MAX SHALL ARISE!!!

During the Arise tour, I planned many tours for my baby band, Sepultura.  They had come off a tour with Faith or Fear that was not successful and I had my work cut out for me.  The US market did not show up for the tour and the band returned to Brazil to write the next record.  I visited them during practice and also returned to Morrissound to check out recording.  I could tell they were onto something solid and began calling promoters I had worked with on Sacred Reich tours and assuring them I would make a real package that would draw.  I then gave birth to the SOS Tour, Sepultura, Obituary and Sadus.  The tour was a huge success and I mapped out my plans.

ASSHOLE FILE

We spent 18 months on the road, visiting many countries and even squeezing in exotic locations such as Indonesia and Japan!  Although I won't say whom, I received a letter from the label saying I was hurting the band by touring so much and they needed to take a break and get another record out.  I promptly filed the letter in my ASSHOLE FILE and kept booking shows.  The fantastic New Titans on the Bloc Tour was created during this period also.  Every tour was a huge success and the band as you know, later went on to create the most successful record of their career, Chaos AD, but that is another story, Students...

Max selfie in Greece

The label loved the Arise record and spent a nice sum of money flying us to Greece with Brazilian photographer, Rui Mendes.  We were amazed at the Acropolis, the city in general, and of course, the ouzo!!  We spent the day on location, laughing our asses off, gazing at transformed marble and the final product was killer!!

Sepultura

Max

Towards the end of the Arise tour, we played in Mexico City to an insane frenzy of fans!  We checked our gear, luggage and backdrop under the plane and flew to our respective destinations.  It was the last we saw of the beautiful piece of art that had escorted us to the ends of the Earth.  I like to think it is hiding in some rich dude's museum, draped over the lost, stolen skull of Pancho Villa!!

Pancho Villa

Class dismissed....

FROM THE BOOTLEGGER'S, TO FUDGE TUNNEL, TO SEPULTURA, SOULFLY AND BEYOND...THE STORY OF CHRISTINA

This week I would like to introduce my Students to my daughter, Christina Newport.  Quite simply, I could not have accomplished the things I have done in my life if she was not by my side.

Christina and Max at Ozzy's wedding

 From my early roots in the Bootlegger's, Christina has been my rock, my constant supporter.  After school, she would skedaddle to the club and help me in the kitchen, plan shows, organize band's needs, and babysit endless hours.  She taught me about underground music, bands like the Dead Kennedys, SNFU, RKL, SOD, JFA, and Bad Religion.  She would go in the pit ferociously and display her trophy of bruises the next day.

Family time at Christmas

When the cops took the club from us, she mentally supported me through my nervous breakdown, assuring me the world hadn't ended.  After I got my mojo back, we began promoting shows together.  We headed to LA and scoured the clubs looking for small acts to bring to Phoenix.  Dark Angel, LA Guns, Faster Pussycat, Znowwhite and Nuclear Assault among many others.  She introduced me to the Victor Brothers, who gave me a venue to do my thing in.  We were alive again!!

Christina with Danny Lilker 

Christina with Danny and Nino 

Christina was on top of the game in looks and style.  She taught me how to dress, how valuable a good can of Aqua Net was, how to spike a mohawk with Elmer's Glue, all the essentials.  We were the first girls Max ever saw wear Doc Martins!

Getting ready for the show

When I began touring, she took over the house and kids.  True I had to break up fights over the landlines and pay phones and when I came home the house was a disaster, but the kids were happy and nothing ever burnt down!  Funny, all the mail would be tossed in a garbage bag the size of a house and the mini kids were all sporting shaved heads and mohawks, but there was always a big smile on their faces!

As my bands grew bigger and I added Sepultura, Christina began selling merch for us. She was honest, came up with great designs (the Third World Posse shirt-biggest selling Sep shirt ever, was her creation), and worked harder than anyone I knew.  Many times she chased bootleggers down dark European streets, grabbing armloads of merch and giving it away to fans.  This is how she met her husband Alex Newport, of Fudge Tunnel.  I am sure you don't know the FT album GREY was written for and about her.  I must admit I was jealous!!

