WRIF Virtual Rock Room with Saliva
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00:00Thank you so much for watching Rift TV. Now, this interview is obviously with video, but I don't interview everybody on Zoom.
00:07That's why I put it on my Talkin' Rock with Meltdown podcast. We talk to rock artists from all over the genre.
00:13So check out Talkin' Rock with Meltdown wherever you get your podcasts. And now, to today's video interview.
00:20Ah, and there they are, my two friends. How are you guys?
00:24What up?
00:25Hey, man. We'll be better when we see you in like a week.
00:27Okay, that's right. Yeah, District 142 coming up here in Wyandown on Monday with the Snafu Tour. How's everything going on that tour?
00:36It's Snafu, man. You know, it's going good, actually. You know, drowning pool. It's crazy because I was just telling somebody,
00:46CJ is the first guy I met when I first got in saliva 12 years ago, and he hasn't changed a bit. He still looks the exact same.
00:54Yeah.
00:54And I'm like, dude, you haven't gained a pound, lost a pound. It's like...
01:00Got a couple more piercings, maybe.
01:02Yeah.
01:02The Beardo got a little bit longer, but that's about it.
01:05Yeah, he still looks the exact same.
01:07And just love being with those guys, man. They're great. Just great.
01:11They understand, like, it's kind of the same mindset of the grind and touring and going out there,
01:17coming from the same era. You know, it's been awesome.
01:20Yeah, road-dogging it for sure. Adelita's Way, and what's the other band?
01:25Any Given Sin?
01:26Any Given Sin, yep.
01:28Yep.
01:29Yeah, so like I said, District 142, that's coming up. You guys were supposed to play there.
01:34We'll get to that here in a few minutes, but Revelation came out, so tell everybody about the album.
01:40Man, the album is out. It came out last Friday or a week and a half ago, and 12 songs.
01:49I spent almost three years making the record. Well, early 2020 to when it was released, almost three years.
01:58And, man, a lot of memories, a lot of really, really, you know, positive things that went into it,
02:05especially with Wayne. And, you know, I can still remember some of those songs in particular,
02:10like him in the room. We were tracking them, things he said, you know, funny, funny stuff like that.
02:15But, you know, so it obviously, this record is near and dear to my heart for sure.
02:24But, you know, I'm just glad that it's out, because it felt like it was never going to come out, dude.
02:29It was kept on and on and on and on. We kept pushing it back.
02:33But, yeah, now it's out and, you know, everyone seems to love what, you know, what they hear and all the messages
02:42and the response has been great. Except that one guy. Yeah, the one guy.
02:47There's always one, right? There's always one guy.
02:51So was this record finished when Wayne passed?
02:56Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's turned in and all.
02:57Like when we we had the first round of vinyl was already in motion.
03:03And and then when he passed, it was like, well, crap.
03:08We wanted to do something, you know, to honor him.
03:12You know, once we realized, hey, you know, is when he passed, I was like,
03:16are we even going to put this out? Like, what are we?
03:18I don't even know what we're going to do, you know.
03:22And then, you know, getting with his family and stuff.
03:24And we're like, no, we have to put this out, you know, so.
03:27So then we we made sure like the CDs, like we redid the artwork on the back and the CDs were done.
03:33But the next round of vinyl, we'll have him on the back, too.
03:36But the first the first press that went out, you know, takes like five or six months for vinyl to be made.
03:43I know.
03:43Unless you know somebody.
03:45Yeah, right. You're going to have vinyl at the show on Monday.
03:48Yeah. Oh, yeah.
03:48All right. Good. I got to grab a copy that on vinyl for sure.
03:52But, yeah, it was it was it was on that day that you guys were supposed to talk to me in this very room.
03:58And I and I texted you guys and I'm like, hey, are you guys hopping on?
04:02And Bobby called me and I could just tell in your voice that something wasn't right.
04:06And then, of course, you know, we all know what happened.
04:09But it's it's crazy.
04:10But you guys just posted and I don't know who takes care of your socials.
04:13But that's a really cool backdrop and a great honor and a great tribute to Wayne that you guys have on this tour.
04:21Man, it's it's all him.
04:22When you look at that, it's he was a Raider fanatic, you know, and, you know, we were like, we got to do something that.
