's okay. I like I like it I'm okay And then we'll close off the subject I love your Your bio My bio on Wikipedia

No An IG Oh Oh Oh That's just me Making fun

I know Yeah It's all fun Yeah It's all fun Let's go Dude Let's go

Let's go. To close off the George thing, he is a pure-hearted guy. He is. He is. Honestly, dude, there's only one. No, he's done good things. I mean. There's only one other human on his planet that could do what he's doing.

It's him. He loves death metal so much. No, he does. It might be unhealthy. Yeah. Yeah. It's like he eats it for like breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Yeah, he's not, he doesn't, he just does it, you know.

I have respect for him. It's just I wish people had a little more respect from that camp for me, but they have their reasons not to. Sure. And I'm not going to, I mean, I reached out to Alex the other day. Me and Jack thought it would be cool to have him come up when we played Portland to, you know, play bass first on Strip and for Hammer. I've been six.

But he passed. Oh, man, it would have been special. We knew he wasn't. going to do it but i just i told them i said those songs are so important to us all i thought you might want to but you know i don't know what grudge they're holding against me but they just don't like me so it's okay like i said i'm i'm happier and i've been happier and six feet under than you know than with with those guys i mean those songs that i wrote with them they're they are really important to me. That's why we still do

a couple of them, so. Yeah, so you're out of Canada, well, Slagel's pissed. He was pissed. Slagel's fucking pissed. And what, and, uh, okay, anyway, like, so the band maybe didn't like your lyrics or the way this, whatever, or, uh, Scott Burns, but then you do the,

do haunted and it just does, it's sick. Yeah. It does, it does very well. Yeah, yeah. So, were you doing the, uh, Were you doing the at the same process, where you just like sitting back, we're getting these like songs, okay, I'm gonna sit back, smoke, join,

just like think about where's this going? Yeah, yeah. Nice. Like beneath the black sky, it was just smoking weed and a storm was coming in and I just looked up, look to the sky, it's turning black.

And that's where the lyric came from the beginning of the song. It just started and it just went from there. Like there's been a couple of songs in Over the years that Like I'll come back to a song and have to take a break Or I'll just be sitting there Listen to over and over

And I'll write certain things down and see where it goes But like for strip raped and strangled And feasting on the blood of the insane Those two songs I wrote straight through As the song played Like almost the whole thing I never lifted off the paper. When the song stopped on the cassette,

I kept writing and feasting was the same way. Like those songs, like, literally wrote themselves. What do you think that was? Well, I'm like to, I, this is very spiritual and it's very supernatural. Like, I'm not like, I don't, I think that cannabis is, is, it opens up something in your mind as far as you're an antenna.

I believe in the ether that there are ideas already formed in the ether that songs, art paintings, I think as an artist, you're tuned in by use, well, like I've used cannabis. have used other ways to achieve it but I believe that these things are already there and that if you're in tune with ether the universe whatever you want to call it that those things come to you and you're just an antenna for those things and I think that that I just believe in in that I believe that there's a hall of records that exists that all things are there and it's timeless and it's it's um it's there you know and you that's why when you sit down and try to force writing something you get writers block it's not the time it's you it's not ready to come to you you know it's it's very to me it's very supernatural

like I don't understand it either but other people have talked about it yeah I've always I've always wonder man like there's something else there's something else in there because I'm not something else in there I want to say I'm not that smart to write the storylines that I've written but so I don't I don't understand it really myself and I don't I haven't really talked about it too much. Sometimes in my cameo videos, they'll talk about it. Dude, your cameo

videos become news. That is wild, dude. I love them. I love doing those so much. I do. I love talking to the fans like that. It's cool, man. Just birthday wishes and stuff. I just love it. I love doing

those. I get choked up thinking about it. Yeah. People still hit you. Do you get pissed though when they put it up on a fucking YouTube? What that one that from just like a couple weeks ago? Yeah. Nah, I just didn't know that it was going to be become clickbait, you know. You know, but that's it, I felt like it was true what I was talking about.

