MAX CAVALERA Slams ANDREAS KISSER Over Derailed SEPULTURA Reunion Talks; Video Available

On June 7, Holland's FaceCulture spoke to SOULFLY mainman Max Cavalera about his revelation that a reunion of SEPULTURA classic lineup "almost happened" last year but was derailed following a disagreement with SEPULTURA guitarist Andreas Kisser over who would control the band's business affairs and other money-related issues. An excerpt from the chat follows below.

FaceCulture: Have you spoken to Andreas recently? Is there any news about [a possible reunion of the classic SEPULTURA lineup]?

Max: "No, it's still the same. What we talked about that night [last year] that I phoned him is still the same. I have had no contact with him. Everything is still the same as it was, unfortunately… I really wanna do it [the reunion]. 'Cause I even proposed to him… I said, 'If you want to, just have your camp manage you and Paulo [SEPULTURA bassist] — you have your own managers — and Gloria [Max's wife and former SEPULTURA manager who still handles Max's business affairs] will manage me and Igor [Max's brother and ex-SEPULTURA drummer]. That way we're both happy; it's a 50-50 thing. Everybody is cool and happy, right?! I mean, that's being as fair as possible. [And] that was not good enough for [Andreas]. He doesn't want Gloria involved. He wants to do the whole thing himself, control the whole thing. And that's not right, that's not fair."

FaceCulture: Does Igor still speak to [Andreas]?

Max: "I don't think so. But I talked to Igor and he said he would do the tour — for me, he would do the tour. 'Cause I really wanna do it for my kids. My kids wanna see it, a bunch of friends of mine wanna see it. I think the whole world would like to see it. It was an important band in the metal world."

FaceCulture: Was the money an issue, too, for [Andreas], you think?

Max: "To me, it's not. Because, to me, we're not doing this for the money. We're doing it to show the people how good this band was — just to have great shows again, to show the people that we were an important band. The idea was not to do anything new we were an important band. The idea was not to do anything new — don't make a new album; just play old stuff. Just play old things. It's even better. The old songs are more powerful anyway. But, I don't know… He took it the wrong way. Everything I said was taken the wrong way."

FaceCulture: So he didn't want to have more money or something? Because that's what I read that you said. I don't know if it's true, [so] I would like to confirm [it].

Max: "To me, it seems a little bit that way. The thing with those guys that really sucks that a lot of people don't know — I think I should say that because it's something that happened — is that when Dana died [Dana Wells was Max Cavalera's stepson who was killed in a car accident in 1996 — Ed.], [and] I flew back from Donington [where SEPULTURA was supposed to perform], Andreas' wife tried to bury Dana before Gloria got home. I don't know [why], man. That's evil — doing something like that. And we stopped that because Gloria's daughter Christina found out about it and stopped the whole thing. It was like, 'What are you doing?' She was trying to get him buried and done with it. By the time she got home, he was already buried and done he was already buried and done — the funeral was all done. And that was really hurtful. And that was one of the reasons I quit SEPULTURA, because of that kind of attitude that they have towards a person that was our friend. So that's something that a lot of people don't know."

FaceCulture: Did they apologize for this?

Max: "Nah. Never."

FaceCulture: If they do, then maybe you can do that tour?

Max: "Yeah. Maybe if we do the reunion, we can put all that behind — put even that behind, if that's possible."

Watch video footage of Max Cavalera talking to FaceCulture about the SEPULTURA near-reunion in the YouTube clip below.

Classic SEPULTURA lineup performing "Roots Bloody Roots" at Spain's Dr. Music festival in 1996: