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I can't believe I've been doing this show for like 10 years and that we've never done this before. I know. We are, dude. Right? It seems long overdue. I know. It seems long overdue. But it's huge news right now just to jump right into it, man. A billion with a B. A billion streams of last resort. That is absolutely unbelievable to have that number. That blows me away, man. It really does, man. It's like kicking it off with that, right? That's like, bam! That's just, it's a love,
man. You know, we made it in. It's like, we made an impression on pop culture with a track like last resort. They're really just infected. The masses. And it's like, I'm just so grateful because it just keeps connecting in just a real and authentic way. I mean, really and truly it's like it just spans generations now and kids, young people can identify. And it could be a song you could jam too. You know what I mean? Like you just jam
out to it and just get pumped up to it, right? Or you can dive deeper in it. You know, you heard that one that Ronnie Radke from Falling in Reverse did the reimagination of last year. No, I haven't heard it. No, I know Ronnie Weldo, but I haven't heard his reimagination. I don't sleep on it, man. It's like, I got to tell you it's like his version cuts to the heart of the lyric. Right. You know what I mean? Like it's like, it expresses what the lyric is saying, the music is.
And he just connects the dots so well on that version. And it's really cool. It's good, man. It keeps rearing its head. We did a thing with that kid, Jerry's Johnson too, a reloading thing for the song. So we've celebrated it multiple times. So thank you for shining the light on that. It's amazing to me because like you said, you mentioned it's part of pop culture, fabric in this, you know, in this generation and the previous, we were looking at like, you
don't stop believing or jump or something like that. It's like it's right in there in that category, man. My word. I'll go with that. Yeah, go with that one. It's funny. Do you remember? He got your own sound effects, even. I need to horn. Yeah. When you remember about writing that song and of course, it's the eternal question. Did you know you had something special when you were putting it together? Because this is very early on in your career. It's 20, almost 25 years old now at this point.
Yeah. So it was the original form of it was Tobu was playing it on his piano at his mother's house. We were there. And I think we were like stealing vodka from his mom's little, who was trying to play in piano and thinking we were cool. And he started playing that thing. And I was just like, what's that? That is because it almost reminded me of like when you play it on piano, like a Fuji's line. Remember Fuji's. It was me of something
like that. And then when you put it, we were like, we got to bring that in the rehearsal spot. So we brought it into the rehearsal spot. Jerry started playing it on guitar. And then you know, we're laying the groove down and we all look at each other. We're like, oh dang, this is a vibe. This is like, it's got that gangster swagger to it with something that's like, there's fire in it. And I remember our manager sitting it coming at the end of
rehearsal and we were we're riffing it. Any coldies all that's that's what I call a noodle right there. That's a noodle guys. This thing is just noodle and you keep doing that. And I remember it was so special. I didn't have the right lyric for it. And then there was another song I was we had worked on at the same time, but it had the lyrics, the intro
cut my life into pieces, you know, the intro part. That was on another song. And I was like, I'll flip it on this one and then just see if the band can, if it jives and they fit on each other. And it was like, when we did that, we were all like, hold on, we on to something now. It's funny. When you hear that guitar part, it always reminded me a little
bit of how it would be that name iron made everybody. Yeah, right, right. That's why I tell the true story and it's trippy because we were we kind of got flack for that for a while and I'll be honest at the time I wasn't a maiden fan. I kind of like went over my head. I was like poison guns and roses, Fugazi, deft tones. I was like my my arc, right? And so they kind of went over, they went over my head until I was an adult and we were
compared to them. And then we started doing festival slides. Like, oh, this is sick and I can tell you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's all that like Baroque, you know, that those chord progressions from like the Baroque era and that symphonic era, yeah, that influenced that power metal, you know what I mean? Which then it's like, it sounds the same and I was like, all right, that's dope. Like we got reference to something not even intentionally.
It opened up to a mast though because metalheads were like, oh, hold on, this is sick, it's sold to him. Yeah. You know what I mean? Or Brian from A7X. He's like, I taught that rip to you. You can't even I can't even count how many kids I taught that rip to because he was a hard teacher. You know what I mean? And so these cats were like, yeah, it was like you mentioned, you didn't even realize that that was kind of the appeal when that song
came out because I am a maiden fan. I was like, oh, this is really cool. Kind of incorporating, you know, obviously it's not a rip off, but it's got a little bit of a guitar part you can hook yourself into because there was still at the time it was more of a, almost you mentioned, deft tones, more of a deft tones type feel a little bit crappy, but the guitar part kind of opened the door to more of the metal side as well.
Oh, yeah, dude. And that like, which was a prelude to us years later going out on tour with Iron Maiden in Europe. It was mastodon, pop a roach, Iron Maiden. And I like, I got to tell you, I was so nervous because I'm like, all right, mastodons like this freaking crazy wild metal band. We're this kind of like metal band that at the time, maybe we were releasing scars or no, we were releasing, here's the story. So we're all nervous, right?
We're getting ready to go play with Iron Maiden. We're the band right before them. And mastodon just rips it. We open up with Tooby Loved, right? So Tooby Loved was the theme song from Monday Night Raw for quite time. That's right. That's right. And so that was like, that opened us up to a whole broad fan base, right? When we were in that pop culture moment with that song, it was like, oh, it was hot. When we go out, we open the song with Maiden.
