Originally published in Guitar World, August 2010
As they prepare to bring the Mayhem Festival to America's unwashed masses, Mark Morton, Willie Adler, John 5, Munky and other guitarists from the tour's 12 acts come clean about their gear, injuries, guilty pleasures and more.
BEST LIVE PERFORMANCE I'VE EVER SEEN
WILLIE ADLER(Lamb of God) Mr. Bungle at the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C. I’ve loved those dudes since their first album, and I have a special affinity for [singer] Mike Patton.
MATT BACHAND (Shadows Fall) Metallica on the …And Justice for All tour in 1988 is definitely up there.
TRAVIS MIGUEL (Atreyu) Seeing Nine Inch Nails on the “Lights in the Sky” tour in 2008 was amazing. I had never seen a live rock show with production like that, and I pray to God I’ll see something like that again.
CHRIS HOWORTH (In This Moment) Kiss back in the Eighties on the Asylum tour. It was my first concert and I was so young that my parents had to take me. It was one of the best shows I’ve ever seen.
SHANE CLARK (3 Inches of Blood) Sepultura in 1994 on the Chaos A.D. tour. They played all their songs better and tighter than on their records and wiped the floor with the other bands they played with that night. I’ve always used that concert as an inspiration to play my best at all times.
MORTON I’ve thrown my back out more than a few times. I used to jump off Chris [Adler’s] drum riser quite a bit during our set, but the older I’ve gotten, the less appealing that’s become.
ADLER While opening for Metallica in Norway, I tripped over a monitor and cut my leg wide open. Their stage setup is in the round, and you had to walk out to the stage through the crowd, with the house lights turned down. So as I was walking out there and slapping kids’ hands, I tripped over a monitor wedge, right in front of all these fans. Classy. I had to play the whole show with blood streaming down my leg, not knowing exactly how bad I was hurt. After the show, the medics looked at it and said, “Oh, you definitely need stitches.” Great.
JOHN 5 I’ve never been seriously hurt, but there are always cuts, bruises and blood—just nothing enough to stop a show. My first time ever onstage, I was in sixth grade and really nervous. My band was playing a Detroit nightclub called the Hamtramck Pub—our parents had to be there since we were underage. I walked out onstage and the floor was flimsy. I stepped on it, it bent a bit, and I went flying. I fell down face-first and scraped my chin on the stage. My guitar was feeding back, and everyone laughed. No matter what goes wrong for me now, nothing will be as bad as that first time.
BACHAND There’s been nothing too catastrophic. In 2000 at the Trocadero in Philadelphia, one of King Diamond’s candelabras fell off the P.A. and onto my head during our intro. I had to play the set. That was one bloody 40 minutes.
MIGUEL I received the famous Vans waffle imprint on my face from a shoe thrown outta nowhere. Thanks dude, but I’ve already got a pair on. I still find it funny that someone had to go the rest of the night with only one shoe.
JACOBS When I was 15, I was in a band with Alex [Varkatzas, vocals] and Brandon [Saller, drums] called Retribution. We were playing a house party—it was packed and getting pretty rowdy. I thought it would be a great idea to jump in the air at the start of one of our songs. Being that this was my first-ever attempt at jumping with a guitar in my hands, I didn’t hold my guitar down, and it flew up and nailed me in the chin. I didn’t think much of it until blood started dripping everywhere for the rest of the set. I wasn’t old enough to drive, so I had to call my parents to pick me up from the party. They took one look at me and drove directly to the hospital. Thirteen stitches later, I realized that rock and roll is a really dangerous game.
EASHE I personally haven’t had any injuries, but back in 2003 when we played one of our first shows, I hit our original guitarist Josh in the head with one of my tuning pegs. It put a huge gash in his head and blood was running down his face. I felt terrible, but he tied a bandana around his head and we finished the set.
HOWORTH Whiplash. My band makes fun of me because I can barely move my head some days. My neck is jacked from eight years of headbanging every single night. Metallica’s “Whiplash” is my anthem.
HENRY I knocked out my front tooth jumping into the drums at a show in Los Angeles. I knocked myself out another time. In Australia, I hit myself in the head with my own guitar—10 stitches over my left eye. And, of course, I destroy fingers every night.
CLARK The most serious injury I’ve sustained was to my ego. I had just joined 3 Inches of Blood and hit the road without knowing the songs forward and backward, and I crashed on a song and didn’t come back in too well. When we finished the song, the band and the crowd were staring at me silently. Finally, from the back of the room someone said, “You suck.” It was perfect.
ARNOLD Valentines Music Hall in Albany, New York, summer of 2000. I went up for a jump-kick to drop into an ultra heavy part, and boom—my left knee went. I was totally stunned and delirious. I decided I was too proud to leave the stage, so I finished off our set standing on one leg. Afterward, I was taken to the emergency room, only to wait for hours on end and never ended up seeing a doctor. Booze eased my suffering for the next couple days, but my knee has never felt right.
