THE LONE STAR LOW DOWN FROM DEVIL DRIVER’S DEZ FAFARA
By: Tammy Moore



(TM) You're making stops in Austin and Houston on your way to Ozzfest next week...is this the band's first time in Austin?

(DF) No, but Texas is always a good time. We always look forward to playing there no matter what city we’re in.

When you guys headlined the "Bound By The Road" tour this Spring, the set was pretty lengthy, almost an hour and a half. Can we expect something like that August 7th?

Yeah, definitely. I know that our Ozzfest show is only 40 minutes and you don’t even break a sweat, unless it’s 102 degrees that day in Dallas which it’s probably going to be! We’ll probably whip out an hour and twenty. We’ll see about that. I mean, for me, even an hour and a half of my favorite band sometimes is difficult to take when I go to watch bands so I don’t want to give them too much but I want to give them enough, you know? We want people to walk away and think, okay I spent $20 on a ticket and they really played their hearts out so that’s what we’re coming to do. And we’re bringing some great bands with us.

Who will be playing drums for you in Austin?

We’re going to use Kevin Talley. He’s done a lot of stuff. He was with Hate Eternal and is presently with DAATH. He’s been in metal for a long time and is extremely well respected. And it’s going to be strange for me. I’ve never played with another drummer. Well, in the very beginning we had another drummer and Boecklin was the original guitar player but when I found out he was such a great drummer, we switched guys from situations. But it’s going to be cool to play with Talley. My drummer is getting married the next day and blessed be on that, you know, but he’s missing a METALLICA show!

So, John Beocklin fans don't need to be concerned that Kevin is taking his place on the Texas dates?

Oh no. He’s going to be at home, making sure his tux fits and all that.

And his groomsmen will be hangin’ at Ozzfest?

Yeah, after Ozzfest, we have to leave two hours later, get on a plane, and come back and get ready to party with the groom. We’re fortunate on the timing of the wedding, that we’ll be able to make it back in time for it and we’ve got Kevin filling in. He’s flying in to Santa Barbara tomorrow so that will be a good time to hang out and watch him jam and it’ll be different for me to jam with another drummer.



What can you tell us about Ozzfest this year? I understand there's going to be a Dimebag Tribute happening?

I’m hearing all sorts of different things. And there should be a tribute to Dime anywhere there’s metal. I was fortunate enough in my lifetime to tour with Pantera many times all over the world. He was a great guy and any kind of tribute to him is cool and I’d love to be part of anything like that. As far as Ozzfest goes, there’s no one that’s played Ozzfest more than me, other than Ozzy, so it’s incredible to be invited again and I thank Mrs. O for that. She’s been in my corner since I was a kid.

Can you paint a picture, so to speak, of a day in the life of a band playing the fest and reflect a little on what it's like to be part of the Ozzfest "family"?

You pull into a place on a bus, you wake up at 10 in the morning, because some band is playing, then you go out and mingle around and you see a bunch of great friends and...a lot of people will use this term, so I don’t want it be cliche, but it’s so damn true...it’s summer camp for musicians. It really is. You walk into catering and it’s like everyone you’ve ever known including, and I’m looking really forward to seeing, tons of crew that work with other bands that I’ve known. And at night everyone’s walking around onto each other’s buses. It’s a great time!

Do you happen to know why the decision was made to just do the one Ozzfest this year?

No, I don’t. I’m just glad to be on it and I’ve played with a lot of bands on the Ozzfest bill but never with Metallica so I’m really proud that Devil Driver will be able to play with them. I know Robert Trujillo real well and I’m hoping to meet the rest of the guys. Those are some of the dudes I’ve never met out of everyone I’ve been hanging out with in the industry so it would be cool to shake a hand and make sure that everybody’s down to earth and cool like I expect them to be.

You’re influenced by everything from the Beatles to Bauhaus to Megadeth? Is Devil Driver sonic nirvana for you?

It sure is a damn good time, another direction that I want to do. I’m not influenced by The Beatles though. I actually hate the Beatles.

Oops! I must have assumed that from reading that your parents played them all the time.

That’s it right there. I think that’s why I turned against it! But you know what I am influenced by? Bauhaus, a lot of goth stuff, a lot of industrial stuff, a lot of metal, a lot of old country from Johnny Cash to Hank Williams. And a lot of blues, a shit load of jazz, flamenco...I listen to it all. I love the Gypsy Kings. I’m a man of many tastes and I feel that’s the way music should be. It can influence what you do with your art. If you’re a painter and you only work in red and blue, how many people are really going to be interested? So you have to curry your colors a little bit just to give you an analogy.