And the crowd just is singing along and going crazy. And I'm going, the bands looking at each other like, this wasn't, I didn't expect this. What is happening, right? Like in the show and we like continue, we had a great show. Like 45, they give us 45 minutes, maybe on the deck. And we just bashed it, right? We played Blood Brothers, some of the old school stuff that, you know, that, smash your stuff yourself in the face vibe, you know? And
I got off stage and I was talking to a couple people after the show. My, I just was very surprised is how how this crowd really took to us. And they were like, oh, well, in Germany, the metalheads, we love WWE Raw. That is the theme song. And like, so a lot of German metalheads also love wrestling. That culture is alive there. And so that was like a through line for us into that culture. It was just trippy how those things work out, right?
Yeah, it went over really well, you know, and Tony got to our drummer Tony Polarama got to beat one of his idols. You know what I mean? And they go and like, it was, it was a vibe. Yeah, it's intimidating. We've opened for Iron Maiden before too. And it's one of those things where Iron Maiden crowds, they want to see Iron Maiden. So it is a little bit intimidating to go do that, that task. We did it with Guns and Roses too, man. And we actually got a
compliment from Axel. Oh, wow. Yeah, man. He gave us a compliment and it was after our show in Puerto Rico, we did a performance there and we bust into scars in Spanish and the place. And there was an overall vibe at the Guns and Roses shows. We were rocking the crowd, you know, and really and truly what Axel was saying to us, he's like, hey guys, it's not often that a band comes through and really rocks our crowd. Good on you guys.
Shout out to you guys, you rock. You know, and it was like it was a cool way to end up the tour with them. And those are daunting tasks to step into those spaces. But you know what people, let's go scrap them up. Let's ride. Let's go. You know, we cooped up. But that's what you got to do. And it's interesting too, that's cool for those bands to have a pop-a-roach opening for them because it's still rock and roll, but it's a little bit
of a different style, a little bit of a different generation. But once again, you got to challenge them as much as they're challenging you. Yeah. And we're seeing the new generation of bands. Right. We're seeing what's this new wave of rock and metal that's coming up, bare to bad omens, bring me to horizon. I'll start with these. That's pretty good.
And that whole next wave of music that's coming in. So it's like, yeah, well, because, you know, for as fuzzy too, you know, we're coming up on our 25th anniversary and you guys are as well. It's like we've become kind of the newer, especially you with all the number of people that you've been wanting to have. It's like you're, you're now becoming on classic rock. You don't look exactly. No, I look this good in a classic rock, baby. That's fine.
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Thank you. Yeah. Thank you, man. We're grateful for what we've been able to maintain out in this rock climate and rock world and rock fellowship, rock spirit, rock culture. It's a hard thing we do out here, right? Oh, it is. It's a grind. But it's a joyous grind for me because it is its purpose driven. You know what I mean? This music, it really means something to us. It's not like we're just getting in and trying to right throw away music.
I want to write music that really just moves. People touches people. Moves me. You know what I mean? Like just being vulnerable in the music is powerful. And I think that's been one of the threads that's been able to connect us really deeply with our fan base. Well, and you have once again, because with all the number one songs you have and the top five songs that you have, I mean, you are a radio band now to where whatever you put out
goes right to the top just because it's Papa Roach. I'm here and what you're saying. And it's really and truly it's blown me away right now because on our album, Ego Trip, the one we really think about a year and a half ago, we've had four number ones on this album. That's incredible. And that's crazy. And you know, it's like we've had, you know, and sometimes it's like the game and rock in a way it almost seems like right now. It's
like you run it up to number one and it just goes away. It's like a faster kind of rise and fall of a song. Whereas the way that we wrapped up this campaign with Leba Light on, we got to stick around on the number one for like three weeks. And that was a statement for us, you know, like a nice way to go out as an independent endeavor, right? With new noise records releasing Ego Trip and doing that. It's like quite an accomplishment. And
I'm like, so proud of my team. Everybody, my collaborators, my management, my, my brothers in the band, the people who do the art, like everybody, it's just been like we've built this family now of creative people that we're all pushing towards this goal, my social media team, you know what I mean? Like I got all this, what I love about is I've been
able to surround myself in just like my creative people. Right? And when you get in a room and you're coming up with these ideas for marketing and stuff like that, it's just, it gets exciting. It's like, all right, cool. Now we're like the song is starting to move. We just cracked into the top 20 at alternative radio. We haven't done that with, you know, with a song in like 15 years, we've kind of been exiled from the format just because of
the style change over there. And that's okay. You know, but we have a song that kind of crosses over. So now it's moving over there. And we're like, oh, wow, that's kind of cool. But really the song, it's, it's the depth of the song that I think is doing the work and we're partnered with a charity, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. And we started raising money last year and we're like creeping up on 200 K donations
of, you know, our funds, P Roach, you know what I'm saying? Like we're don't straight to them and they do such a good work, a great work for the people, you know, in the bereavement of people dealing with suicide and also the care for people that are struggling with suicide ideation and, you know, you can dial up 988, right? It's, I say it's that easy, but it's not that easy sometimes. Oh, letting your wall down, I'm really going, yo, I need
help. But it's letting people know that that service is available to them at any moment at any day with no judgment upon you, only looking for the welfare of you and the love and care and service to you. And that's what I want to be part of. And that's the movement
of the song, you know, you've a light on. And I think that's what's, that's what's making the mood for us right now is this music that's purpose driven that is, that we're just so passionate about as a, as a creative group of pop, as popoloch, you know, how did you get involved with the suicide prevention group as a, it was close to the heart of the band or absolutely. I mean, from the beginning, right? Last resort was a call, a cry for help.