04:28You know.
04:30We were able to everybody knows, man, when you see it, it's like that's like the Raider logo, you know, and with Wayne's.
04:37He was kind of a pirate.
04:38He was a land pirate.
04:41Or those shades, you wouldn't go anywhere without those shades.
04:44Yeah.
04:45Yeah.
04:45He almost fell out of the bus so many times wearing those things, going to stage.
04:50Yeah.
04:50You know, I don't know if I ever told you guys about this.
04:53I was talking to Paul Crosby about this a few weeks back, but I always thought Wayne was a little bit intimidating.
04:58And then I met him really where we actually hung out for the first time was when you guys played that Harley Davidson dealership here in Michigan.
05:05I want to say around 2017.
05:08And I think we were doing shots of fireball or something like that.
05:11And then we just became friends.
05:14That's how he was, man.
05:15He.
05:16Yeah.
05:17From a distance.
05:18Yeah.
05:18Yeah.
05:19How many times we'd be, you know, at a place and someone see him, they'd say, well, Rob Zombie showed up, you know.
05:25Yeah.
05:25Yeah.
05:26Yeah.
05:27He did have kind of a zombie kind of vibe.
05:29The neck tattoo, though.
05:31He was kind of he was kind of scary, though.
05:33But then, you know, I mean, he's like the sweetest, like most down to earth person, like no ego.
05:38I mean, he was he was one of a kind.
05:40And, you know, in the 12 years that I knew him, like I never once saw him like in a confrontation or he never said anything about bad about anybody, man.
05:52People would say bad things around him.
05:55And he would just like, yeah, yeah.
05:58And he would just he would turn it positive, man.
06:00He never would like jump in and talk negative.
06:02It was.
06:03Yeah.
06:03That just shows you, man.
06:04He was always like take the high road.
06:06I learned a lot of that, I think, from him, man.
06:08Taking the high road in certain situations, especially in this industry, man.
06:12It's it's crazy.
06:13It's a tough industry, you know, at times.
06:15And people are always trying to take advantage of you and stuff like that.
06:18And, you know, he always had a way.
06:20He was just wise and he was, you know, older and he'd been he'd been through all those years, I guess.
06:25But he was always honest and just just a great, great person.
06:31And one thing I think I'll never forget about Wayne is that laugh.
06:34I'll hear that laugh for the rest of time.
06:36Yeah.
06:37Yeah.
06:38Yeah.
06:38Yeah.
06:38So many, so many memories, man.
06:41Great memories.
06:42And all of his sayings and things he would say are still like he's going to come from the back lounge
06:48and say it to us.
06:48It's so weird.
06:49It's like that, you know, you look back there and he's not back there anymore because that was that was Wayne's world.
06:54It was like he had his own world in the back of the bus back there, you know, and and now it's it's feels pretty empty back there.
07:01Now, you know, it's kind of weird.
07:02So we we never had we never had a single argument.
07:05He and I never not one.
07:08Yeah, he was a he was a really easy guy to get along with.
07:10But like I said, when I first met him or before I met him, I thought he was intimidating because you're right.
07:14He's got that big cowboy hat.
07:16It's always beat up with his dark glasses and the tattoos and everything.
07:19And then then all of a sudden you meet the guy.
07:20You're like, this is the guy that was kind of scary.
07:23Yeah.
07:24Yeah.
07:24Yeah.
07:26I mean, my friends said the same thing.
07:28They're like, he scares me.
07:29I'm like, he's the least scary person.
07:32But it works.
07:35And on stage, he had that swag, too, you know, where he's like a gunslinger up there.
07:40You know, people were scared of him.
07:42You can't teach that, man.
07:44He had that from day one, you know.
07:46So, yeah.
07:47So, yeah.
07:48Yeah.
07:49Well, I'm glad that you guys had a chance to to put out the record and stuff, especially, you know, I mean, you know, even the video is kind of chilling when, you know, with that opening with that little opening paragraph about how it was filmed before he he died.
08:02So, I mean, it has to be tough going back and listening to this kind of stuff sometimes or watching, I imagine.
08:08I haven't watched it.
08:10Oh, you haven't?
08:10I haven't seen it.
08:11Yeah.
08:12I mean, I know that that's there.