You're a full year now into the release of 'The Last Kind Words', the band's own self proclaimed "best record we've ever made". Where does Devil Driver go from here? Are you working on a new record?

We are. We’ve got seven or eight tunes that we’re bringing together. We’ve already kind of found the direction. We’re going through a period in time, too, where I’ve been with Road Runner Records for 13 years and now, for the first time in my career, I’m free to shop. So we’re talking to numerous other labels, as well as Road Runner, my home. I have a great fondness for Roadrunner, obviously, but there’s other companies that are interested as well and it’s not specifically based on money. It’s specifically based on who is going to take this fourth record to another level. It’s an exciting time. You know we’re going into a fourth record...and with a metal band, when you come from an underground level like we did, because we didn’t just start headlining after Coal Chamber, we started from the ground up and [supported] everybody...the third, fourth record is where you really start to open up so we’ll see where the future is going. It’s looking bright.

Would you consider bringing Jason Suecof in again to produce?

Oh, that’s a most likely! If you’ve ever been in the room with that cat, he is unbelievable. He’s a riot. He’s great to work with, and not only that, he’s probably the best guitar player on earth. He’d give anybody from Zakk Wylde to Yngvie Malmsteen a run for their money so it’s really cool to have somebody like that working with you.

When might fans expect to see this new record?

Well, I’d love to see it released by June or July of next year (‘09) and I think that’s doable. Our tour schedule is unbelievable from South Africa to South America to another headlining run in the States. There’s a lot of stuff coming and we’ve got to be able to write some music too. We’ve got to have some time off and we try to catch a couple of weeks together here and there to do that.

What is your own personal favorite Devil Driver record and why?

That’s difficult. We’ve moved so many times. With three records, they sound like Devil Driver but they all sound different. It would be really hard for me to nail it down...hard question.

You love them all for different reasons?

I really do. I love them all because there’s growth. And I’ll love the fourth one. I want to make sure the band keeps growing and the sound has some kind of evolution. The one thing that I really like about Devil Driver is that we don’t sound like everybody else.



There's a true dichotomy to Devil Driver's music; it has a brutally angry feel to it but there's a positive message of perseverance at the core. Do you feel like the message and vision you want to project is really getting through to fans in terms of people looking below the surface of what you're doing?

I feel if you read the lyrics you’ll get beneath the surface and figure out what I’m really saying about humanity. I can write a song in five minutes walking down the street. And really well said on your part too...I don’t base my life on anger and if I took the songs on that record that are just angry, I could narrow it down to just one or two. Determination and perseverance play a great deal lyrically and the music itself, I just want it to be brutal and heavy and do the same thing that I got out of metal when I was a kid. You know, if my parents are fighting or whatever, I put on a metal record and it just takes me somewhere else. It gives me another kind of inspiration.

You said once that you sold your soul for your musical life, much like Faust sold his soul to the Devil? Can you expand on that?

Road Runner Records! (Laughs)

I wondered if that was in reference to the relentless touring life that Devil Driver has chosen and how you balance that with family? I know you have a wife a children.

I do and you know I meant that half kidding and half not. For 13 years Road Runner Records has owned my likeness, my name, my everything. I’ve been on the road away from my wife and my kids forever and I don’t think that’s really going to change. I’ve got another strong 20 in me. And about selling your soul, you do it for anything that you love. If you’re a journalist, you take time away from your family and your personal life to do your journalism so it’s the same thing for musicians. I’m gone for three months at a time sometimes and it can be very difficult. I admire the family that I’ve got that actually stay with me through that. I mean, many women wouldn’t put up with that shit, let alone children and everything else. I’m very lucky. I’ve been with my wife for a long time and she knows me and I know her and trust is obviously essential being on the road as long as we are. I’m fortunate that [my family] understands it’s in my blood. It’s never coming out. Some of my idols are 62, 65 years strong and that’s how I want to be.

All right, so you'll still be doing this in 20 years but 10 or 15 years from now when music historians are retracing the path of metal, what do you hope they will say the relevance of Devil Driver was?