That's cool. I wonder, is there, this made me think like, is there something that you could put like, hey, this legally, like you can't share this? No, I mean, no, I mean, when it's out, it's out. If I would have known what it was going to be used for, and I talked to the kid when we played Leesburg on this tour, and he was like, I just put it up. I didn't know it was going to be picked up by Blabbermouth. So I don't think he knew it either.

He just put it up on some random YouTube channel. It wasn't even like his usual YouTube channel. So, I mean, it did, I didn't. It's fucking Chris Barnes. People are going to click on it, dude. Yeah. Yeah, it doesn't bother me. Yeah, it's just cool.

I mean. It happens. He should have paid. the business price though if it was gonna be like that which is like 500 bucks not many people want to do that they want to like oh can you mention my band name and something like man you gotta pay the business price for that business we just gonna use it forever this gonna be on you're gonna use it forever this gonna be on youtube in about 10 seconds yeah well what the good news is uh they're not monetizing it because you gotta have at least a thousand so yeah yeah yeah so at least it's not

I don't care about it, man. It doesn't matter to me. It's, it's out there, it's cool. I don't care. I said what I said, then they can use it. I don't, you know.

Yeah. What is, especially at a time now, Chris, like, people are just so, like, especially bands, or just like, they're just afraid to lose what they,

they just don't speak their mind. Because, okay, if I speak their mind, if I speak, if I, if I speak my mind, maybe I won't get a, I won't get a, It's just like, man, what, well, why would you do that to yourself?

You know, I love talking you shit, dude. Yeah, it's fun. No, I get, I've gotten myself in trouble, man. Yeah. I said some stuff that, you know, I, I mean, I kind of got about a suicide silence song that was. Hey, Chris, you know, you know. Can I, can I, can't real, real quick? Yeah, of course you can.

And I mean, I, I, I remember that? And what the thing is, Chris, you were right. You said something and that was a weird. No, but dude, Chris, I destroyed a friendship over something stupid. I said that was tongue and cheek and I shouldn't have said what I said because it could have really hurt somebody. And I want to apologize to him about that, but he's got me blocked. And I can't. And I think it really upset him.

the point where he won't even play six feet under on the station anymore you know and he was a good friend and i shouldn't have it was so petty and so stupid of me to say something like that and i i'm pretty i'm pretty ashamed of that actually you know i'd like a chance to apologize to him over that and i was friends with your your singer and i feel like that you know i'm i'd like a chance to apologize to him over that and i was friends with your singer and I feel like that you know I apologize to you right now

over that because I don't I don't think that it wasn't about that it wasn't anything you know it was just me being butt hurt over something you know that shouldn't have been

because we're all there's room for everybody at the table there is you know there's there's that that that's my main belief there's room for everybody Yeah. But I still like talking shit. I do too, but I would never go there like that.

And that was, believe me, man, I got a call right after I said that Slegel was so fucking pissed at me. Really? Yeah, man. And I didn't really, I should have thought, you know, that it was a real, it was a real stupid thing to do. And I really feel bad about that still. to this day i wish i could apologize to him you know because he was a good friend so and i respect him a lot because of you know he's a fucking hard worker man he is he's a very hard worker i'll give that i'll get that to him yeah yeah you know sometimes things can't be fixed sometimes they can't you know that's but that

unfortunately but that's on me so you know there's been things that i've done I'm not too proud of, you know, um, that people still give me shit about. You know, but, uh, yeah, we,

we, we, we, we said, people think that you do things or you say things out of nowhere, just because you're being a dick, but we,

we, we had something that happened to us. It's actually around the same time, which is kind of odd that, that we bring it up. Uh, we, we,

we came out and said, fuck death core. Which honestly, today, I still stand by it because it didn't come out of nowhere. It was being dissed by bands that should have had our back, that didn't have our backs. And they could say to my face, we're, we're friends now. But the damage is done.

Like they were coming out. They were, I guess, were inspired by us, and they never fucking gave us a bone. And they never said anything about us in the press. We were kind of like the face of like this genre coming up. we're getting all these tours and shows and not wanted any of them give us any props or it was always like

they're trying like I want to steal the face of it so that really and then eventually the death court scene went to shit you know so it was like so even so people think so we said fuck deathcore I still feel that way

because some bands still do that to me so I know I know how it feels when you get dissed and but the problem is when you say things publicly, all people see that. Yeah, yeah. They don't see what's behind it.

No, no. They just see the, that moment of, of, exactly. Of emotion. So, so we, we call band sellouts, which again,

I stand by it. Is, so they all, all they see is like, the retaliation, they don't see like the years of buildup. Yeah, yeah, you know, but that's just,

that's like, it's the, it's the cliche, What was it cliche, Jay? Like the referee only sees the retaliation. Right, they don't see like the poking behind the scenes or whatever. Polk, poke, poke here, poke here. And then that's it.

That's it. That's the last straw. And then you say, fuck, yes. And you're a fucking dick. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Fuck Chris Barnes. He's a fucking asshole. No, I get it, I've been there.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. No, but. Yeah. I probably am an asshole, but I try not to be. Dude, I think sometimes, man, I think you got to be an asshole or something. Yeah. You know, I'm 39, you know, so there's, I've learned actually, well, more so in, like, music business,

I've actually gotten fucked over by being too nice because then, like, you kind of miss things. So I'm like, damn, I wish I was an asshole here. But the thing about the asshole, it's fun to do. But it can only come in at the exact right moments. It can. And knowing those moments, it's fucking hard. It can catch up to you. You know, I mean, you know, it can.

It can. You can miss opportunities because. True. My rule, if I talk shit, it comes from my heart. Yeah. It's the order It's the heart first Ego second

It's not ego first No no it never is It has to be the heart first So then if it happens It's like okay well At least I meant it Whatever who cares Yeah

And you know And your true friends will be like Oh you said that's fine Who cares Yeah And uh can that Yeah I get people touch you on me

But I'm like cool Fuck it Who cares Yeah Yeah I don't It's hard for me To get really like upset people

I don't know Talking shit about me You know like I don't know you like I don't respect you and I don't care for you so but when other people that I know like that kind of stings a little bit but you know yeah but sometimes you need a good friend close to you to tell you like you're an asshole or something do you have anyone in your close circle to kind of keep you in chat you have like a like like like like like a best friend or like a couple you kind of bounce things off of I I don't

don't really. I don't think so. I mean, really. Yeah. Maybe my girlfriend or something, but not really. I don't. A lot, a lot of friends. I don't think I do, really. I don't think I do have very many, like, close friends. I'm pretty, I'm kind of reclusive. I mean, I do have some friends, like, I do, but not like that. Not like that. Really? That I'm close with. I don't hang out with anybody. Is that for better or for worse? It's like if you have something on your mind or something happened to you, like you can't, you don't have like at least a few people that you know you could call or text. Hey, I do.

I have some people like that that I'm friends with and stuff. But I wouldn't say like I have anybody close by that I'm friends with that I could go hang out with or anything. I don't go, I don't really hang out with anybody. Hmm. You know? Like I haven't seen anyone in my band for, for five years. Like, we've never, we didn't even rehearse for this tour. Five years, dude?

Yeah. I live about 30 minutes from Marco. Since I've lived in Seattle, 10 years, we've never, like, hung out or anything. So. Man. Yeah. Where does, uh, where does Jack live? He lives.

Near Rockford, Illinois. Okay. He was actually supposed to be at that morbid angel show that the roof got hit by that tornado. Oh, yeah. He was supposed to be there. It lives in that town. It's sad.

Yeah. Yeah, like everyone lives somewhere else. Like, Mark was the only one that's close to me. Jack lives in Illinois. Ray lives in Jersey. Hewell lives in, like, Bay Area, near San France. and fucked in so

sometimes I wonder like I'm very lucky if my life is sick like I play guitar in a band this has become like a second dream some people live one dream I'm living too it's fucking crazy and you know I don't do any of this stuff I know I'm talking to you this is like a moment

dude like I'm only doing this because I I respect the hell out of you and I like your I love your podcast thank you Chris yeah man thank you cool man I don't I had this moment. Am I going to talk about this or am I not? This morning I woke up abnormally calm.

I was just normal shit get up, make, you know, put coffee in a French press, feed a feed a cat go out. Just looking at it. It was also kind of like raining too. Yeah. So reading, I was reading the Alchemist, just kind of like going through it. And I started thinking. I was like, why am I so calm right now? Because you know, sometimes you're this natural anxiety or just like you're really busy.

