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JULY 24. TORONTO. OZZFEST. TWENTY-TWO BANDS. FOUR INTERVIEWS. MUCH
MAYHEM.
Sean Plummer surveys the damage. Live photos by ALX.
Lollapalooza? Dead. Lilith Fair? Dead (fingers crossed). Ozzfest?
Alive and, well... well. The thriving hard music festival, brainchild
of veteran rock madman Ozzy Osbourne and his wife/manager Sharon, marked
its sixth year with a six-week run this summer that averaged 18,000
metalheads per show. Aside from the Ozzman himself, fronting a reunited
Black Sabbath, Ozzfest 2001 featured Marilyn Manson, Slipknot, Papa
Roach, Disturbed, Linkin Park, Crazy Town and Zakk Wylde’s Black
Label Society on the mainstage, with a rotating crew of up-and-coming
sidestage acts, including Drowning Pool, Otep, Mudvayne, Hatebreed,
Nonpoint, Beautiful Creatures and The Union Underground, among many
others.
The only Canadian stop touched down on the sunbaked
parking lot of Toronto’s Docks nightclub. Goths, jocks, losers,
punks, stoners, mulletheads and rockers endured extortionate parking
fees, melanoma-inducing sunshine, long beer line-ups and ear-splitting
volume to witness the best known and most promising metal acts work
out their shit onstage. United by a fondness for black cotton T’s,
trouble and beer, the masses drank in math rock (Mudvayne), dark glam
(Beautiful Creatures, Marilyn Manson), industrial rock (The Union Underground),
chaos (Slipknot), rap metal (Papa Roach, Linkin Park) and old school
(Zakk Wylde, Sabbath); every shade of the modern metal rainbow.
Access sat down with four representative bands this
day: the crossover success (Crazy Town), the break-out act (Drowning
Pool), the band that doesn’t quite fit (Beautiful Creatures), and
the tour junkies (The Union Underground). Each offered up insights into
the resurgence of rock, life on the road, their intoxicants of choice,
and why Sharon Osbourne is Mom.
 CRAZY
TOWN
Interviewed: Vocalists Seth Brooks Binzer (aka Shifty Shellshock)
and Bret “Epic” Mazur
Hometown: Los Angeles, California
Latest Album: The Gift Of Game (Columbia)
Hit single: ‘Butterfly’
Essential Facts: Crazy Town’s management pulled them off
last year’s Ozzfest after the hard-living Shifty relapsed into
drug abuse. (He’s been sober one year.) The first two singles off
The Gift Of Game, the rap-metal ‘Toxic’ and new wave ‘Darkside’,
failed to ignite at radio. Fortunes turned last fall when influental
LA radio station KROQ spun the mellower ‘Butterfly’, which
crossed over to mainstream radio and pushed Game into the Billboard
Top 10.
Epic, tell us about Shifty.
Epic: Shifty is the closest thing I have to a brother. He’s obviously
a great friend, a great songwriter, a great performer. He’s a moody
bitch. [laughs] He’s troubled yet very together, and not a great
basketball player.
Shifty, what’s Epic like?
Shifty: Epic is a very creative musical force. We’re opposites
that are really good at different things so that when we work together
it really works out well. He’s got a really big heart, he’s
a really good person. Difficult at times to get along with, just like
anyone else. Our characters are very, very different. I’m a more
outgoing people person; he’s more closed off.
Epic: I’m a hermit.
What’s the biggest misconception about Crazy Town?
Epic: That we’re the ‘Butterfly’ boys. That’s the
only misconception. Because with that misconception comes the insincerity
misconception. Because when you have such a big hit people figure it’s
got to be put together or contrived.
When Sugar Ray hit with ‘Fly’, Mark McGrath admitted that
they were giving the public what they wanted by changing their sound
from rock to pop. How easy would it be for you to write twelve ‘Butterfly’s
for the next record?
Shifty: That’s a song I’m proud of. We love making hard music,
we love making hip-hop music and we love making smooth songs. It’s
not like we’re not going to make a song like ‘Butterfly’
because people think we might. We’re not going to listen to what
anybody says. We’re going to make the next record that we want
to make. We look at bands like Sugar Ray and that’s exactly what
we don’t want to end up doing. We don’t want to become a cookie
cutter.
Epic: And we love Mark. That’s our good friend.
Shifty: Yeah, we love Mark. Don’t get me wrong. But he’s still
a fuckin’ cookie cutter!
Is your business tight?
Epic: Very. We’re right on top of our stuff. We take this very
seriously, and we’ve almost lost it so we don’t take it for
granted.
What does success mean to you?
Shifty: Security and longevity. Like right now, we have a little money
so I don’t have a lot of money. Like today, I was buying T- shirts
at a mall but I was still very worried: ‘I shouldn’t buy four
of them, I should just buy two.’ And it’s like I still don’t
have that security. Two or three records into this I want to be not
worried and have a career, to where I’m very secure in the fact
that things are flowing correctly. I have a lot of faith in my music
but I don’t have a lot of faith in the music business, if that
makes any sense.
Shifty, how did you cope with your addictions?
Shifty: I did antidepressants for awhile.
