DON'T LET A GBH-ER TAKE YOUR SHARPIE!!!

In the early '90's, I was traveling with Sepultura in support of the Arise record...or Beneath the Remains..it was one of them for certain!! So much has happened since my first tour, sometimes it's hard to recall exactly which tour was which! Those early days were quite different than these days! We were a happy bunch of fun loving criminals, and raged hard!

One warm night in Texas, after a show, we all headed to our hotel. We were starting to stay in nicer hotels and Red Roof Inns were becoming memories. I went in my room only to soon hear a knock on the door. The word was out and we were all heading to bash at the outdoor pool. It was late and no one was there. Surely we could chill in peace and enjoy the time off!

After a short time, security showed their faces and ruined our plans. Since my room was near the pool area, everyone decided to go there and transport the fun. I admit I was leery of this move. Parties in hotel rooms always ended up with someone getting kicked out of the hotel. Sure enough, shizzle quickly got out of hand. Max found out that his friends from the UK, GBH, were in the same hotel, so naturally he invited them in. In one rapid hand movement, Jock, Ross and Max played a quick game of tic tac toe on the wall! It wasn't any ordinary game; it was a 4 foot tall game! A minute goes by and there were tic tac toes all over the wall. I couldn't say much. The damage was done. I went out to the pool and slept on a chair...overload? I think, yes!

The security dude gave me the Get Outa Here Nudge in the morning and luckily, I had my room key. The room was a wreck! In those days you didn't need a credit card and I could have easily slid out and escaped. Guilt overcame me and I went to the lobby and fessed up. Blah, blah, blah, have mercy on me! After a short time, the manager charged me $222 to wallpaper one wall of a room. Not bad, actually! I anticipated worse. It would cost me an arm and a leg today, and maybe a chat with an officer or two! The moral of the story....Punks are Punks!

Class dismissed......

HOLLYWOOD ROCK, 1994, PISSING ON A FLAG IS DANGEROUS

In 1994, we travelled to Brasil as part of the Hollywood Rock festival run.  Aerosmith, Robert Plant, Poison, and Ugly Kid Joe were also on the bill.  Rio de Janeiro kicked ass, as always.  It's such a visual city, full of excitement.  If you know how to tame it to your lifestyle, you desire to stay on that beach with the plush sunlight forever.  The famous black and white cobblestone sidewalk, frames the beach and the city streets.  It's romantic and spiritual at the same time.

Sao Paulo was a proud day for Max.  After an explosion of a show, it was important to Max to present Zyon to the crowd, to his people, to his country.  He took him from the side of the stage and carried him to the front.  40,000 crazy fans going wild, and Zyon never flinched.  He just soaked it all up and filed it in his fresh brain.  As Max held Zyon, a Brazilian flag was thrown up on the stage.  Max picked it up, raised it and then turned around and left the stage.  I joined him, as usual and we went towards the dressing room.  Or, so we thought...

At the bottom of the stairs, the MTV cameras and lights turned on, and there, next to MTV,  were the police, waiting to arrest Max!  They advised us to get into the van that had conveniently pulled up.  Max, Zyon and I were shuffled off to the police station and Max was under arrest. For what, we did not know.

At the station, the atmosphere turned light after Max was questioned about the flag.  Apparently someone at the concert protested loudly and quickly, "Max peed on the flag, stomped on it, on the stage and walked off!"  In no time at all, thanks to the arrangements of MTV, the news spread like wildfire, through every possible microphone, fax machine, phone call and carrier pigeon in the country.  Most likely also at every beer and cup of coffee shared in Brazil, for the next week to come!  We were detained for quite some time at the police station.  When the Cop Shop Talk turned to soccer, I quit worrying.  After the Police Chief arrived, Max was released and all was well...until morning.