It was a song about my best friend, you know, I saw my best friend go through this downward spiral. I wrote the song in first person, right? But the song is about my best friend when I was like 18, tried to kill himself multiple times over. And it was just horrific. And I lived together, right? And it was very traumatic, very traumatic. The beauty in the story is that he survived. He found God and he's on his path, right? That's the beauty of the
story that people don't know, right? That's the end to the story. But I've had my battles of mental health way back. I really had some deep, deep struggles back in like 2004 and 2010, 11. Those were like 2010 and 11 were very, very dark times for me. But I came through, you know, and I got my life right. I put the bottle down, finally, that was a real,
real big part for me, you know? But in the story of that, right? Like, and leave a light on, I had dudes reaching out going, hey, man, if you need the help or what, we got you, no matter what, we got you. We're here for you. And that's, I've lived both sides of the story of leave a light on, right? Where I've been able to be there for somebody through their darkest hour or somebody's been with me through my, one of my darkest hours, you
know? And I think that that lived experience in music and putting that message out there that saying, hey, no matter what, like, I got you, I got your back. I'm here. It gets like it boys going away to college, right? Living in the world, going in and living life. And it's like, I wrote that for them, you know? Really? And truly, was it hard to, to, to kick the bottle, as you mentioned while you're still on the road? Did you have to take
time off the road to do that? That was like from 2004 to 2012. It was a eight year battle back and forth. Two years sober off the wagon. Six weeks sober off the wagon for a week, back on for three months, back off for a month. You know, it was just a good work for so long. And then it got really bad and in 10 and 11. And then finally in 12, I just was like, I'm done. Like, couldn't, you know, and it just was a real hard struggle. Being
out there on the road, it's like easy to get fall into that stuff, you know? And until I finally was just like, all right, enough. Like, I can't, I can't take it anymore. Well, like you said to you, when you're on the road, there's so much time to kill, you know what I mean? And you get into the habit of like, I got nothing to do. I'll just have a drink after the show, you know? Hey, bro, it's a fast forward button. Let's not, let's
not fool ourselves. You know what I'm saying? It's a fast forward button out there. It really does. And that part of it, like, I had to fill it up with, all right, let me get on my bicycle and just go be Freddie Mercury out there by bicycle and go see Europe, you know? Covert, you know, throw on just throw on a cowboy hat, you know, so nobody knows me. I'd be like, oh, it's a cool, you know what I'm saying? I'm just out here
doing my thing. I'm just doing it. He's got props, cowbells and cowboy hats and everything, which, which is fits because you're from Vacaville, which of course is Spanish for cow. You're from cowville. I'm from countdown, man, straight up. For real, no lie. If anybody can claim it, I can. I came up, you know, it's like on a Saturday night, you can go out cow tipping. You really can, too. I've driven through there many times. We did. Yeah, doing
another thing I did just growing up in Vacaville. That was kind of funny is I live by this big old hill and it had no trees on it or anything was completely clear and it just had weeds growing on it. And you get cardboard and you go down this. Oh, nice. Dude, it ripped. And this thing was literally like 150 yards long. Like it went from the top. So yeah, man, I was like, I was on some like country boys living type shit, you know, no shoes. I've
been doing this podcast, like I said, for over 10 years. I've never discussed cow tipping. Tell us exactly how that works. I've seen it in Tommy boy, but I've never actually done it. That's at night. That's at night when there's and they some of us stand up, they're stand up, sleeping and you and your friend, you just roll up on it and sometimes it's like on there like kind of on this a little. It's a little gigging these little like the paths,
like paths to go up hills will be like sideways and they'll dig them in the ground. So they be standing on that. So you can get on the high side of them and just you and your friend, you're like, two, three, cool. Yeah, that's so cool. Dude, I just got canceled right now. Peter's coming. There's no cow. The cow got up just fell over on its side. It's probably like, what the fuck you doing man? Why you waking me up? Hey man, it was it was like. Oh,
I got back. Oh my gosh. The stuff that you do in your kids right while I grip on Winnipeg, we used to just walk around in minus 30 weather with a stolen bottle of vodka and pass it back and forth and then go home. Yeah, that's right. That's right. You know it dude. I know I got my I had a old merch guy that ran with us for quite some time from Winnipeg. You got me a jetz jersey with my last name on it. All right on, right on. Yeah. At Alma, we
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fit. Visit helloalma.com slash therapy 60 to schedule a free consultation today. That's helloalma.com slash therapy 60. I remember when I first started reading about you guys in like Metal Edge magazine or whatever it was. You had a different name for a while. It's like Kobe. Kobe Dick. Yeah, man. With the name like Jacobi Shaddex is one of the coolest rock names ever. You changed it to Kobe Dick. What was the reason for that? So you know my friends,
they all called me Kobe for short, right? And I had my girlfriend at the time who then, well she was my fiance at the time who's my wife. I've married to her for 26 years. She co-signed for this big old 15 passenger, big old white van for us to put our equipment in and go do our little weekend warrior runs. And we called it Moby Dick. My nickname was Kobe. Then I became Kobe Dick. This was Kobe Dick. And I was like, ooh, we got Kobe Dick, Bobby Dick. You know what
I'm saying? And so we get that thing and just go, go hit the shows and do that. And that's how I, you know, I just kind of had this kind of grimey like a little more street kind of attitude because you know at the time I'm like, I'm promoting my band with flyers and I got a boom box and I'm at shows and I'm like, you doing this shit face to face. You had
