LET’S TALK ABOUT MUSIC YOU HAVE RECORDED, YOUR LATEST ALBUM, WHEN LEGENDS RISE. WHO ARE THE LEGENDS OF THE TITLE, AND WHY ARE THEY RISING?
There’s a reason that the title-track is the first one on the album. It’s probably the first song I wrote for the record, and it was co-written with John Feldmann, who’s a really great songwriter. It was really the first time that I was presented with some music that sent me in a new direction and made me think outside of the box. I think the biggest challenge for any record, for me, is finding what the lyrical content is going to be about, what the thread is that runs through the record. I went through a relationship and a break-up that was different because not only did it come from someone I never thought could be so deceitful, and the experience woke me up to a bigger picture in my life. I was surrounding myself with people that were there for the wrong reasons. Some of them happened to be long-term friends of mine, and some were family members, but I had to make a pretty serious decision to either continue to try to save everybody and carry their crosses, or eliminate this negativity and hopefully they’ll see one day that they need to help themselves. Legends… is about letting go of these vices and this addictive behaviour, which isn’t just drugs and alcohol sometimes – though that could be part of it as well – but it’s more about not only making a stand to correct your life and be in a more positive place, but being okay with it. It’s not egotistical at all – it’s not about calling us the legends, it’s about the phoenix rising from the ashes.
IT SOUNDS LIKE YOU’VE REMOVED EGO FROM THE EQUATION…
I spent my whole life in bad situations, making bad choices. I’m not proud of a lot of those choices, but I don’t regret one of them because they’ve me who I am today. I don’t think I’d respect human life, and people in general, if I hadn’t come from that background. Again, it’s all about accepting and humbling yourself – even to the point of embarrassment sometimes – but realising that the journey isn’t over and there’s still work to do. Life is going to kick you down over and over again, but it’s the people that learn to stand back up on their own two feet and take steps forward who are the ones that are going to find their moment and make something great happen.
WAS THIS NEW WAY OF WORKING AN EXTENSION OF YOUR NEW WAY OF THINKING?
I guess to a certain degree it was, because it’s about growth, expansion and continuing to learn. I think a lot of that was trial and error, even through the solo projects that I did. I worked with a whole new group of musicians, some that came from jazz and blues backgrounds, while I come from a rock background, but we were able to co-exist and blend sounds that became really unique. [2010 solo album] Avalon did really well because of that – it was a very hypnotic, mystical record. So I thought, ‘Why not take that knowledge and experience and try it in Godsmack? Why do I always have to feel that I have to hero the whole record?’ It doesn’t matter to me anymore who writes the song. I know I’m always going to have my hands in the pie because I’m the main lyricist and I write the melodies, but you get into this habit of writing in the same format, and there’s only so much water in the well.