Garza Podcast - 168 - WEDNESDAY 13 | Murderdolls, Glam Metal & Becoming Sober

Episode Date: March 17, 2025

Garza sits down in-person with Wednesday 13. Best known for being a solo artist in WEDNESDAY 13 & formerly of MURDERDOLLS. On Tour Now! https://linktr.ee/officialwednesday13SPONSORS:Garza Podcast Coffee - https://conceptcafes.com/product/garzapodcastcoffee/43CHAPTERS:00:00 - Chris Barnes Local Car Commercial02:30 - Joey Jordison Recruits Wednesday in Murderdolls05:01 - Origin of Wednesday 13 Signing to Roadrunner08:21 - Going Through Over 40 Band Members10:55 - Getting Into a Car Crash & DUI15:18 - Becoming Sober16:35 - Looking Back at Drunk Memories18:36 - First Murderdolls Record20:08 - Appearance on Dawson’s Creek24:10 - Live in Japan26:00 - Landis, North Carolina27:09 - Getting Asked to Join Tours28:30 - Working w/ Joey Jordison30:45 - First Album Cover32:37 - Parents Not Approving of Metal Music36:00 - Every Band Has a Warehouse Music Video37:32 - Pentagram & Anarchy logos40:01 - Glam Rock Outfit in High School42:35 - Trying New Types of Food47:52 - Staying Consistent w/ Band50:30 - No One Plays Like Joey53:10 - Keeping Joey Alive Through Music56:23 - Casey Chaos of Amen59:10 - Paul Gray of Slipknot1:02:35 - Wednesday 13 Going on Tour1:03:33 - New Music Video1:05:28 - The Fire Incident1:15:05 - Losing Weight1:17:20 - First Sober Record1:20:01 - Producer Howard Benson1:22:49 - Mid Death Crisis - April 25th, 2025

All I really knew about that guy was his car commercial. Chris Barnes is in a car commercial? He did a car commercial for a local car commercial place. It's like, this is Chris Barnes. Come on down and get a car. It's like in his town. Oh, sure. Someone showed me a YouTube video.

I saw all I knew about it. I was like, this guy seems cool. Oh, wow. And I got a death metal guy doing a local car dealership in their town. Like, it was a cheap little commercial. You got to check it out. It's the funniest thing ever. That's how I knew that guy was.

I'm a metal for me, we'll talk about it. But like, hard rock. It's like I'm a glam rock guy. Hair metal dude. They got into metal when I met Joey Jordison and yeah Then it just the world opened up and so you know so I kind of went backwards with it so I got into metal for a while and and and and that's where I started learning about a lot of bands and No, you know your guy Ernie as well and just again we'll we'll talk about it so you'll you'll no I think I think we're already going oh all right All right all right. All right. All right. Once 813. Thank you for being here. It's nice to meet you in person. Thank you for having me man. I've watched the show as I said and it's good good to be on it. This is a good setup

Thanks man. Yeah, I like the colors. I showed her to show today and I was like she goes well I like the colors It's like my look. It's like it's like it's like music dude you don't something when something works you don't only know why it works purple I found it says it's a comforting color it is for myself and I found by accident For other people yeah you don't put red on red on red on turn the red light on no don't turn it's metal don't do it looks really cool it does but we were messing around with colors red and like dude this looks really sick But it's a very like... It'll get weird after a while. It gets weird. This gets a little weird.

I know. I have red lights in place my color, but it gets weird after a while. Yeah, man. So you were just like... Yeah, I want to say, I heard you were just strictly like a punk glam rock. That's it. It sounds like your life really took off when you turned like 25. You know, it just kind of seemed like that...

It was quick. Catapult. I mean, you met Joy when you were 25, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah. And then I was looking at your timeline, it seems like you're already torn. Well, I had a band. So I started, I'm 48 now. I started playing music when I was 15, playing people's basements and played my high school. And I was a guitar player. It wasn't even the vocalist of a band. Started my local bands, did that for a bit. And then I, I guess my first serious band that put out our first CD, which took a loan out for my job, my furniture.

delivery job. And my band was called Frankenstein Drag Queens from Planet 13, inspired by Ed Wood, if you know the movie for the Johnny Depp. Ed Wood, okay. The Tim Burton movie. Okay. And that pretty much influenced my band, the imagery and the idea of what we were going to do. And then the music was just sort of punk rock, hard rock, glam rock, or whatever you want to call it. And that band put out three albums, and we had an independent deal in Germany. through this label that was an affiliate of Century Media. And it got around, and that's where Joey heard of it. And he called me up and was like, I heard of your band.

I've been playing it backstage at Slipknot in between the shows. And we're coming off the road, and I have this band that's similar to it. We want you to be a part of it. I like your music. We want you to be the bass player. I'm like, what? Okay. And this band, I'm the band, I'm the band.

front guy I'm the guitarist we're a three-piece and I but I was trying to escape North Carolina North Carolina felt like a cage for me and I was like I'll do anything to get out of this place and Slipknot wasn't on like my radar as far as like something I was into but I knew I knew who they were and I was like this is an opportunity I'll do this so I went up to Iowa as the bass player and instantly pretty much I became the vocalist Joey changed the whole band around. He took all of my songs from that band, and that became what Murder Dolls are.

So that first Murder Dolls album, 90% of it is re-recordings produced by Joey Georgeson of my old band songs. Interesting. Yeah, so that's kind of how it started. And then we just, and the band we put together was the live touring band, and did the videos and everything. And then the band toured for two years, and Joey went back to Slipknot for, to do. the third slip-knott record and at first he's like oh we're only gonna we don't even like each

other we're probably going to tour for six months and i'm like okay and then that turned into two years yeah i knew it would you know but i was like you know i quit my day job did this oh she didn't quit already you know but it was i was fine i was like this is what i wanted to do you know and uh but when i knew he was going back to slipnot i'm like well what am i going to do now i got my band's done, I gotta do something else. I'll just call it Wednesday 13. Boom. You know, but the thing was, the label that had signed me

as my Frankenstein drag queens released it in Europe, when they, when Murder Dolls came out, they decided to re-release all those albums and put a big Murder Doll sticker on it and placed it in all the, in the record store. So you found Murder Dolls, and you'd find four Frankenstein Drag Queen albums right behind it, which just helped me.

Yeah, yeah. So people just didn't look at me as Joey Jorison's friend that came in and just now what? They were like, oh, he wrote all the songs. So he's got a history. So I think that kept me afloat. And I was able to do the Wednesday 13 thing, which started, believe it or not, 20 years ago. 20 years ago, man. 20 years ago.

This is my, I'm on my 10th record right now. 10th is the one that was coming out in April, correct? Yes. Okay. Yeah. So 20 years ago, the first Wednesday 13 album came out on Roadrunner records because I was still signed as Murder Dolls. Monty Connor if you deal with Monty did you are you with Roadrunner I met I met so you know the great Monty Connor yes so I was signed with murder

dolls because of Joey and I so when it was time to do a solo thing I went to Monty said hey you think you think you guys would put a solo record out and he was like I don't know but Monty liked my stuff so I sent him some demos he went to the owner and they were like nope we don't want it I'm okay all right and out of the blue I get a phone call that week from some guy going, hey, I work at a label called RICODisc. If you ever heard of this label, they're more like a catalog label to put all the David Bowie, Frank Zappa stuff out, all this stuff. They were more of a catalog label. And they were wanting to put my Frankenstein drag queen stuff out.

And I went, okay, cool. I was like, you wouldn't want a Wednesday 13 record, would you? And he went, yeah, I'll take it. I went, all right. This is happening now. Okay. So I'm still signed a Roadrunner. And I say, all right, so I go back to Monty.

Hey, this label wants to sign me. But you guys have the first writer refusal, so you got to let me go. So I present them the contract to what I was offered. And then they said, well, we'll match it. We'll take you now. So that's how I got my deal with Roadrunner. Negotiated. They didn't want to give it to anybody else.

Negotiating. Negotiate. I got a deal right here. You better do something now. If not, I'm leaving. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

So I got the deal. Congrats, man. That's cool. That's how I got it. So it was cool. And then, and, but,

you know, I didn't want to leave Roadrunner. I'd already formed a cool team there with Monty and our publicist Michelle in the UK.

It was just a cool family. I kept it there. And it was exciting. I mean, I had a solo record coming out. That was a cool moment for me. It was a fuck you to people as well.

It was just like, yeah, you know. And, but I didn't know if it was going to, and I didn't have an ego thing of being like, I got to call this

Wednesday 13. I had been through so many, bands and members and guys back and forth. I'm like, if I call this band, let's say it's what we called funeral party or something. Sure. I don't know. As soon as I put it out, this guy's going to quit. This guy's going to quit.

And I'm just call it Wednesday 13. I know I'm always going to be here. I think. So that's, you know what? And that's how it happened. And now, and looking 20 years, I've had 47 members in Wednesday 13. And 20 years.