Max flipped from being the Max everyone loved, to the Max everyone shunned, all in a matter hours.  Every news channel, radio station and magazine was spreading and stretching the story, inch by inch.  A simple presentation of Zyon, with the flag of Brazil, had turned and twisted and arrived at Max, basically shatting on the flag on stage, in front of 40,000 people, while holding Zyon.  Ok.  Every talk show was talking, and every mouth was judging.  We even heard a Brazilian rock star say Max should be lynched!  One of the biggest political magazines had Max in the political cartoon of the week, with the President!  We couldn't leave our hotel room.  Everywhere we went people glared at him.   Paranoia and despair set in.  Poison took it differently and said "You are taking all the press!"  Max didn't want it.

Before Max left the country, for other planetary dates, he wrote a short statement, from his heart, and it too, spread like melted butter.  Everything and everyone cooled down.  I am sure there are some little homes, in some little villages, where the news stayed put and Max will forever be the Flag Destroyer.  It was all part of our Journey.

Class dismissed....

LYNN STRAIT(RIP)..... TO BIG DAY OUT

As Christmas neared, in 1998, Max and I received a holiday card from Lynn Strait and his main squeeze.  The same day we got the card, we heard about Lynn's accident and death.  It was a slam of earthquake proportions!  We had done many Soulfly tours, and an Ozzfest tour, with Snot.  The guys had gotten to be some serious friends.  Lynn came onstage with Soulfly and sang "Bleed,"  each night.  And then, he was gone...

At the beginning of the new year, I was looking for a new guitarist for Soulfly.  Logan Mader went on his own journey and Soulfly had an Australian tour coming...Big Day Out was on the horizon!  Max suggested I contact Mikey Doling, the guitarist from Snot.  No doubt he could use some positive vibes and this would be it!  I hit up Mikey and he was surprised and super happy!  It gave everyone a lift in spirits!

At that time, Big Day out went to several cities in Australia...Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and the Gold Coast.  The festival also travelled to New Zealand and did one show in Aukland.  It was founded by Ken West and Vivian Lee.  I must admit, they treated everyone exceptionally well.  The dates were very well planned, and organization was top notch!

Soulfly shared the stage with Marilyn Manson, Korn, Hole, Sean Lennon and scores of other acts.  This tour was the meeting point of Max and Sean Lennon, which evolved into the recording of Son Song, which appeared on the future Soulfly release, titled Primitive.

We took our son, Igor, on tour with us.  He was only 3 years old, but already well seasoned to the road!  He loved the koala bear hanging out in the backstage at the shows.  There were all sorts of activities to watch, bungie jumping, bands playing all day, new cities flying by...  I can only dream that one day, Big Day Out will materialize again, and we will be sitting on the Gold Coast, taking a break in-between shows!!

Max was presented a beautiful, Aboriginal didigiri do, which still lives in our home!   Mikey stayed with Soulfly for some time more and the Journey just kept rolling by, under our feet.  We made friendships that only grew stronger, and music that kept blanketing the Earth.  Australia became a natural home on the road for us!  And now.....18 years later, we will see you in September, with Return to Roots!!

Class dismissed......

MAX BRINGS HIS BRAZILIAN ROOTS TO SOULFLY!!

As Carlinhos Brown added percussion to Roots, and Max took his idea full circle, to record with the Tribe, it was a natural evolution to add the Brazilian  spirit to Soulfly.  On the first release, Max invited the guys from Macau Zumba to spice it up.  On Primitive, Soulfly 3 and Prophecy, Max invited his friend, Mei Noite, to bring on the tribal jams.

Mei Noite had known Max from living in Brazil.  He was playing with Sergio Mendez at the time of the Primitive recording and we were lucky to grab him during a break.

He is known as one of the top percussionists in the world, as well as being a super cool dude!  Even Jennifer Lopez and Ricky Martin tapped his talent! Listen closely to the Soulfly records he appears on, and you will find his flavor throughout!  When he arrived in Phoenix , he came with a rider truck full of instruments!!

Max laughed his ass off when Mei Noite arrived in the studio during the Primitive recording.  Max played him a track and Mei Noite said " oh, so you want some James Brown Funk Beat!"  Whoa!  During Soulfly 3 recording, the producer, Otto D'Agnolo, lost his mind when Mei Noite captured the percussive sounds of water.  The mics!  The mics!