Fudge Tunnel..................................................Alex^^^

Christina and I with Sepultura at the Louvre

On our way to Sepultura's last show in London

After some time, she graduated to tour manager of Soulfly and held this job for many years.  She was never afraid to kick some ass for us, or to party hardy when we celebrated.  She held this job until the birth of sweet little Moses.  Yes, she endured life at its finest moments and life at its worst, but she always stood by me.

Christina and Moses

Time has moved on and she has 2 sweet little daughters, now by her side, Jadore and Nadja.  I am sure they will stand by her as she has stood by her mother.  That is our blood.

Jadore and Nadja

People remark how organized our Soulfly tours are.  When we walk into a venue, we always know what's up; things are dialed in.  I owe it all to her.  Though she is not visible in the music scene, she is there in all respect.  She advances our tours from home, fights for our rights and makes sure all production details are perfect for our needs.

Every manager needs people who have their back, who supports them when the going gets rosy or bleak.  Remember, it takes more than a quarterback to win the game!

Class dismissed...

WHAT TO DO WHEN A ROCK STAR ASKS YOU TO HAVE HIS BABY...GIVE HIM A Z!!!

     1992, April, or thereabouts, Max was feeling fatherly one night and out of nowhere, asked me to have his child.  I wasn't surprised, or shocked or spooked...I just flowed and smiled.  As our bus crossed into Italy a few days later, unknown to me, I was carrying his son.  I guess it was fate.  It was like the end of a good book whose ending you can predict.  It just fit.

     Max went insane looking for a name, scouring books, wracking his brain, searching on the horizon and everywhere in between.  I had settled on Genghis, but our friend Shane from Napalm Death got so petrified when he heard the rumor, he petitioned us daily to keep looking!  "Something normal, please Gloria.  Something normal, please!!!"   Max finally cornered me one day as he does when he has the name of a new record and said, "His name will be Zyon, with a 'y'."  I was impressed!! He had done it!!  Max had found a name that was nothing but original, cool as all hell, and fitting of a Max son.

Zyon w/ Napalm Death

Zyon w/ Mike Patton

     When Max first peered into those big brown eyes, the addiction began. Soon our little Sepultura mascot was one of the gang.  Never crying, always even tempered, he would forever be a positive force in our life.

Zyon and Carnival Jim at the Sacred Reich making of the Crawling video

    In the first year of Zyon's life, he went with us to record Chaos AD and also bussed around the world on all the tours.  He became the star at all the concerts, stealing the limelight from his father, when no one thought it possible!

letter and photo of Z with Dave Grohl

      Andreas especially loved Z from the moment of his first cuddle.  There was magic in Zyon's smile.  Andreas said many times he was Z's Godfather.  Even when we all flew, Zyon never cried one time.  While the other children on the plane were screaming bloody murder, Zyon was content with reading, happily playing, and doo-doo-dahing.  He had a beat going in his head at birth.

Max, Z, and Me

     I look now at our 21-year-old son, headphones on at a beat machine 24/7, making beats all day long.  He is not only a natural born drummer, but a beat maestro extraordinaire.  They flow through his brain like the riffs flow through his father's and his brother, Igor's.  There are beats in there no one has dreamt of.  They are just waiting to burst out!  And I recall his youth, standing in the bus lounge arranging pillows as snares and cymbals, pulsating to Bored by the Deftones, with his brother, Dana, bouncing next to him.  The legacy flows through Z; the Uncle Iggor stick of dynamite is always lit.

     His time has come, slowly creeping in, no way to go but to stay on the path that was predetermined by his ROOTS.  Who knows the future?  No one.  Who can imagine the future?  Everyone!

Happy birthday, Zyon!!  You are a locomotive!!!

