STAIND Frontman: 'We're Creating A Country That Facilitates Laziness And Entitlement'

ARTISTdirect.com editor Rick Florino recently conducted an interview with STAIND frontman Aaron Lewis. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

ARTISTdirect.com: How has the acoustic tour changed over the years?

Lewis: One thing that's definitely changed is that the venues have figured me out and they tend to give me a time-limit on how long I can play for now [Laughs]. I was keeping people in the venues for too long, and I wasn't allowing them to get into the casinos quickly enough [Laughs]. The three-hour shows are no longer! They're now limited to an hour-and-a-half. The other thing is, I'm shying away from playing the amount of covers that I was playing before. With new material getting put in the set all of the time, me learning B-side songs that weren't necessarily songs that STAIND would play in a live and all of the songs I have to play, that pretty much fills up the hour-and-a-half. I would have to take STAIND songs or my songs out in order to put covers in. I don't want to be known for being the human jukebox. I'd rather be known for playing my music than playing other people's.

ARTISTdirect.com: Are there any new solo songs that you're debuting on this upcoming run?

Lewis: One song accidentally got dropped via YouTube. Last week, I did a show in memory of the soldiers that fell on Fort Hood about a month ago. I played the song, and it ended up on YouTube [see video below]. That's a new song, and it's my first attempt at a country-styled song. I don't really know what makes it country, but it is country. It seems like everybody that works with me who has heard it wants to make it the single we're going to put out next. We'll see what happens.

ARTISTdirect.com: Your story personifies both the American dream and the dream of any artist to connect with people through honest, real art. Do you feel like that dream has ever changed for you or are you still pursuing the same thing? Where are you at on this journey?

Lewis: The only way that my dream is changing, as far as the American dream goes, is happening because of other people — people that we were foolish enough to put in the positions that they're in. I'm a conservative capitalist, and I truly believe that capitalism is what makes this country the amazing place that it is. I can't even believe that the government thinks it's okay to take as much money as they do from one individual on a yearly basis. We're creating a country that facilitates laziness and entitlement. It's all not part of the plan. The way this system works is when everyone puts in the hard work to get the benefits. I grew up in a trailer park. Really, I grew up in an old deer camp, but we lived in a trailer park. Our upgrade from living in a trailer park was moving onto this old dirt road in this town you wouldn't know. I refer to the town in the first lines of my new song. My dad bought a hunting camp that was two miles up this dirt road on the side of a mountain. It was the only dwelling on the whole mountain. That's where I grew up. We have the power to do anything we want in this country. It's our country. I hope if people listen to anything, they hear that.

Read the entire interview from ARTISTdirect.com.