That sounds like a hardest fact. I think it's 47. I might be off a number. number or two, but it's in the 40s. How do you not get burnt out, like, what's the word? It's not training, but like bringing someone else in and they got to learn a songs. That sounds like a burnout way.

I think I heard you talk about it. Yeah, just over the years. I mean, I'm just saying, like, when I started the band, I didn't have anyone. I'd record the first album. My very first album, I play everything on it except for the drums. I play bass, guitar, solos, everything. And then I put

the band together after that. So it's just came and when I had it started off as a four piece I was the rhythm guitar player and then I and then I broke my collarbone and couldn't play guitar for a while so I became the front guy and I went this is pretty awesome yeah you got you got into a car wreck right and that and that's what broke your yes or your left yeah so I was like for the strap hunk so I just couldn't play for like for a while but then how does that feel when you break a collarbone man it sucks oh I never broke your bone in my life you You've probably heard, like I heard, oh, broken collarbone. You don't think about what that is.

But, like, I broke it because I had a car accident, so the seatbelt snapped it. So it's like, so that's a common thing. So when you get thrown forward, were you driving? You were driving? I was, I was DUI-in. This is why I am sober. Oh, DUI and driving. I was DUI-N in 2007.

Wow. And I flipped my car five times. I think, that's the number I put in my head, because I, I heard. I was counting. And, yeah, I broke my collarbone on the seatbelt thing. Yeah, the seatbelt. So, but you don't think about, like, the healing process of that thing because I'm seeing the hair pulled up. It's like, you can't, you can't move it.

Like, so basically, you can't wear, you can wear a brace to keep your arm from moving. But, like, the only way to keep it to grow back is just don't move. so it was just I couldn't really do anything and like the first couple of days I felt those bones hit each other and it it took my breath it was like I remember I was on the phone with someone because everyone it was on blabbermouth that I died I think for like 24 hours and everyone was calling my phone I remember on the phone the first day I was talking to someone and just it it would sometimes touch and I would go sorry I'm back okay yeah I was trying I was trying to get some out of accurate dates with your car wreck. I'm like, did he get in two separate accidents? Because you record and the last day you got into a car wreck that almost killed you. That was the one. Yeah. That was the one. Yeah. So that was the one. I was my third album, 2007. I'd recorded it. And on the way home from recording that day, I flipped my car. I had all the equipment in my car. I had the hard drive of the record. The only recording of the record was like on the seat. September 10, 2007. I was listening to. Slayer Seasons in the Abyss. I was going through my Slayer phase.

And I remember hearing, I tell people the most metal thing I've ever heard, because the car was still playing Slayer when it came to a stop. But it was flipping. I could hear the metal and I could just hear it. I could hear, what I saw a-ba. It was just rolling. And then it stopped. So when the car stopped, it stopped on the passenger side, on its side.

So I was sideways. Yeah. So I was sitting sideways and I've watched so many movies. I'm thinking his thing's going to blow up. I got to get out. So I undo my seatbelt. Didn't realize I broke my collarbone yet. So when I do my, undo the seatbelt, I fall straight to the side, to the passenger side. Yeah. And I think I fractured my ankle there. And I'm standing up. So now you got to, I'm standing on the passenger seat window and the steering wheel's in my face. The window's all cracked. Slayers blasting. I can't turn it all. There's smoke. You can't turn on. There's smoke. And I'm just like, I live through this. I gotta get out. And I hear someone going, are you okay?

This is in North Carolina. So, you know, you hear my southern accent come out. And here's my, you okay in there? No. And they're trying to kick the window out. And I'm like, and it's kicking glass all over me. So I don't know how I did this with a broken collarbone, but I climbed out of my car like a tank. So imagine, because I had to open the door.

Oh yeah, you actually push it in the door. Right, yeah. Yeah, to climb out. And then I jumped off the car and then just kind of set on the curb. And then I was trying to put my story together, like, because I knew I was, I knew I was drunk. You were tanked. I knew it. And I just, I don't know what, I just, I went off on an exit going too fast and I didn't, and I just started flipping.

And this is what I'm just trying to put the memory back. And I'm not glorifying this or anything. This, I, I did some hard time for this. I paid my dues for this. I learned my lesson. but yeah I climbed out of the car selling the curb cops show up and I'm guilty as I'm wearing a

drink alcohol t-shirt in the Coca-Cola logo oh no that's a bad look yeah eyeliner smeared I had dreadlocks down to my waist I'm just sitting there on the curve just trying to put my story together and the guy goes you've been drinking earlier and then

I go to jail and the whole the whole process starts so it wasn't a fun time but it is a story of my life and I tell it you know how did it get out that

that you were dead I just think it I don't know I think it was on blabbermouth I tried to find it but it was people were calling me and said I heard you were dead

on blabbermouth and I'm like well why are you texting me I'm not going to answer my phone but I don't know It says, what's up? I'm dead. But yeah, you know, I think around that time. I don't think it was that much texting.

People were calling then. So I've tried to remember it. I don't know. Maybe that's just my memory of it, of it now. This is September 10th, 2007. Yeah. Oh, there he is. So I was about to, I had this project I was doing called Bourbon Crow, which was a, it was a drinking project.

So I was practicing drinking. And that's what happened. So it was a country, a country. acoustic drinking thing we did and that got canceled. It's a good thing it got canceled because we wouldn't have survived that tour. If that's how I was starting at rehearsal, imagine what it would have been. You know, so I just, I had a kind of like a blessing in the word of way. I had a problem back then.

I think my thing was was party, party, party. If we're not going to be the best band, maybe we could be the best band at partying. Crazy thought, you know. Like we tour with typo negative, one of their last tours with, before Peter passed. And we just partied with them. And they knew us as the party band. You know, so that was my reputation a while ago.

So maybe that, so 2007, 17, so 12 years later, you became sober. Okay. Yeah. I stopped drinking in, was it 2000, was it 17, 18, beginning of 2018? 19, I heard. Yeah. I think it was 19. I think so.

Yes. Okay. Maybe. Well, 12 years too? I don't know. I used to count... Twelve years too late, you think? Yeah, I used to count...

I think, man, I don't know. I mean, these stories all... You know, I've got so many... I've met most of these people. You know, I became friends with Randy of Lamb of God because we were drinking buddies. You know, I remember being at Rock and Ring and pulling a fire extinguisher off the wall

and spraying him with it and him running and falling out of his flip-flops. That was the last time I saw him for like a year. I thought he was mad at me, and he showed up. I was like, I'm so sorry I did that to you. He's like, I thought you were mad at me. I was like, no.

I was just, I just, I was just, I was just, it was a fire extinguisher. Yeah, it's hard. It's hard. It's hard. It's hard to, uh, do you find it's hard to look back on memories when, when you were drinking? Like, oh, man, I mean, it was so bad, but there's, there's also like, there's a lot of great memories you have hanging out with your buddies and meeting people. It's the best. It's the best.

I mean, for, for, for, for, it was the best for me because. I'm a shy person. Like, I was a shy person. And I didn't start drinking until Joey Jorderson, basically, when I joined murder dolls, he asked me, like, we first started when I was the basis. When we did our first show we did, he's like, do you drink? And I went, Kool-Aid, and he laughed. And I went, I'm serious.

I don't drink. I didn't drink at all. You didn't drink, you're 25? I experiment. I think I drank some boons farm. Maybe I never smoked weed? Boones farm. That's that?

That's the, like, a Boones Farm? Oh, Boones Farm. What is this? Oh, man, the blue one was the one was my jam. Blue one is the one. What the fuck is this? Because basically I said, I like Kool-Aid.

And Joey goes, and I said, I drink Boone's Farm. He goes, Boone's Farm. And then the next, like, literally, he went, he went to the store and got a six-pack and came back and put two bottles of Boone's Farm on the base cab. Okay. And I went, okay, so then I, so. like I pressed this guy and I got drunk and was throwing up later that night and uh wow so yeah i think i started in the beginning just was and then when and then uh i couldn't hold my alcohol for like a month or two until we got to germany and i discovered yeagermeister and that was i thought was oh

this is the one and and uh it kind of what i thought cured my social anxiety and uh and it just became my my thing and uh like i said i've got as I've got more good memories about it than I do do the bad ones, I think. That's so tough about cutting back on alcohol you have. It's a majority of great memories, but it's like the bad ones or it's really bad? The ones are, yeah. The bad ones are really bad. So I'm trying to get my timeline right.

When you went on tour with murder dolls only because we're talking about now. 2002 to 2003 was the years we did the first tour. And besides Joe, you didn't know the guys until you're on the bus, right? For the most part, I didn't know. Well, we kind of met prior that. Like the band, the photos were taken before we'd even played as a full band. The video was made before we had played as a full band. Wow.