He has a very successful percussion school in Brazil and I am certain he still elopes around the world, with artists we only hear about!  Mei Noite, bringing the earthen sounds to metal...Bring Da Shit!!!!

Class dismissed....

SOULFLY ...CALL TO DUTY......OR DON'T TAKE A MARINE OFF THE BASE IN HIS UNIFORM!!!

The second Iraqi War was in full swing. America was united, not this divided farce we see now. Bickering over tweets and pouty behavior really is just a mask of other, covert actions. I am talking about the time America was strong, and one...you all remember those days, right? I decided it was time to give something back to the military. Young men were enlisting to fight the spread of terror (and the covert behavior of stealing oil, maybe?) and the retaliation to the World Trade Center murders. Soulfly would not be prima donnas...all talk and no muscle. We would go to the men in uniform and we would Seek and Strike! We would help Defeat You!! We would give the boys in uniform an IV full of Metal to charge their senses!!

My children went to school with Mike Aguilera, who had enlisted in the Marine Corps. He helped me contact the right personal, so I could send my troops into Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base, located in Jacksonville, North Carolina. It took some clearances and direction, but soon we were authorized to enter the base and kick some ass, Max Style!! I only had to plan a day off in our tour and make it fit!

Soon enough, our bus was rolling into the secure landscape, boarded with 2 Marines, escorting us. They were super pumped for the show and we were all in awe! They lead us to a parking lot set up for our rager, and we prepared for our battle! A grill was brought in, with a pile of food, and the day began!! A flat bed of a truck became a drum riser and a tank evolved into a backdrop!



When the band started, you could tell the Marines wanted to jump into the pit, but they had uniforms on and were conditioned to a specific behavior, and it wasn't moshing! Their Captain arrived soon after, and permission to grind was delivered! A quick rush ran through our veins and theirs and soon, it was one uniform flow of thrash! After the last riff rolled out, Max was presented with a plaque from the 2nd Marine, Tank Battalion and Soulfly was given some military coins, which are a form of medals. I was given a big thank you for organizing, because WE WERE THE FIRST ARTISTS TO PLAY FOR NO CHARGE!!! Can you imagine!! All the artists through the years publicizing their grand performances for the military and not of them could give a show for free.

The Marines escorted us to the PX for some shopping. We got some sick Marine swag and I added a George Bush doll to my doll collection! Some of us even got to sit in the tanks and check out the games inside, which were designed to hunt combative enemies...similar to a video game! I admit I left a red lipstick print on the inside of the tank. It seemed like the thing to do, at the time. Remember when I drank the albino cobra blood in Indonesia? Sometimes, you just gotta roll with it!



As we exited, a young soldier jumped onboard the bus and cruised out with us. Seemed strange to me, but who the heck in our bus, knew the rules? Apparently you cannot leave the base wearing the type of uniform he had on. He was a bit alcohol-ed up, and we were all sharing quizzical looks but hey, what the heck? When he tried to convince Christina and me to head back to the base in the dark and joyride in a tank, we knew excitement was coming, Christina and I didn't feel like being on CNN, so the Marine decided to take a walk to Taco Bell with Max. Bad decision!!



Max got alarmed as several off base Marines driving by started yelling at the soldier about being out in his uniform. The Marine yelled back "Don't you see I am with Max Cavalera!" In no time at all, the circle pit around this dude became serious, as his Commander rolled up. Soon enough, the Marine was in a headlock and the Captain said "you will be cleaning latrines for the next 6 months!!" I imagine he would be cleaning them with big hangover...



We returned again to Camp Lejeune, special request from the Marine Corps, and gave them the best Soulfly around! It was a small gift to give men who were willing to give their life for our country and for people like us to live free! As July 4th approaches and the fireworks soar, remember what it's all about. Remember who it is for. It's for ALL Americans and their freedom to live free! It's not for us to be bullied, lied to, killed, or to have our rights taken away, by self serving zealots. United We Stand. Divided We Fall.



Class dismissed......