Well, first of all they would go back to the beginning and that’s Coal Chamber and that was a time when a lot of people were experimenting with goth and industrial influences with the music and writing clean vocals and writing real sellable songs. But then I moved on and in that time Devil Driver put up the middle finger and delivered ‘The Last Kind Words’ which was our heaviest record and, to date, it’s just a huge middle finger to what everybody’s doing which is the sing-song chorus in order to get radio air play. I’d like for them to look back and say, ‘this guy had a long career, did something totally unique in the beginning with Coal Chamber and unique in moving forward with Devil Driver and also speak about things that I got lucky to do and am humble to do. I’ve done songs with Ozzy and Nikki Sixx and Phil Anselmo. I’ve toured the world with everybody, I can’t even name, from Sabbath to Pantera to Megadeth. Maybe they’ll look back on a guy that followed his dreams...look, the bottom line is this: I’m just a kid who got my dreams fulfilled and I’m still running with it because it’s a good time for me, it’s doing well and I’m just fortunate and humbled by the whole thing. I’m really still just a kid playing air guitar. Yeah, I got a call from Al Jourgensen at 8:30 in the morning the other day and I told my wife, “No matter how long I know Al, HE JUST CALLED ME at 8:30 in the morning!” And she looked at me and said the same thing I’m saying to you which is, “It’s cool that you’re still...”

Starstruck? Thrilled with the life?

Totally! I’m looking from the outside in and I want to stay that way, you know?

Any thoughts on the state of our country or the upcoming elections?

Absolutely. George Bush should have been impeached long ago. The Afghanistan invasion MAY have been justified but I’m not sure that 9/11 may have been done by our own government in order to put home security on us and start infringing on our rights so I’ve got to make up my mind on that one. Iraq was definitely wrong. I want our troops withdrawn. You know, I travel the world. I’m not just in the United States. I’m in every city around the globe and nobody feels about America the way that they used to which is a sad...sad state...when freedom, to people around the world, doesn’t seem like freedom. We’re imposing our so called freedom and democracy on other countries and it’s totally wrong. We’ve gone over there and bombed the shit out of these people and their lives...all their museums and cultural centers. We’ve taken away Mothers and Fathers and Sons and Daughters, then we expect some 10 year old kid NOT to blow the bomb and come get us. One day it’s going to happen. They’re going to get their revenge on what we did. We didn’t learn from Vietnam. There’s millions of people marching in the streets and our politicians don’t listen so is this a country ‘for the people’? I don’t think so anymore. I’m begging that people just look up and understand that the IRS isn’t even something that’s in the Constitution. Stop paying your taxes immediately because it’s illegal and I don’t care if they come after me for this one. Does anyone remember why we formed the country? To get away from taxes. Does anyone remember The Boston Tea Party? Why do we put up with this shit? So, I’d like to see a country for the people by the people, and on that note, I’d like to think I’m not getting caught up in the mass hysteria of charisma that is Obama and I’d like to think that he can come in and he can do something. Personally, I was a Hillary guy. I’d like to see the United States become, around the world, what it used to be.



Yes, we’ll see. If Obama is telling the truth and he’s not in the pockets of the special interest groups, maybe he can get some things accomplished in a relatively short amount of time.

You know, if you go to Canada, as much as we do, you’ll see that Universal Healthcare is totally working for them. You don’t pay for doctors, you don’t pay for dentists. Where are all of our tax dollars going here? I live in a beautiful place, Santa Barbara, California, and there’s million dollar homes and potholes everywhere in the street. Where are the tax dollars going? You can’t pay for people’s health care? That’s because they’re trying to weed us out. Everyone is focused mainly on making money. But we’ll see what happens. If you go overseas and someone says, “Oh, you’re an American...screw you.” I mean, really, it’s why on the back of The Last Kind Words, I wore an American vest on my back to show people I’m not afraid to say I’m from this country. It’s a great country and it’s a place where everyone came, everyone wanted to come, and it’s just turned into something not good. But I’ve got the Stars and Bars tattooed on my neck for patriotic reasons. I want to see it come back and come back strong.

We’ll all be keeping our fingers crossed on that, Brother. Finally, the last line of 'Not All Who Wander Are Lost' says, "Something, somewhere injects the eye Texas! Nights! Define the sky." What does that particular line mean to you?

It was recorded in Texas and I’ve just always been a fan of the state every time we come through. There’s something about the nights there. It’s big and bright and there’s not a lot of lights everywhere. You can see the sky. You can really see the stars. And you want to know how people feel about the government? Go talk to the people in Texas. Talk to the rancher next door...you’ll see what’s really going on. For me, and I’m not just saying this, there’s just something about Texas in that it’s always been a great time, from the beginning of my career up till now and I just felt like I needed to mention California and Texas in the lyrics of this record. It’s like the center of America for me...not the Midwest, it’s Texas, man.

DEVIL DRIVER WILL BE APPEARING THIS THURSDAY, AUGUST 7 @ RED 7 IN AUSTIN WITH SPECIAL GUESTS IN THIS MOMENT, WITHIN CHAOS AND PINHED. DOORS @ 7PM.