And we rehearsed four or five days before the first tour as a full band. That was, we'd already did the photos, videos, and everything. Because Joey basically plays everything on that first Murder Dolls record. I play some guitar on it. do all the vocals he did and did everything else and uh and then we put put the band together and uh so we kind of learned to be a band on tour or not be a band we were so dysfunctional so dysfunction that's this failure waiting to happen dude that's just something yeah and but we'd all been waiting you know like our whole lives to do it yeah for joey it was a second time around he didn't

he wasn't playing drums he was up front this was his free-spirited band and he did really he didn't crack the whip on us too much it was just kind of like have fun and just go for it and and we did and we idolized like that motley crew the dirt book was like our bible and we and we acted that out i think uh in and that short time but having joey's involvement because at the time that was the first time they were unmasked okay so everybody wanted to know what they look like so it was immediate press on us. MTV wanted to know what he looked like. And it was, you know, then we got on Dawson's Creek,

that TV show. On Dawson's Creek? On Dawson's Creek? Whoa, how was that? Awesome. It was, believe it or not, I'm surprised I wasn't into that show. I watched Beverly Hills 90210. Watch Melrose Place.

You were a big fan of friends, right? Love Friends. Yeah, you still have the box set, right? We've got the box set. Of course you do. We got the trivia game. I still refer to Friends Trivia all the time. in real life situations

What the You're in Dawson's Creek? We're on Dawson's Creek So Hey Jay I'll crank this out But there's a funny story About this

So So we're playing a Halloween party For Dawson's Creek here Oh it's a Halloween party Okay All right So then it'll go to Dawson's

Here in a second So I've explained this Because this is the most weirdestest thing ever here So So You know Cut back to him

Talking in a minute But So this is right When Joey came out Everyone knew him As the drummer But he's a guitar player and murder dolls. Yes. So when they did this edit, the manager said make sure

most of the footage is on Joey and Wednesday because they're the guys in the band. Make sure footage is on them. If you watch the clip, it's all on me and the drummer and Joey's in it for like two seconds. Oh yeah, because they... The first time I saw him get mad and and throw a tantrum at management because see, that's supposed to be Joey. Oh they thought that was that because they had no idea. I thought he was the drummer so they were he was furious about this but the one thing I remember most about this my daughter was at this she was around four years old at this and she's got this cute little slingblade accent stops like this daddy stop like this yeah and every time we would film us they would do a scene because it's quiet on the set there they're talking she would go daddy

and they go quiet all right do it again they made her leave the set and i what's tom cruz's wife was on the show what's her name? No, that, no, not Tom, Katie Holmes. Katie Holmes.

Kutner on a golf cart to calm her down while we filmed it. But this is, so you filmed videos before, you know how it's kind of weird. It's not weird.

You're lip syncing, doing the whole thing. Yeah. You get used to doing that. This was the most awkward thing I've ever done. I'd only filmed one video, so I'm still kind of new

to this whole thing. I'm 26. I just turned 26. And they were like, all right, well, to film this part, we need you guys in the background. to still be moving like you're playing, but you can't play.

Pretend like you're playing. Okay. Here, put these little earbuds in your ear. You can hear your music playing. So we need you to pretend like you're playing, but only you will hear yourself. And the people in the front row pretend like you're listening to them. So we had to lip sync quietly to people in the front row that are pretending to make noise while this dude does his line. Wow.

And it was the most weirdest, most awkward thing. And they kept, and my daughter kept delaying it because she kept making them do it over. I'm like, I can't please this is happening on Dawson's Creek right now. But the producer loved the band and they ended up using four or five of our songs. And I got my first ASCAP check from Dawson's Creek. And I'm like, holy shit. This is, you can make money off this. a big moment i still make money off dawson's creek still to this day thank you dawson's creek

dude we gotta get on dawson's creek i'm telling us sounds on dawson or some show but it's a it's a funny thing it's a you know i i wish i i was into that show as i know it better now after being on it i didn't know it i just knew it was popular you know so that was the interesting thing like we did all this stuff like that was all in the first month of of the band and uh one month of the band you're One month in the band. We did two weeks of club shows, and then we went to Japan and played summer Sonic with guns and roses. It's like 30,000 people. And they love a rocket ship, and they love Joey.

So instantly, people were just going crazy for us. And then we did Europe, and then the band started blowing up in the UK, and it was just, it was a quick, quick thing. Japan, man, we are so awful at this show. It's embarrassing. We are just going for it. That sounds fine. We were playing so fast. That sounds fine, man.

We came out. I was so out of breath on the first song. And that's Axel Rose's teleprompter, and they got mad because I kept climbing on it. They were like, you have to get out. I'm like, there's a giant box. What am I, you're in my spot. You're my spot.

You're out of here. You're my spot. I'm trying to fucking rock, dude. So yeah, that's like our, what, 10th, 12th show maybe? So it was just. 10th, it's supposed show you're already doing. that. Crazy, right?

That's a... But again, that was... You got slingshot, dude. I was playing clubs and stuff, you know, a month before that in North Carolina. That's a slingshot, dude. Sling shot, dude. Slinghot. You better fucking hold on.

What was that train called again? I'm sorry, Booney... Boone's Farm. Boone's Farm. Boone's farm. It's awful. It's a... Basically, you can buy it at convenience stores. They'll sell it alongside, like, the...

You know, you get that. You got Mad Dog 2020's another awful one. But it'll get you. Sounds bad. Wild Irish Rose. These are all convenience store great. So you're, sorry if I, I'm going to try to pronounce you right. You're from Landis, North Carolina, correct?

Landis, North Carolina. Okay, cool. So that's, for people that don't, you know, that's 40 minutes north of Charlotte. Yeah, in between Charlotte and Greensboro, North Carolina. It's a little, little small area right there. Mm, nice. Yeah, so that's where my family still lives, and that's pretty much, where I grew up.

So any shows that came in between Greensboro, Charlotte, or South Carolina, because I was kind of right on the border of that. So like Spartanburg, South Carolina, or Columbia, those were the two or three hour drive. So I seen any band that came through there. And, you know, I remember seeing, it was a place called Zigies.

It would have everybody. I saw corn play in a club. I saw corn, the deaf tones in the same show in a club. Manson and these clubs. just saw a lot of bands, typo negative, all this stuff. And like I said, and just getting that opportunity with Joey,

I'm glad I took it because I would not be here without him. He 100% just, he gave me a career. Yeah, from there to... Yeah, dude. I mean, it's been... Awesome, man. We did two albums.

We took a hiatus for like eight years. We got back in 2010. And we had another. blast in the in the second record first tour we do is two weeks with guns and roses in europe's main support jesus dude so it was just like no one told jordan no yeah no one told him no and he got everything he wanted most of the time and he and it was great and the next tour was rob zombie alice cooper oh to your your your your fucking dream dude it was it was it was it was awesome what a dream man it the thing that sucked is if we could have kept that going but in

between, we took the break. Like if the first album, as soon as we got off tour, everybody asked us to go on tour with them. Like Motley crew was into us. Motley crew was coming back and was into us. Like, all of our heroes liked what we were doing because we were just copying them. Wow. You know, it was a cool thing. So that band pretty much set it up. And I just, in the last year and a half, I've been doing like a murder dolls set where I just played songs from it. And to see people that, you've come up to me every night, you go, man, this was my teenage years. You were my soundtrack.

It's insane, you know, because I- Unbelievable, dude. It's been a wild ride for me. So, and I'm still doing it, you know? I'm still doing it. I wasn't going to ask you to, like, when the podcast was going to end, I was trying to build up to it, but you went straight in. What was it like for you?

What was it like working with Joey? He changed everything. What would he like? me he's a lot like me and i think that's why we we hit it off and we also butted heads a lot too of course we had we had our issues and stuff but uh but we just connected i never had connected with anyone like that i'd been in my band doing my stuff for years like you said i met joey when i was 25 and i started playing when i was 15 so i had 10 years of musicians back and forth and I just never jailed with anybody

he was the drummer in my head when I write songs I hear a drum in my head and he was the guy that could do it and then could do it better yeah well if I do it like this like he took my songs like because I had the Murder Dolls first album like all those songs for the most part

I'd recorded them prior to that so to hear him produce them and put drums and like it was just like holy shit wow I learned And I remember he wasn't like the first time I went in the in the, did the vocals. I remember doing the first line of a song or something. And I was like, I'm in the booth. I'm talking back.

And I'm like, that was that. And he comes back and he goes, that was pretty good. How about do it again, but don't suck. And I went, whoa. First time someone told me I sucked. I'll show you. And then I went for it. He's like, whoa.

I know you could. do that do this and then he started producing me and i was like this is what it is yeah so he started manipulating me a little bit and then but the the code that joey lived by was like you know recording with ross robinson and and hearing all these stories and like it was like we got to do this it was it was it wasn't it was very serious to him and but i but i learned you know i was my first serious recording experience and i never had anything sound that good and so yeah he just and and the drumming like on this record you look at all these songs all the drumming did you write this uh so slip my wrist no i mean i know did you say i don't

know i think that was i don't you know that could have been joey's handwriting i have no idea um who did that stuff but that's a cool concept actually look yeah it make it look like someone actually hand wrote it the whole layout for this is great like we're in a we're in a like a morgue inside of this thing we're actually like in the trays of a of a it was pretty bizarre it smelled really weird in there of course the only thing this photoshopped on this picture is that little doll on that table that's act we're actually in an observation booth of a oh a place where they would do operations oh this is filmed out in california somewhere i don't remember where i know they filmed resident evil there i think after that or something that's kind of creepy it's very

creepy people wouldn't film there after dart but they said it was haunted so the crew It was like we're getting a fuck out of here. And that was my first $250,000 video. Like that was something. Like that was back in the day when they were forking over that kind of money. I want to say it was something like that. Go buy a house here. Yeah.

