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 Q: So I understand you’ve been doing a lot of fishing
lately. I take it that this has been a way for you to relieve some stress from all of the effort you’ve put into the new album? What’s going through your mind at this present time?
A: Ah.. we’re just waiting to do the tour, we’re doing a bunch of interviews and gettin’ everybody psyched up to hopefully come see us. We’re going to do a tour next month of Europe
so we’re just getting ready for that. We’ve had to pair off interviews ‘cause everyone in the band is doing a bunch of ‘em and after that we’ll just start practicing all over again. Actually, Paul and Pat I think
this coming Monday or Tuesday, will leave and go to Europe to do a bunch of press. Then they’ll come back and we’ll practice really hard and then leave the 27th to go back to Europe.
Q: That’s cool but I understand that Cannibal Corpse is one of the very few bands that practices almost every single waking day of its life. Now where does that leave some time
for you to just sit back and relax your voice? I mean, considering the kind of vocals you specialize in, doesn’t it put a strain on the vocal chords?
A: Yeah, well we usually practice everyday but I’ve been slacking for awhile. I haven’t been there for like a month or something (laughs) unfortunately and so those guys have
been practicing but that little downtime usually helps me out when we go to do a tour. However, the thing is practicing everyday is kind of a good thing because we don’t all have a
regular job, ya know what I mean? We could support ourselves through the band so it’s not that much to ask ourselves to go to practice.
Q: Judging from what you’re saying, I take it your label Metal Blade has really taken good care of you guys over the years?
A: Oh yeah, yeah! I mean, we’re not rich by any means but we don’t have to hold regular jobs for the most part and couple of us are married, myself included so our wives have
jobs as well. So it all sort of works out and we don’t have to have a normal job so that’s why I go fishing everyday (laughs)...
Q: Alright! sounds like the average working man’s dream come true. However, you mentioned that you are now married which is kind of interesting. So has being a husband
kind of mellowed you out a bit? How does your wife feel about the gory subject matter that you dwell upon?
A: Ooh, she’s fine with it. I’ve been with her a long time so she doesn’t mind it and if she did then I don’t know if we’d still be together (laughs)... Na, she doesn’t mind all that. My
mother, she reads all the lyrics and she’s like, “I don’t know how you do that” but she doesn’t care. She knows who I am and knows that these are just horror movies and that these
are the kind of movies I like; that the band likes and so we write about what we like as opposed to preaching religion or politics, ya know? So it’s no big of a deal at all and she doesn’t mind it at all.
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Q: Well considering at the time you filled in for ex-vocalist Chris Barnes back in 96, I understand that the band became the target of a slander campaign by Bob Dole who was then
running for president. Naturally, it hasn’t appeared to affect any of you in the least bit and ironically it was that controversy that made the band all the more stronger. So
what’s your take on all of that looking back?
A: Well, it’s unfortunate that he uses any band’s Rap or Metal for a scapegoat when it’s the parents of these children that are out doing these crazy fucking crimes who are maybe not
directly responsible but at least more responsible than we are because obviously they did something wrong while they were raising them. You can’t tell me that people who listen
to bands like us are going to all of a sudden decide they’re going to flip because we’ve always stressed that we’re not to be taken seriously as far as what we sing about. And Bob
Dole, he just used us to get a few votes and if it worked for him then fine but it also helped us too because we maybe picked up a few new fans who were ready to snub their noses at authority.
Q: Yeah, I could perhaps liken your comments to the whole Blair Witch phenomenon if you really stop and think about it for a moment. When the movie was out, there was a big
media circus surrounding it due to the supposed “true events” depicted in the film. Personally, I thought the movie sucked as did a few of my other friends did but at the time,
you couldn’t help but pay the 9.00 for a ticket just to see this shit for yourself. Basically, what I’m saying is that it’s the shock value of it all that tends to draw people in.
A: Yeah, but we don’t even do that it for that reason. We just enjoy horror movies. We love horror movies and that’s why we like to write about ‘em. It just baffles me that people
take what we’re singing about so seriously and believe that we are out to corrupt kids. I mean, if we were out to promote death and destruction we could just write newspapers, know what I mean?
Q: Oh exactly, and I couldn’t agree with you more! It just seems that violence and chaos is what the newspapers base their profits on. “Oh, let’s see where we could take the
Columbine High School massacre this week?” Basically, that alone became the subject at everyone’s dinner table for the next 2 to 3 weeks at that time.