You're busy and it's just pressure. Good, I mean, good pressure. I sat there. I'm like, why am I so calm? And I started thinking, because the first thing I read was the message that you sent me that that Slagel told you. Yeah. And I was like, damn, man. Like, because I believe that when when you put in.

when you're just grinding and you're hustling, you're working, things, things line up. Right? Yeah. And I was thinking, like, man, like, could be, it could be whatever you believe. Universe, God, best friends that passed away. Something makes things, it comes in at the right moment. And I was, when, for some reason, I thought about Slagel. Like, maybe some, maybe, like, something kind of hit him at that moment.

Say, oh, you're doing this podcast? Great. Something so stupid and simple. but for that to happen it's like everything that's felt right and I was like damn I'm really lucky

if if this podcast happens I'm really lucky that that I'm that I'm fucking doing it and things are well I feel like I feel like I didn't choose it or maybe even like you didn't choose that's what I'm talking about

as far as like things are supposed to be you know yeah you know so yeah man And he was really, like, excited that I was doing the podcast and stuff. And he just said, that's amazing, you know. Yeah.

So you're, so you haven't smoked weed, it drank in two years. Two and a half years. Two? Yeah. Two and a half years. Yeah. Did that, uh, did that kind of help you, like, because this conversation might not have been possible, like, two years ago.

Maybe even like, yeah, I would have said no. What? I was, I isolated myself so much for my. everything like I have such a different like outlook on what's important now you know and um hmm just I just was always worried about weed you know like when out how I was going to get weed here or how I was going to get weed there or smuggling weed I became an expert in smuggling weed that was my question my dude you're like you're always been like an advocate for weed i'm like how did how did you

before it was legal how did you get it around you became a professional smuggler yeah like i'd ball my dreads up and put a half ounce or an ounce in there and wrap my hair around it like i got pulled over many times and many times yeah and after they let me go i'd be like i'd call my brother I'd be like, you know, he was my best friend. See, he was the one that, but he's gone now, so. But, uh, yeah. So I'd have, I'd be smuggling weed everywhere or, you know. Fuck, dude.

That's scary, dude. Oh, yeah, even going back to 92 when I was in Calibocorps, we played Czechoslovakia. Oh, you didn't. When it was communist. And I smuggled fucking weed into there. Oh, you fuck. And not only that, but after the show, I was out in a tour bus. I had one of those fucking automatic pipes where it was a blower who would just blow fucking smoke automatically at you.

I was out there. I looked outside and there was fucking cops dressed like Gestapo and long black leather trench coats holding fucking German shepherds on short leashes just walking around the bus. and I was like, man, I didn't even think anything of it. No? No. Like, if you watch that, if you watch that

Cannibal Corpse Eats Moscow A Live video, like all the stuff that we did, like, we got weed, like, across from the Kremlin. We were in the bus, driving around the Moscow streets, smoking weed, man. Like, in my, I would never do that now.

It's like, what the thing? fuck was I doing we were smoking weed in fucking Russia you know like we would probably be still in a gulag if they would have like caught us yeah yeah crazy so well it's glad it's it's nice to hear that you don't do it yeah no I've I'm I've wore out my nine

lives man so yeah yeah you live you live the crazy life man you live a fucking crazy life dude Wow, how did How did Jim Carrey Here find out about You guys? I don't know

I think, well, what the story was That I heard was that He wanted He first wanted Napalm death To do it Oh, it's a rumor, okay Yeah, and that he They didn't want to do it or something

So We were like the second choice He knew of us or he was or we were the band that he thought of after they said no. So, you know, he requested us from what I heard through Morgan Creek, through the production company that did the movie, and they contacted Metal Blade. And Mike Faley, who you met tonight,

called me and said, Chris, you know, they want you to be in this movie. You know who Jim Carrey is? I'm like, yeah, man, he's funny as could be. I loved him as far as a stand. hand up. It was hilarious. So I was like, yeah, man. And I went up to the rehearsal space and I told the guys and I remember Alex said, I don't know, man, he didn't want to do it.

