SALIVA's BOBBY AMARU Says It's 'Awesome' To See JOSEY SCOTT Playing Music Again

In a new interview with Meltdown of Detroit's WRIF radio station, SALIVA bassist Brad Stewart and vocalist Bobby Amaru spoke about the fact that original SALIVA singer Josey Scott (a.k.a. Joseph Sappington) recently embarked on a tour under the JOSEY SCOTT'S SALIVA banner which sees him performing a lot of the band's classic songs without any of the other original SALIVA members. Brad said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "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 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], 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."

This past May, 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 last year's 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.