REVOLVER GOLDEN GODS 2011: Black Carpet Interviews

By Aniruddh "Andrew" Bansal

April 20th 2011, Club Nokia, Los Angeles CA: I had a hugely hectic but immensely enjoyable time of it at this year's Golden Gods black carpet, as I managed to do as many as 17 interviews. Here they are, in the order in which they were conducted.

1. Wayne Static (Static X)

On attending the Golden Gods event:
I'm such a whore for attention. I'll go anywhere as long as they can have me (laughs). But this is the first time I've actually been to this awards show. I was asked to come last year, but I was writing my record and didn't really want to take a break to come to the show. Well actually I was recording both years during the time the event took place. Tonight I'm co-presenting the best guitarist award along with Robb Flynn from Machine Head.

On the transition from Static-X to his new project:
It was very different. I wrote the record totally by myself, played everything on it, and now I'm having to find musicians to put a touring band together. So it's been a cool experience actually to not have to compromise with any other players in the studio. It's pretty much purely my vision. It is a solo project but it's very much Static-X sounding at the same time, because I wrote all the Static-X material anyway.

On touring plans:
Hopefully this summer. It's July we're looking at right now. I just finished recording, so we'll see.

On the original Alice Cooper Group:
Yeah that is pretty cool! I'm old, so I was a fan back in the 70s, you know "School's Out" and all of that stuff.

On the status of Static-X:
We are on hiatus for an indefinite amount of time. I won't say it's broken up forever because who knows.

2. Sebastian Bach

On performing "Youth Gone Wild" with Asking Alexandria:
Well, the Skid Row material just makes people to keep liking it. They like the songs . I'm not a youth anymore, I'm 43 years old but they (Asking Alexandria) are like 20. So they're youth and they get right into it, so that's killer!

On singing the song at the age of 43:
I can sing it, you know (laughs). Gene Simmons says every night that "I wanna rock and roll all night and party every day". He doesn't really party. He's got no problem singing it, so neither do I.

On various artists doing Skid Row covers:
There are so many! Halestorm does "Slave To The Grind". Carrie Underwood does "I Remember You", Zoey Kravitz does that song too, so it's really cool to see the huge number of artists doing Skid Row covers.

On Alice Cooper:
I just played with him last October in Finland. He's just the nicest guy and he's very smart. He's been around doing this for so long, he's very much an inspiration to me.

3. Chris Jerico (Fozzy)

On this being the busiest time of his life:
It is, but it's been a great time of my life too and I just enjoy being able to do this as an ambassador of heavy metal and wrestling during these mainstream shows, going to these different places where normally I wouldn't be invited. So I like to kind of creep in there and corrupt it as much as I can with my metal attitude.

On K.K. Downing's retirement:
When did that happen? K.K. retired before the tour? Oh there must be some problem. Wow! That sucks, I mean, for me K.K. has been the heart and soul of that band besides Rob and I always liked his playing. I think Tipton is a better soloist but K.K. is a better rhythmist. I didn't know that man! Wow, that's a big blow.

On Priest touring with a replacement guitarist:
Wow, that's a drag, specially for the farewell tour. I bet you K.K. will regret that at some point, but God bless him man, he's a great guitar player. They're a great band but they'll definitely be missing something without him.

On hosting this year's Golden Gods (which I phrased as 'hosting the thing'):
Hosting the thing (laughs). May be I should start a website called hostingthings.com. But yeah, it means a lot to me to be able to do this. You know, there's a lot of people who can do a great job at this, but the fact that I was asked back after last year is a great honor, and the fact that they invited Fozzy to play as well, it's going to be a great night for me.

4. David Coverdale (Whitesnake)

On being able to release great music even after all these years:
I never expected to. We do our best and I do my best. That's the contract we have with the people who support our music. They know that we do the best we can, and this time we got all the ingredients right. We baked a nice cake, man! It's a good rock 'n roll cake.

