UNEARTH Guitarist Discusses Life On The Road

OneMetal.com recently conducted an interview with UNEARTH guitarist Buz McGrath. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

OneMetal.com: There's a saying about "hat goes off on tour stays on tour." Have you got any stories that you would care to share with us?

Buz McGrath: Well, the weirdest thing that happened with me on the last tour… the SLAYER tour. You know what Wal-Mart is?

OneMetal.com: Yeah

Buz McGrath: Well, we pulled a bus in after the show cos it was like open 24 hours, and everyone goes in and buys like food and underwear and socks. So I needed to buy a coat. I went in there and grabbed an orange juice and was holding this orange juice whilst looking for a coat. I found one, thought sweet and put it on and put the orange juice down. I'm looking around for a mirror to check it out, and this cop who's on duty there comes round with the juice and he's like "This is not a walk-through buffet," and I'm like, "Dude, I just put it down cos I wanted to try this coat on." They have a police station in the Wal-Mart and he took me in there, cuffed me, took my picture, brought out the store manager. He put my hands behind my head, and he had my hands in one hand and was like searching my pockets with the other and he was like, "If you move I'll break your fingers." I'm like, "Dude, I was gonna pay for the orange juice, I don't just drink sh*t and leave, I pay for it." He thought I was trying to steal the coat. Eventually they let me go, but I am now banned from all Wal-Marts in the United States.

OneMetal.com: It's a pretty comprehensive tour you've got going on… do you ever get sick of each other?

Buz McGrath: You know, sometimes certain people get on your nerves. You're living on the bus together. It's like when you get your first apartment, you move in with your friends it's like awesome, I get to live with my friends. But then you kind of get to know what type of people they are, like just slobs. Or one does this and it gets on your nerves. It kind of works out like that, but we've been doing it for so long that we know how not to p*ss each other off too much and just kind of let it roll and just play it smooth.

OneMetal.com: Does anyone have any really annoying habits?

Buz McGrath: Nah, it's just the usual sh*t like people just leaving their crap all over. That's the stuff I get annoyed by 'cos it's a bus, it's small and there's like common areas and there's sh*t all over. I am like, it's either bunk bay or trash… that's your options.

OneMetal.com: Who's the nicest person you have come across in the music scene?

Buz McGrath: Band wise, the guys from AS I LAY DYING are some of the nicest people that we've ever you know had dealings with. They always come to mind, they'll always like do anything to help you out. There was one tour we did with them, we were on a bus. It was us, AS I LAY DYING and SLIPKNOT. We started the tour in a bus and they were in a van, and there was a bus that was going to meet them and they were going to ditch the van and have their own bus. But the tour got cancelled for a week and we had to get rid of our bus 'cos we couldn't pay for it for a week when we weren't playing shows. And the tour started up again and that was when they got their bus, and they just let us use their van for the rest of the tour, and in addition to that they let our people ride on their bus. So, definitely those dudes come to mind.

OneMetal.com: You've mentioned some pretty huge names in terms of bands you have played with. Is there anyone that you haven't yet played with that you would like to?

Buz McGrath: Probably like IRON MAIDEN, it would be cool to play with. That's like way up there though. That's like huge. You know IRON MAIDEN, METALLICA stuff like that. I mean we have definitely toured with a lot of high-profile bands. We've been lucky enough to get a lot of opportunities, so we can cross a lot of those bands off the list of things we had to do, which is a good feeling.

OneMetal.com: How much of an influence have IRON MAIDEN been to you personally, cos you can tell in your guitar work?

Buz McGrath: Yeah it's pretty big, and I got into IRON MAIDEN pretty late. I mean we had started UNEARTH and I knew who they were and I knew a couple of songs. But I had never really got into the catalogue and really dived into it until like maybe eight years ago. I really sank my teeth into it and fell in love with it for real.

Read the entire interview at www.onemetal.com.