While most bands, in their off days, would rather spend time sleeping or playing tourist in whatever city they’re in, Mushroomhead was headlining there own show. I got a chance to come check them out, at AUSTINS in Libertyville and have a chat with Stitch before they took the stage. He took some time to talk about the tour, upcoming album plans, and more.
(EDITOR NOTE: This has been transcribed from an audio interview, so its a long one and there may be some grammar errors and maybe even some spelling errors here and there. So don’t yell at me for some mistakes. It was late when I edited the piece. I did my best. Not like we are the New York Times or something. haha… enjoy! – Mitch)
LL: Thanks for taking the time to do this interview with us. So I know you guys just got off of Mayhem tour, what are some of the best memories you have from the tour?
Stitch: Mayhem was great because we got to play in front of not only people that know who we are but we got to play in front of thousands and thousands, tens of thousands of fans that hadn’t heard of us, or have heard of us but never gave a chance to see us. Mayhem was great because we got to turn a lot of people on to what we do for a live show and when people see us we feel that when people see us we could always grab there attention as opposed to like hey you should listen to this band or pick up our CD or check out this masked band and people could be like ah I don’t really care but then they see us live and there impression definitely gets changed as far as what kind of band we are and being that we were on a very metal tour, we kind of blend a lot of elements, a lot of keyboards a lot of singing a lot of stuff like that we definitely stood out. All the bands were great to work with the stage managers everyone, we slowly were winning everyone’s approval over at first it was almost like they were skeptical if they should like us or not because there are always the roomers of slipknot and stuff like that and we get put on the back burner of that
LL: That’s getting old for you guys though I bet
Stitch: It is getting really old and we don’t care we were just in LA hanging out with Sid Olsen he came to our show. I mean were friends with those guys and there nothing there its just fans making up bullshit is all that is and there is no rule that says there can only be one masked band. Its not the highlander but overall the best part of Mayhem is that we get to sell ourselves to new crowds so we can then go out on our own tour and see a turn around of our bigger fans bigger crowds so we can headline and benefit from that more.
LL: How do you feel fans reacted to the new album?
Stitch: The fans reacted great to the new album, the new album was out before Mayhem fest. The fans reacted better than I think the last two records. We got a lot of complements that it was a very Mushroomhead record that it was a very honest record. Some members had been replaced so the writing had been exciting again. Overall it was a great experience for writing a record. The fans love it, people that hadn’t heard up before we played a lot of new material on Mayhem. So for people that hadn’t heard us before we opened up with a new song, so it wasn’t like we opened up with a song from fifteen years ago that might have some outdated sound to kids these days. But you know the reception of the new shit was really really good, and that doesn’t normally happen to a lot of bands. Normally they’ll release a new album and people will say people say oh their new stuffs good but their old stuffs better. Now as the twenty third of October is Mushroomheads twenty-first anniversary. Twenty-one years later most bands cant keep it together. Musically and sonically I think the ban Twenty-one spot on with what it started out to do from the beginning. Most bands half way through their careers say oh we have to shift gears of change music styles to appease to fans and this band has never done that. The most that this band has done close to that is that we have to write for the soundtrack to Scorpion King or this soundtrack so it was more ok we have to theme something for this soundtrack not like lets write a song to get on the radio. This band has never done that and that’s why I think this band will continue to live on. Because it’s not a flash in the pot one hit wonder, here today gone tomorrow. We got real fans that give a shit; I think our fans care a lot more about the longevity of the band than we do which is why we keep doing it.
LL: Congratulations on it being the top twenty on billboard.
Stitch: Yea yea, top twenty, which was great especially in this day in age. Its unfortunate that the top twenty, you know when I was younger top twenty you had to sell a lot of records now that number is not nearly as high. Back in the day people were selling a million records your first week and now a days you sell fifty thousand a week and you’re like the top band in the world. So the top twenty was great, it definitely helped. It helped when we were on Mayhem; it helped with this tour that were on with ICP. The excitement of us getting over to Russia, we did soundwave this year. There are things being talked about for next year were doing some big overseas festivals. So all of those elements, the good album reviews, Mayhem tour, top twenty record you all these things are happening at the right time for the band. It needed to happen cause you can only go so long living in the very very underground. Eventually you start going ok something’s gotta go we got to get to the next tear so it’s going really good.
LL: The ICP tour is nationwide?