On song writing for the new album "Forevermore":
You know, this album has been a great band process, specially working with Doug Aldrich. He's an astonishing musician and he's been aware of Whitesnake since the very beginning, so he knows all the elements. He's also fond of my voice so when he comes to me with ideas, it works really, really cool and it just works naturally, very organically.

On touring plans:
We start in May, we go through the US in May and June-July will be in Europe and the UK. So yeah, we're touring, hopefully the world in the next 12 months.

On the original Alice Cooper line-up performing tonight:
That is so cool, man. I know Alice very well but I haven't seen the guys since the 70s, so that's way cool!

5. Geezer Butler (Black Sabbath)

On Alice Cooper:
He's a great bloke, you know. I've known him for such a long time. He did one of the first Sabbath tours with us, so we go back to 1971 together. He's one of the greats.

On K.K. Downing's retirement:
Oh did he? I didn't know. Good for him (laughs). Go out at the top.

On what he's creatively up to these days:
I'm writing a new GZR album and I'm writing a book of memoirs. Both should be out next year.

On when we can expect to see him on stage again:
Well actually I'm playing in the corner down there tomorrow. So if you see me, throw some money at me (laughs).

6. Dino Cazares (Fear Factory, Divine Heresy, Asesino)

On Fear Factory's non-stop touring year of 2010:
Yeah, we toured three times with Metallica. It was great! The best way to do it is to keep yourself busy. I'm working on a new Asesino record, a new Divine Heresy record and a new Fear Factory record, all for release next year.

On the idea of "Dinofest" next year:
I don't know if I can play one show with all three bands, but I'll try (laughs). But Asesino will be doing a bunch of tours in May for Cinco De Mayo, and then with Fear Factory we have tours in June.

On playing very small venues on the upcoming Fear Factory tour:
Well, we were originally supposed to do those shows in December but we cancelled the shows because we were stuck in Europe. We were just doing those shows to fill in. Everybody wanted to do some small shows, but then they pushed it back to June. Plus my sister works at Brick by Brick (in San Diego) and the Whisky is like family, so we decided to keep it in the family.

On playing Metallica's in-the-round stage set up:
It's a workout to run across all over the place. But it's pretty weird. Basically you're like a fish in a big fishbowl. Everywhere you turn, everyone is looking at you. But it was really fun too. I enjoyed it.

7. Dan "The Outlaw" Hardy (UFC Welterweight fighter)

On his love for hardcore and metal:
This is really strange, being part of this event. Most of my ipod collection is made up of music by the guys on this carpet, so it's kind of surreal.

On whether he still pursues art:
I do, yeah. But more for relaxing than for anything else. I listen to a couple of records, and get my sketch book out while I do that. I do a lot of writing as well which is another outlet for my creativity.

On the band line-up tonight:
I just met Vinnie Paul and that was pretty awesome. I've seen him play a few times and always been a huge fan. Obviously Alice Cooper is going to be awesome. I never thought I'd get to see Alice Cooper so I'm pretty over the moon about that.

On whether he still desires to be a musician:
I had a really difficult choice at one point in my career, do I go with the band or the fight. I made the choice and it seems to have paid off. But I would have loved to be a part of the music industry. I was in a lot of bands when I was younger.

On the connection between UFC, art and metal:
Metal is always the choice for highlight reels and stuff like that, so there's a huge crossover there. I have a lot of fans who are huge metalheads as well as UFC fans.

On going to shows:
Well the training camp doesn't let us come back down at all. But when I'm out of the training camp I'm always in Los Angeles and there are so many good bands coming through. I get to see a lot which I'm really fortunate to be able to do. So at the moment I'm just going out and seeing as much as I can.

On his favorite bands:
I really change from day to day. Megadeth was my start in metal. My guitar teacher gave me my first Megadeth album. But Pantera obviously, and I listen to a lot of hardcore at the moment as well, and a lot of new bands too that are coming out. I just try and keep in touch with whatever that's coming out.