to have this got Ace Mother's swagger to do it. Like how, how did you know how to add, enough attitude to pull up on the line going to wait to watch corn to have your own boom box selling your shit for five bucks to the people pop a roach, five bucks, pop a roach, five bucks. And I, you know, I'm like, they're like, who is this guy? I'm like, Kobe Dick, what's up? At your service, pop a roach, five bucks. Check it out. Wow. You know, and that's,
that was the spirit of me. So the name fit, you know, when it was like, then I had a little Johnny Baca swagger for a while. And that's when I was running with like Jamie from Hey Breed and Corey from slipknot and, you know, we were all as fast as that out just sideways, you know, hanging out with Sid, burning myself with cigarettes, just being crazy. You know, like, Sid's looking at me like, what's wrong with you? I'm like, I don't know. I just ran
a month for a while. I got crazy out there. So Kobe Dick really fit. I lived up to it. I was like, I had this internal desire to like self destroy weird way in this like self anarchistic view of myself. It was really like, like an extension of just fear in my life. And then I was like, after the first record, the band was very in a point where we were like, all right, the spotlights on us. Oh my God. Like the pressures too much. Like, we
want to be just a real rock band. How do we prove ourselves? How do we shed this shell a little, you know, not just be the broken homeboys? Because that's like spin dubbed as the bro, you know, the cover of the magazine, it just called as broken homeboys. And then it was like, I mean, I get it. It's a good tagline, but it's kind of like a little disrespectful right, right. And, you know, so there came, I realized like, my name is dope like, all
right, I'm gonna change my name. That's my name. Let's go. You know, I'm gonna become a father, you know, and that kind of came around too. And I did one of my son. I didn't want to have my kid be like, different last name than me. Sure, sure. Yeah. Who are, I'm stepdad. No, I'm his dad. So that hints all that, you know, and thank you, man. Thanks for the compliment. Shout out to my parents for being creative. Right, right, right, right,
right. They were hippies. They have very interesting life, man. They had a very interesting vision on what life could be. And where it actually ended up was kind of tragic, but, you know, they had an interesting vision on the world. And I was born into that. When you mentioned it, you're walking the line at the corn show and promoting the band. Where is that? Obviously, Vacaville is kind of in between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Which
way did you go going to Oakland? We're going to San Francisco. We're going to Sacramento. Gotcha. Corn came and did like a autograph signing, got a tower records. Literally, I lived like probably about eight minutes down the road from it now. The tower records. And that's where I would go. I went in Boombox. They're lying to go to their autograph signing and their show in Oakland. I am lit biscuit, too. I did theirs. I remember I went
and I was like backstage at the lit biscuit show I never met for a before. And I walked up to them and I grabbed this can go off his head. And I was all, what's that rat? Drop it back on his head. I was like, I was like, I'm going to go be gay. You know, I was like, I was cookie like that. I kind of like was very like a little over the line. You know,
that's what it took to get to be recognized in the shirt and the ground scene. Like I was a character on the real like I was a dude that would come out on stage back in the day. Like before we were signing, I have a painting and then like cut the whole out and put my head through it and come out on stage and just be like, I am art. You know, it's like I would get weird. I was it was fun like discovering who I was as an artist when I was younger.
See, but that's what people want to see. Sometimes it's misconstrued as like as being, you know, having a big head and being, you know, having a big ego or whatever it may be, but it's confidence. You know, it's like we wanted to be fucking Eddie, you know, it will want to be Mick Jagger or David Lee Roth or Freddie Mercury or Bruce Dickinson. Like that's who we wanted to be as a frontman. So you got to have that charisma and that
character. But sometimes people take it as as for us as if this guy is too much, man. Yeah. I think it's if you're a little too much, it works for us. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think we're busting at the seams. It's like, ah, there's too much here. I need to share. But that's what people want to see. They want to see a larger than life performer. You have the party host on stage for sure. Absolutely, man. I mean, it's like watch that like on
Queen when they did Wembley Stadium. Live 8? No. After. He was wearing all white. Yeah, okay. Yeah. Yeah. That's the next tour after that. Yeah. Yeah. When he was wearing all white. And it was just, he had his, the tassels around his arms and he was, ah, that was the, in my opinion, the performance of a lifetime. I watch that thing many times over and it was just like a dude in, in his prime. Yeah. He made a stadium feel like a club. You know what I mean?
Totally. Wow. I've watched the Live 8 gig probably 50 times. That's one of my favorite gigs of all time. I gotta go watch Live 8 then. I gotta get into it. It's 20 minutes long and it's just body, blow, body, blow, body, blow, head shot. Get the f*** out of here. And there's one point where he's standing there and he just turns around and bends over in front of the crowd for no reason. Just, just, just, just, just, just, bending over. Yeah, man.
But that's, that's kind of, so what was kind of the first big break for you guys when, you know, now you're, you've got your ghetto blaster and your, you know, Kobe Dick, five bucks and all that stuff. Yeah. What kind of was the first step to get to the next level? The first step to the next level was, we were sending our stuff to like a century media records. Yeah. We started. Um, blast. I think it was like all these like metal ones and then road runner,
water brothers and we really got a lot of feedback in the process. Oh, it's not this. What's the image of the band? You know, we didn't have any, right? We're just rocking Dickies and, and then to open our bass players stole a Johnny Cash cassette on a trip to LA one time and we heard the man in black for the first time. We all looked at each other like, that's it. Black Dickies. It's on. Let's go. You know, right? And so that was our image, right?