08:13But I was like, I didn't even I just trusted the guy that edited it and stuff.
08:19And well, there was another version that was we were going to do where he had a bunch of like B-roll stuff.
08:24And I just go with all the band stuff, man.
08:27And I wanted it just to be as much of you weighing as possible and didn't want it to have B-roll stuff or any of that.
08:36Now, Bobby, I know that you've been doing you were you were you're in the midst of like doing other projects or did any of the other stuff kind of bleed into the writing for this stuff?
08:44Well, yeah, some songs.
08:48There were a few songs in particular that I didn't feel would fit, you know, and, you know, Wayne would hear them and he would be like, oh, dude, no, that's got to go on or, you know, some things like that.
09:04And he'd come to my house and we would we'd write or work on stuff and I would just play it for him and say, hey, what do you think of this?
09:11You know, and then that that's how it would would pan out.
09:15And I remember Come Back Stronger was like a song, an idea that I just kind of played and sung for him years ago, before we started working on this record, probably 2019.
09:29And I remember playing him the idea and seeing what he thought.
09:34And he was like, dude, the next record, it needs to be 12 of those.
09:39He's like, like, you know what I mean?
09:40That should be that's the first song.
09:42That's the first track, that whole thing.
09:44And so I started kind of thinking about, you know, OK, maybe maybe this is the, you know, the direction.
09:51And so I just started writing and just trying to come up with, you know, a solid, you know, other 11 songs.
10:00But then when you have three years to kind of work with, we ended up with 34 songs.
10:04Oh, so there's there's more on it.
10:07Will we ever see more?
10:09I don't know.
10:10Maybe I don't know yet.
10:12You know, we we just got these now.
10:14You know, I wanted to make sure the 12 that we had on here, it felt cohesive and just kind of blended.
10:20Because some of the other songs we tried different things or, you know, not that the songs weren't good, just didn't actually line up or got writer's block.
10:32Or I went through a lot of that stuff through through the three years of making it, too.
10:36So, yeah.
10:37Brad, what are your thoughts on the album?
10:40I love it, man.
10:41It's I think it's a great record.
10:42There's some stuff that's not typical of Saliva, which I think is healthy to move the band forward.
10:48I mean, we can't just keep making click, click, boom and always.
10:52And, you know, we already have those.
10:54We play those in the set.
10:55We know that the hardcore fans and really even fans that don't know the band that well are expecting to hear those.
11:01So, you know, with this new record, it was kind of for me, a breath of fresh air to have some like the comeback stronger song is actually tuned to the lowest note as a B.
11:12So it's a little bit lower and heavier, more aggressive sounding and not quite as I don't know, not quite as typical as what you what you think of it.
11:22And then there's some songs, though, that are, of course, in the in the traditional vein of what Saliva has always kind of sounded like, too, on there, too.
11:29So we didn't completely miss the exit by any means, you know.
11:32So, but yeah, I'm digging it, man.
11:34I mean, it's it's it's it's kind of like, you know, we call it uptown problems when you're trying to figure out which ones you are actually going to going to play and which ones are going to be released.
11:43And, you know, so, I mean, it's been that's better than only, you know, only having one song that you can put out there that you believe in.
11:51You know, we have 12 on this record, man, you know, so it's one of those things where I feel like it's a strong record and and it's going to move us forward.
12:00And it's it's it wanes all over his solos, his vibe, his his his his technique, his personality is all over it.
12:08And, you know, there was a bit of an irony to it that the song that was next in line was Come Back Stronger and he passed.
12:16And then and then that song came back and it was kind of like, wow, the band is still persevering.
12:21And although we're completely obviously devastated from his loss, to have him sort of in remembrance in that song and that video and on this record, it's it's it's it's it's been a tough, but it's it's also feels good to honor him, too.
12:35You know, yeah, you talk about the band, like coming back and stuff.
12:39You guys are in kind of like a peculiar situation where the original singer is still out there doing Josie Scott's live on.
12:46You guys are doing this live and stuff. But but from what I understand, all you guys kind of get along.
12:51You know, it's it's it's a little bit, you know, it's it's an interesting thing because, you know, we've been doing this version of the band since since, you know, Josie originally left 11, 11, 12 years ago.
13:05So we've kind of kept the, you know, the fires burning, you know, and and put out new records and new music and stuff.
13:12So, you know, it's it's it's it's a it's a it's an interesting situation that we're in now, to be to be quite honest.
13:19So we're just trying to figure out how to make it work for both both both parts of it.
13:25You know what I mean? Both versions of it, I should say.
13:27I think it's I think it's good that he's, you know, trying to connect with with fans and and tour and and, you know, play music.
13:35I mean, I think it's a it's an awesome thing, you know, you know, he should have been doing it long ago, you know.
13:43And but, you know, I think what we're doing here is, you know, we're just trying to do what Wayne would have wanted.
13:53And we're, you know, honoring Wayne. And this record was I know how important it was to him.
13:58And, you know, and I think the the world should hear it.
14:03And, you know, we're going out, you know, every night we're playing, you know, songs from it.
14:07And, you know, this tour has been great. And it's been just overwhelmingly the fans have been awesome, man.
14:15And even the messages that I get and stuff, I get these messages from people, the fans.
14:20And, you know, it's awesome when someone's an old school saliva fan and they're like, dude, Crows is the best song I've heard since always or whatever.
14:27And when you hear those things, you're like, man, they don't even sound like they're remotely in the same field.
14:33But it goes to show you that as a fan, you know, it's it's they're not looking at it sounding identical to another song.
14:41It's the song touches them and and and, you know, they're connecting with the song.
14:45I think that's important. That's all I try to do when I write songs and these songs like, you know, Crows and High on Me and they all have a story.
14:51And it's like, you know, if I can connect with the one person, you know, that means more to me than money or any of that stuff.
14:57You know, I just that's why I do it.
15:00Yeah. The reason I asked you earlier, you know, some of this some of the stuff does sound saliva ish, I guess, is how you say.
15:07And some of it does sound like some of the stuff that you sent me in the past, not like exact songs, but just kind of remnants of it.
15:13You know what I'm saying?
15:15Well, yeah, you hear some of those industrial elements that some of that other stuff I sent you to, because, you know, I know Wayne was a huge ministry Nine Inch Nails fan.
15:23And he was always like, man, we always we tried to do the industrial stuff before.
15:27It just never worked. It never worked or never, you know, panned out.
15:30And I was like, man, we can do that. That's all. That's that's right up my alley.
15:34I love that stuff. So, you know, we would we influenced, you know, some of that stuff on this record, too.
15:41Well, the record is out. Our revelation, of course, you guys will be in town next week.
15:44And you did bring up the Raiders thing, and it's kind of good that Wayne wasn't here to watch the game on Sunday.
15:49Hey, man, you know, we're doing a pool, man. So now we're at the Lions, dude, you know, look at how that worked out for you.
16:01But yeah, let's really get to the crux of the matter here, Bobby.
16:04So, you know, you're obviously you guys are both football fans.
16:08So what do you what are you thinking early on in the season here?
16:11I'm thinking that the Jags just played the Super Bowl champions, man.
16:18I mean, you know. I wanted to believe the Chiefs were going to come into Jacksonville and we were going to beat them.
16:26It just it you couldn't have told me otherwise.
16:30The thing is. Patrick Mahomes, Kelsey, you get all those dudes on the field there.
16:34They're Super Bowl champs for a reason. They're a hard team to beat.
16:37Not many teams know how to beat them. We clearly still don't know how to beat them.
16:41We know how to beat ourselves. Yes.
16:44But do I think that we're going to absolutely blow the Texans out Sunday?
16:48Yes, I do. That's because, you know, I felt like it was a closer game than, you know, we didn't get blown out.
16:57And that's that's all I care about. We gave our defense played really, really good, man.
17:01And the Lions, the Lions look great. You got to be stoked.
17:05And the Lions look awesome. I think we knew that that would happen.
17:08They find ways to shoot themselves in the foot. But that one play, I don't know if you how much you paid attention to the game,
17:14but the quarterback for Seattle dropped back and he threw like looked like a timing pattern.
17:20And there was a miscommunication with the wide receiver and he cut off the one way and they gave him an intentional grounding call.
17:25And I'm like, what is going on here? And then he went up to complain about it.