8. Jamey Jasta (Hatebreed/Kingdom Of Sorrow)

On upcoming solo album "Jasta":
It's just more of the thrash and rock element in it. I think there's a lot more clean singing than I'm used to doing. It's a lot of stuff that I recorded for other artists, but it ended up sounding cool so I just left it in there. My engineer was really liking the stuff that I was doing. I still have a lot of guest parts on there, Randy Blythe from Lamb Of God, Zakk Wylde, Phil Labonte, Tim from As I Lay Dying, Mark Morton from Lamb Of God, so it's just like a fun project before we do the next Hatebreed album.

On the recording:
Yeah, I did all of it by myself, except for the guest parts. I did it all throughout 2008, 2009 and 2010 so it was fun to go back, listen to those old tracks and go, "These are still good, let's release them!" I'm just very lucky that I'm in a position to be able to do this and I'm grateful that the E1 label is giving it such a great push.

On whether it will impact songwriting for the next Hatebreed album:
No, not at all. Actually that's why I wanted to get it out now because the next Hatebreed album is going to be short, to the point and brutal, and there will be no melody. This is my one chance to kind of get it out of the system.

On touring plans for the solo material:
I don't see myself doing a lot of touring for this at all. I'd like to, but I really want to focus on getting Hatebreed out for the rest of the year. We'll be going to South America, Australia, then we'll do Europe and the States again so it's going to be a lot of touring. Plus the only time to see Kingdom Of Sorrow is this summer on the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival. That is the only time you'll see me and Kirk together because Down is going to be busy, Crowbar will be busy, and Hatebreed too. So this is it!

On handling multiple projects together:
I'm just busy and it's a good problem to have. There are no complaints and I just want to keep doing music and having a good time.

On interacting with fans on twitter:
You know, it's cool because I just started talking to some people there and they got me verified. I find that as cool because there are not a lot of metal guys on there. I mean, some bands are on there. I saw Slayer's on there, Dave Mustaine's on there. But they aren't really interacting with the fans. So I just try to do something different and I do a lot of Q&As, and I have to total of 25000 followers now, so it's cool!

On taking part in the Black Flag tribute tonight with DevilDriver:
DevilDriver learned a bunch of songs and I'm singing "Thirsty And Miserable" which Hatebreed recorded on the "For The Lions" album which came out in 2009. But it's fun, I watched Max Cavalera sing "Six Pack" and it sounded amazing!

Final word:
Thank you man, thanks for all that you do with your website to support metal. It's really cool.

9. Robb Flynn & Dave McClain (Machine Head)

On the Golden Gods event:
It's awesome. It's such a good thing for metal and rock to have these kinds of events. The press and media that probably wouldn't give a crap otherwise, are out here to cover it (laughs).

On the upcoming Mayhem Fest:
Really excited, man. Mayhem is a great festival. We did it in 2008. It was an amazing vibe and they took really good care of us. They've got a good thing going.

On the next album:
It'll be out in September. So no new album for Mayhem. We're going to be playing a new song every day, may be like switch up the songs. We're just trying to get out there and create a buzz for the record. We're recording right now. We've been writing for the past 10 months and demoing a lot of stuff.

On the possibility of a Machine Head headline tour:
Soon (laughs). After the album is out.

On tonight's line-up:
I'm excited about Avenged Sevenfold. DevilDriver is doing a pretty cool thing with the Black Flag covers, and William Shatner is in the house. He's just going to fucking rule everyone.

On K.K. Downing's retirement:
I'm totally shocked! That's the first I've heard of that. I didn't know that at all. That sucks. That's my dude right there! I love the Priest guys, they've been super nice to us, man. But that's really surprising, I'm really shocked.

10. Michael Poulsen (Volbeat)

On performing tonight:
I'm having a bit of a hard throat right now but I'll try to be ready for the show (laughs).

On the ongoing tour:
The tour has been great. It's been the greatest tour here ever. We've had great support and all the shows have been sold out, so we cannot ask for more. We have a great band with us, The Damned Things. They are great guys and everything is going really good. So we are feeling really good over here.

On The Damned Things:
I had their record before we went on tour with them, spinning it in my car stereo, and I love it. It's a great band.

