What's In A Name? Ask PAPA ROACH

July 19, 2010

According to The Pulse of Radio, PAPA ROACH frontman Jacoby Shaddix dished on the name of his band and several others in a feature at Spin.com titled "Why They're Called . . ." Shaddix said that his own band came up with its name in 1993 when they were "young and dumb" and listening to "lots of bands with funky names — stuff like MR. BUNGLE, PRIMUS, and the RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS." He explained, "I thought, what if we named it after my grandfather — his last name is Roach. The other guys were like, 'You mean roach like as in weed?' But I also thought PAPA ROACH had a dirty, grimy sense of longevity that really represented where we were as people at the time. Roaches last, you know?"

Shaddix added that rejected names for the group included PAPA GATO, NUDE and THE GROOVE MERCHANTS.

The singer said that STONE TEMPLE PILOTS and DEFTONES had two of the best band names ever, explaining, "At a point in time in my life, those were bands that had a huge impact on me, and I always thought they had slick, cool names."

As for the worst band names, Shaddix said, "I always thought LIMP BIZKIT was a really bad name, but I guess it's no worse than PAPA ROACH. THE ROLLING STONES was weird to me when I was a kid . . . KORN is a really, really bad name. I was a huge fan of theirs, though."

PAPA ROACH's new album, "Time For Annihilation...On The Road and On The Record", is due out on August 31. The record will feature a mix of live tracks and new studio cuts, one of which is first single "Kick In The Teeth" (see video below).

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