Former STATIC-X Bassist Joins SOULFLY

SOULFLY has tapped metal veteran Tony Campos (STATIC-X, PRONG, ASESINO, MINISTRY, POSSESSED) as the group's new permanent bassist following the departure of Bobby Burns.

Campos will make his live debut with SOULFLY on July 31 at the Lokerse festival in Lokeren, Belgium.

In a November 18, 2010 interview with MetalSickness.com, Max stated about SOULFLY's split with Burns, "Well, we're still friends. It was really a friendly split."

He continued, "SOULFLY is a very demanding band that demands of you to really... You've gotta be some kind of soldier to be in SOULFLY and it's really not an easy band to be in, and I'll be the first one to say that. We go to places a lot of people don't go, and we play places a lot of people don't play. But on the other side of the coin, we get to see the world and get to travel the world and meet many people and it's great life for a musician. It was my dream from the beginning to do this. And when somebody is not feeling the same way as us...

"I always said from the beginning: If you're not 100 percent here with us, then you should not be here at all. And Bobby wasn't like that anymore; he was, really... It was a situation where nobody was even talking to him in the end, and he was not talking to anybody. It was really strange. I never had that in a band before like that. It was really kind of, like, 'What's going on with this guy?' And it got to the point where he started to drink a lot, too, and that was another problem. He started missing a lot of notes and not playing the bass so good live.

"That's another thing that cannot happen; we have to make sure that we play good at night a lot of people want to see us, so we've gotta be... If there's 10 people at the show or 10,000, I want SOULFLY to perform the same; I always that to the other guys. Even though it's hard sometimes if there's less people there, if there's no vibe, or the vibe sucks, you still [get into] it. Those people there are your hardcore fans because they came here. Maybe there's only 100 of them, [but] they are 100 of your most hardcore fans that came to see you, so it's very special that you play the same. And Bobby was not feeling like that anymore, so it was better for us to say to him, 'We think it's better for you to go and we'll get somebody there that's gonna be hungry again to be in the band,' and that's what we're looking for right now."

In a series of postings on his Facebook page on December 30, 2010, Burns took issue with Max's explanation for Bobby's departure from SOULFLY, writing, "Strike 2, Max... Strike 2. Take some more pills, man."

He added, "[Max is] a fucking idiot. If he keeps talking shit I'm gonna let the whole world know some shit about their cover band leader hero.

"We agreed to have a nice parting of ways and I'm the only one taking the high road, it seems. But I won't tolerate the lies for press. . . . He can bash me all he wants, but it's gonna hurt his fans' feelings if they ever find out how he really is."

Bassist Johny Chow, who has played with SOULFLY's Max Cavalera and Marc Rizzo (guitar) in CAVALERA CONSPIRACY and is a member of FIREBALL MINISTRY, loaned his skills to SOULFLY for the band's recent touring activities.

SOULFLY's latest album, "Omen", sold 6,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 73 on The Billboard 200 chart.