A: Yeah, I mean look... I know they obviously have to report news but I think that if you look at just what’s in the news you’ll realize that this world is much more violent than
anything we can concoct in any one song and that the problems this country and the world has are far bigger than any problems that we could create. We’re not trying to start
a new wave of killings or anything like that. We’re singing about horror movies and people can’t seem to understand that so it’s beyond me that they refuse to look into this
more than just running off at the mouth, “Hey, these guys are bad!” Bob Dole doesn’t know us. He doesn’t know who we are as people. He has no idea who our parents are, what
they are about. He has no idea what he’s talking about. He just reads the lyrics, sees the album covers and song titles. Well, then again as far as I know he hasn’t read any of the
lyrics but if he did that would just fuel his fire more but he doesn’t know who we are. If he know who we are and knew what kinds of movies we watch and the books that we read
he would know that we’re not fascinated with death, we just like horror movies. I mean, I can’t believe some of the crimes people commit like killing their own children, it’s
beyond me but those people that are committing some of these crimes have no fucking clue who we are and who other Metal bands are. I mean, the crusades happened not
because of fucking Black Sabbath. The crusades happened because people wanted to push their religion up everybody else’s ass. So look at that and use that as one example to
say that it’s not just music that makes people crazy. People make people crazy, know what I mean?
 Q: Definitely, and might I add that I can’t even
imagine anything else that has been responsible for more wars throughout history than Christianity, or even the Bible for that matter. Another case in point, look at Christopher Columbus when he set sail
and discovered the “new world.” You can’t tell me for not even a second that all he did was arrive with his men and was instantly taken a liking to once he set foot on the Indians’ territory. It was by force
that he made them submit to his will.
A: Of course, I mean we don’t usually use the band as a religious format for what we believe but without speaking about what I believe as a person, I do know that the people
who preach and read the bible religiously have a very twisted opinion of us or Metal bands in general. You’ve seen, I’m sure those little books where Led Zeppelin are satanists and
this song is about “this,” and that Killing In Satan’s Service is what KISS stands for or that AC/DC stands for Anti-Christ/ Devil’s Child. It’s just another way to say that these guys
aren’t doing what we want and obeying the laws that our book has set down which our make-believe God has created. But what it was really created by were men to rule
other men. I mean, I’m not saying that the whole Bible is wrong because you should honor your mother and father but I don’t need a bible to tell me that. I already know that I
should not steal and that I shouldn’t kill people. It’s common fucking sense, know what I mean? And if your parents raise you like that then you don’t need a bible for people to show
other people that it’s wrong but then look at some of these people that commit some of these crimes who are doing it because supposedly God had told them to. I just saw on
Court TV about some guy that killed I think, a 12 year old kid. He just walked up from behind him, cut his throat, and started stabbing him because God told him to. Though you
can’t really blame a book on that, you can’t blame us for something someone else did either. No one wants to sue the Bible or the Pope so I think we should be left alone as well
but in the end they will still be able to do what they want because they have a bigger forum and Bob Dole speaking is much more popular than we are. So there are more people
willing to listen to him than 5 guys just making a bunch of music, or a bunch of noise according to those people.
Q: Basically, what I think it all boils down to is a fascist mentality, that is religion and politics wise.
A: Yeah, of course they are going to blame us for this but yet leaders can drop bombs on people not that I’m saying either way is wrong, I mean if they’re right then they’re right
but it’s just ridiculous that we’re responsible for no one ever dying really. There have been a few instances where people have listened to us but I don’t think that we were the specific
reason that people were killed. If we were, we never intended it to be that way. I mean, watch Lucio Fulci movies, watch the Shining, the Exorcist, or the Omen movies.. that’s
what we sing about. We might be more graphic than some those movies but certainly not Lucio Fulci movies, like the Gates of Hell. That’s a very graphic movie and that’s what
we like and sing about and we’re not going to stop doing it either no matter what because this is America and we have freedom of speech. Bob Dole, I’m sorry buddy but it’s not
the 40’s anymore, ya know. I mean the world is awakened as far as that stuffy old attitude is concerned. It’s too late for you to change it. I mean, sure we don’t want people being
killed and I don’t condone murder and rape or anything like that but singing about it is not condoning it either. We’re just describing some of these terrible acts in the context of a
movie, a HORROR movie. I just don’t understand how Bob Dole who’s supposedly a well educated man, cannot understand that but all the thousands of kids that come to
see us do, and if he’s so fucking smart then how come he can’t understand the difference between fantasy and reality and our fans can? If we’re just a bunch of mindless
longhaired metalhead goofballs then how come we can understand the difference and he can’t?
Q: Right, and the way I see it is that if you’re going to censor or ban at least half of the world’s respected Metal bands, then why not do the same for some of the world’s literary
classics like The Catcher in the Rye as well, which might I add was supposedly responsible for David Chapman’s reason in murdering John Lennon?
A: Yup, and what I believe is that you can’t censor any of those because people have the right to read them and that’s why this is America and freedom of speech is something that
is sacred. I just think that there are people who don’t agree with it and do not understand it and he just uses that to get some votes. I really feel that once he would have gotten
elected, he probably never would have pursued us. Maybe he’d have said a few things but I doubt it that much because he’d have so much more to worry about than five guys making a bunch of, according to him, noise.
Q: Yeah, and did you notice that despite this whole crusade he launched against bands such as your’s in the end he wound up looking like a total idiot. I mean, I don’t know if
you followed the debates with Clinton but at the time, you could tell he was pretty clueless as far as the issues were concerned. The poor guy kept repeating himself to the point
where he was literally at a loss for words. He couldn’t even construct a complete intelligent sentence during that whole confrontation without literally stuttering. Since then, you
noticed how he disappeared from politics probably out of embarrassment?
A: Yeah, I don’t know what his whole deal was and thankfully he’s gone taking his viagra.
Q: Well, not to keep dwelling on such a tired issue but I couldn’t help but be reminded of the Colorado incident during this whole conversation. Of course, I’m referring to the
Columbine High School shootings. The problem I had with that whole affair was that the media seemed to concentrate more on the whole gothic scene with which these two boys
were affiliated with. I didn’t think it was fair of anyone to start pointing fingers at the bands these boys enjoyed listening to by any means. However, what’s your whole take
on this situation? What was running through your mind when all of this happened so suddenly?
A: I just can’t understand how these people think. Like I saw this thing where there was this company that made a doll. I believe they called it, “something Nightstalker” or whatever
and it came with a trench coat. So they started pulling it off the shelves and I was like, “What, are trench coats bad now?” I mean, are you a bad person because you wear a
trench coat? Do you have bad taste because you want to wear a trench coat? It’s ridiculous that now a trench coat is looked upon as a bad thing. It’s unfortunate that a couple of
morons went out there and killed a bunch of people but what do the clothes have anything to do with it? All these schools now are trying to institute new dress codes. I don’t know if
it’s directly to destroy people from being individuals but I just don’t understand how people will feel that violence in schools will possibly stop as a result of this or that kids are going to
stop bringing weapons to school. They’re going to find a way around anything that you put in there unless you put metal detectors in every fucking school and frisk every fucking kid.
They should start worrying about that than worrying about gothic music. They should start worrying about getting kids to school and making sure that none of them have guns
more than saying, “here, wear this and all the problems will go away.” It’s not going to stop anything. I know over here they have dress codes in all of the middle schools and lower
grades and I just can’t understand how these people think that this is going to stop everything. And these are the same people that are running our country and the school systems
yet they just can’t take some time out to deal with kids on a more personal basis, and the parents as well. Some parents don’t even agree with it and everyone thinks they are the
bad people, “Oh yeah, your kid is probably the one that’ll do something like that,” but that’s not even the case. Why should my kid have to go to school and wear something that
maybe he doesn’t want to wear and that is uncomfortable? I wouldn’t want my kid to have to wear a uniform. If he was like, “yeah I’ll wear it, I don’t care,” then fine go ahead then
but still in the end, it’s not going to change anything. They need to stop having guns in schools, that’s step fucking one. Stop having kids beat up other kids when they go to the
bathroom. I remember in school I used to go to, a couple of years after I was out of school some kid got beat up in the bathroom, was dropped on his head and paralyzed for the
rest of his life. The poor kid was an exchange student. Now that’s fucking crazy. I mean, you go to school, you’re there to learn and some kids beat ya up and fucking paralyze you
for life. The kids who did it weren’t wearing trench coats either, know what I’m saying? So.. it’s ridiculous and to blame it on gothic music? I don’t know any gothic people
that are fucking violent. As a matter of fact, I don’t know that many gothic people at all but there are more violent people out there than a bunch of kids listening to music
about just being alone and shit. Picking on Marilyn Manson or us for that matter is just another way of saying, “listen, your kids are fucking up in school now so we’re going to
investigate this Marilyn Manson guy.” “Oh ok, so then we don’t have to do anything. We could just sit on our fucking asses and not take care of our kids while we should have
fucking done in the first fucking place.” It’s just a scapegoat for parents to do whatever they feel they want to do.