He almost had to talk him into it. But he didn't, he thought it was like, you know, he didn't know how it would probably put in what light it would put the band, you know, like, because it was comedy and i think he he was pretty he's pretty careful about that stuff as far as how death metal is perceived everything like i mean a little bit too over commercial maybe like he told me i remember he said because there's a success of the song stripped raped and strangled he told me he'd never write another song like that what yeah what i wanted there to be way more songs like that and that why I think, you know, created to kill was so technical and so like away from that song,

from the bleeding. Holy moly. Yeah. So, but we did it. And I almost didn't make it down there because, again, I was smuggling weed. Oh, my. So this movie, this whole appearance might not have happened or I might not have been in it because I was standing in line at the airport and.

Buffalo on our way down to Miami to do this movie. And I had a fucking half ounce of fucking weed stuff down my pants. There was no security back then at airports, right? Oh, wow. So there wasn't like you went through a pat down or a sniffer or a metal detector even, like maybe a metal detector. But I was standing in line to get my boarding pass. And I had a fucking bunch of weed stuff down the front of my pants with a gram of

Coke in the middle of it. Oh wow. And up walks a fucking cop and a dog. Wow. And I started sweating profusely. What the dog do? Nothing. It walked on by again. It was the God or whoever said, don't, you know. Whoever the fuck you believe in. I went in the bathroom and shit did a line and fucking flushed it and got on the plane and went to Miami and did Ace Venture. I've never told that story. And for the record, I was never a big into Coke or anything because like I, I told you early we were talking, but you know, it just wasn't my thing.

I just, I did some here and there, but, you know, I had a moment here and there. I had a moment doing like Valium and Xanax, too, but I didn't really, that didn't last long either. You know, I've always tried to, like, alter my perception, and that's why I kind of quit smoking weed and quit drinking for the past two and a half years, because I altered my perception enough over, I wanted to try not altering my perception anymore. Yeah. So, like, yeah, there's a bunch of different stories we'd go into about stuff like that.

Man. Did you talk to Jim at all? Yeah, yeah. When we arrived on the set the first night, we weren't even doing anything. We just got there and we went to one of the scenes that was being filmed. And he came out after he was done with his lines and he was talking to us. He was cool.

There's a story about that. Like I said to him, I said, you know, just don't do that thing with your neck that you do for that fire marshal bill deal. Yeah. Where he sticks his veins out of his neck. that said that really that really like sickens me and he was like that gets you sick but you write all these lyrics that are about you know killing people i'm like yeah man it's all the veins coming out of your night and he thought that was so funny but like you know like he um i got to go

like every night they were there they took us up to the uh to the suite that they were editing like the dailies in so i got to see them editing the film the whole film was written on the fly there was no script man there's like maybe a rough script about stuff but he was writing it as they went it was really wild and um i learned about like during like the music part of the um when we were filming the music when we were on stage and there was dialogue but we were still in the background playing, there was no music playing. We couldn't make a sound. The crowd couldn't make a sound as far as moshing or cheering.

They were fake doing everything, really silent. They had to be silent. And these were all kids that they scouted the weekend before from a death metal show in Miami and stuff. So they got all extras from that. So we're on stage when he's talking in the audience to somebody. There's no music playing. there's no music for us to even sink up to.

We're up there like air band and to nothing. Oh, well, you're a pro to that. I'm a pro at airband, so it came back to me right away. It came back real quick. Yeah, yeah, but it was so cool to see how a movie was made because I'm a movie fanatic. Like I am like, I have over 600 DVDs. I probably, I don't even know how many VHS I have in storage somewhere,

but I have 9,000 movies, TV shows, and, you know, on my digital for my, on my Xbox. So I have over 9,000 fucking movies. Wow. Yeah, so, like, people ask me, what are you listening to, Chris? I'm like, I'm watching. I don't listen to any music. Like, hardly ever. Like, very rarely, I watch, like, movies.

