SEVENDUST Interviewed By ZOIKS! ONLINE

Zoiks! Online recently conducted an interview with vocalist Lajon Witherspoon and drummer Morgan Rose of SEVENDUST. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Zoiks! Online: Who was your first concert? Can you even remember what your first concert was?

Morgan: The first one that I went to on my own was JUDAS PRIEST, but my mom brought me to see all kinds of shit. I saw DAVID BOWIE on the "Ziggy Stardust" tour. The story is, my mom couldn't get into the show, so she handed me to some security guy she didn't know, some complete fucking stranger and said, "He loves DAVID BOWIE. Could you let him in to hear a few songs?" I was like three. (Laughs) It was some strange dude, he might have beaten me when I went in there, I don't remember.

Lajon: My first concert, believe it or not, it's a little funny, but I was more into R&B. I was into rock and roll, but you have to understand where I was growing up at, concerts like that didn't come through. I remember going to see NEW EDITION with Bobby Brown at some auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee, that was tight. (Laughs)

Zoiks! Online: I'm sure everybody wants to hear about this, what was it like to work with Clint [Lowery, guitar] again and what kind of stuff does he bring?

Morgan: I mean, his voice and his songwriting and his guitar playing, that's that part of the band. When I pulled him out of his old band and had him join us, that was the last piece. We have this machine of chunky grooves and stuff that John (Connolly) was writing. We had the soulful vocals with the heavy vocals, but Clint came in and we added that harmony, we added that other lead vocal and a really good guitar player to the mix. That was what it started as, but when we were without him for awhile it was like we were before we had him. We had a guitar player that was almost of the same mold as the original guy before Clint. He was a very adequate guitar player, not much of a voice. His songwriting ability might have been great, but for this band it was not the same thing. So having him back was getting that…

Lajon: It's like we had this puzzle, it wasn't framed, but it was a really nice puzzle and we took it places. There was a piece missing in it, but it was still cool. Getting Clint back we were able to put that piece back.

Zoiks! Online: "Cold Day Memory" is one of the best albums of 2010. Aside from Clint being back, how was the making of this one different from the others?

Lajon: I think the major difference is that for a long time we haven't really pulled in an outside entity to work with the band like a producer. We've kind of done it ourselves the last several years. We have before, worked with people like Toby Wright, Ben, who else?

Zoiks! Online: Butch.

Lajon: Great guys and we loved working with them, but we just really took the reins in our own hands and this time working with Johnny K, coming to Chicago was a cool experience, even though we did it in the middle of winter last year, which was kind of unfortunate. We were able to get in there and really get to the grind, show Johnny the SEVENDUST style of working. I think he wanted to take more time than we had to get the album done, because he have to be out here on the road that is what keeps this machine going. We got in there and it was really hard for us, because still we have to go out and do fly dates and detach yourself from being in that studio mode. It let us really work hard, to make sure we had a lot of our work done before we did some of these dates. It was cool to do the album at The Groovemasters and to work with Johnny K is definitely a huge experience.

Zoiks! Online: What advice would you have for a young band coming up on how to deal with the business side?

Morgan: The only advice I ever give, other than the clichéd ones like get a lawyer, because a lawyer will steal money from you too, so I mean, other than that, they're all going to steal from you, but the only advice I ever give is, make sure you're real close with the dudes you're playing with before you get a deal, because if you're lucky enough to get on the road and live in a tube, or van or RV, you better like the dude, because there is no solitary. There is no alone time. I always tell people, when you're in college and you had a four-bedroom apartment with three other roommates and you're like, "My fucking roommate keeps eating my cereal and shit." You can close a door; imagine having eleven roommates with one refrigerator and a hallway with a curtain that keeps you all apart. You better like those guys. If you don't, you might accomplish the dream and have it all fall apart because you can't stand each other.

Lajon: I can say this, too, to all those young men and women out there, stay true to your art, but also be a businessman or businesswoman. Keep an eye on what's going on. When we first started out, we didn't care, we had a tour, we're going to be gone for a year, who cares? We don't have a wife, kids, we don't care that the guy managing the band is taking all of the money. We think we're rock stars because we got a …

Morgan: $150 a week and we're like, "Yeah, we're fucking rich." "Oh, hey mom, how are you doing, it's been a year? You look crazy and drugged out."

Lajon: You know what I mean, just being gone. It didn't matter to us until years later you realize that there was stuff you could have changed along the way if we had been more in tune with the business side of things. You still live your dream and thank the Lord for everything you have, because it could be gone just like that. You can't take it for granted. Just keep your eye on what's going on and stay true to your art.

Read the entire interview from Zoiks! Online.