DeVRIES The headstock of my guitar was ripped off by a side fill [monitor] while swinging it on tour with Slayer in 2001. Wasn’t an injury to me, but it still hurt.
BAND I’M MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING ON THE TOUR
MORTON Rob Zombie. And John 5, too. I think he’s a spectacular player, and I haven’t gotten a chance to see him play much live, so that’ll be cool. Plus, [Slipknot’s] Joey Jordison is playing drums for Zombie this summer and he’s a badass too, so that’ll be a pretty special event.
JOHN 5 Korn, of course. I toured with them many times when I was with Marilyn Manson. I really enjoy their music, and they’re great guys. I want to see them now with Ray Luzier, their new drummer. I also want to see Five Finger Death Punch—I really like their music a lot. I’m looking forward to Lamb of God, since I’ve loved them for a long time. Shadows Fall are also one of my favorites.
HOOK We’ve toured with Korn and Lamb of God, and both bands are lethal live. The only mainstage band I have not seen is Rob Zombie, so I’m looking forward to checking him out.
EASHE Probably Hatebreed. We got to tour with them last summer, and they put on an amazing set. And they’re going down in Wiffle Ball.
CLARK Lamb of God. I’ve always been a fan of their tunes and their live show. We’ve toured with them in the past, so I’m looking forward to some more barbecuing and hoisting a few with those guys.
NOVINEC Are Blue Öyster Cult on it?
JOHN 5 It’s a pretty simple setup: 90 percent of it is my signature John5 Telecasters. The amps are Marshall JCM900s with vintage Classic 1960 Marshall cabinets. I’m taking around 11 guitars and four Marshall 900 heads, including two for backup, and I’m running all four Marshall cabinets.
PIECE OF GEAR I COULDN’T LIVE WITHOUT
JOHN 5 Definitely my main guitar, the prototype of my John 5 signature Telecaster. I’ve played it on countless records, and it’s always with me. It’s in the room when I sleep, and if I’m on an airplane, it’s in the compartment above my head. It’s with me 24 hours a day except when I take a shower or I’m in the Jacuzzi.
HOOK My Voodoo Amps–modified Marshall JMP-1 preamp. It sounds so rich and punchy. They also modified both my Marshall 9200 power amps and two of my 1959 Marshall Plexi reissue heads.
DAY Our guitar boat. It’s the guitar rack that we keep our guitars in during the show so we don’t have to get them out of the cases if we need a backup or something. It’s very convenient.
CLARK My 1973 Marshall JMP Super Lead. It’s been modded with a master volume and another gain stage, and nothing comes as close to the tone I hear in my brain.
MUSIC ON MY IPOD THAT I’M EMBARRASSED BY
MORTON I’m not embarrassed to listen to any music. Although I do love Lady Gaga and Brooks & Dunn.
ADLER Probably my Britney Spears collection. My wife’s a big fan, and I had to download it into my iTunes in order to throw them on her iPod. Needless to say, I started listening to it. Every now and then, you can’t beat it.
JOHN 5 The Dixie Chicks, the Pussycat Dolls, Rihanna…must I go on?
BACHAND I’m not embarrassed by anything I listen to. Yes, I like Yanni. If anyone has a problem with that, go put on some eyeliner and fuck yourself.
HOOK Backstreet Boys and some ’N Sync, but I can’t say that I’m really embarrassed by anything. I study hit songs. If you want to survive in this business, you’d better study success. Those groups have some of the best songwriters in the world helping them out, and they have massive hits. While I wouldn’t want to play the songs, I understand they have value.
BATHORY I don’t think any music could be embarrassing. It’s just music. I have a lot of Ennio Morricone film scores, a bunch of Sarah Brightman songs, some Kitaro…chilled-out stuff that doesn’t rip your face off.
MIGUEL TV show themes from the Seventies and Eighties. I work out to them a lot. When I hear [the Diff’rent Strokes theme song] “Now the world don’t move to the beat of just one drum, what might be right for you, may not be right for some,” I get pumped.
EASHE Björk, A Day to Remember and the Postal Service. Listening to metal every day on tour makes it the last thing you want to hear during your leisure time.
HENRY Neil Diamond, even though he’s America’s greatest songwriter.
LOZINAK Beyoncé and Rihanna.
NOVINEC Nothing. It’s all rock and roll at the end of the day.
SONG THAT’S THE MOST FUN TO PLAY LIVE AND THE ONE THAT’S THE HARDEST
MORTON “Redneck” is probably the most fun to play because it seems to be one of the biggest crowd pleasers for us. I think “Grace” is the most difficult for me in our current set. Willie and I do a little guitar solo piece before that song, which I improvise, so every night it’s a little different. That keeps things exciting and challenging for me.