Yep. He goes, oh, well, it's not as big as well it's Slipknot gets. It's like, okay. I could fucking buy this fucking in place, dude. Yeah. So that was the video, the video budget. And we had those, Paul Brown did this. This is one of the...

Paul Brown? Paul Brown did all this stuff. So I think we were his second or third video that he did as well. And then after that he started doing all the Motley crew, Slipknot, everything. And that's the trays that were in there. They put you in those... Yeah. And they pushed us in and closed the door for a photo too.

And I'm like, uh-uh. Nope. I know I sing about this stuff, but I'm not into that. Is it kind of crazy for you to like... I kind of see these pictures and talk and talk about this and like you like, and you like being a high school drawing like pentagrams and not knowing what what you were drawn. You thought you drawn a pentagram meant rock and roll. 100%.

It's crazy. 100%. And it's kind of funny because like, uh... It's nuts. Yeah. I mean, literally I was, I've been talking, I'm doing press and stuff all week for the record. And I talk about that. Like my mom coming into my room looking through my music and my notebook because some church show she had watched,

said look for these stars look for these pinagrams I didn't know what a pentagram was called then I just knew it was the rock and roll star and I saw a guy drawing it in class and I watched how he did it saying you learn how to draw it you're like I could do this everywhere so let's draw a bunch of them on a mom saw it you gotta be you must be possessed

and then shout at the devil there's one on the album cover boom boom and what that was it didn't your parents wait until you were asleep and then they took down your iron maiden and Maudly Crew posters

You read that story That's And they And they So you took down your posters Took your Cets Mm-hmm

Took your radio And they And they said that They don't They don't remember that They don't remember I'm like How do I remember this

So vividly And you don't remember doing this Because it was like There was a In North Carolina That TV evangelist Jim Baker

Was like He was the man In North Carolina And she was obsessed watching that show and it was like Jim Baker and the Tammy Faye show and they did a special on heavy metal. Oh, I see.

They did a special on heavy metal. These people were huge. Dude, is it on YouTube somewhere you think? Oh, I want to say this guy... Them talking about metal? This is a double music. Possibly, but I want to say this guy hooked up with a playboy model.

Of course! Yeah, so this whole... Of course it's like that, dude. This whole thing went down later on. So who got the last laugh, Jim Baker. But my parents, my mom went in and found all this stuff. I slept on the couch. Yeah, yeah. And they went in my bedroom and just took down all the, I had an Iron Maiden Stranger and a Strangeland poster because it just looked cool. I didn't know a song by them. And they tore all of it down. I had a Bullet Boys poster they took down. The Bullet Boys. Bullet Boys. Bullet boys. Smooth up in you. How satanic is that?

Bullet boys. Can we find a bullet boys. And it wasn't the Apple. It was like a a picture of them over here looking all sexy smoothed up in you it's pretty it's pretty hot yeah but i had an iron maiden poster beside of it to balance it out what did the boy sound like oh you don't know these this is this is actually a pretty good pretty good sounding record okay okay sick so like you know 80s yeah would you call it's a perfect warehouse video this is where the warehouse videos came from it's a it's a it's a it's a it's a All warehouse videos. This is in the top five for me. Oh, really? I would say, yeah.

Dang. How many, you're talking cross-genres ripped off that concept. There's a lot, but this is one of the 80s era, this is one of the best warehouse ones I would have to say. Is this where it came from, you think? No, no, no, no. Someone did this before. Who did the first warehouse music video? That's a good question. Because people still do that. They still do it.

We did that like two years ago. I would do it. I just haven't did it yet. I haven't did a warehouse video yet. I need a warehouse video. And if I do one, that's the image I got in my head. It's going to have to be somewhere like Bullet Boys, at least imagery-wise. I don't know if I'll be singing smooth up in you, but, yeah, visually. It's a cool video.

Extreme did a warehouse video for their first video, too. When did I come out? 88, I believe. 89. Okay. Actually, Extreme could have beat them. Extreme Kid Ego would be the first, would be another warehouse video, if I'm not mistaken. Extreme.

There, look at that headband. That's a thick one. Headband. Yeah, that's a weird. It looks like the same warehouse. Dude, is that the same warehouse? It could be. Yo.

I'm sorry, if you're this listening, we're watching warehouse videos, that might be the same warehouse. Because it's massive. Yeah, it looks like, it could be, well, they're from Boston and Bullet Boys are California. So it's the chances of it, I don't know. But, yeah, but I was playing with G.I. Joe. and watching this and transferring over into hair metal. That's how it went. I went from wanting to be Rambo.

And then I went, oh, you're like, I want to be either G.I. Joe or He-Man. Pretty much. Yeah. Yeah. And then I found rock and roll and went, oh, this will be a lot easier to play guitar than have a power sword. Dude, hell yeah, man. You know what? Something that you admitted that I don't think a lot of people do is, like, drawing like, the pentagram, not knowing what it meant.

I did that. I did that for the Anarchy. Me too. I didn't know what that meant either I saw people in Ohio squad I saw that the punkers The patches I'm like oh that's kind of cool So I'll draw like the A and they're fucking I thought it meant against Against stuff

I'm against that stuff A Homework Yeah I thought it looks so cool though man They had those shirts at Hot Topic Oh yeah Didn't know what it meant Anarchy

Yeah all of the punkers had the patches But yeah you were drawing But you would not tell anyone You're not dare tell anyone That you had no idea it would have meant And I would lie to people. Yeah, it means... Well, I also, there was a TV show called Werewolf.

It was on around the time. And the guy would have a Pinagram that would pop in his hand. And I was like, what does that mean? Yes, I mean, I'm a Werewolf, too, so I just went with that as well. So I thought it meant Werewolf, rock and roll. It was all stuff I was into. I was into horror movies and all this stuff, like as a kid. Like, The Werewolf TV show was great.

Yeah. There was a kid in my class who used to take his mom's mascara and just draw it on. on his hand and would just, the teacher would call him out and he would just go. Where's that kid now, right? Danny Donaldson, where are you? Oh, she knew his full name? He was a new kid.

He was there for like a week and he disappeared and I loved him and no one else liked him but I thought he was cool because we liked the werewolf show. I don't know where you are, Danny Donaldson. That was his name. Man, if you were drawing pinograms on your hand, I wonder.

He did it on his hand. I was doing on my notebook and he did it with his mom's mascara and I just thought it was really weird. Oh, shit. Shit, dude. He was a weird dude. He always had a Kool-Aid mustache, too. If you remember people would drink the Kool-Aid,

and it would just stain their skin, so it had like a little mustache. It would go up, like a stained skin. I thought, I thought you meant it. The Kool-Aid mustache, is what we call it. Yeah. I sometimes still get it. I thought he had an actual mustache.

How do you have a mustache in high school? There was a kid in my school. We had a kid we called full-bearded fourth grader. Just all, every high school has that one person that has that full-beard. A full-beard of fourth grade. And balding, too. Yeah, instantly. He was like he was 40 and like, yeah, eighth grade, it was insane. Some of your bald in your 15, 16, dying your hair black for the first time.

I was 15 dying my hair black. Sick. I went from bleach blonde hair about this length to just black overnight. And instantly, everybody in school left me alone. And I went, this is awesome. Really? I was the only kid like me in my end school. There was no god.

I didn't know the word goth. I didn't even heard the term goth. There's no like, you weren't around any, like, you know, punk kids, metal, kids you were like the only one not in my school everybody in the high school for me when i remember high school and i was like ninth grade going into high school everybody was wearing queens rite t-shirts metallic shirts megadess shirts and i walked in first day wearing an enough is enough enough enough enough enough enough enough enough enough enough you know enough's enough is no jay we're getting glam rock on your show today enough is enough or enough or even

These guys. I had their t-shirt on. Even the way it's spelled. Oh, yeah. I'm friends with these guys now, which is crazy. Oh, really? Yeah. I've met all my glam rock hero guys now, and I'm friends with a lot of them. So I wore this t-shirt, and I remember walking through the hall ways and all these long-haired guys, and I had my little blonde mullet and my enough's-enough t-shirt.