Stitch: Yea it was all across the states, but we didn’t go to Canada. It went through Texas, California, Denver, Chicago area. When we have off dates we book our own shows.
LL: How are the off dates going for you guys?
Stitch: We have only had a couple off dates and the off dates are really cool cause then we headline we get to do our own show, we get to play more songs. The only thing on the ICP tour that we don’t like is that we only get to play thirty minutes. So like right when were getting warmed up we have to stop its like but no we want to go another thirty minutes were already here were already sweating were already in these masks. But its also cool cause you get to go off for thirty minutes so you don’t have to save your energy you can go all out. In a headlining show you have to space out the aggression you give out. The ICP camp is awesome, Shaggy, Violent Jay those dudes. I was in high school listening to ICP. So there was a small era where they definitely inspired me as far as the horror aspect. There shows were a lot of fun. At first there was a backlash of fans, you here horror stories of juggles this or juggalos that. When you get on this tour and you play thirty-five shows with ICP and you see “The Juggalos” in every state and their just fans. There not these monsters there not gangsters there not showing up with guns and knifes looking for fights. There’s actually less fights and less drama on this tour than any other tour that we have had on our own.
LL: I think the documentary didn’t help them.
Stitch: No probably not. I think they got classified officially as a gang in the states and its terrible. Cause some assholes ruined it for the whole group, claimed to be Juggalos and did some bad shit. I don’t know exactly what’s rumor and what’s not because everything you read on the internet you never know if its a real site or if its a fake sight. You never know if its real I did read someone killed someone and they claimed to be Juggalos. In the nineties they were blaming the West Memphis Three kids and Metallica.
LL: Glenn Benten went through that as well as Marilyn Manson.
Stitch: Yea Marilyn Manson was the Anti Christ and was going to destroy the world. Now he’s a parody of himself, no one is saying that Marilyn Manson is shocking. Back in the nineties people said he was gonna destroy the youth of America. Its all entertainment, they said the same shit about the Beetles and Elvis. Everyone needs a scapegoat to blame someone. It does suck because ICP shows are just so much fun. I wish people would get out of that bubble of judging Juggalos because they’re awesome and so nice. I had more people say pardon me and excuse me on the ICP tour than probably I will tonight. Tonight I’m gonna see a bunch of drunk asshole getting thrown out, falling down, starting fights with there girlfriends getting drunk on fago.
LL: It’s a stigma of there being a lot of violence cause from like you said one person who just took it too far.
Stitch: Exactly and you know that can happen at any show. I mean it can happen at a Garth Brooks concert, one bad seed that gets too drunk or is just wired weird. People are assholes, whether people are into metal or juggles or whatever you can still be an asshole so. Overall the tour is awesome, they have been great. Its helped us get new fans cause we are bringing our fans but more playing for there fans because a lot of our fans are saying there skipping this one cause they don’t wanna pay to only see us thirty minutes. But we are getting fans that are happy about it like I love both these bands finally a tour with them together and its Halloween so why wouldn’t we support a tour like that. We were going to do a something with Gwar originally but Dave Rocky had passed this year and I know they are reformed and are touring again but we lost that contact. ICP came up and we were like absolutely, we played The Gathering numerous times. They are really good to us. It’s nice to be no that tour cause it’s all rap acts. But we are the only metal band, the whole tour is DJ and a rapper, DJ, Rapper, DJ, Rapper, then its Mushroomhead nine member, nine instruments and all this shit and the it goes to ICP. It’s good because we are the ones that stand out. There are tons of people in the crowd that are like who the hell is this, you can see it on their faces. But by the third song they don’t know a word but there into it. At mercy we here I never seen you guys but you guys are fucking awesome. I’m gonna be at the next show so the things that we were setting out to do are falling into place. The ultimate goal is to build our fan base, not to burn out our own fan base. The past few years we have been just headlining on our own, headlining on our own cause we submit for a lot of tours but no one ever kind of gets back to us. We submit for the Rob Zombies and the Manson’s and we want to tour with those bands. Everyone’s always like why don’t you tour with this band and of course we want to tour with those bands. We submit we have booking agents, they know how to get a hold of us. I don’t know what it is, I don’t know if its cause we got a show. No one wants to put a show before a show. I don’t know but we keep trying, but this tour has been great. Like I said it got us in front of new people and new fans. Well see how in the spring everything will come out.
LL: So now you guys have three singers am I right?