Q: Oh of course, but anytime there is someone who comes along that wants to get to the bottom of the matter and settle everything, like some of these talk shows for example,
there’s always a big distortion of the truth. I know a few years back, I saw on television they aired an hour long segment with Geraldo Rivera where he discussed Satanism in
rock music but rather than depicting both sides of the argument, it was rather biased, in my opinion.
 A: Oh yeah, yeah like if it has something to do with say,
Cannibal Corpse, a band that does this and blah, blah, blah... and first they’ll show our album covers, then they’ll show our lyrics, then they’ll show a bunch of kids slamming in the pit and of
course, that part is what it’s all about but they will only show just that. I mean, they’ll maybe show us live ‘cause we look a little bit more meaner than we are in real life. They won’t interview
us and say, “hey, what are these guys about?” They’ll just show us. It’s ridiculous that they would try to create this image but even if they would do an interview with you, they’d try to create an
image of you first so that people will hate you the moment you start talking. They’d be like, “No that guy is fucking wrong! He’s the fucking reason why my kid is in jail,” or
whatever. They won’t sit back and present the facts or present you in a matter where you’re considered innocent before anyone starts to judge you. There’s nothing that
could really be done about it unless the media would start to become more sensitive to everyone’s side of the fucking story and I doubt that would happen because it doesn’t sell. I
remember when the 700 club did a show about metal and Deicide was on it. All they were doing was mentioning a couple of song titles and already the christians watching this
shit were like, “Oh these guys are the fucking devil. They’re out to corrupt our kids.” I mean, it’s just a band. Maybe they’re not a good example because their lyrics are pretty
over the top but they’re not doing anything wrong by singing about what they believe.
Q: Yeah, and judging from the new album it seems that even you guys went a step further with the gory imagery and lyrics as well. Do you suppose that all of the impending
controversy you had just mentioned might have fueled such intensity?
A: No, we just wrote what we liked, ya know. Usually there’s a song title before the song is written and we’ll think to ourselves, “Ok what’s brutal? A hacksaw? Yeah we got to
use a hacksaw for the next song! Alright, ok. What next? Decapitation? Yeah, there ya go!” It’s more or less an act that can happen in some kind of horror movie, ya know like
a bad guy cutting somebody’s head off with a fucking hacksaw. Now that’s pretty damn brutal enough to make anyone go, “Dude, this is fucking sick! I have to tell all of my
friends about this!” I mean, if I saw someone actually doing that on video knowing that it’s real, I wouldn’t want to watch it because it’s just completely disgusting to see someone
take someone else’s life. It’s not something I can do but what we realize is that the stuff we write about is FICTION, and therefore I’m numb to that kind of violence because I
know it’s not fucking real. I have a few videos like Traces of Death and Faces of Death and if you watch them, some of those things are real and some of them were staged. The
real ones, however, I don’t like to watch them because it’s disturbing. You see car crashes, people’s legs falling off.. it’s just fucking disturbing. You realize that’s what could really
happen. When I’m watching someone chopping somebody else’s head off in a movie I know it’s fake. I can differentiate between fantasy and reality. It’s not my fault if there are
some kids that can’t do that but if their parents would pay more attention to them and try to understand the music they’re listening to, they could perhaps detect that there is a
problem with their child that would cause them to do something like that or at least cause them to think about doing something like that and get them some fucking help
but I doubt that’s even the case. Half these fucking kids have parents who don’t know anything about ‘em. They won’t sit down with them and explain anything. It’s always, “Oh listen,
Jesus will make everything alright” or “here, go get a pizza, play a video game, or go read some comic books,” and that’s it. It’s not that I’m saying any of that is wrong either
but parents do need to spend a little bit more time with their children and stop trying to push everything that they believe on to them, know what I mean?
Q: Oh most definitely and let me add that I couldn’t agree with you more.