And had a big piece symbol on it, I think. Which I knew. That's the shirt. That's the exact shirt I had. No way. I haven't seen that in forever. So you can see why I got slapped in the head walking through the hallway

by guys wearing Dream Theater shirts and they're calling me names and I was just held my head down like I'm gonna wear the and every day I would wear a different glam band shirts just to just to just as a middle finger to those guys. It's so crazy that those guys did

like it was like that was back when bullies people picked on you in school. It was the real bullies. It was like the 80s movies or the movie called My Bodyguard whereas a guy pays a dude to be his bodyguard because he gets picked on like those that was a real I related to all that kind of stuff um so yeah my bodyguard yeah if I could have hired that dude to go beat up those dudes in the in the queenser egg shirts and and this was high school yeah this is

like 1980 this is so uh I'm surprised you didn't uh I'm surprised you didn't re I'm surprised you didn't you when you got older didn't you start recollecting you start recollecting all the old toys you had when you were a kid. And that's what I've mainly collected is toys. T-shirts, it's a sneaks on the lid. T-shirts, magazines. I mention it on podcast and stuff, and people bring me a stack of magazines.

So I collect stuff. You see this? Bring me a stack of metal magazines. Bring me some movies. VHS. I collect it all. I'm a nerd for all that stuff. Are people still bringing you KFC?

Not as much anymore. But that was sort of my thing there for a while. I used to have a shirt that had the Colonel Sanders on the back with devil horns, and that was my murder doll shirt. And people saw it, and it became a popular thing. And people were throwing fried chicken on stage at us for a while. Do people forget how good fried chicken is for macaroni and cheese, dude? Oh, classic. I grew up.

Up until I was 25, I ate fried chicken and macaroni every single day. Now I eat it every other day. So what? Was that like your favorite meal? I was very sheltered. I didn't eat. I'd be a whole other podcast talking about what I don't eat. It's more like I don't eat than I do eat. Okay, so what don't you eat? I've never had a salad ever. You never had a salad? Ever. So what? It's like, well, now it just got weird. Are you getting like anxiety right? Right now seeing all that green right there? So I tell people like, yes. So like, you know, that show fear factor? Yes. Or they'll be like, all right, you could either, you know, eat this or eat this or whatever so if you did that salad and then you went all right so say i'm on that show you're on fear factor yeah you can have this wonderful whatever salad your top cob

salad whatever yeah or eat this raw bull penis i would be like i don't know they both look gross to me what would i choose i don't know i don't know until i was in that situation did something happened to you when you're young that you had like a salad and it was like some trauma that's the thing i didn't have a set my mom didn't make me eat anything and i just ate what i liked and apparently i liked macaroni and cheese and fried chicken which is pretty much my life like like like high school and child sit it's it i come on from school fried chicken macaroni and cheese that was it that was the meal that was that was that was pretty much my life till till 25 and then when i started playing these arenas and stuff with joie doing catering they didn't have it

fried chicken and macaroni and cheese. So I'm like, well, what's this? I tried steak for the first time when I was 26. Everything I tried was the first time was first time in catering on tour. So my biggest education was just going on tour and meeting people and trying foods. And I was very, very sheltered up until then. I mean, did your, I mean, did your parents buy you any food and put it in at their fridge? What was...

It was just, it wasn't like I... What were they... Because I heard you mentioned that your childhood was... You had a good child. Yeah, it was great. My parents were great. We had family dinner. It was just...

My mom just made me fried chicken and... It was very country. And my parents, now that I think about it, they didn't really eat a lot of different stuff. We didn't have, like... We never had Mexican food. We never had Chinese food. Pizza was kind of rare. I didn't eat pizza until I was till then, too.

And I still don't really like tomato sauce. I don't eat tomatoes. You're interesting I'm as weird as You could possibly be I'm getting better I'm starting to try some stuff I tried a Belgian waffle

Recently for the first time 48 48 is still trying stuff Got it It's awesome She could tell you Everything I've tried But I'm getting better at it

At trying stuff So who knows By the time I'm 50 Who knows what I'll try Belgian waffles changed my life And I tried it in Belgium too For the first time So I went

Nice Might as well try it here. Yeah, but you're out going on, you're out going out on dates. What are you going to a restaurant? What are you ordering? But restaurants now, like I eat better. I fried chicken, I eat grilled chicken now. Okay.

Mashed potatoes. Big step for you, man. It's cool. Bake potatoes. I eat rice. I'm just not a vegetable guy. I like corn. Like corn.

But that's like the vegetables. It's not good for you, though. So I don't eat any of the good stuff. And when I did do vegetables, if I do, it's usually sneaked into like a smoothie. if it's sealed like in a smoothie or I won't taste it is how I do the vegetables and I also take I buy these these these green pills so I do get all the the salad so I'm gonna take the salad and I'll just take these

two green pills that I take when you're out on the road do you get sick or I mean knock on what I haven't been sick and and I haven't been sick since COVID Wow so four or five years here yeah I I've I've I've I try to take care of myself, I think. People would say, how are you doing that? I just, I get my, I take my supplement, so I'm getting all my stuff.

Other ways, I just don't, I wish I could eat a salad like that, but I would have a hard time doing that. As hard as that, to imagine, that would just be weird to me. Wow. Maybe when you hit the Big 5-0, you'll have your first salad.

Maybe. The Big 5-O, I don't know if that would be the way to celebrate. I could find a hundred other things I'd rather do for my birthday they need a salad. It's gonna be a big deal, dude. Buy a bow salad. All your friends come out and start drinking.

Yeah, why not? And you're just high? But yeah. So, yeah, basically everything in my world got catapulted when I met Joey George and going back to the whole thing. And he said working with him. Yeah, he pretty much launched this whole thing for me.

And, you know, we were able to do. the second record in 2010, the women and children last record. They said we toured with Guns and Roses, Rob Zambi, Alice Cooper. It was a trip, man. And then I, and that just kept touring after that again. He went back to Slipknot after that.

And I've just been able to keep doing it. And then you, I noticed you stay very consistent with Wednesday 13 with your with your records. You just kept going and going. It's awesome, man. Yeah, like I said, this will be the 10th, the 10th album. as Wednesday 13 and this is the first one that I went back

again I had so much fun recording this one too because I was able to I played guitar on the whole I played rhythm guitar on the on every song on the record and normally I write stuff but I don't I don't play in the studio I started

I started doubting myself and I kind of got my guitar confidence back on this record so it was good I had my producers and guys are like I was always just going I suck and I like play it like this and they're like I can't play it you do this better you're actually you're a good guitar player

I'm like yeah really because I always thought it was in this hand and everyone's like your right hand's insane I can't I can't do this the way I do with this hand you're a guitar player so yeah but I everyone's like your right hand's solid I'm like that counts yeah I didn't know that till like last year so I'm learning things wow 40 is a dude you got to have a solid when you're 50 dude this is like I'm a punk rock dude I learned how to play guitar and I said this is good enough go and that was it and uh but once I started playing with like I said Joey set up the musicianship for me like once I realized like I said I knew I knew he was the dude on drums because so many people I would meet anywhere you went and there was like

like Dave Grohl would come up and be like Joey oh my god and just sitting and just talk to me about drums Charlie Bonante came up and I remember I was a big anthrax fan all the metal bands I listened to, I loved anthrax growing up, and I always knew he was, Charlie was an awesome, I just, you could just hear anthrax, knew that guy was a killer drummer. Sure, yeah. And just watched him, sit in the room and just, just him and Joey in a corner just going, how do you do this? How do you do this?

And he said, oh, do this. And just talking. I'm just never watching him, going, this is crazy. And I've always been a drum nerd. Like I was very fortunate to play with him. And it was a trip. man he was and at the time it was like drum-wise he changed the game no one played like him still no one no one played like him and now you hear these drums and it's just like that wouldn't

have he he changed a game on it that's the studio murder dolls recorded in that studio that first oh really nice that's the same that's where he told me on the playback right there don't suck that guy recorded that's the engineer matt sapanic and that's where we recorded i spent that's the vocal booth right there and he did all the drums for the album by, didn't even have a guide, he played it all in his head. That first album's not on a click at all. You can tell, drummers have told me,

you can tell. But he didn't play to anyone. Like, he just would go in and go, all right, this is, this is, play it in my head. Of course, this is the verse. And, all right, he'd go back, guitar, bass, and then you got a whole song done, and he'd kill it.

How many, what other records did match? do that was the only that was the only uh one i did with him and i think he would just did local stuff with joey he may have did he may have did something with joey later on in his and his other bands that he did uh but that was like my first like real recording studio and joe goes this ain't a real studio i'm like it looks like it is to me sick dude um but yeah i you know and i learned a lot from that guy matt too i haven't seen these videos in forever it's crazy what it up what was it take away of learning from that i wanted to be better you know like i i i don't know i just i'm i'm a perfectionist in ways i joey kind of got me out of my my punk rockness a little bit

i still there but like i just sometimes i'll be like that's good enough now i'm just like no i got do this i got to tweak it you know i just i don't know i he's always he will always be that little guy on my shoulder every time i record going what what would he say What'd he say that's good? What would you do? He'd make you go in and do that. He'd make you go back and redo that. I know you don't want to do that part, but what would Joey do?