Soulfly - "Bloodshed" w/Zyon on Drums 

Lody Kong - "mOnkeys alWays Look" w/Zyon on Drums

Class dismissed...

ROOTS..THE FINAL INGREDIENT….HOW TO HAVE FUN AT MIX

         In 1995, after recording the Roots record in Malibu, Max and I travelled to the Big Apple, New York City, to attend mix.  With the master, Andy Wallace, at the controls, things were smooth as silk.  We towed along Zyon, Igor and Roxanne to complete our little family circle.




  Every day Max would go to the studio and I would go hang out with him, too.  Listening to the songs absorb the final touches was amazing and calming.  We knew the soup was almost cooked to perfection!











Roxanne and Max

               Our favorite NYC hotel for many years was the Paramount on 42nd Street, right off Time's Square.  We stayed there so often, the entire staff knew our family and watched the kids grow up.  Zyon learned to write his name in the Paramount.  Unfortunately, his tablet was the pale green leather chair in our room and his crayon was a permanent marker.  The darling maid came in one day and switched the chair with one in a vacant room and helped me solve my problem.










                       
The hotel's location offered many activities and the time off was spent romping through the Square, going to the Met, Central Park, shopping and eating at the Firebird, one of the Russian restaurants nearby.











NYC Paramount Hotel

 
The rooms were famous for the large tapestry on the wall behind the bed.  Even though the room was as big as a shoebox, we all crammed in and had fun 24/7.  There was action all through the day…cabs honking and people coming and going.  Why, one day, Vice President Al Gore stopped at the hotel restaurant right when Zyon and I happened to be walking up!  The Secret Service stopped everyone but for some reason let a green-haired Mama and her long haired son walk right up and look in the limo!












No cell phones or internet at the time, so I was often glued to the tiny table next to the bed while all hell was breaking loose next to me!  All part of this Mom-ager's day!!!  The record turned out killer…but we all know that…and the chaos that was gearing up for 1996 was not even in our dreams.











Busy Working

Busy raising HELL!

Nice tatts dude...

                       Class dismissed…..

New Years Evil

New Years Eve means parties, good food, and champagne.  In 1998, in Phoenix, it meant Ozzy was going to usher in 1999 for us all!

The baseball stadium, Bank One Ballpark (currently Chase Field), home of the Arizona Diamondbacks, was just completed and opened early in 1998.  Max and I had once snuck on the grounds with Glen LaFerman and did a photo shoot for ESP Guitars, and also for the Rainbow Bar and Grill in Hollywood, CA.   We were thrilled when our booking agent contacted us and said Soulfly had been invited to open the show.  It was a huge honor for us to play to our hometown crowd with the great and powerful Ozzy and Black Sabbath.  This was to be the first concert in the ballpark and the media coverage in Phoenix was huge!!!

The days ticked by and soon it was December 31^st and we were loading our gear in to the ballpark.  We were stunned by the enormous size once we were inside the stadium.  At the time, the stadium was one of the largest open-air stadiums in the world because of its retractable roof. 

Soulfly was actually going to be the first band to play at Bank One Ballpark.  Our nerves got rattled when one of the band members didn’t show up for soundcheck, and arrived 15 minutes before the set was to begin.  We thought we were going to be forced to cancel the sold out show.  Our nerves were electric.

The wind blew in the missing member, and the show was savage!  The Phoenix crowd welcomed their boys with a roar of affection.  Next up was Slayer, Megadeth, Pantera, and Black Sabbath, so you can imagine how much fun the backstage was that night. 

New Years approached and Ozzy was reeling em’ in, spraying water and mooning with that never ending smile of true love for his people.  Sharon was there, and everyone was like family that night.  We all waited for the countdown, but Ozzy was having so much fun that he blew right past it.  It didn’t matter….we were all too busy swaying with him. 

Get your swagger on……Happy New Years!

Class dismissed.  See you next semester.