So then we had an image and we were going down to Hollywood playing free Monday nights at the Trubodor and then also doing shows at the Roxy and the Whiskey. There was another one Biperoom, but true free Monday nights at the Trubodor was really our spot. Then we got some interest from Warner Brothers and a guy named Jeffrey Weiss. He signed us to a demo deal and we played with Jay Baumgardner and we recorded last resort, Broken Home, Infest. She loves me not
and I think dead cell. And then in the process of doing that, he got fired. And I'm like, almost there. We were almost Warner Brothers. Like I felt like we had the songs. And then this guy Ron Handler, once we got passed on, came down to the studio. We were mixing the songs, which was like, we're going to mix these and we're going to release these because these aren't going to sit around. This is hot. And we got signed into Dreamworks. It was a San Luis Obispo. I remember sitting
we played this place called Slow Brew. And we were standing around and this guy, Ron Handler and my wife, she's sitting there with me, the bands all, out of around our management's here. And it was on the verbal, you know, went on the handshake right there. He's like, guys, like I really, I really want to sign you guys. Like if you will accept this offer, like I really, really want to work with you guys. This is, I just feel like we could really do
something great with you guys. And we all stood there in that circle and we're just like, our minds are blown. And then a, you know, contracts came along and they were good contracts and there we went off to the races, bro. Enough to the races. It's interesting though, you know, the way things have changed, you know, in the last 25 years or so, you mentioned that you put up the new record ego trip on your own. You said independently, is this your own label or kind of what?
This is our label that we use artists services through ADA, which is a arm of water. Okay. And so they have a promotions department, a radio department, media, like, you know, social media marketing. We have our own social media marketing and marketing and radio on our side. So we combine our teams together and build a bigger vision. That's how we get the work done. And we do that domestically and internationally. And it's been great for us, honestly. It really
has. And now we're looking like, all right, well, maybe we're going to go sign some bands. Like, I'm looking for some, some new talent. Really, that's right. That's what we're looking for too. And so that's an exciting part of the piece of the puzzle that we will navigate into as, you know, we build and grow this thing. And also, you know, P-Roads, we're writing new music. And so it's just a real good
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for the rest of your life. Redeem your 50% off at rosettastone.com slash RS10 today. It's interesting how people consume music now with you can use a record label, you can be independent, you can stream, you can go on radio. I mean, there's so many ways to get your music out there in this day and age. Yes, absolutely, man. And I think all those lanes are just so
important. I was talking with Brent from Cheyenne down and he's like, you know what radio has been able to radio does that the internet doesn't right now and he's like, radio is built legends. It did, man. It really did. The legends of Led Zeppelin, sure, all of that. We're kind of on the tail end of that because I mean, rock radio is still going to be a thing. I'm saying, but it's like the new ways that people consume. Now people are going into the
VR world and I'm just like, Oh, God, where's this thing going? Right. Come back. Come over here. I go over here. The sun is shining. Look. Can you not see? I don't know. But that's the truth though if you've talked to Matt from avenged, I mean, they're all into the NFTs in the virtual reality world and all that sort of cyberspace music. I would really like to sit with Matt and have a wrap with him on that. I think it would, you know, they've always kind of had their own vibe and done their
own thing and been innovative, even with their style and sound and look. And so I'm interested to see what they're doing. You know, it's just, it's so born to me right now. All of this be great. Right? It's this to the whole world and the other thing. I don't even know what is the verse. Yeah, the stock you've had the cyberverse. I don't even know what to do. They're all still going to be out of the room. But the thing with rock radio though, like I never realized how
important rock radio still is until we started getting played on rock radio. I mean, it's massive. I wouldn't even do it. So huge for the bands, for all of us to get that play in those spins. It's been such a great part of our career, you know, having these partners and people that have believed in us and given us a shot. Even in areas of our career where we weren't so hot and, you know, but we still had a shot to get on those formats and do that and put our music out there
and tour. And we've seen our business diminish at times. And we've seen our, you know, what we've done as a band and the influence of our music flourish, you know, and it's like, right now it feels like it's we're on rock in general is on the come up. It's like getting bigger and more exciting, more experimental, funner. And I'm the culture around it is building, which is rad. Kids are playing guitar and bass and drums. My little tenor, he's just obsessed about playing the drums in that
back of his script out there. His blue buds playing guitar. They got a bunch of other kids playing guitar and bass at the school of Rockets. Like it's like, there's this underbelly of it. I see from my perspective going, cool, man, there's like kids are feeling it. Do your kids like Pop Roach? Do they think it's cool? What you do or you just dad? Absolutely. They love the band and they dig what we do really and truly. And they've been honest with me at times. You're like, oh, that's
like, it's cool, but it's not it wasn't my favorite. You know, not everything I do is my favorite. Right. Right. You know, I get to the end of it. I'm like, I can move on and do something else and, you know, that's like, I think that's it as an artist, right? That's how you do it. You just keep evolving and keep pushing and pressing and you got new goals and new ideas and new visions and go get them. You know, when my kids are they're inspired on their own. You know, my boy Jagger,
my second born. He's 19 playing a college football and Hastings Nebraska. And an NAAA school, he's playing a runner back. It's the sophomore year next year, but he like, he's been playing grumps since he was a little guy. Love's playing metal, but also loves to play hip hop and also wraps, right? And so he's just been for the last four or five years writing wraps. He's like,