He'd make you do it. So I always, I always, he's still in my head constantly when I record it. I always compare it to it because I learned all the studio stuff from him. My two major recording things was murder dolls, you know? And like that was the, everything else was done in bedrooms and basements and a couple little studios. but that felt like I'm in a real studio you know yeah yeah yeah I could tell that you still miss him yeah dude it was uh it was it was it was it was crazy when all that happened and and and it's still hard to believe and there's a day i don't think about him um you know like it's it's constantly in

my feed you know just people talk about him all the time but but i it's great though i i'm keeping him alive that way yeah you know with this music and to be able to to like i said to go out and celebrate these songs and play them and and people go man this changed my life you guys you guys touched me you reached me and that's a it's a great feeling i got that award back recently the one you just had you circled right there yeah that was our metal hammer award best new band of the year and i just recently got that award back because our our publicist passed away and oh wow uh that was at her house we gave that to her because she broke murder dolls in the uk oh cool and instead of us keeping the award we gave it to her and she passed recently and I got it back

so that was our that was us winning the it was a big deal then yes it was awesome that you got the word back yeah it never gets easier man people can't I never said this before but if you're watching

you could see the picture behind the guests but from my perspective I always see the guest literally it's just like so I have right it's literally always just staring right at me it's just never never leaves man i have a i have a a a picture of joey and like i have my my little i have several man caves at home that i hang out in but my main place i hang out it's like my my garage and i just i have a i have several pictures of him that that i look i picture my mom as well like all those

memories are they they they'll always be here with me and and uh and i still speak of him like constantly like i always say george's jor's and we've been we've mentioned him a million times in this already. You know, it's just he's a, he's a part of my world. He, he changed it. And the crazy thing is, is when I saw how popular he was, once I was in the band, I started, because I didn't, I knew Slipknot was big, but I didn't know how much attention that they got.

And he believed in me, you know, like, he was like, everyone else was, you know, I thought about wearing the enough's enough shirt, people picking on me. And I'm like, it's like, this dude believes me. And people believe him. I'm going to go with this. So it was this cool. Like you felt, you felt invincible with that guy.

And like I said, he got everything. We did some amazing stuff. How do you get to tour with Guns and Roses? Because of him. Wow. So it was a good thing. I'm glad I got to know that guy.

And I'll never forget him. Like I said, I think about him every day. And I'm able to still play this music and keep it alive. There's people that still every day that thank me for it. Mm-hmm.

Yeah, every day. I remember, like, once like you open up like the kind of worms, I'll just talk about Mitch just constantly. If it's like ever opened up, it's like a good two hours. It's kind of comes out. And then like you write songs or you hang out with your homie. It's kind of just, you don't talk about it.

But once I open up that kind of worms, it flows out for the next like the whole podcast. Well, you think about all the people that you met because of it too. Like I know everybody. Like I saw your podcast recently with the guys from snot. I believe the bassist was in Amen. Yes. And Casey Chaos just... Double whammy.

Just passed away. Another guy that I met through Joey in the very beginning. And amen, I loved that band. Their records were great. Casey was an animal on stage. I've never seen anything like that. Like, it was like, he was... If you saw that and knew that band, it was insane.

And he dug us too, and Joey was super close with him. And, you know, I had a... Joey, like I said, he would all... always be like, that was two front guys, he would be like, what would, you know, you go on stage? He would try to tell me how to be the front guy. And then, you know, and he would be like, you know, it was a lot of pressure. And he'd be like, when you go out on this stage, you better fucking do this. And this is what Corey Taylor does.

And this is what Casey Chaos does. And I was just like, all right. I mean, Chaos is in your name. Casey, what a cool, the coolest stage name. And I recently just went and bought. He looks possessed. I got four Amen road cases that was at Casey's house. I went and bought him.

Oh, wow. So I kept the logo on them, and so that's our road cases now. So just a big influence on him. And he was one of the first people that I met in the business, too. And Paul Gray, too. He was around the very beginning. And I remember Paul was, I didn't even met anybody else in Slipknot, except for Paul and Joey, because they constantly hung out

and I remember I didn't know Paul that well we'd see each other we'd hang out and buddies and when Slipknot got nominated for like their second Grammy or something he called me and asked me to go to the Grammys with him and I didn't even know him that well

and I just found that odd and I'm like and I went I'd love to but I don't think my wife will let me go she wouldn't have let me go go you know and I was just and I was like I was like you don't have anybody else to go with you and he's like no I just found that odd that was a weird thing like he asked me to go to the grammy's like your band doesn't want to go I don't think it was this one I think it was another

one like the very first time they it was like it was one that they didn't go to okay and he just and I and he thought of me and I just thought I would have went but that would have got the divorce going earlier it did it eventually had happened, I should have went. But no, he was another killer dude that I met. Maybe you leave a, maybe you just leave a impression on people. I'm down to earth with people. I, you know, and he was such a cool dude and calm.

And like I said, I only knew Slipknot from the imagery. I didn't really know their music or not. And then, you know, and just he was around Joey constantly. And Joey was really, really hurt when he passed too. That was another. And I happened on that second murder dolls. record too so when we were touring on that was during it was during the record it was right after we recorded we were about to go on tour and paul paul passed i didn't know that and joe when we started

recording that record joey joey was a little fragile at the time and and and we recorded the second record and he kind of did a complete 360 from the first day in the studio to the last day like he just i think he just he had to warm up around us again we had to get to know each other because he was a different dude and I was a different dude then eight years later so we kind of had to get to know each other again but after that recording process Joey was a different dude and we and he just he seemed like he was in a better place than he was when I'd seen him again for the first time and then Paul passed and that just turned it again and it was difficult because you know he was really really hurt hurt by it and we dedicated the song to Paul every night and he would just you could tell

he zoned into it every night on stage. And it's crazy because I remember doing that every night. I would do a tribute to Paul, and then here I am doing tributes to him. You know, and it's just like, it's crazy. Yeah, it's what happens when someone in your band passes. It's just like a everyday tribute. Yeah, it is. It is.

But, you know, it's not a, there's days where it's easier than others, but there's one shows where you just feel it. Sometimes, guys. It takes breath. But it's there. You know, it's the emotion of it. And I'm glad that I get to, it gives people a little closure with it too, I think. It's doing it for me.

And I think it's doing it for people too when I play those songs. So we have a Murder Dolls, like a best of set we do in the middle of the set. I still haven't got to plan out exactly how we're doing it yet. But those songs are so short, we can play like 10 songs in like 20 minutes. We're going to try the medley idea on this. Okay, nice, yeah. See how many we can do and throw in to the batch. But yeah, this tour starts.

We leave a week from today. When do you, I don't know, I've ever done this before. When do you want this public to drop? We could drop it right before the tour. We could drop it right before the record. You know, I don't know if I'd like it before the tour. I think it would help the tour. People would pay attention to it.

On it. Okay, okay. But if the label wants it before the record, I don't, either way, it's going to help. I don't know if it really matters. Okay. But yeah, either way. I think when it comes out, we've got like a week left of the tour. I know, yeah, it's kind of...

Yeah. So... Because, I mean, you could... I mean, once you're here, you could tell people that there's tour dates, you know? I would rather just promote the tour because that's where we're playing all this stuff and it's kind of... Where are you guys going? So, starts in Las Vegas. It's 37 shows across...

37? 37, man. I know. I'm thinking back to it going, oh, no. And any longer than a month, dude's fucking... Yeah, but you know, this is probably the only thing we do in the States this year, unless it's like a one-off or something, because we have the summer in Europe, and then we go back to Europe at the end of the year, October, November,

and then I think we're going to do a U.S. again, early January. So for anybody listening, just be your only chance to see us probably this year in the USA. So get out to a show. It's going to be a cool tour. And we're having so much fun playing. I don't know. It's crazy.

I've been doing this for so long, but my voice is better. I'm better on stage. I'm more focused on it. It's taking me this long to figure out how this thing works. And I care about it. And every day I watch videos of our show and go, you can do better than that. What is that?

You're a wimp. You could do that better. Come on. Like, I'm just, I am my ultimate drill sergeant. I'll never be satisfied with it. But, uh, but, uh, but yeah, this is our new video. New videos out soon on the album campaign now, promoting everything. Hell yeah, dude.

We put a stripper pole in a church. Speaking about the Pentegram thing we were talking about. This song, the lyrics of this song, this is a song called When the Devil commands. I wrote this song. based off the Pentegram stories, you brought that up. Like, when I wrote these lyrics for the song, I wrote it as if my mom was going through my records and she's looking through,

and if I could just place one, purposely plant one for her, just so it was a diamond on, just so it was shining on it, and she would open it up. And if I could wrote the lyrics out, just for her, just spelled it out, like a nursery rhyme, that's what these lyrics are. It's an ode to my, and that's as simple as it is. Like, because you know in the metal world, you do anything with the devil or Satan, you're not a real Satanist.

I got that message for the past two weeks. You're not a real Satanist. You guys, you don't even know what 666 is. Oh, stop bringing that shit, man. You guys, like, oh, the comments are crazy. Get out of there, dude. It's, uh, but, and I'm like, you know what? It's just, this is Hollywood Satan.

That's what I wrote about. That's the, that's the, in the movies, that was what, uh, that's as simple as this song is, but, uh, it's just funny now. It's like back in the day you had the you had to get in a magazine to get get a critic to talk about you now Now it's now you just go online and and and now you could now you actually try to do good You're you're talking earlier how you were putting out a fire it's on it's on it's on your Instagram oh yeah You're putting a fire then people are talking shit to you you want to see this fire video this is so you're your guy Vicente Your video guy Vicente does all my videos he's killer so we're we're filming a video

just down some should be Linda Blair There we are Alright there we go So this video right here This breaks out on the side of the highway And

I remember seeing this And I climb over this fence Oh let's got our song blasts in the back That's even better So People are honking Yeah so there's traffic watching this fire And this yeah

Wow Yeah. So my band is like, oh, what's he doing? And they're like, oh, the dirt works. So they start handing this buckets over this fence. So the fire broke out off the property we were filming. This is on the side of the highway. And I climbed over the fence to put it out because I don't want to burn up our video set, our equipment.

I'm like, I put too much work into this. I'm not going out without a fight. And to be honest with you, I'm from North Carolina. This ain't the first time I've had a fire breakout in a backyard. I've had to do something like this. So I've had those drunken bonfires. But that's what it looked like before I started. So imagine that's what we saw.

Yeah, that's bad. So the video, we had to run over to this thing. We're on this property in the dark. The only light is from the generator. Oh, that's my generator light. There's the generator lights. And that's my drummer. He's like, oh, I'm not getting the car?

What we're doing here? He's like, he's got his car keys. And they're like, so I climbed over the fence and then the band started helping me put it out. Because once we started putting the dirt on it, you can see we got it condensed there. Is this is that the body of the freeway? That's on the

210. The 210? Okay. And so in Silmar California. And this video went viral, had 10 million views on my page, which I started looking at analytics on Instagram after this. I went, whoa, that's crazy. And then you read the comments. Oh, get out of there, dude. And then the comments, and it's like

Stop it. And then the comments go, You guys started this on purpose to get views for your shitty video. And I'm like, I went, man. You can't win, dude. I was like, and this is right after, I'm like, oh, we just put this fire out. And I'm explaining it. Because you can see right here where I'm explaining it. So the video shoots there.

So. And then someone from the freeway stopped, right? Someone from the freeway stopped. You guys need some help? And we're like, yeah. And then the guy goes, what happened? I'm like, we're filming. a video. I'm out of breath.

I'm throwing dirt. And he goes, you filming? You started this? And I went, no. And he goes, fuck you. And I went, fuck you. And we're both trying to put the fire out. And then he's yelling. He goes, you guys started this. You, you motherfuckers. And then you hear

one of the guys in there is like, we're allowed to be here. We have permission to be here. Fuck you. And it just, so we're putting a fire out, fighting with this guy up on the road. I'm in my full Stage gear one of the coolest things that we didn't get on video though I had my hat on yeah and right when I put the I threw the first thing of the fire on it I'd seen it go out and I grabbed my hat and I saw my bass player

I went hold this and I went when I threw it like a frisbee it was like a movie moment and he caught it and then I went to work put it out and then so I was the firefighter for the for the day there's a cool hat move but no one saw it sick that's awesome man but yeah so and then and then the Finally, we get a water hose to turn on. Before this whole thing, it was like a Three Stooges moment. We're running, running into each other, tripping over stuff. And once I climbed over the fence and started working on it, we realized we could put it out. And we did. So now we were able to film our video after that.

So it took about 45 minutes out of our video shoot. and that's us when I saw it You see Vicente's right there on the right Oh yeah yeah You guys on there's fire over there Yeah because it just popped out of nowhere And you see us go oh shit Yeah the next video is us

And right here you'll see us filming this video And our guitar player on the left sees it And he goes He points it out Oh wow So yeah we just run straight into it But yeah that's the

Yeah because there was unfortunately There was a big issue Where people were starting fires on purpose dude and filming it was fucked up dude it was insane and and i think that's why it kind of kicked in gear too i went because when i went over and saw the fire there was a wooden pallet up against a tree and that's what was engulfed and i'm like it looked like someone started it and there was a backpack right there too what and there was a homeless encampment 20 feet down from that now i'm not saying i don't anything against homeless people or whatever but like there were people right there

We saw someone there earlier, and then the police told us that someone had been starting fires on that highway all week, and they had called. Oh, fuck. So, like I said, if we would, so all these trees you see here, that's like a nursery that rents out trees for movie sets. Oh, interesting. So we went there to film, but we made a graveyard. So instead of bringing the graveyard to us, we just went, let's just go film there and build it there. So, and then that broke out. And I was like, I'm not going to let this destroy our video.

So, uh, yeah. There we are. Talk about mass arson. Yeah. It was mass arson. Yeah. People were just around everywhere. It was fucking.

It was scary because we had a, you know, we, for that whole week, you know, we live in Burbank. So the closest fire to us was the one that started at Runyon Canyon, which was close at West Hollywood. And then the Pasadena fire was coming at us. So it was, we had a, we had a backpacked for, you know, a suitcase ready to go in case we had to leave. So to see that break. break out right it was terrifying at first but then my thought was I could try to put it out and we did good so yeah we did we did our good deed but you know again we got 10 had 10 million views on that so I got a lot of people checking the the page out and uh yeah so

that was it hopefully uh 2025's off to a fiery start oh fuck it's hot hopefully uh hopefully uh yeah hopefully they made some people that wouldn't normally hear or see the band, maybe check out some fucking tunes. Yeah, but I understand. Like, if you watch the first video I post, it's so quick, and my comment was, hey guys, put a fire out, see you later. It's because I just posted it.

Yeah. And it just, it doesn't even look real. But some of the comments are great. It's like the best one. I was just laughing at them. I was saving them and sent them to the guys in the band. One was like, good thing the crow showed up to put the fire out.

Good thing Marilyn Manson was there to put the fire out. or the Kiss Army and Wednesday you gotta get to get out of there man it would drive you it would drive you nutty dude it would drive you nutty but I've always it's not anything new I've just I've always read I'm just amazed but I've never had a viral video but I did stop reading it because the first day I went this is ridiculous and then someone was like we're gonna have your Instagram revoked because you started this we're gonna we're gonna call Instagram and I'm like good luck. I've been trying to get them on customer service for a week and I can't even get them.

So good, good luck. Who you're gonna call, right? You don't fucking know shit. Shut up, dude. We're gonna have, let's get this guy taken down. And it's usually people that said it had like one one follower. But yeah, that's how our year started off. And, uh, but the video is going to be so cool. I'm so excited to see it. And, uh, bad ass, dude. Yeah, we were, we were able to finish it. But I know if we wouldn't have stopped that, that would have been another. fire on the list of California. Yeah, yeah. Why did you get sober? When did I get?

Why? You know? Besides the obvious reasons. You know, I went through, I think I was, it was 2018, I think is when I started doing it. Okay. I mean, it's the 2000. I get the years mixed up. I started feeling it, you know.

I remember for about four months before I stopped, I just, I didn't like the way I felt. You know, and I would drive. drink I would drink a lot. I mean for me like a half a bottle a day was that I was and but I I would look at it as a half you know I go oh I just drink half the other half the next day but if I went an inch below that half I'm well I got a picture of thing I might as well finish it off because I'd start over tomorrow kind of terrible habit sort of deal and I just started my body was telling me hey stop doing this to me and I lived right beside a Ronion can I just brought that's where that fire started. I lived beside a Runyon Canyon and I just started I

walked that mountain one day and I started doing it every single day for four months and I think at the time I weighed about 185 pounds when I started which was heavy for me and I went on this crate I got sober and I started on this exercise thing and I lost six six I got down to a, I got too skinny. I got into 130 pounds. That's 130 pounds. I weigh up 150 now. But I got down to 130.

So I was skinny, like, and I didn't see it like that. A lot of people thought I had cancer. Like, I was so skinny. And looking back on it now, I'm like, whoa. I didn't see it like that. And. Yeah, because the moment you stop drinking, like your body just, reacts so quickly just like you just start dropping weight dude it it's crazy i lost it and uh and i

just you know and i and i just got in a good frame i thought a good frame of mind but i again i've still that probably the first two years i got sober i still still was kind of numb feeling you know i still i still i think it back on i still don't think i was i smoke weed too but i still didn't i still thinking back on i still don't think i was clearheaded as i feel now i can look back with some perspective on it now and go you might have been sober i still don't think you were it it takes i don't think you were right in the head there it takes a while for for your brain to kind of we wire dude yeah it's like he gets sober and then oh now i'm fucking clear-headed it's like it took me years too i could get back on booze like and drugs stopped yeah it took years to be

wiring okay now i think about this now now i have i could be more centered it's not it's not this And then overnight thing. And then COVID, too. Because going into COVID, you had, what, the two years there to do nothing but reflect on stuff. So I was able to, just a lot of stuff. After COVID, I mean, I know a lot of people change and stuff. But like, for me, I changed for the better. I used to run my mouth online.