Stitch: Yea the original singer Jay Man came back for originally it was just the recording of the album. Jay man had quit he left the band ten years ago. The album was being written and the hype around the twenty-year anniversary was around so we weren’t enemies or anything he still lives in Cleveland. We sometimes do these old school shows in Cleveland we play old songs and wear the old masks and he comes and sings a couple songs. We still had a good relationship with him. Skinny had brought it up to him, like hey come sing a song or two its gonna be the twentieth anniversary, it will bring it all full circle. We were all cool that will be awesome. One song turned into two, turned into three, turned into four. Then he was almost on half the record so at that point we were like all right well just put ya on all of it. So everyone picked there parts and we maneuvered some stuff around. Then we were just like fuck, twenty-year anniversary tour lets bring him on tour. It obviously peeked a lot of interest for interviews and people had a lot of questions about the old singer being back yet the current one is still there so you didn’t fire the new one. So it was you didn’t fire anyone to bring anyone back you just combined it. I think no one really expected that.
LL: Everyone usually expects bad blood.
Stitch: Yes. When he quit it obviously took us a few years for our current singer to stop getting judged so hard. His first few years were just like hell.
LL: He took a lot of bad heat?
Stitch: Oh yea! Fans were just, you know fans don’t know the whole story or how things go. You don’t put dirty laundry out for the world to see they just saw a new guys on and people just love to hate and talk shit. So he got the brunt of it and he delta with it great. We spent a lot of time just ok we have to preserver and push through and just be Mushroomhead and Mushroomhead is not just about one person its about Mushroomhead. Iv been in the band thirteen years im not even an original member you know. People have come and gone since I’ve been in the band its still always Mushroomhead. So with the three singers they said the albums recorded and were gonna do the tour. Its working for now its just kind of gonna play its course for now. Will it be working in a few years from now I don’t know? Who knows Mushroomhead could turn into twenty singers.
LL: Is it different having to perform with everyone from recording?
Stitch: Yea it is, causes when you’re doing it live you have three mics three vocal mixes, three people up sharing space and in small venues it’s rough. Or if you’re playing in front of somebody you have to set up your gear in front of more gear. You got a guitar player a bass player two percussion drummers and two keyboard players it gets to be a lot of us. So we have to get really choreographed with your movements and know what singer is taking what part of the stage at what part and make it not look like he’s just standing around.
LL:It stays busy.
Stitch: Yea we like to keep it busy and always keep it a show. With three singers it can look really odd if they’re all standing around waiting for there parts. And tag teaming and it works. The fans love it, some of the old fans come out of the wood work for a little bit cause like I said some of the nay sayers that were like oh Mushroomhead lost there original singer and they just don’t give it a second chance. Now they see that Jay mans back and they go see us and see oh this is what Mushroomheads been up to for this long this is awesome. So it all works out.
LL: So the band has all been together twenty-one years.
Stitch: Yes.
LL: If you could go back, well you have been in the band thirteen years. So I guess from your experiences then until now, if you could go back and talk to yourself then, what advice would you give yourself as to how to deal with future things in the band?
Stitch: Wow that is an interesting question. I don’t know because Iv been around for a lot, even before I was in the band I was helping out. I don’t know if I would because even if I did, I wouldn’t listen to myself. If my older self told my younger self to do something, especially since I joined the band when I was twenty or twenty-one. I made a lot of dumb decisions. Especially the first few years touring. Ones that I definitely wouldn’t do now. I strongly believe that people need to experience the good and the bad to really grow up you know. Cause if you had everything laid out for you and all the right instructions on how to do stuff, I don’t think you would be as successful. I don’t know. That’s a weird question I really don’t know how to answer. I don’t think I would tell myself anything.
LL: You guys would probably just stare at each other.
Stitch: Probably. Oh I know what I would tell myself. I would tell my younger self not to. Well ok, when I was younger I did a lot of stage antics. When I was twenty-one I could fall from fifteen feet and bounce right back up. So a lot of years of doing back flips off of speakers, jumping into crowds, falling into shit.
LL: Never getting hurt?
Stitch: Never getting hurt then, now I am dying. Im thirty-four now and I have four slit vertebrate and two bole disks because of my years looking cool for the show. All those years of doing that it was Stitch is crazy he does crazy shit but now Im like the old guy. I just am gonna have a better costume and act in character and do less stunts cause literally I cant now. If I jumped around all night I would be laying on my back the whole next day in pain. So I would probably tell myself to knock that shit off now cause it is definitely sucking now, now Im thirty five going on fifty. I still manage I still do it. Today I try not to stage dive anymore.
