STONE SOUR: New Video Interview With ROY MAYORGA

On January 20, Kristyn Clarke of PopCultureMadness.com conducted an interview with STONE SOUR drummer Roy Mayorga backstage at the Sands Event Center in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania prior to the band's concert with PAPA ROACH and OTHERWISE. You can now watch the chat below.

Mayorga recently spoke to The Morning Call about his 2011 stroke and his recovery, which lasted nearly a year.

"It was pretty scary," he said. "I couldn't walk, I couldn't really move my left side really well. It was horrible. I basically was not playing or doing anything music [related] for a good seven, eight months. And then I got better, I got off the meds, and got the confidence again to play drums and got behind the kit and then started recording [the] new [STONE SOUR] album … Almost two years later, I'm pretty much back to normal, and it's a miracle, man, I gotta say. I thank God and the universe and lucky stars I'm still here today. I'm just glad that's over with and I'm able to still walk and play drums and still be here with my family."

Mayorga praised his bandmates, who canceled the rest of their tour and waited for him to get better.

"That's incredible," he said. "I mean, that's a lot to be said for them. Those guys are truly my brothers, for them to do something like that. … Most bands would have gotten somebody else to play drums. But they didn't."

Roy also spoke about the departure of STONE SOUR bassist Shawn Economaki, who left the band just a month before Mayorga's stroke. "That was pretty sudden — he basically wanted just to settle and just do his thing and not tour as much," Mayorga said. "He wanted to do more sound engineering and more studio work. I think, actually, he's working on building a recording studio in Des Moines right now."

STONE SOUR will release "House Of Gold & Bones - Part 2", the second part of their two-album series, "House of Gold & Bones", on April 9 via Roadrunner Records. The albums were recorded at Sound Farm Studios just outside of the band's native Des Moines, Iowa with producer David Bottrill (TOOL, MUSE) at the helm.

The first single from "House Of Gold & Bones - Part 2", "Do Me A Favor", will be available digitally on February 12; the video for "Do Me A Favor" will be directed by Phil Mucci, whose video for HIGH ON FIRE's "Fertile Green" was named best video of 2012 by Revolver.

STONE SOUR is on tour in North America through February 17, and will return in March for the Road To The Golden Gods tour, which will run through May 2.