On a Volbeat-Motorhead tour in the future:
That would be cool, you know. Why not go on tour with our father? Lemmy is cool (laughs). That would be one of the dreams coming true. It would be great.

On the event tonight:
It's a great moment for us to be among those great bands, have the opportunity to share the stage with them, so it's a great accomplishment.

11. Scott Travis (Judas Priest)

On whether he's as shocked as everyone else at K.K.'s decision:
Oh yes, I sure am. Everyone has been asking me about it but then K.K. is a legend so I do expect everyone to ask me about it.

On what this means to the farewell tour:
I think we'll go as long as we want to go. It's up to everyone in the band. It's a five member unit and I'm going to hopefully rock when Priest decides to give it up. I want to stick around and do what I can do. We're all lucky to do this to begin with. It's a gift to be able to make music, travel the world, meet fans and do everything else.

On what he plans to do after Priest's tour:
I don't know, I'm just going to continue rocking my guts out like I do and hopefully something will come around the corner and I'll keep rocking.

On the possibility of Racer X doing something ever again:
I think it's over, but I hope we do.

12. Jose Mangin (Program director, Sirius XM)

On being part of this event:
Dude, I love being an ambassador to this music. It means so much to me in my life, to be in a position where I'm able to support it in big ways, honest ways and loving ways because we're fans of the music, not because somebody's telling us what to play, and to be out here third year in a row doing all the interviews for Revolver TV and Sirius XM, I mean these are all my friends. I'm next to one of my friends right now, Robb from Machine Head. I made this dude right here a home made dinner couple of weeks ago at my house. I went and picked him up, made him a dinner, got him wasted and took him back to the hotel room. The scene is so important to me, I love moving it forward and being out here. It's a beautiful thing.

Last year's DimeBash experience:
That was one of my favorite experiences ever. Phil Demmel from Machine Head and me were on stage. We were singing Pantera's "Mouth Of War" on stage at the DimeBash 2010 at the Key Club. It was Chuck Billy and I on vocals, Joey from Slipknot on drums, Phil from Machine Head & Nick Bowcott on guitar and Tony Campos on bass. We were doing the first song of the Pantera tribute and after the solo, Phil turned around quick with this Dean Razor that he was playing on, and he nailed me on the back of the head. I kept on singing and I thought I was sweating, but it was just blood pouring all down my face, neck, all over the microphone and my hand, and it was just cool. Chuck Billy named it the "Dime gash at the DimeBash". I went backstage because I was bleeding pretty bad and was holding a towel next to my head. I took my towel off and it was Jerry Cantrell and Lemmy who inspected my cut, and told me that I was cool to go on. So thanks to Dr. Cantrell and Dr. Lemmy, I could continue hosting the event.

On promoting smaller bands on Sirius XM:
Dude, we cover the gamut of everybody. We have small indie bands that we do play, but there's also a lot that we don't. Sometimes it's definitely hard to get to everything but I think we do a good job. We don't have a local show or an unsigned show. What we do is we mix everything in together. So it's like, it could be Slayer straight into a band from New York called The Judas Syndrome. No one really knows them but we play their songs all the time. So we do both. Obviously we lean towards the Slayers and the Panteras because they are the nucleus, but we definitely expand as much as we can, and I think we're doing a really good service for metal music.

13. Steven Adler (Adler's Appetite)

On the upcoming US tour:
We're starting the tour on May 5th at the Brixton in Redondo Beach. We have 40 dates after that. Beautiful tour bus, traveling around the country playing great shows every night. We'll turn it up by playing the Appetite songs as well as other stuff. We sound better than ever right now. We have the three Adler's Appetite singles on iTunes, "Stardog", "Fading" and "Alive" releasing May 5th as well. My book "My Appetite For Destruction" comes out on paperback on May 17th. I'm very excited about it. The book talks about all of my life in rock and roll.

On tonight's event:
I'm here to support my brother Duff McKagan. He's playing with Loaded, so I'm here to check that out, see Alice Cooper and hang out. We should be on the show. Not this year, but next year would be sweet.