dad, check this one out. Yeah, check this one out. And he's, he's good. He's dope. My son is like, he's on that like era where I'm like, oh, because I remember when I was 19 and I, that's when I started to get like, oh, I'm starting to have a thing. You know what I'm saying? And that was like, I'm seeing that happen. My son, I'm like, oh gosh, but he's got such a better, better head on his shoulders than I did, I think. And so we'll see, we'll see how that goes down, but he loves,
he loves what he's doing and worries that in his life. And he takes my music and he's a musician himself. You know, my boy Brooks and he thinks I'm awesome. My oldest boy, McCale, he's always like and to talk about it because we've, you know, since his little baby coming out on the road. You mentioned before that the band has gone through high, high moments and lower moments. What do you do when you feel it? The band's at a lower moment. How do you build back up again? I think it's just
tenacity and just going out there and just keep taking another swing at it. That's been the thing for us and just keep pressing and pushing creatively and trying to convey your message. And then also, you know, sometimes it's just hard. It's like balancing all these things going on in our lives and trying to be present at home, but then also be a rock star and do that. And, you know, maybe it got harder at times for me than others. And so I, you know, maybe wasn't all the way present
in one space or the other all the time. And maybe that's why, you know, and so I think it's the tenacity, man. And also just trying new ideas, creatively marketing, you know, I think for us, when social media came around, we really kind of latched onto that and we had people around us encouraging that because I was the last, I was like, man, I don't want to have a Facebook page. I don't want to have a friggin' Facebook page. I don't want to, I don't, and the band had one and,
I was like, y'all could run it. That's cool. Like, come talk to me and I'll send a message to the people that don't. Let's go. And, and then I got into it, you know, then I got a Facebook page. I was like, oh my gosh, all my friends from high school are on your right. I'm like, have a high school, you know, you know, we can like, hey, hey, tripping out, you know.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that social media, man, that really did help us like, convey the message of our music clearly to our fans and really just go straight to wrecked and just have this conversation that we've built into something that's like very integral to how we market our music and how we connect with our fans and how we just kind of poke our head through the fabric of creativity and music and art and commerce that's going on out there. Like, how do you do that? The social media has
been a great tool for us. And so, you know, we're doing like top five, you know, top five records that we love or top five, things that you would do in a rolling stone magazine or, you know, questions that you would be asked from a thing. We're just bringing them to life on our social media. You know, it's like, we are our own rolling stone. Maybe not as cool as rolling stone, but is rolling stone cool anymore? I mean, anything cool anymore? I don't know. I mean, is my cool
ometer broken? Does it break at some point in your life? I don't know. Chris, like, I want, hey, he said things they think about in my room when I'm alone by myself, Chris. Dude's got more props than care top over here, man. It's great. It's real. I swear to you, these are not props. These are not, okay, can I explain these things? Please, you got the sunglasses, the blue, the blue, the blue, the blue. I was in Belize, right? I was in
Belize and I just needed some coverage. So I was like, let's just get these. They're like kind of like, but then I was like, they're kind of like the, the lawyer guy, the diamond guy, this guy, that guy, who's guy? You old guy. And then the cowbell literally is, I go see my kids play sports, and I forgot to bring my main cowbell. And so I had to go to Theson's in Iowa. And go get three of these. And it's just sit on my desk because I'm packing up to go to my next
trip. So I can't forget this. And then shit, what else? I mean, I got all these ones. I got all these ones because I don't know where I'm going. Strip club. No, this is gambling with the boys, but it could be used at a, this could definitely be used at a gentleman's club. You know, I could be, I could be real man. I cannot remember the last gentleman's club I've been in. And I've been to, and I used to go back to housing. It was like, oh, let's get booked. Me and my wife, we'd go to
them together. You know what I mean? Yeah, been a long time. This is actually, you know, what I'll do with this right here? I'll take and all these ones, I'll divvy them up. Like we'll be backstage with some friends. I'll divvy them up. So it's like my not fully money. And we'll do a Sealo. We'll row Sealo. So we're rolling dice, you know? Stuff you do to keep giving me news in the road. Yeah. Yeah. The cowbells, listen, natural prop is just in there. But I think it's
a good one. I think I need to start doing fully for my own interviews. It's good, man. Yeah, do your own fully. I think it's great. Be like a shot, wacky morning show DJ who has all of his own props and gimmicks there for everything. No, totally. Oh, the cowboy hat. The cowboy hat. Jalodahia. This is my son, Brixton. With threats to our nation waiting around every corner, adaptability is more important than ever. When conditions change without notice,
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Let's talk about odds fest. You mentioned early in the interview that you did odds fest and all that sort of thing. That was a huge deal back in the early 2000, especially for bands like yourself and disturbed and bands, you know, system of a down that run the rise. How important was odds fest for you guys to be involved with and how many years did you do them? We did it once and it
was sick. I think the reason we weren't asked back to do it again is because I incited a riot in New Jersey at the big old amphitheater out there and we took the we tore the place apart. And I got I got arrested. Wow. I tried to evade the cops. It was a whole thing like I jumped in the trunk of my an ours town car after we got off stage and evaded left and they got a hold to him and said New Jersey state police said if you don't bring yourself back, you have to bring
yourself back and surrender yourself. So I got arrested. Love of that. dealt with that. Was banned from the venue for a long time, but dude Sharon Osborne just chewed my ass out. Oh, I can only imagine she's terrifying. Cops were like trying to get pictures and shit and Sharon was like, rightfully and she handed chewed me up, spit me out, handed me my own ass, right? And I needed it. I just needed that like reality checker like, yo, she's like, dude, you're
in your prime and this kind of behavior isn't a fuck at all up for you. You know what I'm saying? Right. And she just read me the riot act and was, you know, pretty much like you and you're welcome, boy. Yeah. And I was like, you know what? And after a few days, you know, it's simmers down and I went back and chatter with her and I'm like, you know what? Thank you. Like I needed that kind of check, you know what I mean? And after that, you didn't hear about my band doing crazy shit