LL: No more back yard wrestling
Stitch: Not anymore, when I was younger. I have done stupid shit for years. From just jumping out of trees in the woods and acting in haunted houses for years. Being in the band for the past thirteen fourteen years it is very grueling on your body and very taxing when you got two hundred shows in a year. You made an aggressive character for yourself so you are just stuck with that character. You can’t just go crazy one show and sit there then next one. So I had to like keeping that up. Over the years I’ve moored into something different. Yea I would definitely tell my younger self to knock that shit off.
LL: So I was told that Warner Bros. did a promo at your haunted house?
Stitch: I don’t know if they filmed the promo, but they did the promo there. Warner Bros. contacted my haunted house The Fear Experience in Cleveland Ohio. I think it was the weekend before the movie came out. I was obviously on this tour cause I was just getting calls from over there. They brought the Annabel dolls; I guess they had three or four of them. They had like exact replicas. I saw the photos being sent to me and it looked just like the damn movie. They brought out like Annabel masks and shirts and stickers and they did a big promo. People go to take pictures with the doll and stuff like that so. That was one of the coolest things that have happened, that Warner Bros. contacted our haunted house like hey we obviously see that you guys are the haunt in town and has things going on. We wanna come do the promo with you guys, and that was a big movie even though I thought the movie was ok. I saw it.
LL: I thought it was ok too, but I did think the beginning including the mansion family was really awesome and probably my favorite part about it.
Stitch: I thought that was cool and I liked The Conjuring. I really did enjoy that.
LL: I did too.
Stitch: I thought it was good and original. I like how they tied it in, not many people know that they tied it into the Amityville.
LL: Yea it was the same Demonologist.
Stitch: Yea the man and the woman I cant remember her name.
LL: Lorain Warren and her husband.
Stitch: Yea and I was really hoping that, that movie was gonna like you know (Growling noise) but you know its 2014 and I am also desensitized. Here I am like ok that movie was alright but here I am hearing that twelve year olds are having nightmares over it. So I get it, if I was eight that movie would probably scare the shit out of me.
LL: Yea I agree, I mean I think Dolly Dearest was scarier than Annabel.
Stitch: Yea, wasn’t it originally a raggedy Ann style doll?
LL: The real Annabel.
Stitch: Yea, but I guess the filmmakers were like that’s not scary enough. You know the doll that still scares the shit out of me is the clown from the first Poltergeist.
LL: Oh yea that’s something you cant forget.
Stitch: The one that like wraps him under the bed. That scene is still traumatizing to me.
LL: Same for me. I think Dolly Dearest was the one that, I mean I loved Chucky and Poltergeist but Dolly Dearest was the doll that did it for me.
Stitch: The only thing I didn’t like about the Annabel doll was that I really thought it was going to be the doll doing things. Then it was like oh its the spirit, I wanted the doll to just run across the room and get caught then just fall over you know that whole thing. Shit Chucky would do. That’s creepy. It was almost creepier when Chucky wasn’t Chucky you know like he was just a good guy doll sitting there. Cause you knew at any moment he was gonna turn his head or move. But I mean it was ok, I mean there has been a lot of shit that’s been coming out as far as horror goes. It was a decent effort. I’m done talking about the doll (laughs).
LL: We turned it into a review.
Stitch: Yea we turned it into a review of the movie. It definitely helped though cause we were able to blast that all over the internet like come see the Annabel doll and people were just like oh this must be the place to go to then.
LL: Was this haunted house the house that you own that is one of the top twenty haunted houses in America or is this just a house that you turned into The Fear Experience?
Stitch: I met the owners Nick and Max four years ago. They brought me out cause Iv been acting in haunted houses for years and I haven’t been able to be fully into it because im always touring especially on Halloween season. So I kind of retired myself from haunted house acting and making characters and shit. It was so heavy with touring I couldn’t commit to it anymore. Nick and Max hit me up on Facebook cause they wanted a local celebrity endorsement for the haunted house. Someone had told them that hey that guy from Mushroomhead is into haunted houses. So they hit me up, they brought me out and paid me to be the guest act and the haunted house was not very good. But there drive and there passion for what they wanted it to be was, like I could see it in their eyes and I heard it in their voices. When I came up there and did one of my original characters and they saw me act and just destroy the place they were like what the fuck. They were like this is what we need, actors like this and characters like this. I definitely brought that level of professionalism there. Before they just had a bunch of student actors. I take acting very seriously and I take characters very seriously. I’m the guy that even if were on break im in character. Even behind a closed-door im talking to myself in character. So it was fun, and after I guest acted the houses were still eh. They were so so. They were good for what it was. These owners are very young, there ten years younger than me. Now its much bigger but when I met them it was a much smaller production. So at the end of the night I was like you know you guys need a lot of work but I really dig your drive and I could see you want to get better. If you want my help I know how to do set design, I know how to put on a show, I can make characters I can do all kinds of stuff. What was really interesting is that I saw an opportunity to take something that was ok but then throttle it into the professional realm. Bring something to the table and not just find a haunted house that’s amazing and just join the staff. I wanted to actually help create and make the growth. So six months had passed then they hit me up and they were like hey were getting a new location and they wanted to move closer to me. To where I live and basically they kind of had to start over. They took some of the elements they had from the house before but it was mostly like pop up walls kind of stuff. So there never fully detailed they never look real. They hit me up and said we need some help we worked out some things and I came in and completely re-blasted over everything year one. I did, as much as I could we did like two or three haunts. The second year did even more and then I built a house up from scratch. We did a carnival house and we make it a nineteen fifties theme. Like everything was standing in the fifties and then just went down in that time period. So everything is stuck in that time frame so everything is just decrepit and just beat the hell down. So the past two years has been just expanding and growth making permanent sets and making them all feel real. It’s in a hundred thousand square foot department store now. Were taking up about three quarters of it. Every year it’s adding more and more, more, and more. Now it’s to the point where we got noticed on Hauntworld.com. They do there top thirteen every year and they gave us an honorable mention at number nineteen or twenty I cant remember. Its one of those two. They do the top thirty so were basically in the top twenty, but they only push the top thirteen cause of the number. We got in there and we didn’t have to pull any scams or bribe anybody like that and Haunt World is like the number one recourse for where you wanna go. Were just getting to the point where there is enough talk and there’s enough hype and there’s enough behind it that it’s getting noticed. In Mushroomhead, we even film our music videos there. The sets are so good that we film in them, we filmed Qwerty there. The first single off of Righteous and the Butterfly. That was a room I had built a year prior. It was a smaller room and it was meant to look like a kids room that was obviously busted in with the ceiling caved in. I am very much a stickler for realism. If your gonna enter a room I don’t wanna have someone there explaining to you what its supposed to be. So you need to walk into it and just feel what it is. Skinny saw that room, we did a photoshoot and he was just like I love this room. If you can make this room twenty feet wider we could totally film a video here. So three days no sleep I made that room twenty feet wider. Then on the fourth day we filmed a video. I was so damn tired I could barley act in the video. But it came out great. People were like wow, where did you film that at I was like at a haunted house. They were like that’s filmed in a haunted house like that’s crazy. I redesigned it now so people could walk through it but its part of the haunt now. When we get off this tour were actually going back and were another set for another video and that’s gonna be insanely elaborate. We’re probably gonna spend two months building a set for a music video. That will become part of the haunted house as well. So it benefits in many ways I have my hand in building what I hope is going to be the premier haunted house of Ohio. There’s other good haunted houses in Ohio but none of them are doing what I wanna do. I wanna bring the quality of Universal Horror Nights and all those top of the line million dollar haunted houses that you go through and you are like I’m in the movie I feel im really in this environment cause its so detailed. Bring that mentality to Ohio where all the others are just still doing the same old shit. Same old dumb stuff and you know. You go to a lot of haunted houses and not all of them are good. You get the really shitty ones that always burns peoples opinion about what a haunted house really is. To the point where there just like iv been to enough haunted houses its just black plastic on the walls and a bunch of fifteen year olds in hockey masks