SOULFLY ONE...THE FIRST COMMANDMENT!

In August of 1997, Max and I had a memorial dinner in our Phoenix home. It was one year after Dana's death and we wanted to bring his friends and our family together, to celebrate his life. There was a lot of emotional activity buzzing around us, during that year, I will admit. The investigation into Dana's death was in full swing. Max had a killer record in his hands and a new band. Our family was slowly getting stronger. We were going to make it through.

As Max was completing his songs for Soulfly 1, he began to invite guests for various appearances. The guitarist, Lucio Maia, was a special guest, courtesy of Max's friendship with the late Chico Science and Nacao Zumbi. Lucio is one of the most emotional guitarists! His haunting guitars on Bleed and the other Soufly 1 tracks is beyond comparison. Lucio's guitar and his heart seemed entwined with our feelings. He was the perfect choice. Chino came to Arizona and contributed on First Commandment. Chino was very good friends with Dana. In fact, I gave Chino the rasta belt that Dana was wearing when he died. That's close. It was righteous that Chino was involved.

Dino Cazares dipped into the jumpad and went to battle on Eye For An Eye. Dino was a friend that was super tight with us, besides being a great Metal guitarist. He was the finishing touch. And in between Chino and Dino, there was Burton C Bell, Fred Durst, Christian Olde Wolbers, and Benji Webbe, each hand picked by Max. They all told the story. Keep you friends close, and ignore your enemies. Give them a bit of rope and they eventually hang themselves. That's the lesson for today, my Students!


Class dismissed........

GROWING UP GREEN!!!! HOW MAX NAMED SOULFLY

In 1997, Max was a writing machine. He crafted Eye For An Eye, Primitive, Tribe, No, and a whole slew of songs, that are unreleased and buried in the back of the archives. A pirate treasure chest full of songs with vocals, sleeps calmly. I stashed them for Zyon and Igor and the rest of the kids to discover, one day in the future. The lyrics to many of them were too heavy for our weary backs, at the time...

One of the songs was a rough version of Head Up. Max had thrown some grunts into the music and added the words SOUL FLY. When the Deftones asked Max to collaborate on a track about Dana (who was a good friend of theirs), we flew to Seattle. Terry Date was at the helm and the 7 of them crafted the track.

Once home, and after we had secured a record contract for Max's unnamed infant, I asked Max for a band name. People had been suggesting crazy names and Max was going through several books of foreign words, but I didn't agree to any of them. It reminded me of him looking for Zyon's name, when I was pregnant. Once we heard Head Up, I suggested he use the name Soulfly. We were thick with emotions from Dana's death. Soulfly was a word with no genre. I could hear the crowd chanting it. It was Max's word...and we all know Max is the Master of Combining Words Not Normally Used Together! When he discussed it with Roadrunner, he was met with much negativity. It swayed him to keep searching. Gradually other people around us started suggesting the same. When his sister, Kira, suggested he use it, he agreed.

Max and I travelled to France for a TV show. We were met by a Roadrunner rep, who accompanied us to the station. Max had it planned to announce the name, because France had supported his departure more than any other country. They even chose him as the Artist of the year for 1997, and he had no band! He let it out during the filming and I saw the RR rep wince. Max and I chuckled later, but knew it was the beginning of the New Beginning. If you close your eyes, you can hear it...Soulfly! Soulfly!! Soulfly!!


Class dismissed.......

20 YEARS AGO....SOULFLY HAS FLOWN FREE!!!

When I think of what we were doing in 1997, I must say, it has been quite a journey since then. The early months were writing and repairing our family's breakdown. The Max and Gloria Cavalera family was one seriously blown up engine!

When Max began coming out of the bedroom with songs like Eye For An Eye, No, Tribe and Primitive, I knew we were going to make it. I secured a killer, 5 record deal for him, and soon he was in the studio. He had a makeshift band, with no band name, and a hell-of-a lot of faith. Boom!

Since it was Max's formula on Roots to use Indigo Ranch Studio to record and Andy Wallace to mix, he felt comfortable using this equation again. This time, however, Max had something he didn't have when he recorded Roots...he had fire burning inside! He was ferocious!

As the recording drew into the final days, we began to notice little Igor changing rapidly. He developed an unquenchable thirst, an appetite loss and lack of energy. It was not gradual. It swept in like the tide on Malibu Beach. In fact, a couple days earlier, we were all playing on the beach. Igor wandered into the midst of these giant rocks. I could see bits of trash had blown into the rocks, along with remnants swept in with the tide. "Get out of there Igor! You are going to catch a disease!" It was only days later that he started changing. When the diagnosis came in that he had Type 1 juvenile diabetes, we all stumbled.

The day after Igor was released from the hospital, it was Roxanne's 14th birthday. We were having a party, Igor was home, but covered in Chicken Pox, and on top of that, we were administering the dreaded finger pokes and shots. I was at the kitchen table, holding my head in my hands. My best friend, Kristen, sat with me. "What can happen, next?" I wailed! As I looked up, our son, Jason, walked past, inhaling the helium from a ballon, with a big smile on his face. In a brief second, he collapsed on the ground, eyes rolled back in his head and body rocking violently on the ground. His little arms were bent like a begging pup! I dialed 911 as fast as I could. And then I realized....all was going to be okay in our Cavaleraland....it was just another day...

Class dismissed......