to people and you know what I mean? Because I was like, Sharon's like, yeah, you can't remind your piece and I was like, oh shit. And that's kind of when I like got checked, I think. And so I don't think I was asked that because of that. But you needed that right? You know? Blood. No, but you need it. I remember we were, I was paying good lesson. I was hanging out with Zach at one of the San Antonio or something and we were playing baseball and I threw a pitch
any hit. You know, of course Zach carries a baseball glove and a bat with them on the road. So I threw a pitch out of me, hit it and it went over the fence into the parking lot. And it was like, home run and we're all, yeah. And then of course, here comes Sharon. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, if this, if this ball hits someone on the head, we can lose the health festival. And we're just like, oh my gosh, we're just terrified of Sharon. But she's right. Like she has to deal with all of us,
you know, and Ozzy as well. But you know, juvenile idiots. Yeah. And she's got to tell him the venue people going, why is your tour tearing up my venue? Right. So it was like, I, I finally was welcome back. I'm not banned from there anymore, which is great. But you know, now that you obviously, you're a business owner as well, you own the business of pop approach with the other guys. So you can kind of see it more from Sharon's side of the coin of like, yeah, man, that probably cost a
lot of money and a lot of bad publicity for Oz Fest. That matter if it's not my road to whoever it is, it's Oz Fest. Oh, it cost me a lot. Wow. Were they throwing the chairs in the air and stuff? The chairs sprinkler systems out of the ground. Like it was, it was insane. Mud, sod, tons of sod, the whole lawn chairs, trash cans, trash, everything. It was just like a bazaar. It was like the height of chaos in pop approach land. It was exciting. It was so fun.
Was there a time when you're like, oh, we've gone too far here? Or are you just digging in as a gluing? When I came off stage, I was like, I'm thinking I got to get the gott of here. Yeah. Like I can't hang around here. When I'm coming off stage, I was the first thing in my mind going, give me out of here. Somebody, I got to go. Yeah. I was on some like just full chaos and disruption. Did you have any interactions with Ozzy himself at all? Yeah, a couple times.
Came off. We played a show and it was just in the pouring rain. Kansas City, not Bonner Springs, but another one in that area out there. He's side stage and he's just getting drenched and he's just hanging out watching us. I'm like, yes, come off stage and I'm like, hey, great job. It comes up to me. It gives me the this and the that. He's drenched. I'm like, cool, dude. Like he came out here and got wet with that. That's cool. That was a real cool moment.
As we start to wind down, you mentioned before that your son wraps. When you first started with Popper, which you did a lot of wrapping, kind of that wrap rock, you mentioned death tones and corn. And you kind of moved on from that. Was that a conscious decision? Was it just a product of the times of doing that type of vocal delivery? Absolutely, man. I wanted to prove myself as a valid rock singer. That was a big goal through my career. I think throughout the career, I've been
able to do that. Now it's like even on some of our newer stuff, I'll throw wraps on it. We got a song called Killing Time on Ego Trip that do the sickest wraps I've written. Go check it out. It's like, I have spitting straight up. I still stay sharp. And I did that part about music. I still love that music. Will I put music out like that? Not necessarily, but I'm a fan. Sometimes I'll flex on it here and there. But for me, it's just that
melody. I can tell it. I feel like with my voice and what we do with Popper Roach, it's melodically is the coolest way to deliver what I'm trying to convey. Where I feel like I grabbed somebody by the strings. To me, that's what moves me the most right now. That's a little bit of screaming. I'm saying, I like in downless with screaming too. I just don't want to tear my
voice apart. Well, that's the thing. As you get more into it, you have to worry about your voice and the longevity and you still got to do four gigs a week or whatever it may be. Yep. I'm on that like three on one up, two on one up, two on one up, two on one up, three on one off, one on one up. Kind of that where it's no more than three ever. And there's not a lot of three in a row, is in a row. You know, more like on the two in a row and then a three in a row here
and there. That works well for me. That's a good touring vibe. You guys had some great, did some great business with falling in reverse, touring with them. Talk with them. I talked to Ronnie about, and he was super excited about going out with Papa Roach and you guys did a bunch of legs of this tour. He's the new generation, the front man who's got a little bit of fire behind us. Just a bad boy of rock, a dog. He's so talented, so charismatic and got such a
wicked wild story of life. And the trauma that that dude has survived and persevered and kept the attitude that he's been able to like persevere in his life and stick up for himself and like, clean his life up and shit like that. That's dope, dude. You know, it could have won another way with that dude. You know, absolutely. And so I celebrate where that dude is in his life and in his career. And I love touring with him, pushed me so hard because it's like, I got the young hot
fire and I'm playing after them, right? I'm headline in the show. You know, it was a co-headliner, but it's like, you're on last. He honored. He was like, we got you, Kobe, like, you the OG, I got you, you know, but he's that dude is blowing up. He's going to stratospheric, man, it's exciting. And I love watching that happen. And he deserves it. And yeah, man, and especially what he did with last resort and he did, you got to check out his reimagination. I will. Yeah,
like super emotional shows another side of Ronnie that is just it's so cool. And yeah, so that was a great tour for us and really opened us up to all his fans, two men and super receptive of us. You saw all our social media popping off, you know, I mean like new fans, new people. And so that's, to me, that's exciting, you know, it's like, I want a tour with that next way of motion, listen, why bring me the horizon. I don't want a tour of at almonds. I want to go do something with
bear to right. And it's cool because what I found out in those bands, a lot of those bands, bands was repping p-roach back in the day. They were like one of the first rock bands they knew or you know what I mean? Like right sure, sure. I played that when I was a kid, you know, shit like that. So it's like we're kind of having that full circle moment, but we still in the game killing it moment. Yeah, of course. It's a good place. It's a good job. I can't stop with the cowbell.
