MAX CAVALERA: Don't Blame My Wife For Breakup Of SEPULTURA's Classic Lineup

SEPULTURA's classic lineup fell apart in 1996 with the exit of frontman Max Cavalera after the rest of the band split with his wife Gloria as their manager. His brother, drummer Igor Cavalera, stuck around with the group for another 10 years before leaving SEPULTURA and re-teaming with Max in CAVALERA CONSPIRACY.

Although SEPULTURA has maintained a diehard fanbase in all parts of the world throughout the band's three-and-a-half-decade-plus history, Max-era albums "Roots" and "Chaos A.D." were by far SEPULTURA's most commercially successful, having both been certified gold in the U.S. for sales in excess of five hundred thousand copies.

In a new interview with "The Dan Chan Show", Max was asked if he thought the rest of the band would continue without him after he chose to leave the group in December 1996. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I think judging by their personalities, yeah, I [thought] they would carry on." As for how he felt about the other members continuing with the band that he co-founded, Max said: "It's really mixed emotions, especially because me and Igor being there in the very, very beginning, and nobody that is in the band [now] was there — not even Paulo [Xisto Pinto Jr., bass] was there in the very beginning. So it's something that feels really personal and sacred that you were there in the very beginning and now you're not. At the same time, it's one of those things in life that just happens and you've gotta move on with other things."

Max continued: "I don't regret it. It's like any thing — it ran its course. One of those things, though, I'll say this, it's extremely frustrating to me that some of the fans don't understand, and it's really easy to blame people for it. And a lot of people end up blaming my wife, Gloria. They always go, 'She broke up the band.' And the truth is we grew apart; we started hating each other, man. It happened to THE BEATLES and it happened to many other bands — PANTERA. It's just how it is. We just didn't find the joy in playing with each other anymore and it was time to move on. So it's a cheap shot to blame her: 'Let's just blame her. She's gotta be the reason why that happened.' And it's, like, no — not at all. We are the reason. I'd rather they blame me than her or somebody else. Blame me for SEPULTURA splitting up. I would much rather prefer that."

Igor and Max have spent much of the last six years celebrating the 20th anniversary of SEPULTURA's "Roots" and 30th anniversary of "Beneath The Remains" and "Arise" albums on tour all over the world.

Back in 2016, SEPULTURA guitarist Andreas Kisser told Australia's Loud that he wasn't bothered by the fact that Max and Igor were performing the entire "Roots" album on their tour. "I don't care," he said. "Everyone does whatever they want. If they feel that's good for their career, whatever, man. It doesn't change anything that I do. It's like a… It's weird to comment on something like that, because, for me, it's weird. [Laughs] I don't see the point. They have so many different projects. Actually, they left SEPULTURA for those projects, and now they're playing SEPULTURA. I don't understand that kind of attitude. But whatever, man. I respect any type of opinion, and, of course, I don't agree with them all, but people are free to do whatever they want. You just have to live with the consequences — that's all."

Kisser said in a September 2014 interview that all the talk of a reunion of the band's classic lineup was "a pain in the ass," and added that the band was angered by "all the pressure of this reunion bullshit, especially coming from that side, especially Max and Gloria always touching that subject."

He continued: "You know, since [Max] left the band, we are used to deal with that, but there's a time that it's enough. I mean, in the end, it was his choice to leave the band; we never fired anybody, we just fired our manager — we fired Gloria — but we never fired Max or Igor or [ex-SEPULTURA drummer] Jean [Dolabella]. Everybody left the band because they didn't feel it was the right place to be. And that's fine. You cannot [force] anybody to be there just to be there as a puppet."

SEPULTURA's current lineup — Paulo, Andreas, vocalist Derrick Green and drummer Eloy Casagrande — released its latest album, "Quadra", in February 2020 via Nuclear Blast Records.

Photo credit: Jim Louvau