SEVENDUST Frontman Explains Decision To Pull Out Of ROCKSTAR ENERGY MAYHEM Tour

Greg Maki of Live-Metal.net recently conducted an interview with SEVENDUST vocalist Lajon Witherspoon. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

Live-Metal.net: What is your role personally in the whole writing and recording process?

Lajon: We all write together and I always feel it would be foolish to only have it come from one person's point of view when you know you have all these grown men in the band that have been together for 11 years. So the writing process is we all have ideas and we all come together. If it's working, it works. But if it's not, then it's not. Everyone has a big part in writing because I feel it's therapy for each of us and we all go through different situations and what better way to explain them or get our energy out there than through song and being in this band, we're in a band together. So that's how we do it.

Live-Metal.net: Are you gonna make a video from this album ["Chapter VII: Hope & Sorrow"]?

Lajon: Yes. It's getting ready to happen, actually. We'll be doing a video for "Prodigal Son", I believe. It's still being talked about and after that we'll be going out with our friends SALIVA in the States, which is incredible, and rolling out on the April 1 release. We're just ready to get back into it, man, and work. I've got a new baby girl. She will be here May 23. Everything is right.

Live-Metal.net: You've got a pretty big catalog now. Is it hard to pick out the songs?

Lajon: Sometimes it's hard. We don't fight, like "Man, I don't want to that song," or "I definitely don't remember that song." [laughter] It's fun. I look at it like, "Man, can you believe it's gotten to the point where we have this big catalog and we can pick and choose?" It's also incredible to be able to go out and tour with a band and adjust you're music to make the crowd, if that makes any sense. We don't have to play all the slam heavy hitters. We can throw some "Trust" or "Silence", and I think that's what great about having a catalog and not only being able to go out and tour with a band like SLIPKNOT, but turn around and go out with a band like SALIVA, too, and then turn around and go out with ALTER BRIDGE and then go back out with OZZY. I mean, what more could you ask for as a musician and an artist if people accept that and you're able to paint this beautiful collage, not just this one portrait, you're able to do many things.

Live-Metal.net: So you've got this tour in the spring. I know you stepped off the Rockstar Energy Mayhem Tour. Can you say what the summer plans are gonna be yet?

Lajon: Well, you know, everything is in the making and there's a lot of big things going on. There's a lot of bands calling and calling bands. I want to just say for the record that I hated that we were not able to be able to do the Mayhem tour. I was so excited and we all were as a band. Financially, we would've just the ship had taken on water and if we had done that it would have really affected households. So we had to go down another avenue. Hopefully in the future that tour will go forward because I would love to tour with those bands again. SLIPKNOT, DISTURBED, which I'm sure we'll be touring with those guys in the future anyway. I mean, all of the bands on there. Who else? MASTODON, the guys from Atlanta. I mean, give me a break. MACHINE HEAD. But hopefully we'll be able to take a tour out in the future and play again. I hope all well for that tour. It's gonna be great anyway.

Live-Metal.net: SEVENDUST has been around a long time now. I can tell just from talking to you, really, but what is it that keeps you motivated and keeps you going?

Lajon: Magic, man. I really feel that the music is magic and those people out there we don't have any fans, we have family. I feel like we don't have concerts, they're family reunions because now you have the guy that was 17 years old in front of the stage. Now he's got his baby girl or boy with him with his wife and his mom and dad might be there. So it's definitely a growing thing. I feel like the people that we've met along the way in this journey have made us work harder and become stronger men in a sense.

Read the entire interview at Live-Metal.net.