I apologize. No, man. It's part of it. It's part of the game. Gimmick now. This is it. Joe, we're the car tracks. Last few things. Ego Trip. You mentioned four number one singles. What a huge record for you guys. I mean, do you follow up quickly? Do you wait a bit? I mean, once again, it's a monstrous, a monstrous piece of wax for you. Yeah. So I'm going to visit my son for a few days. And then I've right after that, I'm going to going back in the studio and
write new music. We've got seven songs, seven pieces of music already in the in the can. We're not in the can necessarily, but like four of them probably could be finished up. Three of them are already finished. And so we have a good momentum of creativity that we really want to take advantage of. We really, you know, because we're not on the road. So it's good for us to get together and be creative and make music and just keep flexing that muscle because I think if
we don't, you lose it. And so we just were committed to, you know, once, once every like other month get together and write music together. And I think that that's going to make for by the end of this year's shoot, we'll have more than a record, you know, I feel like I mean, is it going to, is it all going to get released? Maybe some of it, we're going to co-write for other artists, you know, and some of it's going to be maybe we'll try to pitch it for a film or something like that,
or you know, maybe, maybe they're pop a roach. There's there are some that are definitely p-roach in the batch and then there are definitely some that we're like, oh, this is a bigger vision. And that's exciting in that way. And just, you know, I love the creative process still. I do. It challenges me. It makes me uncomfortable sometimes. It makes my skin crawl. It makes me want to like just run out of the room. I'm just like, just, I know it's, I'm right there. I just need like a nut,
just give me another model. It's right there. So I'm like I'm tapping on it. You know what I'm saying? When you're writing, it's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, and you're writing, you just feel like it's like, you gotta press just a little farther, so it's just gonna go on a walk, right? And it's like, you know, I just, I love that, that tension in the creative process, because you want to stay with the momentum of the creative process. And I love it because it
makes for special moments. And then those special moments arise. And me and the band, we're like, now we're on to something. Let's go down now. Right, right, right. I dig that, you know, and the throwaway stuff is the throwaway stuff. It's cool, man. It's all part of the process. So I relate so much of my life to that process. Yeah. You know, it's like, I'm trying to be the refined version of myself. And it's like writing a song is just my life as a song in a weird corny,
goofy way. No, it makes sense, though. It's to have a trouble trying to trim some of the fat, right? Last question for you, man. Is there, what's your favorite gig? Is there a gig that stood out for you as being the best one? And which one stands out as being your least favorite one? Well, let's start with least favorite gig. Oh, least favorite gig. So we're on stage and it's rock and ring. We just, yes, rock and ring. We just tool just went on and we are closing out the stage
that night. What's happening? You know, we're the late night band. Yeah, yeah. So we go up and it's probably midnight and it's just pouring. And we start having power issues. The PA is going down. All right, PA goes back up. We play another song and app. PA goes down. The crowd starting to get pissed. You know, you can't address the crowd because the PA damage no lights. And I'm just like, it's could have it was like the night before we had this pinnacle moment of our career, right?
At rock and park, which was insane. And now the next night we're getting rained out and all the power is going out. The crowd's getting pissed. Now they start throwing shit at the stage. Lighters, coins, beers, and we're, you know, finally, it was just like, what can we do? And it just they called the show that they were just like, that's it. Promoters out there. The promoters out there with all like a bag of foam trying to tell the people what it's like. Pelted with shit. And I'm standing
inside stage. I'm just like, man. So that's so now one of the best gigs, dude. And we I just, I'd like to promote this one straight up is pop a roach, hellfest 2023. It was just something magic in the vibe that day that was just the crowd. We were just so in with it. It was a great performance. The band performed great. The the sonics of the the sound recording were like hellfest, man. They got to dialed in that mode. That's great that they run like there's no
there's no after recording of this band. You go watch it's a live rock singer live rock band. You know, I'm saying go watch it. Yeah, it tracks with the you know what I'm saying, but it's like go watch it. Yo, kids, you want to see some go check it out. You don't got to run the track. You don't got to sing to your track. You could sing. Go be dope. Well, dude, this has been dope. Talkings here and hanging out, man. Finally, after all these years.
Absolutely, man. Thanks for having me. Absolutely. I look forward to seeing you on the road somewhere at some point soon. I'm sure. My man. Cheers, man. Thanks, dude. Thank you. Give me a cowbell. One more cowbell. Yeah.