And I watch movies very strangely. Like, I might watch them. movie. I know people won't believe it, but I had, I had, It's a Wonderful Life because I love Frank Capra. Yeah. I had, it's a wonderful life playing at my house on two different TVs, 24 hours a day for a year and a half. Why? Because I just, I, I can, I watch movies, like, over and over, and I wanted to study that film for, like, for some reason. It's really odd. Like on this tour, over the past week,

I've probably watched American Werewolf in London. I don't know, man. Maybe like, maybe 20 times. So you don't like, you don't get bored of a movie? No. It's like he's going to keep rewatching it, rewatching it. Yeah, like about a year and a half ago, I was, I delved into,

to Italian horror again. So I watched Luchio Fulci's full catalog from like Beatrice Sense, his early stuff and I bought every DVD too all the way through to conquest. Wow.

Everything. So I would just, I delve into like stuff differently. Like I'll watch a whole catalog of someone. I'll watch before that I watched all of Paul Newman's films, every one of them. At a point in time back

in probably 2000 or something for when I was renting VHS tapes, right? Hollywood video every day I would rent three movies from the classic section, right?

Okay. It took me a year and a half to go through every single movie in the classic movie section. But I watched everyone and I rented every one of them. Oh, wow. You fucking paid their rent for a quick second, too. It's a sickness, man. Yeah. Yeah, conquest, man.

That's probably my favorite Fulci film. 1983. It's awesome. Oh, wow, dude. How long? I wound did it Have you seen Breaking Bad? Yeah, I watched that series.

You probably finished it in like two days. Yeah, we've beenged watched that. And also, my girlfriend liked the Six Feet Under show. And I vowed never to watch it. Oh, yeah, yeah. But I did. Yeah, yeah, they stole my band name,

but there's so many bands that were named Six Feet Under. It's like, wasn't so original. But yeah, I ended up liking it. So we binge, watch the hell out of that whole series. Yeah. Open-minded, dude. No, no, believe me. If I'm wrong about something, I'm the first one to, like, be like, oh, shit, I was wrong.

Yeah, man. Yeah, there's definitely a magic to emitting that or saying, sorry. Sorry and knowing when you're wrong, it's really special. Of course, you know, it's cool. I mean, you didn't really have to be, you'd really have to think highly of. yourself to not admit when you're wrong you know and that makes you that makes you sick yeah because i think if you told lie it just sits your mind knows and then once it like believes believes it your mind just becomes distorted in such a way i don't think you can recover no no like like that

like that's i despise lying you know yeah it's it's like your mind can't handle that dude yeah you know It's can't. It's can't. Do you remember any of the true fiction books that you were reading? I was reading a lot of different stuff. I was reading stuff on Ed Gein, on Albert Fish, on Henry Lee Lucas, on the Green River Killer. Like, okay, so this is funny, man. I remember reading the Green River Killer book.

In 91, me and we were on our first tour of Europe, right? In like October of 91, and we get over there. And I'm telling you, this isn't something anyone's probably had to do on tour, but it was our first tour. We didn't, you know, we had like a, it was an, it was an RV, but it was kind of like a bus. But they didn't have enough bunks for everybody. So we had to sleep two to a bus.

bunk oh fuck so for for five weeks i slept with jack yeah you're jack always close huh yeah seems like yeah i see it i see something there okay so that so we slept together for five weeks and i remember every night we'd go to bed like an old married couple and he'd write in his journal and i'd lay back and read the green river killer book i mean it's a thick book so you know but yeah so That was my first experience with touring at all. That was our first tour. Damn, you guys love death metal. Fuck, that's sick.

Do you guys do it now? It's just kind of like relived like the moment. Yeah, I know. I always bring it up. I'm like, I slept with Jack. It's like, your best over there, mine's back here. I was going to say it far away from fucking you, dude. Fuck that, dude.

I've had enough punishment, dude. Yeah. But how about that, though? You know, who would do that nowadays? you know you'd walk off the tour if that happened you know dude that would that would drive me fucking crazy man how are you feeling about your uh about your new record it's great it was interesting doing that one because it was the first album i've ever done where i didn't write the lyrics jack what happened was like um uh i i said you know jack why don't you like let me know any

each song where you want vocals because as a vocalist i'll sometimes put vocals where the guitarist or the writer wouldn't expect them to i remember steve like telling me i i didn't expect you to put vocals in that part and then i've had guys that i've written with like rob arnold that he would road map it out for me you know he'd put the time like one minute to one minute 30 vocal part blah blah blah and do that for each song. So that was interesting to me. That was a new way to write for me. And so, like, I asked Jack, I'm like, just, you know, tell me where you want vocals,

