Original SALIVA Singer JOSEY SCOTT Says His New Band Isn't Afraid To Draw Influences From All Music Genres

In a new interview with Rock 100.5 The KATT's Cameron Buchholtz, original SALIVA singer Josey Scott (a.k.a. Joseph Sappington),who has been performing with his solo group in recent months under various names, including JOSEY SCOTT – THE ORIGINAL VOICE OF SALIVA and JOSEY SCOTT'S SALIVA, was asked about the musical direction of the material he is working on with his current bandmates — his stepson Dylan Edney on guitar, Ben Hosterman on lead guitar, Brian "9" Kirk on bass and Justin Barber on drums. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I have influences from every genre, if I'm honest. I have folk influences and nu metal influences and really heavy influences and R&B influences. Growing up in Memphis, I was surrounded by R&B and hip-hop, and I love every bit of it. And with a band like mine, we aren't afraid to go down any of those roads. We're not afraid to travel any of those paths."

Regarding a possible timeline for the release of his new music, Josey said: "Well, as soon as we get a break — we've been really busy touring and I've been doing a lot of collabs with different bands. I've got something I'm going to Nashville to do with this rapper Doobie. We're doing something together that's going to be really fun. And it's kind of a surprise. And I've got a couple of movies coming up that I'm working on. But as soon as we get some time off and get some studio time together, we're definitely gonna lay down some new material."

Asked if it's intimidating at all to release new music after being away from the recording studio for so long, Josey said: "I don't see it as intimidating. I see it as a new opportunity to take the temperature of where I am now, because I think the barometer that I've always gone by in my lyrics has been, where am I at that point in my life? When I wrote 'Click Click Boom', I was still that kid looking out the window, watching the other kids outside having a good time and me being in my room and filling notebooks full of lyrics and plucking around on my girlfriend's acoustic guitar. And today I'm a husband and a father, and I adore my children. Unfortunately, I've lost one of my children to COVID. And so I have plenty to write about. I think struggle is what causes you to write, as a songwriter, what causes the best material to come forth out of you, is usually from your heart and it's usually from a broken heart."

Earlier this month, Scott was asked by Tulsa Music Stream if it is his hope and desire that he and the members of his new band can eventually perform under the SALIVA name. He responded: "Of course that's my hope, because I've always wanted the name to sort of go full circle and come back home. Whether that happens remains to be seen. I think there's things that I think are fair and things that the other camp thinks are fair. And we'll see. We'll see how it all shakes out."

Asked if he is in communication with the band which is continuing to perform under the SALIVA name, consisting of longtime singer Bobby Amaru and bassist Brad Stewart, about coming to a resolution on the usage of the SALIVA name, Josey said: "Uh, yes," before adding, "Basically, all I've been trying to do this whole time is appease the other side. I'll leave it at that."

He continued: "At the end of the day, as I've always said, this business is not about band names and it's not about personalities, it's not about Josey Scott and it's not about Bobby Amaru. It's about songs, songs, songs, songs. At the end of the day, when we all put our head on the pillow at night, it's always going to be all about songs."

Josey Scott's new band plays all of SALIVA's hits — "the ones that people, of course, expect to hear," he told LehighValleyNews.com. "And then I take 'em sort of down the road of music that has affected my life — like, I do an ALICE IN CHAINS song, and I do a RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE song, just to show them who some of my influences are, and then we do a beautiful tribute to [the late FOO FIGHTERS drummer] Taylor Hawkins, and we play [that band's song] 'My Hero'." The group also plays "some deep cuts that only true SALIVA fans would know ... things that I never played with SALIVA when I was in the band from 1996 till 2010. Like, 'Greater Than Less Than', a song that was on the first record that we never played live," Scott said.

Last September, Stewart and Amaru spoke to Meltdown of Detroit's WRIF radio station about the fact that Scott embarked on a tour under the JOSEY SCOTT'S SALIVA banner which saw him performing a lot of the band's classic songs without any of the other original SALIVA members. Brad said: "It's an interesting thing because we've been doing this version of the band [with Bobby on vocals] since Josey originally left 11, 12 years ago. So we've kind of kept the fires burning and put out new records and new music and stuff. So it's an interesting situation that we're in now, to be quite honest, so we're just trying to figure out how to make it work for both parts of it — both versions of it, I should say."

Bobby commented: "I think it's good that [Josey's] trying to connect with fans and tour and play music. I think it's an awesome thing. He should have been doing it long ago."

Referencing SALIVA's founding guitarist Wayne Swinny, who died in March 2023 while on tour with the group, Amaru added: "I think what we're doing here [with the current SALIVA touring lineup] is we're just trying to do what Wayne would have wanted and we're honoring Wayne. This [latest SALIVA] record ['Revelation', which came out in early September 2023], I know how important it was to him and I think the world should hear it. We're going out every night, we're playing songs from it. And this tour has been great. The fans have been awesome, man."

In May 2023, Josey weighed in on the announcement that SALIVA's surviving members would carry on following the death of the group's last remaining original member, the aforementioned Swinny. Josey told Rock 100.5 The KATT's Cameron Buchholtz: "I'm very close with Bobby and I know in my heart and in my soul that Bobby will do the honorable thing. He never hasn't done the honorable thing. And I just trust in his steering the ship at this point, and I know he's gonna do the right thing. And I know it's all gonna work out; it's all gonna be great."

Josey also reflected on his relationship with Wayne in the months leading up to his death. He said: "[We were] just absolute brothers. I think there was things that certain news outlets said about our relationship, that we'd said things about each other or that there was some kind of tension between each of us. That was all blown out of proportion. We were always brothers. I can show you text message after text message where we would talk in the middle of the night and check on each other. And [we] always ended every text with, 'I love you, brother. I can't wait to see you again.' The last text that we shared was talking about him… I said, 'Will you come play some solos on my new stuff?' And he was, like, 'Yeah, of course I will, man.' So we couldn't have been on better terms. And I'm thankful for that."

SALIVA launched its career in 2001 with the release of "Every Six Seconds", a double-platinum selling album with hits that include "Click Click Boom" and "Your Disease".

The band has toured the U.S. with SEVENDUST, AEROSMITH and KISS.

SALIVA reunited with Scott for a one-off appearance at the 2022 Blue Ridge Rock Festival at the Virginia International Raceway in Alton, Virginia.

Scott left SALIVA at the end of 2011 after 15 years with the group, reportedly to pursue a solo Christian music career. He was quickly replaced by Amaru, who can be heard on SALIVA's last five releases: "In It To Win It" (2013),"Rise Up" (2014),"Love, Lies & Therapy" (2016),"10 Lives" (2018) and "Revelation" (2023).

SALIVA released six albums with Scott and tasted platinum success and a Grammy nomination for its first big hit, "Your Disease".

In May 2021, SALIVA celebrated the 20th anniversary of its breakthrough major label debut, "Every Six Seconds", with a special project called "Every Twenty Years", an EP of classic songs re-recorded with Amaru.