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Friday, October 9, 2015

COME TO THE JAMPAD...101

I have had a jampad at the airport for over 20 years. It has had a variety of Cavalera's and their tunes pass through its pages of history. Sepultura, Soufly, Nailbomb, Incite and Lody Kong...at some point in time, they all spit on a mic in those cement block walls. Gear has come and gear has gone...who the heck stole the Crate amps...I am still pissed about that!

Roy



Sepultura had 2 storage units. with unknown, mysterious renters in the space in-between the two. After the Chaos AD tour, we had our mummy sleeping sweetly in the dark cavern, snuggled with road cases. The manager of the property called me one morning, and said to haul ass down there because the property in the middle of the 2 Sep units was on fire. By the time we arrived, our mummy had succumbed to the fire, which was caused by a pot farm that caught on fire! RIP...the culprits escaped without a scratch thanks to the fake identity they used to rent the space.

Max's BC Rich



Because the location is a bit sketchy, I have seen weirdness in all shapes and sizes. One evening, during a Sep rehearsal, a gang wandered in the open door. We all held our breath a second and relaxed when they wandered back out. Another time, Jason Rainey, rhythm guitarist of Sacred Reich, and I pulled into a gas station and saw someone get stabbed in the abdomen. We high tailed it outta there!!

Sacred Reich had a jam pad which was kitty corner from ours, for several years. It is now inhabited by our old friend, Bam Bam, the drummer of Jody Foster's Army, otherwise known as JFA. We run into him occasionally still.

JFA
Bands have come and gone through the complex. Parties have rocked the spaces and rain has flooded the doorway, seeping up to the bottoms of the Peavey cabinets, but we still can't let it go. In 1996, when we returned to the jam pad, a couple days after the fateful Brixton Academy show had been filed into the past, Max found the jam pad mysteriously empty and much of his gear gone missing. Since then, we have managed to fill it to the rafters again!! One day, I will see my vow to clear it out come true. And you will be the first to know!!





Class dismissed......

Friday, October 2, 2015

NEW TITANS ON THE BLOC....FROM THE ARCHIVES

In the early '90's, when I was constructing my world dominance plans for two of my bands, Sacred Reich and Sepultura, I made a tour just for them called The New Titans on the Bloc Tour. We did a 2-3 month long US run and played a show in Venezuela. I think there was a Mexico date added, also. It was very successful, and broke the barriers for Sepultura, to be fully introduced into the US Metal scene., with a step up from clubs and into theaters Also on the bill was Sick of it All and Napalm Death.




Getting ready for tour

Biohazard

Sick Of It All

Sacred Reich (great mosh pit!)

In Allentown ,Pennsylvania, we had a bit of trouble with the crowd. Some mace got in the air of the pit and all hell broke lose! I found out later, it was sprayed by one of the crew dudes, just looking after his band.

Iggor and Andreas

Sepultura Arise Backdrop

Iggor on drums

Biohazard was on this show, as an added act. Great times!! I wont bore you with a repeat of my old lesson about this tour, but I will share sone photos from the archives...

pooped out..and onto the next gig.



Class dismissed....

Thursday, September 24, 2015

WHO'S THIS SLAYER? WANT ME TO POP HIM IN THE MOUTH?

We have always been fans and friends with Slayer. They were super cool to us on tour, on festival dates, and also when Tom came in the studio to record Terrorist, with Soulfly for the Primitive recording. Their wives are cool and basically, we are all members of the same Metal family.

Slayer
On July 7, 2002, we were both booked on the Montreux Jazz Festival. We were the first Metal bands to ever perform for the legendary event. Montreux, Switzerland is a beautiful city on the edge of Lake Geneva, the Swiss Riviera. The festival spares no detail and the day couldn't have been any better!

On this particular tour, my parents accompanied us, along with our family and the band and crew. Max and I took my Mom to search her footsteps during WW2, and her youth in Yugoslavia. We even went to the concentration camp she had been held in! The funny thing was, the bus companies in Europe had all run out of buses and when we arrived, we were delivered 2 buses with seats! This was the beginning of the famous Bunk War Tour......everyone trying to construct bunks on the seats and under the seats, with plywood, air mattresses, cardboard and just about anything scrap we could find!

We grinned and bared it and crossed the shows off the itinerary, one by one. In the backstage of the Montreux show, the dressing rooms were sectioned off with cloth screens with metal framework...no ceilings. All the bands were in the same giant room, which had the thin dividers. Close quarters, but nice and clean. My Dad was chilling in the room, hanging with us, listening to everything going on. Dad was always a hardcore supporter of all things Max. He once told me that Max was the most perfect person he had ever met! To make long story short, they were great friends!



Anyway, back to the tale....Someone from production came in and mentioned that Max wouldn't be able to throw water on stage, like he had been doing his entire career. This gave Max a bit of a start and my Dad got alarmed. He listened intently, and when he couldn't take the lingo, he belted out..."Who is this Slayer? Want me to pop him in the mouth?" You can imagine the explosion of laughter from all of us, imagining my Dad brawling with this man called Slayer! We all cracked up but then freaked a bit when we realized Slayer was on the other side of the screen! We still laugh our asses off, whenever we think about my Dad's outburst that day. He was ready to throw down!! Dad was keeping it real!!!

2 wild friends

me and my dad...





Class dismissed.....

Friday, September 18, 2015

SAN FRANCISCO...SEPULTURA AT THE WARFIELD...1994

We were all very pumped to learn that Sepultura had gotten a show at the Warfield, in San Francisco, in the early 1990's. Damn, talk about some amazing rock history! The theater had been around since 1922, but was used as a location for plays and vaudeville, mainly. In 1979, Bill Graham Presents booked the 2 week run of Bob Dylan dates, and the place has been rocking ever since!


Making faces :P

Day sheet...

On the bus getting ready for the day.

They say "everyone" has played the Warfield. I guess you could agree, since everyone from Charlie Chaplin to the Shaolin Monks, to the Clash to the Grateful Dead, who had the honor of being the house band, until Jerry's death, has given it all on the stage! Well, now, enter the '90's and Sepultura and the invasion of Metal!!! Oh and let's not forget the 20 dressing rooms!!!





Max slamming an espresso before the show







Class dismissed....

Thursday, September 10, 2015

IT'S 9/11 AND A TERRORIST JUST CALLED...

Strange things happen to people in their life. This is a beyond comprehension event that happened to ME. Believe the facts. I am running this class again, try to make some sense, of an unbelievable day. I am not allowed to print the message, as the FBI has requested of me. God bless the families affected by this tragic, perverse day. May this never, ever happen again.

Good morning my Students, people of the tribe,  people of the world…  Did you know that a terrorist called me on the early morning of 9/11, two hours before the attack on the Word Trade Center?  No, you didn't.  Did you know that your's truly is in possession of a voicemail message from 9/11 that is equivalent to the Zapruder tape of JFK's assassination?  No, you didn't.  I have carried this ever since that dreadful morning in 2001 and I will not suppress it anymore.  People need the information…

I wake up early, before 6:00 am every day, but on September 11th of 2001, it was a morning I could never forget.  I went into my office and I saw the light blinking on the caller ID- strange for a call to come in the middle of the night, but I could see that a couple did- a pizza place in New Jersey.  Weird.

I went outside a grabbed the newspaper noticing Michaels Jordan's face in the corner.  It was an article about a press conference scheduled for that day.  Going back in the house, the phone rang in the kitchen.  It was my mother calling bright and early, "Turn on CNN Gloria."  I asked, "Why?" - "Turn it on honey." Click. She hung up.

The shock filled me as I saw the tower in flames, the smoke billowing.  Running through the house, I woke everybody up and went to the TV.  Before our eyes a second plane struck the second tower.

A few hours later, I went to the office and checked my messages.  A scary, creepy messaged slithered in my ear.  WTF?  This can't be.  The caller was slow, rehearsed, a message of unbelievable proportions.  Although I didn't realize it at the time, it told a three-part story of wicked betrayal of the American people's trust.  It told the past, the present and the future of our world.  A prophecy with a chilling message is there, taking residence in my voicemail.

I went to a pay phone at the Safeway near my house and dialed the FBI hotline number that was on the CNN ticker at the bottom of the screen.  A woman told me to preserve everything about the phone call and that somebody would come by to check it out.

I preserved.  I waited.  I waited.  I called.  I waited, I called, I called...And called...and called...Many things happened on my end as I tried to get this information to someone.  I recorded the call and put it on a CD.  I then did what any good manager would do;  I asked our booking agent to book a tour for Soulfly to New York City and to New Jersey.  This gave birth to the Static X/ Soufly US Tour in 2002.


My students, did I also mention that the call came in at 6:30 am EST, from 30 miles outside of Newark Airport?  Did I mention that I uncovered a pay phone company that was related to the call?  Did I tell you the message is one and a half minutes long and the caller called twice.  Did I mention I took a Policeman with me as I visited each of the locations connected with the call?  Did I tell you I met with the Terrorist Task Force in NYC?  Did I also mention that the Policeman had called me a couple months later and told me that one of the places we visited was the apartment of one of the hijackers of flight 93?  I still find it unbelievable, and I know that you must too.  It's not our usual class but I told you that I had a few surprises...

And what's even worse??? Part three, the prediction and future visions mentioned in the call- many deaths for many years.  A huge debt for America, someone talking with a crooked jaw (co nance), social security being cut...  HOW DID THE CALLER KNOW?  Why, simply put, he "listened" outside the apartment.
THIS IS WHO INFLUENCED ME TO COME FORTH..THESE CHILDREN NEED THE TRUTH...



This is my life.

Anyone interested now?


Class Dismissed...