17:29And the referee says, I'm trying to talk to America here. Did you see that?
17:32I saw that. That was that was like, dude, that's amazing. Give that referee a raise.
17:41Right. Exactly. I thought that was kind of a clever line where he's just trying to do his job and he's trying to talk to America.
17:46I think that, you know, here's the thing, though, like the refs, it's 50 50, man.
17:51You know, they a lot of times they miss calls. They don't get calls. Right.
17:55And people, you know, it can cost the game and it sucks.
18:01But I mean, they're the ones out there being paid to, you know, you know, to share the games.
18:08And that's what I'm talking about. I mean, that was clearly a blown a timing pattern.
18:14And they're called intentional grounding like they never watched a football game before.
18:17It just seemed right. Really bad. Right.
18:19I always thought the refs should should throw flags when a receiver is trying to call for a pass interference when they run down.
18:27And, you know, it's like if it wasn't pass interference, but yet there's a you know, it's all acting.
18:31They want to they got to like act, you know, if they don't catch the ball, it's like, oh, let me try to get the foul, you know, and play it off.
18:39They got that sports and hockey. You can't do that. You know, if you pretend to trip over someone, they'll put you in the box.
18:47Well, it's like telling telling the ref how to do his job. I mean, I'm surprised they don't get a sportsman like conduct calls for stuff like that.
18:53Yeah. When it's when it's every down, it's like, come on, man.
18:57It's coming. You watch it. That's five years. I guarantee you that'll be a penalty.
19:01Yeah. A couple of final things here for you, Bobby.
19:04This this this series you do with your daughter on Instagram and stuff.
19:09When did this all start?
19:11Um, well, it started I started doing it on TikTok.
19:15OK, I don't know. So but go ahead.
19:18And so we actually shortly after Wayne passed, man, like I just I had already been working with her on some stuff.
19:28And, you know, I had a friend of mine who had a high following on has a big following on TikTok.
19:36He was like, man, you got to be doing TikTok. You got to be doing.
19:39And I was like, I don't even know what it is. I have no idea.
19:42Then finally, I was like, Veda, let's just let's just do something.
19:47Let's just post a video and see what happens.
19:49And so we did the kill, just part of the kill, 30 seconds to Mars, posted it.
19:56And it was like, boom, my son comes in the next morning.
19:59He's like, Dad, you've got like four hundred thousand views on this in this in like 10 hours or something crazy.
20:05So I was like, what?
20:06And you could just like when I open my phone up or open the app, it was just like comment, comment, comment, comment, like, like, like, like, like.
20:13Everything was just so overwhelming.
20:16I could not like.
20:18I didn't know what to do, you know, so I was like, how about I'll just let's just post another one.
20:25And then we post another one and then it got to where her and I started just.
20:30You know, it's fun, you know, kind of a cool way to bond with your kids like that.
20:35A hundred percent, man.
20:36And and and, you know, all I've been doing was working with her and trying to teach her how to do harmonies and things that I've worked with so many singers in the past doing production stuff.
20:45And most of them don't know how to sing harmonies, man, to their own stuff, you know.
20:49And so I would tell her, like, you can sing harmonies to your stuff that that's that's that's good.
20:55So we just got a teacher to do harmonies.
20:57And it's definitely helping her her voice to become stronger.
21:02But, dude, so many things that Jared Leto reached out.
21:04He reposted, you know, Mike from Lincoln Park reached out, reposted.
21:08That was awesome.
21:09Oh, that's really good.
21:10Dude, I got bands that, you know, will do like like Zombie, Bad Wolves.
21:15They message me there.
21:16You know, a lot of these bands that are well-known bands, I won't mention names.
21:20They hit me up.
21:21They like want us to cover one of their songs and put it out.
21:24And because on TikTok, a lot of bands and artists are trying to.
21:28That's the next thing.
21:29Yeah.
21:29You know, and I think it's maybe because the stream payouts is decent, but I don't know when you.
21:37No, I think it's really cool.
21:38I wish I could sing and I would do it with my kids, too, but I can't.
21:42And my kids, my kids don't talk to me anymore because they're 20 and 22.
21:46So I'm just kidding.
21:49They talk to me.
21:50But anyway, so we'll see you guys this coming Monday here in in Michigan.