because I know I'll write it somewhere different that you might not like it. So I was like, even if you'd put a scratch track of, like, gibberish, like, and just, like, show me where you want the, like, because that's what I did on Crypt of the Devil. Phil Hall, like, mapped it out like that. He just did a bunch of gibberish and did a track of it. And I wrote from that, which was way different to, like, put, make lyrics from gibberish, you know? So then, like, for this album, I said that to Jack, but all of a sudden Jack sends me a song demoed out with vocals, full lyrics that he just wrote it. It's like, well, geez.

This kind of takes, makes it easy for me, you know? Yeah. So I was like, maybe leave me one song that I can write lyrics for. But I went back and, like, edited and rewrote some stuff to make the storylines kind of come together more. Prolific or something, dude. Yeah, and he's already here, right after he got done with this, then he sent me a whole new album with lyrics and everything already done. So it's, yeah, I mean, we could have came out with another album five minutes later because it's already done. It's just sitting there.

Oh, wow. Yeah, he's really prolific. He's a great writer, great lyricist, you know, even back to eating back to life. You know, he wrote the first part of shredded humans and said, okay, finish it off. That's how we worked that one out. So it was kind of like that for this album. It's so great seeing Jack Owen up there this rip. I mean, me and Jerry talking was telling me, dude, that's Jack Owen.

The dude's a fucking legend. You're just seeing like, this is a moment right now, man. Yeah, man. He's such an awesome dude. He's so funny. He's such a dry sense of humor. And he's just, he's such a good person. And he doesn't get the credit that he deserves.

You know, he really doesn't, man. He's such an important part of death metal. I mean, he was in two biggest definal bands of all time. So, yeah. And he was in Dio side. Oh, yeah. So three. Yeah.

That's the fucking mic drop. Yeah. Fuck you guys. If I was Jack Owen, I'll be such an asshole. Never. I will be such a joke. Jack could never be an asshole. That's awesome.

No. He's funny about things more than he is an asshole. If he's, you know, if he has something like that irks him, he'll make light of it in a, in a humorous way. You know, he's that type of guy. Special guy, man. Yeah. It must be awesome. for you to have him back.

It is. It is. It's cool. You know, I think working with them, a lot of people don't like nightmares of the decomposed, but I think it's a great album. It's my first album writing back with them. And, you know, a lot of people, I don't think when it came out, so many people didn't like it.

It wasn't until I opened my big mouth about the genre, you know. And then they dug into me, man. So, but I never said anything about death metal bands, I, or the, or the fans. It was just about the genre. Like being, it's like, I'm not going to, I'm not going to explain myself, but it was, it just, I just seen people, I just see, like you said about people not speak in their mind. It was just, it just seems like it's gotten so neutered and people are so afraid to speak their mind or they're afraid that if they say no to something or it's just i see them bowing down to so much

of the internet you know and uh yeah i just don't like how the internet's kind of dictated the genre like the feel of it really yeah never said anything bad about the bands there's great new bands great new bands you know i saw you weren't a, uh, scrop de cote. Yeah, man, they're fucking amazing.

You're fucking rocking. That band is, I've told him, I told Jason, I said, you're the best vocalist on this tour. In my opinion,

you guys are the best band on the tour. I mean, Joe is like a special, special guitarist, man. Like, there's,

there's guys in the history of music that I think are, as far as guitarists go, you know that, right? There's, there's guys that, like their sound stands out as being unique.

Yeah. You know, and their approach to it. You know his playing? No, I haven't seen him in a long time. Did you see him tonight? No. Man, I missed him. Whenever I hear his playing, it's like, dude, that is just so fucking, like, standout to me.

It's like. Nice. Yeah, so, I mean, he's just incredible, man. That band's great. Dave's a great drummer. and we're going to hopefully go down to Australia because he's a booking agent down there and I feel really comfortable working with him.