A: I mean, there are things that you can teach your children that I think anyone in their right mind would agree like not to steal, don’t fucking kill, respect other people but don’t
respect people that don’t respect you. I’d tell anyone that right off. I mean, there are a lot of other ways and nor am I a perfect parent, I’m not even a parent at all but I’m just
saying that I think there is some neglect going on with some the kids that are doing a lot of these fucked up crimes and there’s enough fucking adults doing it too, so.. let’s not not
blame it all on the children. There’s been a rash of women leaving their kids or killing their kids right out while blaming it on some mugger or claiming that someone kidnapped them
and then they go to find a kid in a trashcan the very next week. Now is that because of us, or Marilyn Manson? I don’t fucking think so!
Q: Right, and again I don’t think I could put it any better than in the context you just expressed it. However, getting back to the musical side of Cannibal, I noticed that while going
through some of the CD booklets, including the one for the new album, most of the lyrics were mainly written by either Paul, Alex, or Jack but not you for whatever reason. That to
me is a bit odd because I know usually it’s the vocalist of a band that writes all the lyrics since he’s the one responsible for coming up with the right vocal patterns to fit each
chorus, riff, breakdown, or whatever. So just how much of an influence do you have on the songwriting process?
A: Well, as far as “Gallery” is concerned, I had to come up with a lot of the vocal patterns but for this album they would more or less come to me and say, “Here, this is how we’re
going to have it done,” and I would say, “Well, I don’t think it’s going to work too well that way.” I’d add my two cents in but for the most part Alex, who writes a lot of the music,
would sit down and have an idea of how he’ll want almost the whole thing to go and sometimes he won’t. Sometimes he’ll just have the music ready and say, “I’m going to work
on the lyrics. Do you have any ideas?” But for a couple of songs like “Unleashing the Bloodthirsty,” he had everything pretty much well thought out because he had wrote the riffs
and I’m sure when he’s writing a riff and he hears it in his head, he can start to hum something along with it like, “yeah that might sound good” and that’s usually how it works. So I
just pretty much sat back and they did all that and if I thought something wouldn’t work, like there were a few things that when we recorded I changed a little bit, basically a
couple of parts that I knew weren’t going to fit in the way that Paul or Alex thought it would. So I just changed them slightly.
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Q: Right, I understand. However, I was always wondering up until this point whether or not you had something to really call your own in this band because it just seemed as if you
were just the voice and Alex and Paul were the brains in this outfit.
A: Well, I think one of the reasons why they got me in the band and even now more so is because they realize they can pretty much come to me with almost anything they want
and I’ll be able to do it. I mean, Paul will sometimes come to me and say, “Here check this rhythm out,” and I’ll be like, “No, there’s no fucking way!” but you just keep working at it
like “Stabbed in the Throat” from “Gallery.” Over the course of that, Paul came to me and said, “Here’s how it goes.” However, I just couldn’t get it in my head but eventually I
kept doing it more and more working on the timing and counting and so I finally did it. You know, now when I think about it I’m like, “Oh, why didn’t I get that in the first place?”
So that’s the whole thing. They know they can come to me with a lot of crazy stuff and I’ll tell them straight up, “Look, I can’t do that. There’s no way,” but I’ll always try first
because the more you do something you’re not used to normally doing, eventually it’ll catch on. Like there’s some parts on “Dead Human Collection” where I’m not used to
singing that many words at that speed, without getting a breath in. However, the more and more you do it at practice the more you realize it’s easier. It’s just something that I
never done before. I mean, I’ve sang a lot of fast parts where there were a lot of words but the faster I sing them the less that I have to really push out. It’s like one whole
breath in one line could be like 20 lines in another song, if sang at the correct speed. It’s hard to explain but yeah, they know they could come to me with all of that shit and I’ll belt
it out. If not, I’ll practice it a few times and if it still isn’t gonna work, they’ll realize that and we’ll work out something else or maybe I’ll say, “Look, let’s do it this way. Let’s try it by
throwing this word out or taking this line out.” There’s a couple of instances on Bloodthirst where we did that.
Q: Right but the reason why I tend to focus on that aspect is because I happened to notice that at least 85 to 90% of all lyrics are written in the first person perspective. Like, it’s
always “I” will do this or “I’ll kill you” or whatever. For instance, much like Iron Maiden for example, it almost seems as if you’re actually taking on the roles of certain characters
in the songs. However, the only difference is Dickinson wrote all, if not most of his lyrics so he already had a clear cut path in his head in terms of the kinds of tones he wanted to use
and emphasize during certain verses or whatever. So how challenging or difficult has it been for you to play upon someone else’s ideas?
A: Well, when I’m reading the lyrics back and when I’m doing them in practice, naturally I’ll come to a certain line that’ll hit me a certain way where I’ll say, “I’m gonna do that say, half
low and half high.” Originally when I read the lyrics, I’ll sort of envision Paul telling me how it goes but then again sometimes I’ll just come up to bat with what I think is
appropriate. Like sometimes you’ll come across a part that has so much brutality in it that you just gotta go, “RAAGGHH!”
Q: How would you compare your performance on Bloodthirst overall to the one on Gallery of Suicide, your last album? Was there anything that perhaps you might have
wanted to achieve that you hadn’t on the last one?
A: Well, I really think it turned out pretty much how I wanted. I think Gallery had a little bit more fluctuation as far as tone-wise. I had a lot more screaming lines on Gallery
than on Bloodthirst but it just depends on the song. Like when I thought about just how fast the blast beat part in the title track really was, it just felt to me like it had to be
screamed like you’re letting the fucking world know what the hell is goin’ on but in a more violent manner than what it would have sounded if you were just growling it. So it all
depends on how I feel when I listen to the part and the riff that goes with it. I sort of listen to all of that in one and just try to realize if it’s the same person singing it, ya know from
first person perspective. I mean, is he screaming at the world about his fury or is he taking this out on someone by cutting their fucking throat? Like especially for “Gallery” I just
wanted for these people to be just screaming, ya know as if just describing this place was pure agony. So it all depends but I’m really happy with what I did on Bloodthirst because I
did a couple of screams that I think are really fucking killer. I think I did as many high screams but not as many line wise, ya know verse for verse like Gallery had where there were
like 8 verses that were completely all screamed out instead of growled.
Q: Right, and when you think about it, it’s kind of like theatre. You’re actually taking on traits of some of the characters by way of these animalistic shrieks and growls,
especially when it comes to the songs where the characters involved are not even human like say, a wolf or a grotesque hybrid of man and mutant for example.
A: (laughs) Yeah, yeah.. yeah, I mean I just start to think about what best suits each line. Usually I’ll sing most stuff centered around just low vocals and mid-lows, ya know
what I’m saying? But every once in awhile like especially in “Unleashing the Bloodthirsty” when you’re saying “blood” it’s just “BLOOD!” If it’s just “bloood” (emphasizing the word in
a lethargic tone) it doesn’t have the same effect as say, “Oh my God, that’s BLOOD,” like in a horror movie, you know what I’m saying? So it’s kind of like that. That’s the kind of
feeling I want to get across and yeah, it’s sort of like acting out a character but I never really thought about it that much. I guess it’s sort of in that way certain words tend to be
accented. Like live, there were certain things that I’ve done for Vile that I never did before because when I did Vile, I didn’t have the time to really sit back and take in the songs
and see where or what screams would work best.
Q: Yeah, and speaking of Vile, that was actually your debut as far as Cannibal is concerned but now after three releases, you seemed to really earn a rightful place within the band. I
remember back in late ‘96 when Vile was already released, I read some of the interviews you did with various zines and of course the same question was always, “So how does it
feel to be in Chris Barnes’ shoes?” Now being on the receiving end of such an annoying question, I could imagine how frustrating it must have been for you at one point.
 A: Well, I could understand it to a certain extent. He
built himself up quite a following but I’ve always said, this is a band. This is five guys and we’re all doing this together. No one person is more important than the other. I mean, if I’m gone then it’s an
instrumental and vocals are a big part of it and obviously if Paul is not there then there’s no percussion. There’s no drums or no real rhythm to it. You’d have to envision the drums in your
head. Everyone in this band is just as important as the other. Alex writes a lot of the music but that doesn’t mean I’m any less important just because I don’t write the
music or the lyrics. I contribute my part when I do the vocals. I put my stamp on it that way and Alex, Paul, Jack, and Pat all do the same. So it was a bit annoying but in the
end I understood it because he (Chris) had been with the band from the beginning and people really sort of recognized him a lot of times as being the leader of the band for a lot of
wrong reasons. However, I understood it and I just tried to answer the question as best I could and I just said, “Hey, I do my own fucking thing and I believe I’m capable of
replacing anyone and if for some reason I was replaced I would hope that someone would come in with the same attitude.” I know what I’m capable of doing and I know that
Chris had a big following and I just want to show them that the band is still as brutal as ever, if not more brutal now. Q: But at some point did a lot of the skepticism make you very
uneasy? Did it ever cross your mind that there could have been a possiblity that these very same people might not have accepted you at all?