21:54And by the way, Brad, just some comments on Wes from Puddle of Mud.
21:59No, I'm just kidding.
22:00You don't have to.
22:01No, I love Wes, man.
22:02Come on.
22:04He's just trying to stir up the controversy.
22:07I'm just teasing you.
22:07Right.
22:08No, man.
22:09Blabber mouth.
22:10Brad Stewart says.
22:13No, man.
22:15Wes and I go way back, dude.
22:16He if it wasn't for Wes, I don't know if I'd be sitting here, man.
22:19He you know, and you know, people have their ups and downs in this business and in their own personal lives with addictions.
22:26He's good to tell the story, though, because that story is good.
22:28And he should he should know the story, which a lot of people don't realize that Brad co-wrote.
22:35Yeah.
22:35Control.
22:36Yeah.
22:36Control.
22:36Yeah.
22:3750 percent of the song or whatever it is.
22:39And a lot of people know that because you tell them.
22:41Well, now people are going to blame him.
22:43Right.
22:44It's not my fault.
22:45No, I was lucky enough to be flown out there when they were developing Wes and to audition, you know, for the band.
22:54And, you know, I, you know, Danny Wimmer at the time, who puts on all the big festivals, was the A&R coordinator for Flawless Geffen, which was Fred Durst imprint.
23:05So Fred and them, they found Wes and they wanted to build a band around him.
23:10So they flew a bunch of guys that were three guys from Jacksonville out and myself included.
23:15And and Paul Phillips and T-Bone, Shane, Shane T-Bone Webb for the drum position.
23:21And those two guys actually made it, at least in the first part of the band or whatever.
23:27I was given a friggin plane ticket home like three days later.
23:30They're like, take care.
23:31Good luck.
23:33So anyhow.
23:34How many years until you joined Shinedown?
23:37Well, I met Brent.
23:39I want to say either.
23:40I want to say it was that next that year, actually that next year, that next summer, because Control was out and it was charting and it was kind of like it was doing really well.
23:50And I had a mutual friend, Pete Thornton, that knew Brent's A&R guy.
23:55So I was able to set up a writing session through them in Jacksonville.
23:59And he was because, you know, Brent was coming through.
24:02They wanted to move him to Florida.
24:03So so, yeah.
24:05So luckily from that me writing that song that led me to Brent's.
24:08We wrote songs and formed Shinedown in Jacksonville.
24:12Jason Todd came along and then finally Barry Kirch.
24:15And and that led me to Fuel and that led me to Saliva.
24:18So, you know, yeah, all over the place.
24:22Well, I've told you that asshole is the only person ever hang up on me in an interview.
24:26And I won't forget that.
24:27Trust me when I tell you.
24:29And it's like which asshole.
24:31Oh, Wes.
24:33Wes?
24:33Yeah.
24:34The only person to ever hang up on me in an interview for no reason at all.
24:39We've talked about this before, Brad.
24:40You know, it's like I remember this story.
24:41I know this story.
24:42Yeah, I'm not.
24:43I'm not happy with that dude.
24:44And it's like, you know, and I always had his back and I always stood up for him and
24:47he was always nice to me and to hang up on me like that for no reason at all really gets
24:52in my craw, you know.
24:53Well, I'm wearing the machine shop, of course.
24:56OK, sure.
24:57And of course, you know, it made it made.
25:00What was it?
25:00Loudwire or something that I guess they're now they're banned from the shop, too.
25:05So that's I don't know what he's thinking, man.
25:07He needs to he needs to get new management or something.
25:09Then I don't know.
25:11I don't know.
25:12I don't know if it's management's problem, but I was just I was just texting with Kevin,
25:17by the way.
25:17You guys know Kevin.
25:18He's so great.
25:19Love Kevin Zink.
25:20Oh, yeah.
25:21No doubt.
25:21Know him years.
25:22So, well, well, we'll see you guys coming up here.
25:25And I'm on vacation actually next week, but I'm sticking around one day just to hang
25:29out with you guys.
25:30All right.
25:31Oh, man.
25:32You rock.
25:32Dude.
25:33Can't wait to see you, man.
25:34All right.
25:34Thanks for not hanging up on me.
25:35I appreciate you guys.
25:36Hey, what?