Did they work for you?
Shifty: I liked ‘em. They were good. They got me through my first
year of sobriety. I don’t really take them anymore. If I ever got
to a place where I was moody I would take them. I haven’t taken
them for this whole tour.
This is Ozzfest’s sixth year. Why is it so successful?
Epic: Because we’re on it. [laughs] I think because there’s
not a lot of festival touring going on in America. What else is there
out there? Not to mention that Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne put on a great
tour.
What are your impressions of Mrs. Osbourne?
Shifty: I think that she is the ultimate definition of a rock star’s
wife. I would love to find a girl that was as much of a personality
as her and involved in my career as she is [with Ozzy]. When Ozzy’s
head’s not together, she’s there to make sure he gets through.
And I’m just like that; I’ll be the guy who’s not there
all the time. I can look at Ozzy and relate to a lot of things that
he goes through, and Sharon is the perfect [support]. She’s there,
and she’s a strong woman.
Epic: She’s like mom.
What is the intoxicant of choice on this tour?
Shifty: Mine is sex and music. I just got a year last Friday sober,
which is a cool milestone for me.
Epic?
Epic: My girlfriend and weed.
DROWNING POOL
Interviewed: Dave Williams (vocals), Mike Luce (drums), C.J.
Pierce (guitar), Stevie Benton (bass)
Debut Album: Sinner (Wind-up/Epic)
Moshpit anthem: ‘Bodies’
Hometown: Dallas, Texas
Band name: Taken from the name of the movie playing in the background
when Benton lost his virginity.
Has toured with: Kittie, hed(pe), Sevendust, finger eleven
Have your expectations changed since MTV proclaimed you Ozzfest’s
breakout band?
C.J.: I’ve changed! I don’t like the brown M&M’s
anymore! You gotta take ‘em out!
Stevie.: All the stuff that goes on with the attention from MTV and
all that stuff, we really don’t see that and really don’t
worry about it. The live show on a day-to-day basis, that’s as
far ahead as I can see.
Dave: Yeah, we pretty much have blinders on. We’re like ‘show,
fans.’ There’s a lot of responsibilities that we have to do
in a day’s time: media and press and all that — and that’s
cool, we love to do that, ‘cause that is definitely a relationship
that you need to have.
I went to the mall the other day with our drum tech and
these people were like ‘oh my God!’ I looked at ‘em and
I go ‘how did they recognize me?’, and he goes ‘Dave,
you’re on television. You have a video. Think about it!’ But
I don’t think about it. You just go wow, it’s cool, we made
a video. But it’s getting played a lot and people come up and go
‘oh my God!’ It’s weird but it’s awesome.
Given the temptations of the road, are you wary of becoming a rock
& roll cliché?
Dave: I think early on, like before we got signed, we were hitting the
club scene pretty hard in Dallas and we put ourselves through some wringers.
But there came a point where we said if we keep doing this it’s
going to catch up with us to the point we’re not going to be able
to please the media, the fans; we’re not going to be able to make
a good record.
So we still party, we still have a blast, we still
love to do all the “rock & roll clichés.” But when
it comes time to work, we work because that’s what our fans deserve,
and I wouldn’t want to sell ourselves short either. I couldn’t
go to bed at night going ‘man, I was hammered when I went on stage
and I didn’t do a 100% show.’ I couldn’t live with myself,
and these guys wouldn’t let me do that.
Everybody has a huge respect for Sharon Osborne. What’s your
take on her?
Dave: I’ve only talked to her two or three times. She couldn’t
believe how polite we were. I don’t know if that’s from the
South, the way that our parents raised us. We were very appreciative
and grateful that we could do this and she was also grateful that we
were meeting our responsibilities towards getting on and off [stage]
on time, and just being who we are. She’s a smart lady.
Can you imagine doing anything else for a living?
Stevie: I’d like to make beanie babies.
Mike: I was going to be the Camera 3 man for The Martha Stewart Show
after all of this was done.
C.J.: You know what you want to do, you want to play in Star Wars. You
want to be a damn stormtrooper.
Stevie.: Everyone was quite uncomfortable in their roles before this.
The day job thing did not work for any of us. We were all crammed together
in one little apartment. Everybody starts staggering up at 8 o’clock
in the morning. That was a nightmare.
Mike: Before you get the taste of this, you’re like ‘ooh,
what if? Oh, one day...’ And now that we’re here, we’re
like ‘uh-uh, I’m not going back.’
How important is family now that you’re in the hurricane?
C.J.: It comes first always. No questions asked.
Mike: It’s that anchor that keeps you there. You gotta have it.
Dave: You call home, they put you right in your place real quick. ‘Got
any days off?’ Uh, I might have a week off. ‘Good, I need
some help pouring some concrete.’ What? Dad, they just told me
I went gold. ‘I don’t care. What does that mean to me? Bring
it over here, we’ll melt it down so we can buy a new driveway.’
What’s Ozzy like?
Dave: He seemed pretty normal when I talked to him. I was so nervous.