A: No, not really because I look at it like this. I mean, if they didn’t like me they would let me know. There were a few times where I heard people chant Chris Barnes’ name out
but before I could even say anything Alex would be the first person at the front of the stage going, “Fuck you!! He’s not here” and basically defending me and I appreciated that but
in the same token I knew what I could do and I just knew that if I just came in and did what I could do, people would start to realize, “Well we either have to deal with it or not
listen to this band anymore” and I was sure that once they heard the album and heard the songs they wouldn’t want to stop listening to the band due to the account of one person.
It’s unfair to the other guys in the band really like Paul, Jack, and Alex who had all been in the band since the beginning too. For people to say, “Hey, we don’t care about Cannibal
Corpse anymore because Chris is gone,” that’s fucking wrong because Chris didn’t write one fucking riff. Chris didn’t write the opening to Hammer Smashed Face and everyone
fucking knows that opening. Chris Barnes had nothing to do with that. The only connection he had was that he was in the band. Yeah, he wrote the lyrics and came up with the
patterns which made it a classic song but that song wouldn’t be so great if it was just Chris singing. So it’s unfair to those guys as well and I just hope that now that I’ve been pretty
much accepted so that people don’t make me out to be the bad guy because I’m not. I might have made the band a little bit better with my style but those guys were already a good band before I even got in the band.
Q: Right but being a member of Cannibal Corpse has obviously given you access to a whole slew of other opportunities, even more so than you would have probably
had if you were still fronting your former band Monstrosity. I mean, with all the endless streams of tours you’ve done with bands from all different genres, surely the experience alone
has had to change your life around, or has it? Do you feel that you have matured a lot as a result of all of this?
A: Uuum.. I don’t know if it’s changed me. I would like to think that I’m the same person. Obviously it has changed me as far as dealing with people is concerned because I’m
exposed to many more people now from doing more interviews and meeting more fans of Death Metal. However, I’m still the same person. I still get just as excited about
hearing a new band as I did then and I get just as excited when I walk onstage and there’s a thousand fucking people going “ROOOAARR,” know what I mean (laughs)? I still feel
the same fuckin’ way as I did in Monstrosity. Obviously we didn’t play too many shows where there were that many people there but I still felt the same way. I still felt that when
I walked onstage and saw whether it be 20 or 500 people that I just wanted to go out and kick the shit out of them basically. I wanted them to hear the band and go, “Man, that
was the best fuckin’ show I ever saw.” So I don’t think I have changed much as far as my outlook on music and in any other area of being in a band is concerned. I mean, it’s
on a bigger scale now with Cannibal obviously. We tend to tour much more and do a lot more interviews but I can’t say that I really changed.
Q: Right, I understand...
A: You know, it just never really hit me how big this music really is because we didn’t play as many big shows but now we’ve been playing a lot more and I always thought that one
day Monstrosity could be as big as Cannibal. I really truly believe that. I still think they could be and when I was in the band I would always tell Lee (Monstrosity’s drummer and
founding member), “Man we’re gonna fuckin’ kill. We just gotta get on a big tour and if people see us I really think we’ll make a difference.” I still feel that way. I mean, I love when
we play in front of people that never seen us before because I want them to go, “What the fuck is goin’ on?!” When we did the Misfits and Anthrax tour I knew that there was a lot
of people there that never seen a Death Metal band and I wanted them to go, “Whoa, what the fuck is that? That’s fucking insane! These guys rule!” I always loved playing in
front of people like that and sometimes I even love playing in front of smaller crowds because it reminds you of the first couple of shows you’ve ever done. In my first band,
Corpsegrinder, the first show we ever did we had to take the elevator with our equipment and there was like 15 people there maybe but it was still great. I wanted to be even more
brutal because I knew that each one of those people could see the whole show and just take in every part of it.
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Q: Oh definitely. I have often seen that in you just by a lot of the interviews and shows I’ve seen with you over the last two years or so. In fact, one of the things I’ve always
respected about you is that you are one of the very few musicians in this business that actually remains an ardent fan of the music even up until this day. I know with several other
people I’ve interviewed, they tend to after awhile shy away from the fun they had in playing this sort of music because it’s all they are ever used to. So it becomes more of a job,
or a business to them more anything. Whereas you tend to get overly excited at the mere mention of another band’s name just the way a teenager would after discovering bands
like Slayer and Possessed for the very first time.