I used to, I used to comment on Twitter and say shit. Like, I don't own anymore. Are you done? I don't anymore. I talk about my band, probably too much. But that's it. I don't have political opinions that I share. I don't have.

I just keep it. No one needs to hear that from me. No one needs to. I don't need. And none of that stuff I ever posted ever did anything good for me. And I learned a lot of people should just shut the fuck up during COVID. It was what I learned most of everything. Yeah.

Yeah. I think people were seeing a lot of things he didn't really mean because you're just bottled up in like a fucking small area. Yeah. Oh, wow. And it's probably a little bit weird for you because, I mean, your first sober record was necrophase, right? That was 2019? Yeah. What was a difference?

I just felt more, I think I felt present, more present with it. I mean, I always worked hard on my record. Whether I was drinking or not, I still worked hard on it. But I think that one, I don't know, I felt a little more focused on it. But looking back on it, I still don't feel as focused on that one as I did on the new album. But every record, probably with you too, Like some people will look at a record and go, I like this record better than that one of you over time. And like for me, that record is music is one thing.

That's an era of my life. That's to be getting sober. That's Runyon Canyon. Yeah. That's where I lived at that time. That's all those memories. The music's kind of second to me. So when I look back on my catalog, sometimes I look at records and go, I didn't like that period in my life.

So I don't like that record. It could be a great record, but I don't. like me around that time. You just associate your memories with that time. Right. And whatever, whatever you recorded, it's just like, ah, it's not. Yeah. So this record, I like it, but I didn't like me during that time. The album after that, I didn't like me around that time. This is the first record in a long time that I like me. And I like everything about it. I just had a good experience and recording. And just, this is a fun record. You know, you got to do press and interviews and talk about it.

It's the first record I've did in a while where I enjoy talking about it. I don't feel like I'm fooling myself talking about it. You know what I mean? Because sometimes you're selling a record that you don't really like. That's why I wouldn't do that many interviews. I'm like, I don't even like this record. You guys say how good it is. Yeah.

I don't want to lie. Yeah. The last record was coming out of COVID, I had to have a record out. I know. I'm just like, I got to talk about it. But I'd be honest with you, I don't really. I get it. I don't know if I like it yet. I get it, dude. You know. Yeah, and you're putting out like a lot of music right now. You just dropped that EP?

No, I did a, I did a collaboration with our opening band on this tour called Dead Rabbits, which is a Craig from Escape the Fate. And that was a cool experience too, going and recording. And I realized then with that music, just how different more modern music, I would say, because that's what I'm what that sounds like to me it's more of a modern sound and what I do is like it's such a difference like just the just like the uh just the overall vibe of it and but it turned out really cool I was I and the my favorite part about recording this was uh the producer Howard Benson did this okay and he's known for my chemical romance and you know all these platinum stuff but I know him from the hair metal days he did bang tango Tough, Pretty Boy Floyd, all these hair metal records that I had.

So when they asked me to go do it, my first reason to go do it was because of this guy. Oh, sick, dude. So he did a bunch of my favorite hair metal, obscure hair metal bands. And so it made that recording process even cooler now. So I got to do a song with one of my hair metal guys. That's great. Yeah, I noticed it was like a collab EP. I saw that there's like multiple bands on the...

Yeah, so I thought it would be a cool thing to perform. the tour they asked me to do it and all the bands are on it like we're on this tour so what better way to promote it it's a cool thing it puts me in front of a different audience because the escape the fate audience is a different world than than what I do like your audience is a different kind of world than them than me so I like to do the stuff and because I don't I don't really fit into a genre here I don't know that's why it's so hard for me to tour with bands it's like well they look at me go, we'll put you with Rob Zombie and Marilyn Manson.

What else you got? Yeah. What else? Yeah. I don't know. Okay. And then, so we could play with punk bands. We could play with area. It fits. We tore with Cradle of Filth and made, and their audience loved us. Oh, nice. So it does work. We can cater to almost everything. And again, at this, at this age, I'm just trying to keep doing what I'm doing. I'm having fun and just working with that. I have a couple more collaboration tracks that this coming out later this year that I'm working on with some other bands so it's a good time it's a good time for me musically and I'm I'm having fun again I didn't imagine I would be

having fun at this age and still still doing this and I and I am that's cool man it looks like you're getting after a few years you're getting your clear head yeah I didn't you know you never think about turning 50 you know like I'll turn 49 in August to be 50 next year which is scary like How can the math be like that? I'm still 48. How can I be 50 next year? I know, man. Yeah.

Yeah. I had a moment when I was, oh shit, he's Wednesday is 48. I wanted to say he was way older than me. I want to see you were back. But wait, I'm 39. Oh shit, I'm 39. What the fuck? How did that happen?

It's crazy. The whole title of the record. The record's called Mid-death Crisis, which is a- That was my last question. There's a joke on life. It's just me turn it. It's me just going, I'm over the, I'm over the hill now. Mid-death crisis.

So this is sort of a- So the cover is me kind of as sort of a Frankenstein. Oh my goodness. I started, you see my lip ring and my nose ring. So I started to imagine, I'm like, who would be going through a mid-death crisis? I'm like, Frankenstein? Yeah. Imagine that guy.

He's dead. He's just like, fuck. Put this on one more time. Give it a shot. So that's the. I was going to ask you, yeah, Going through like your record titles like the song names. How did it come up with that? It's like it's like a tongue-in-cheek kind of it's always like this it's it's it makes me laugh. It's a it's a funny type kind of thing. I've always made a play with words like the first song on the record is called decease and desist

Yeah, you know Exactly it's always like that always a play on stuff like today I was like hey the tour is right around the coroner This dumb shit that I saw on the Adams fan and the monsters back in the day. It's in all these old famous monsters magazines. Just turn of, and it's just that kind of stuff stood out to me and it's just became my, my shtick. Yeah, because I was thinking, I wonder,

like, because your daily routine, right, you'll go on YouTube and you'll look at 70s cartoons, right? I see, he's watching this stuff and is thinking about like these titles. Yeah, it'll pop in my head like, you know, like the Beetlejuice cartoon is a perfect example. That cartoon is just constant lines. He says stuff like that.

I was even watching a new Beetlejuice, and he almost used the title of Mid-Death Crisis. He says, I'm going through an afterlife crisis or something. Oh, sick. Cool. Because I always call Beetlejuice my spirit animal, so we're almost linked in there. But the Beetlejuice cards, all this stuff, I keep it on.

YouTube has these live channels of G.I. Joe, He-Man, all 80 stuff. I just keep it on. I have TVs almost in every room of the house. I have toys set up from the 80s everywhere. So it's a fountain of youth for me to be around this stuff. So it's not like I ever have to... I just go, I'm playing guitar. It's a cool riff.

Lyrically, look around. There's a new song on the record called Decapitation, which is the happiest song about cutting people's heads off you'll ever hear. It's catchy. Okay. I was watching a compilation of Decapitation on YouTube, and it was 10 minutes of people getting their heads cut off in movies. Starts with the omen, which is the greatest one with the plate glass chopping this dude's head off.

It's one of the greatest scenes from the omen. The omen head decapitation. Oh, it's great. And I was watching this, and I had my acoustic guitar, and I watched this, and I was, da-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-and I saw this. Oh! Right there. And I walked in the house.

my lady's all camera here I walked in the house and I went listen to what I just wrote and I went Decapitation because I was watching this compilation of

that's how I write songs and I was as happy as this guy is right now when I finished that song I just wrote a sick riff dude oh my God it's so sad So to me that's kind of

how I write songs They're fun and they're also like You write something catchy And then you're listening to it And you go Do you just say that Like in that song in the middle of the bridge is,

I hope it doesn't sound obscene. I want to burn your remains with carosine. Impressive. So those little, it makes me laugh. It's morbid, but it's, it works. It's you. It's me. I get it now.

It's me. It's me. Yeah, and there's a track listing. It just kind of comes to you. It does, you know? And over the years, you know, I've tried to be like, I don't have to keep doing the play on words. You can't do it.

You can't do it on every song because then it's just too much. but yeah I try to keep it as fresh as I can and I'm happy with this record I did good I'm excited I think the fans are gonna like it I wrote it as a live a live album I think where I always put myself on the other side of the stage and go would I be into this

would I want to hear them play this and I always do that cool so mid-death crisis out April 25th correct that is right nice cool and you guys got the tour hopefully we're dropping this before or during the tour. Yeah.

So, yeah, I'll put, I will put links in the... Thank you, thank you, yeah. And any,

yeah, want to say, any closing thoughts or anything that... No, it was great. Thank you for having me, man. It's just cool.

I've said, I've watched your show for a while. Oh, sit. And it's just cool to come here and chat, you know? Yeah,

it's just, we have so many mutual friends, so it's just cool to finally meet you, so thank you for having me. Anytime, I, I say it's always,

it's a, it's a big world, but small circles, dude it is we all i think i think we're all connected so uh yeah it was just it's really cool just to literally just to meet you and then bam we're talking about life and uh yeah good luck uh good luck on the record and good luck on on the tour wednesday thank you thank you all right all right everyone that's it later