SEVENDUST Guitarist: RONNIE JAMES DIO 'Was A Huge Influence On My Life'

Mary Ouellette of TheyWillRockYou.com recently conducted an interview with SEVENDUST guitarist Clint Lowery. A few excerpts from the chat follow below.

TheyWillRockYou.com: "Cold Day Memory" is the first album that the band has released since your return. I wanted to ask you right out of the gate how the writing and recording process was for you. Did you feel a lot of pressure since you've always been noted as one of the defining forces of the band's best material?

Clint: There was absolutely a lot of pressure but it was one of those kinds of pressure that keeps you on your toes. Being gone for three records, I knew that people had expectations and wanted to see what the chemistry of the original lineup would be like after being apart. I had a lot of expectations myself and I still feel like I could have done better. I embraced it, though; I like working under pressure because when I'm sitting around getting lazy and procrastinating it adds a little pep to my step and makes me want to dig in a little further so it was a good kind of pressure.

TheyWillRockYou.com: And continuing on that discussion, did it feel natural to be working with the band again? Were there any hiccups or was it like getting back on a bike?

Clint: It was pretty much the bike scenario. It was a little different because it was a little bit of payback for me being gone; I had to do some make- up work. There would be a chorus that would need to be written and they'd sort of hand it off to me but it was cool. Those guys stuck to it after I left and I felt like I owed it to them. I felt like I needed to step it up for them.

TheyWillRockYou.com: Lajon [Witherspoon, vocals] has described your reunion as you coming "home." I'm just wondering if you feel that way and what the time apart taught you about the band?

Clint: It was definitely like coming home and every time he says that it makes me feel really good. This is a comfort zone for us. I'm glad I had that experience outside of the band but being gone really made me appreciate what we have. With any collective group of people that you put together, you're always going to have disagreements and in this band we have our ups and downs. My time away made me really appreciate them; I appreciated the humor, the musicianship. It's like when you have a break-up in a relationship, after awhile you only remember the good things.

TheyWillRockYou.com: You've said that "this record personally has been one of the most difficult, but most rewarding records I've ever worked on." Can you tell us more about that?

Clint: There were a few different reasons that it was difficult. I added that pressure on myself but also I couldn't really figure out what direction we should go in. Should we do a balls-out heavy record? Or should we go more melodic? And it was really difficult just trying to find our niche again and what would be the most sincere. So I asked the fans what they'd like to hear; we have an amazing core fan base, and you can always rely on them to tell you the truth. You can have people from a business standpoint tell you what they think you should do but the fans are never wrong. Some bands will say that they do it for themselves and to make themselves happy but what makes me happy is making our fans happy. They are the heart of our livelihood. So their feedback was taken and I agreed with them — they wanted the heavy stuff to be heavy and the melodic stuff to be melodic and I think that was the most difficult part. We had to take a deep breath and do what came naturally to us.

TheyWillRockYou.com: We recently lost a great in Ronnie James Dio. I wanted to ask how you were influenced by him throughout the years and your thoughts.

Clint: I am a diehard Ronnie James Dio fan, I love that man. I had a chance to shake his hand in Europe. Growing up, I was his biggest fan and he got me through so much. I loved every guitar player that he ever played with. Dio was a part of every part of my musical school — some of the first songs I learned were Dio songs. What got me through teenage years were Dio songs; he was a huge influence on my life. I'm so sad that he's passed. The night he died we played a few songs during our set and the whole crowd joined in. He is going to be missed but he was such a huge contribution to metal that he's never going to die; he's put his legacy on earth and his music and influence will live on forever.

Read the entire interview at TheyWillRockYou.com.