14. John 5 (Rob Zombie)

On tonight's event:
I love these events. They're fun and it's just like a big crazy awards show. I get to see all my friends and get to hear some great music.

On being nominated in the Best Guitarist category:
It's great. I'm so happy to be nominated. You know, it's all I do. I just sit around and play guitar all day. It's great to be recognized for that.

On the Alice Cooper Group:
It's amazing. I did see them before, when they did this thing called "Christmas Pudding" that Alice Cooper puts on. It is so weird to see it. So it is going to be incredible. It's such a great band and it's awesome to see that history. It's really fun.

On other bands playing tonight:
I don't know anyone else who's playing, but I'm definitely glad to be here and see them.

On new drummer Ginger Fish:
We're really happy to have Ginger. I played with him before obviously, and he's a great addition.

On solo album plans:
I have a new record coming out soon, called "God Told Me To". It's going to be great!

15. Chris Broderick (Megadeth)

On K.K. Downing's retirement:
You know, I haven't had much time to think about it but if he decided to retire I'm sure he's thought about what's going to make him the happiest, and I just wish him the best. Their music lives on in every way so I hope he has a great time from here on out.

On the original Alice Cooper Group:
That's probably the big draw for me tonight, to see the original line-up and see Alice with them. I've actually seen Alice many times with the line-up he had in the past few years. They were great, they were awesome. But this definitely has me curious to see how well it's going to come off tonight. I'm sure it's going to be great.

On touring non-stop and Saturday's Big Four show being the last Megadeth show for a while:
Yeah, you're at every one of our shows and it's awesome (laughs). But yeah this should be our last show for at least two months because then we go on to Mayhem Festival and we play that.

On the status of the next Megadeth album:
We have a ton of material and basically we go into the studio after this weekend to start really hitting the record button on it and we're just kind of assembling everything together at this point.

16. Chino Moreno (Deftones)

On tonight's event:
Yeah, it's nice man. A bunch of good people and nice friends. I'm presenting an award and then I'm nominated for a couple of awards.

On what Deftones has been up to:
We're on tour. Last night we played in Vancouver and tomorrow night we play in Salt Lake City, so I'm here just for the night and we got out again after which I'll have a couple more months of touring ahead of me.

On ast year's BlackDiamondSkye tour:
It was fun. Alice In Chains are good dudes and Mastodon is great. They are very different bands but it all worked together and I think it was a great tour.

On who he's most excited to see tonight:
The Alice Cooper Group. That's the one, for sure.

17. Josh Barnett (MMA wrestler)

On this event:
It's three years in a row for me. It's a big metal party. How could I miss it? It's one of the very few opportunities when I get to see all my friends because they're either on tour or live in some other part of the country. So it's nice to have them all here at one place at the same time.

On going to metal shows:
I go to shows quite often. I'm going to Amon Amarth on Sunday. I'll miss the Big Four because I've got to fight for a title that night in Pomona. I respect the cage so I won't get that chance. The last show I went to was Abysmal Dawn, Decrepit Birth, Kataklysm and those other bands. It was a great show and I'll also try to go see All That Remains when they come to town.

On upcoming shows he wants to go to:
I've never seen Amon Amarth, so as I said, that's one. My boys in All That Remains always put on a good show. I want to see Symphony X too when they come through town. That's going to be fun. But I'm most excited to be throwing this show at the House Of Blues on May 26th, in a relief effort for Japan. All the money will go to the Red Cross and we have a badass line-up of All Shall Perish, Animals As Leaders, Cattle Decapitation, Abysmal Dawn and Internal Corrosion. I just got a solid line-up so that I could come and announce it here. We're working more on it and we've got some big people behind us helping us out like ESP and Strike Force who are doing good things. Hopefully soon I can get tickets out there so that they can be sold.

On getting to see the original Alice Cooper Group:
I'm just glad I'll be able to see something that I wasn't old enough to see in its heyday.

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