HELLYEAH Guitarist: 'We Don't Wanna Be Just A Metal Band'

In a recent interview conducted by Greg Maki of Live-Metal.net, HELLYEAH/NOTHINGFACE guitarist Tom Maxwell discussed HELLYEAH's participation in the 2007 Family Values Tour, the upcoming NOTHINGFACE album and more. Excerpts follow.

Live-Metal.net: What was it like to play the first-ever HELLYEAH show in your hometown of Baltimore?

Tom Maxwell: "Like losing my virginity. [laughs] It was really, really fucking cool, man. It was a great crowd 'cause my hometown came and fuckin' represented. It was fuckin' awesome. It was like Christmas morning. It was really, really good, and the rest of the band came up to me after the show and they were like, 'Damn, dude. Fuckin' Baltimore fuckin' brought it.' I'm like, 'Fuckin' right.' [laughs] So it was great, man. I couldn't have been happier."

Live-Metal.net: Were you nervous before that show?

Tom Maxwell: "No, not really. I knew we were just gonna slam and kick ass. If I was nervous about anything it was my touring legs. I haven't really been out on the road in a while, so it's just a matter of getting those first three or four shows under your belt and then you start getting the live feel back. We're just so tight right now, we're unstoppable. We're so confident and everything in all the songs, and it's pretty much just how to perform them live. It's big difference between sitting in a studio recording and standing up and standing still at practice, rehearsing it. But we really didn't have that much time. We only had four or five days of rehearsal because we had to fuckin' audition bass players."

Live-Metal.net: How is it working out with Bob Zilla in the band?

Tom Maxwell: "Good, man. He's awesome. Great guy, great energy, great vibe, nicest fuckin' dude. He brings it, man. It's going great. He fits like a glove. It's awesome."

Live-Metal.net: When you're on stage, do you have moments where you look back at the drums and just kind of think to yourself, "Wow, I'm playing in a band with Vinnie Paul?"

Tom Maxwell: "Fuck yeah, dude. I go up to the fuckin' drum riser, throw a foot up there and just fuckin' look at him and he's fuckin' look back and he's smiling. He couldn't be any fuckin' happier. That guy has made such a triumphant fuckin' catalyst move to go back and do that. He's really fuckin' happy. Even back home when we were doing the Baltimore show, all my friends and shit were looking and the fucker was just smiling from fuckin' ear to ear the whole fuckin' time. What's so cool about it is that we're the fuckin' dudes that brought him out. It could've been anybody. It could've been any other guitar player. [laughs] But me and Greg scored it. [laughs] So it's fuckin' badass, bro. That's the only was I can describe. It's awesome."

Live-Metal.net: Why did you decide on [Family Values] for the summer?

Tom Maxwell: "I think it's a no-brainer, especially for us. We're not afraid to play in front of a pop kind of audience, like the type of audience that EVANESCENCE is gonna bring or the KORN kids. The KORN kids are the same kids that come to the HELLYEAH shows, pretty much. It's not that big of a difference. But I think it's a safer tour for us only for the fact that we're gonna be hitting a broader audience and not being pigeonholed into — I mean, nothing against Ozzfest, I loved going out on that tour, it was great. But it's a metal tour, exclusively, and we don't wanna be just a fuckin' metal band. We want to take a piece of the big picture, have a peripheral fanbase, not just what's right in front of you kinda shit."

Live-Metal.net: How long do you plan to keep going on this album?

Tom Maxwell: "There's no deadline. We all have other things we have to do. Obviously, MUDVAYNE has another record coming out, there's another NOTHINGFACE record coming out. But this is what we're doing right now and this is what we're completely focused on, and we're gonna take it as long as it allows us to. The success of this record over the summer is gonna dictate how long we stay out on the road and how much we push it. We don't wanna overexpose it. We don't wanna overstay our welcome because we would rather pop out and leave right at the fuckin' peak of it so that people want more so the next time it comes around there's gonna be a massive thirst for it."

Live-Metal.net: "So I guess that means there's no set timetable for the new NOTHINGFACE album."

Tom Maxwell: "No. It's gonna happen probably springtime, the first quarter of next year probably. We're finishing up the songs. [NOTHINGFACE vocalist] Matt [Holt]'s going into the studio next week to finish up three or four new tracks. At that point, we're gonna have our whole catalog ready to go and then we'll sit down with it and we'll pretty much handpick the songs that we wanna take to the label and record. And then we'll go in and re-record it all for real, and then kill it, get it out there."

Read the entire interview at Live-Metal.net.