yelling boo. We have pages of rules of things that you are just not allowed to say. Its all the lines that in haunted houses you here like come play with me, stay with me, what are you doing here, get out. If you say these things and the acting manager catches you saying these things your docked pay. We are very serious and we go through extensive actor training. We train the actors to make the costumers feel like they are in a horror movie and not in a haunted house. This year the reviews have been insane, our numbers are way up and im not even there. Which sucks cause I know if im there ill bring just that little more of character quality to it. All the promos and photos are all characters that I’ve done and the main character is the Preacher and that’s me. That’s something that I came up with. Late eighteen hundreds style. There’s a commercial we have online and that’s me doing all that. The same people that did the Mushroomhead Qwerty music video there is a Fear Experience commercial so it’s all very tied in. The haunted house is an extension of what I wanna be doing with my life. What funnier thing to do aside from your masked band, from building a haunted house. I love it; I literally spend eighteen to nineteen hours a day in there. Whether I’m on the clock or not. Making sure every corner every little inch is like believable. I try to make the rooms like I’m creeped out if I’m walking throughout them. If I’m creeped out and I’m so jaded then the average Joe is gonna come off the street and shit there pants. So it’s definitely a lot of fun and it’s been a crazy journey. Cause like I said I was able to go in when it was just starting and help catapult it to that level of quality. Cause they would hire people but people are flakey. They hired a set designer to come do this and he shows up for six hours a week. Barley knows how to paint something to look rusty and im in there with just some wood, paint brushes and some paint and I can make it look like an insane asylum and make it look legit. A living room that looks like a tornado went through it. That’s more of what we try to do. We try to make real sets and not just slaughterhouses everywhere and bloody bloody walls. We aim to make it all look believable and flow right and keep everything super themed. Then fill it with monsters and have good pop scares. Have good effects and that type of stuff. We don’t do any crazy animatronics. A lot of people that just blow a ton of money on animatronics and throw it in a dark house and they call themselves the biggest and the best. Well no you actually have to scare people. You’re not making a prop museum. So we try to go very old school but really throttle it as much as we can. We have an acting staff of seventy to eighty actors and were just gonna keep growing. I was on the phone talking to the owner Nick right before this interview and him and I were talking for an hour and a half about how were gonna add another twenty minutes to the show time of the haunted house. Right now it takes about a half hour to get through it, we ultimately wanna make it to you are in the houses for forty-five minutes to an hour. The bigger we get were gonna get more people and if people are waiting in a line for a long time your cast has to be super good. If your waiting in line three hours for a roller coater it better be a sweet roller coaster. It better not just go fifty feet up a hill and go upside down once. It better knock your socks off. So that’s our goal were super passionate about it and I think that’s what’s gonna make it successful. That we really give a shit about the costumers. Every time we get a bad review its like ok, where was the bad review from? Why was it there, how do we fix it so that review never happens or we can maybe turn that persons opinion around. But you can only do so much. Eventually you run out of time and out of money. I go on tour, and things like that have to come to a halt. Its definitely awesome, I love it. I couldn’t have a better job in life. Its pretty kick ass.
LL: So what is the inspiration for the future room that you guys are gonna be making to film the next video in?
Stitch: I don’t wanna say too much.
LL: Give me something.
Stitch: But ok Ill give you something, me and Skinny have been talking about it as far as what its gonna be and (long sigh) You seen the movie Labyrinth?
LL: Of course.
Stitch: Obviously David Bowie. You know the scene where there is like multiple levels and you can see things going at angles. I haven’t seen that movie in ten years I cant remember but the girl is like running up and the baby’s going straight and she’s going at a ninety-degree angle up and David Bowies going ninety degrees down. We want to make something that’s not computer generated but we wanna try to make something of an illusion basis. Like I said I don’t wanna say too much but were gonna make a really cool visual illusion that’s not done with computer effects. That’s all practical. All old style, they used to do this stuff in the movies. Build things and mess with camera angles, to get those shots to look really crazy. So were going with a very mind warping video. We want people to go how the hell did they do that. So that’s the goal. I don’t know what song its gonna be for, there’s three songs on the plate. Once we figure that out we can dial in on a theme and what its gonna actually look like. It is for sure gonna be the biggest set that we’ve ever been apart of aside form the Solitaire Unraveling video. That video was at Universal Studios and we had nothing to do with the building of that set. They spent god knows how much money and had an airplane hanger and built these emasculate sets probably spent millions of dollars. We cant do that ourselves but we have tons of talent and resources to do it in an open building.
LL: Im excited to see it.
Stitch: Yea, its definitely gonna push the limits. If it comes out the way we plan the haunted house is gonna charge a separate admission just to see it. Its gonna be like a fun house but not like a carnival fun house. Not have clowns and bright colors.