ADLER “In Your Words” is both the most fun and the hardest. It contains just about everything that Lamb does. It’s quite the workout, but it’s also a blast to play.
JOHN 5 Luckily, none of them are hard, because I practice so much. I love playing “Thunder Kiss ’65” live, because I get to play all sorts of crazy styles and do whatever I want for four minutes.
HOOK I would have to say “Way of the Fist.” I’m picking 16th notes at 190bpm, and it makes my forearm start to burn a little.
MIGUEL We just recently started to play a very old song called “Someone’s Standing on My Chest” again. Super fun. Reminds me of the old days. Any song where I have to start off with the click track is a pain in the ass because our drummer tends to start the click way before I’m ready.
JACOBS Most fun would probably be “Lip Gloss & Black” because it always gets the crowd moving. Hardest would probably be the end of “When Two Are One.” It’s a beast of a run.
EASHE “Reloaded” is the most fun to play—it’s easy and gets the most crowd participation. The hardest song live would be “Our Requiem,” because we don’t practice it much and I tend to botch a few notes on my solos.
BUNZEL The most fun is “The Great Divide.” The hardest is “Nextlife.”
HOWORTH Most fun is “Daddy’s Falling Angel.” The hardest is “The Great Divide.”
HENRY “Vipers, Snakes, and Actors” for both.
DAY The most fun is “Vipers, Snakes, and Actors,” and the hardest one to play is “Murderotica.”
LOZINAK Most fun is “Destroy Everything.” Hardest is either “A Call for Blood” or “Everyone Bleeds Now.”
NOVINEC “To the Threshold” is fun. “Everyone Bleeds Now” still doesn’t make any sense to me.
MORTON I honestly think Lamb of God is a pretty kick-ass name for a metal band, if I do say so myself! Worst? I don’t know…Akercocke maybe? I don’t know anything about them, but every time I see that mentioned somewhere I cringe. Sounds painful.
BUNZEL The best is Spock’s Beard. The worst is Steel Dragon.
DAY Best metal band name is Behemoth. The worst is Ill Niño.
NOVINEC Best is Motörhead. Worst is anything with five or more words in it.
BEST RIFF I’VE HEARD THIS YEAR
JOHN 5 “When I Grow Up” by the Pussycat Dolls. I did a show with Slash called “Slash & Friends.” We played with the singer from the Pussycat Dolls, Nicole Scherzinger, and she wanted to do that song. It’s got such a good repetitive riff, and if you play it with enough distortion and attitude, it sounds metal. We rocked out that song, and it’s been stuck in my head ever since.
BACHAND Pretty much anything on Priestess’ Prior to the Fire.
EASHE Every riff in Periphery’s set is the best riff I’ve heard this year. That band can put three guitarists to good use.
HOWORTH Alice in Chains’ “Check My Brain.” When I first heard that opening riff, I said, “Holy shit, that is badass!”
HENRY Definitely “Firmament” from the Ocean’s Heliocentric album.
CLARK It’s from “No One Loves Me & Neither Do I” by Them Crooked Vultures. At around 2:13 there’s a huge riff, and it’s really just a stepping stone to a really huge riff that comes in after it.
ARNOLD I can’t actually remember the name of the song, but it was on [Dååth guitarists] Emil Werstler and Eyal Levi’s new project, Avalanche of Worms, and boy, is it sick!
DeVRIES Anything off of Alice in Chains’ Black Gives Way to Blue.
MUNKY Slipknot’s “All Hope Is Gone.”
LOZINAK “Battles and Brotherhood” by 3 Inches of Blood.
JOHN 5 I don’t think any of us play video games. DVDs get a workout on our bus. I love Creature from the Black Lagoon, Step Brothers, Family Guy and The Munsters. What I really love to watch when I’m on tour are music documentaries. It doesn’t matter who it’s about. They’re always so interesting.
HOOK I don’t waste my time on video games. I have two computers set up on the bus and spend all my spare time working. I have to be productive. I’m a workaholic, and killing fictitious monsters seems like a huge waste of time to me.
BATHORY The Military Channel is on 24/7, and we watch military documentaries on DVD. It’s to the point that I can tell the difference between a T34 and T72 Russian tank idling, even when I’m half asleep.
DAY I’m sure we’re gonna play a lot of MLB 2K10 and watch Zach Galifianakis’ Live at the Purple Onion DVD a bunch.
CLARK Beerfest is a favorite of the band’s. I also like horror movies, so I’ll watch a lot of classics on my own: the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Pumpkinhead, Near Dark and pretty much anything with zombies.
MUNKY No games, but I’m watching American Movie, No Country for Old Men, Blue Velvet, Gummo and There Will Be Blood.