So I'm looking forward to it. I haven't been some failed attempts at going down there over the past decade. But I'd love to go back just because it's really a cool place, you know. Yeah, it's time for you guys to start booking some tours, man. Yeah, yeah, that's going to.

happen because in 12 if i waited another 12 years i'll no i'll be i'll be almost 70 years old i'm not going to do that no you don't want to do that man no i can't you know what i have uh even being me being from like the outside i had noticed like uh you know people are coming out to to the shows and i think finally showing some respect towards you so it's cool well yeah it's cool to see i think it's neat because I think certain people thought that the hate from the internet would follow me out into the physical world on tour. And it just wasn't like that. It wasn't like that at all. The fans have been waiting to see us.

There's been guys that have come up to the meet and greets, right, that are like in their mid-20s. And they're like, last time you toured, I was 12 years old. Oh, my goodness. You know what I mean? So, and the, the, the, the, Ray's of, Rui's a, of, you know, a. of guitar teacher. He's a guitar instructor and an amazing one. And he says that a lot of his younger students

are really into six feet under. And like the earlier death metal bands for some reason, it's like a thing for them. You know, so he's like, you wouldn't believe how many young kids like six feet under. I'm like, that's sick. Yeah, so. Wow.

You know. Hey, Jay, it says, did you film this? Yeah. Oh, that's from tonight. I was like this one posted already. Holy crap. I know Jay, okay,

Jay filmed it. Yeah, man. It don't make sense now. What a great show. It was awesome, man. Hey, Chris, any, anything on your mind,

any closing thoughts, man? I think we're two hours and 50 minutes. Really? Well, this has gone quick. It's 12.45. I've talked a lot.

It's 12.45. They're going to leave me. I don't think. I don't think anyone knows where I am right now. I just left the bus to say anything. I don't think this ever going to get to be topped. No, man. I mean, I don't know what else to say, man.

I hope I haven't dug into anybody or made anyone unhappy with what I've said tonight. And, you know, I never want to hurt anybody's feelings or nothing like that. People can hurt my feelings if they want, though. I don't mind. I'm sure they will. I could tell. Yeah. Bring it on, dude.

Yeah, no, it's okay. But it didn't follow me, all that internet BS and people being disrespectful to me. It didn't follow me out on tour. So it's been quite the opposite. I've been so, like, been very thankful about this.

Yeah, man. Especially for what you've been through the past just month, month, man. Yeah, you, you live my, my my biggest fear my biggest fear in my life is lose my parents

and you and you lived a Chris so I'm very I'm very sorry man thanks it's pretty incredible to see you're the example man you're now you're you are the bar there's no excuses man get the fuck out there holy like like you like you did it man

so I've seen so many in bands just drop off tours yeah yeah yeah and I made it through I made it through the beginning of the tour of the first week I had, I'm not going to say it was, but I'm pretty sure it was COVID for like the first week and I sang through it. I felt like I was going to cancel two or three shows because I couldn't get out of bed. I was I was like paralyzed back there. I was in tears. My tour manager came back. I was I was bawling my eyes out. I was like, I don't know what to do. I don't want to, I don't want to cancel this show. I've been waiting too many people who are relying on. me and if I wanted to see it and it was breaking my heart and she's like I'll be back and 20 minutes before I'm like I'm getting up and I went out there and I sang really more sick than I've ever been so I I love I love this music I love these fans and I love death metal more than

anybody could ever understand because and I'm going to tell you man Brian's Slagel and Metal Blade records have always stood behind me and they've always had my back. And Slagel changed my life, man. I mean, really, what they've done for me all these years and has been, I wouldn't, I don't think I would be where I am if it wasn't for them. Yeah, they brought you out to lunch a few times, right? Yeah. well well chris again i'm a thank you for your time thank you for your presence uh we we are honored to

get to talk to you you know um and i thank you for uh i think i think i speak for people that don't get a chance to tell you but thank you for everything that you don't were death mental if it wasn't for you chris barns we will not be here a lot a lot of people wouldn't be here and a lot of bands whether they want a minute or not, you are the goat. So, you know, just thank you for everything that you done for death metal. The death mental created what we're doing, death core. So I wouldn't be here. Well, thank you, Chris.

So what, so thank you. You're a good dude, man. I love you, brother. Love you too, Chris. Yeah. That's a great closer. All right, everyone. That's it.

Later.