LL: Nothing your gonna expect.
Stitch: Definitely nothing your gonna expect. For a few years we did get stuck in were just gonna make a cool room and were just gonna jam in it. Cause that’s all you usually have time and money for. This one we want to go really deep with individual mental manipulation. Have different things that tie into the person’s character.
LL: So people are gonna come out of here needing therapy.
Stitch: I would hope. That people are just gonna see this and just be really disturbed by it. That’s my goal.
LL: That’s a good goal, that’s what all haunted houses should be.
Stitch: Yes it definitely should.
LL: Do you guys do any pranking on tour?
Stitch: We used to do a shit ton of pranking. You could see that all over our first two DVDS. What happens is you tour for so long with so many bands and do so many pranks that eventually your like um are we gonna prank this band? Umm I guess… we could silly string them again or throw fire works at them again or fart grandees on stage again. We’ve done so many things, and it was also in the years that we were really jazzed up and excited about touring. Not that we don’t love touring we still love to tour but it does turn into more of the business side of it. Uh I’m to tired to go up and fuck with this band today cause I got to get up at seven tomorrow. We gotta do this we have to load in so I don’t even feel like doing it you know. We mess with each other more than we mess with other bands now I think. Were always busting each others balls and the big thing on the bus going on now is that everyone’s trying to find the most realistic fake insects. Leaving them in each other’s bunks. It goes away just long enough for you to forget about it. Then like the other day I pull open my curtain and like the bunk light was off and there was a little light from the TV. It was perfect there was a plastic spider on my pillow and I literally almost jumped out of my skin and almost freaked out and thought oh it has to be fake. But I was almost afraid to touch it you know. I kept looking at different angles going, cause we were in like Florida or something. Where you could very well have that. Skinny did it; he busted on himself cause I could see him looking down the hallway like looking at me. I was like alright asshole I know its fake. Then you go and put it on someone else’s pillow. Just dumb stuff nothing really major. We should probably get back into that game again. Avenged Sevenfold one of there first big American tours when they were opening for us in 2003 or 2004. They were playing there last song we had confetti cannons at the time, during there last song we fired them off. Our singer jumped in the drum kit and we silly stringed the shit out of them. We made it such a disaster they had to just stop playing. Skinny took away the drummers symbols. We did dumb stuff like that we did painted a bands trailer pink before while they were on stage. That was one of my favorites. It was mine or Skinny’s idea cause we were doing so much silly string and fireworks we were like we gotta step up the prank game. So I went Wal-Mart and I got Barbie pink latex indoor paint so it could come off I did think ahead. Five of us just covered the shit out of it. They get off stage and just about shit themselves and one of them screamed this is my dads trailer. We were like oh well. They had to drive all the way back from Atlanta to Chicago with a bright ass pink trailer. The whole time they were texting me like every car is honking at us. After that we didn’t know where to go from that with out blowing up someone’s trailer or setting them on fire.
LL: So my last question is if you could describe each member in one word what would it be?
Stitch: Complex.
LL: Each member.
Stitch: Each member?
LL: Each member differently.
Stitch: Oh differently. Wow.
LL: Im hitting you with new ones huh?
Stitch: You are! These are definitely good questions. Ok we got Skinny I would say focused. We got Waylon, stubborn. Church, our guitar player in one word is, give me a minute these are good. I need to actually think about this. I need like a thesaurus to look up other words you know. Like more complex words for certain things. Ok, Church is greasy cause he’s the last to get out of makeup and sometimes will just go straight to bed. Ferrell our base player I would say quirky. He’s a very talented person and another good actor you see him on stage and you wouldn’t assume it would be the same guy. Jeff is very complex, he’s a very smart person and to himself. You get one impression but its like not what he’s about. He’s very complex and not in a bad way at all. We got Shmotz I would say is funny cause he is definitely the jokester. I owe a lot of my humor to him. Jay man is very heartfelt. He’s always smiling and wants to keep people spirits up. We have Robby the other water drummer I would say goofy cause the kids a goof ball. I am ridiculously OCD.
LL: Perfectionist
Stitch: Yes way too much to the point where people hate me for it. But when I mess up oh they really love rubbing that in my face. Like the other day we switched pumpkin masks and we were in LA I just got distracted and forgot to grab my mask. This was two weeks ago and you can just imagine I’m still fuckin hearing about it. Mr. perfectionist forgetting his mask what’s up.
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