A: Well, I just love this music. This is always what I wanted to do and I always felt that there were too many bands out there that grew up and matured enough to where they saw
that there was no future in this music or that there was no future in constantly listening to other bands of this nature because they would in turn become generic. You see, I’m not
writing the music but still it doesn’t matter. When I hear a new Death Metal singer, like take that guy in The Crown for example, man their singer fucking rules! I fucking love that! If
I ever got to the point where I was just like, “Yeah they sound like everybody else” then I would fuckin’ give it up. I would stop being in a band because I mean, gimme a break,
you still have to love the music if you’re gonna play. How can you say you’re in a Death Metal band when you don’t listen to other Death Metal bands? How can you claim to be
Death Metal when you don’t even know what Death Metal is today? I mean, I’ll never ever, ever forget where I came from because I know I used to play shows in front 20 people
and I know that I played shows in front of 4,000 people but you know what? Everyone of those people paid to get in and they’re gonna get the best show of their life or at least the
best that we can put out. Every person in that place counts, ya know what I mean? It’s not, “Well it’s 4,000 people so let’s go crazy” and when there is 20 people, “Well I’m not
gonna headbang,” that’s fucking bullshit! I’ll never be like that. If it’s one motherfucker in the front row, I’m gonna fuckin’ go off. If there’s no one there, I’m gonna go off just
because it’s when I hear the music it’s what I want to do, it’s what I feel.
Q: Right and suppose you did actually perform for only one person, just think of it as this; he goes to see the show and by seeing your performance he goes and tells a friend and
then his friend goes and tells 2 friends and so on and so on.
A: Hey, it’s the same thing as this; if we would have played in front of only 5 people they would have all said to their friends, “Man, Cannibal played and they could have just laid
down and fucking sucked but they kicked fucking ass!” Besides that, I don’t want someone to say, “I paid fucking twenty dollars to see you guys and just because there’s only
a hundred people here and not 500, you guys didn’t go off! That’s bullshit!” You’re never going to hear anyone say that about us unless they’re fucking lying because I will not limit
my performance just because there is not enough people to see my ego because I don’t have an ego as far as that is concerned. I love this music, I hear this music and I want to
start fucking spinning my head. This is what I always wanted to do and all the bands I saw before I was ever in a band, I was always like “I’m going to be doing this,” and now that
I’m doing it and now that I have the world by its throat I’m not letting go. Now that I’m in a band that’s really big, I don’t ever want people to say, “Well they’re past their time”
‘cause if we are then we’re gonna give it up. If we don’t feel like playing Death Metal anymore we’ll break up and we won’t be Cannibal Corpse. We’ll be something else, the
Fuckadelic Buttholes or whatever. However, that’s not in my future because when I stop playing Death Metal is when I’m going to stop being in a band.
 Q: Well then this leads me to my next and final question.
With the onslaught of new technology and new avenues for people to create music; like take this whole ambient industrial thing which incorporates samples and drum programming. How will Death Metal stay fresh and
exciting in the new millenium? Do you still feel that the world is willing to embrace an album such as Bloodthirst? How will you manage to keep the enthusiasm going?
A: Well, I think for one, we tour a lot. We tour so that people will see us. As far as bands, they meet us and know us as people. It keeps our
name out there. It keeps people excited about the music and that’s why we would take other Death Metal bands along with us, because that’s the future. I don’t look at it like a
Baseball player, “Oh, I’ve got about 5 more good years.” I don’t see an end or a limit to what we can do. I mean, we’re not trying to outspeed anybody or outheavy anybody. We
just write the best songs that we can. We try to come up with riffs and vocal patterns and lyrics that keep people interested. I wouldn’t want someone to hear it and say, “Oh
that sounds like this,” it might remind you of something but we don’t want to keep rehashing the same thing. I mean, look at Emperor and the way they’re stretching the
imagination with the use of keyboards. They’re just goin’ all out and walking down different paths that other people haven’t or even feared to tread. Emperor is just one
example as far as Metal goes. I don’t think you could just sit around and listen to each riff for one hour alone and say, “Okay, does that sound like anything at all?” because you’re
always going to hear influences in there. Yet you don’t want to keep rehashing the same old songs but you know that you still have to write things that you like. Since we play
Death Metal and we know Death Metal because we’re fans of it, we listen to it almost with the same ear as someone who’s a fan of our band. So that’s sort of how we think.
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