I stuck out my hand and I said I want to thank you for this opportunity,
for letting us do this, and he goes, ‘No problem, man!’, and
I went, ‘okay, I just crapped my pants. I’m going to go away
now.’ He’s the godfather of metal, man! None of us would be
here if he hadn’t of cried out ‘War Pigs’. It’s
awesome.
Is being called a metal band important to you?
Dave: It means the most. It’s awesome, I love that. I wouldn’t
want to be called anything but.
 BEAUTIFUL
CREATURES
Interviewed: Joe Leste (vocals), DJ Ashba (lead guitars), Anthony
Focx (rhythm guitars), Kenny Kweens (bass), Glen Sobel (drums)
Latest Album: Beautiful Creatures (Warner)
Hometown: Hollywood, California
On the Guns ‘N Roses/AC/DC influence:“If you’re
going to steal and be influenced it might as well be by the greatest
stuff.” (Anthony)
Essential Facts: Their second show was opening for KISS in Texas.
Kept an online Ozzfest tour journal for Playboy.com. Post-Ozzfest Toronto
show held at venerable strip club Filmore’s.
How does it feel to be a straight-ahead rock band on Ozzfest?
Joe: Great. We’re not trying to copy anyone’s vibe. We don’t
really care if we fit in. We’re just doing what we do, getting
up there rockin’, and I think we’re gaining a lot of fans
from being true to ourselves.
What do you want to get out of Ozzfest?
Joe: Record sales are always great if we have them. I think we’re
really concerned with building a big fanbase. We feel like people who
listen to us are part of our own club, and that’s what we want.
That’s our goal. You look at Metallica. They were a band who started
out slow, they moved and their fans moved with them and built this giant
fanbase. Now you see Metallica fans — they’re undeniable,
a cult, and we want to build one the hugest cults in the world.
What’s the intoxicant of choice on this tour?
DJ: Jäger[meister], definitely.
Glen: I think our band is more sex than anything.
Joe: [joking] There’s nothing like a cold beer and a slice of pussy!
Rock & roll is full of casualties. Are you wary of not fucking
up your career?
Joe: How can we fuck up? Nobody does any drugs. Use safe sex! My safe
sex is I stand back and watch them just do their stuff. It’s called
sex in 3D. We all practice safe sex. We don’t fuck around with
that. We just drink a lot. We love taking pictures so we’ve got
a lot of pictures.
So you guys are the next Gene Simmons?
Joe: Well, Gene taught us! You’ve got to look at it like this.
We’re fortunate because we’re in a band that girls like now.
They don’t have a hard rock band that they want to get into, and
we just happen to be that band that they get into. So all the other
bands tell our bus drivers ‘park your bus near the Beautiful Creatures
bus!’
 THE
UNIONUNDERGROUND
Interviewed: Bryan Scott (vocals, guitars)
Debut Album: An Education In Rebellion (Columbia)
Hometown: San Antonio, Texas
Number of uses of ‘fuck’ (and variants) during interview:
19
Do you remember Ozzy pissing on The Alamo back in the ‘80s?
Oh yeah. I must have been in the 6th or 7th grade. The whole city was
in a complete fucking uproar. Obviously it’s a monument that people
in the city are proud of. It’s what San Antonio is about. But a
drunk guy’s got to take a leak somewhere!
What do the parents think of your career?
There was definitely a lot of adversity and controversial issues with
my mom growing up about this whole thing. They think you’re just
some fuckin’ pothead kid in your room playing guitar all day, and
they don’t see the future of it.
And when you finally do have some success, they see your
drive. I’m one of the most focussed, driven people, and my mom
sees that. But it’s very, very risky. They’re like ‘that’s
a crazy fuckin’ business to go into.’ But you know what? The
returns and the rewards are so huge just emotionally that it can make
up for ten years of fuckin’ misery.
How aware are you of avoiding the clichés associated with
the rock & roll lifestyle, as typified in Mötley Crüe’s
autobiography The Dirt?
I’m not going to sit here and say nobody on the bus smokes pot,
no one on the bus fuckin’ snorts a line now and then, nobody on
the bus drinks like fuckin’ crazy every night. Because I would
be lying. And that’s pretty much on every single bus on this fuckin’
property today.
You can love to drink and do your thing but you’re
completely focussed and you do your show. And then, hey, after the show
you want to hang out, talk to some girls, fuck around, maybe do some
press, have some drinks, whatever the hell. That’s a different
thing from shooting heroin every morning when you get up and that’s
part of your day.
Do you take Ozzy as an example, given that he’s managed to survive
tons of excess?
Yeah, definitely, and I think sometimes people take it the other way.
That ‘well, I’ve been watching that guy for years and he’s
been able to indulge as much as he wanted to, and he’s still around!
So, hey, here I go.’
But there’s definitely a lesson to be learned
in every situation. I’m a huge, huge Alice In Chains fan, and they’re
on our label so I know a lot of people who have worked with them and
I know a lot of people who are personally involved in their situation
and personally involved with [singer] Layne Staley’s [drug] problems.
So, man, it fuckin’ ruins people’s lives. Not only the person
who’s doing it but everyone around them. It ruins everything. So
you have to understand how far to take it, what the dangers are.
Sharon Osborne has been called the tour mom.
That is a great analogy. She is definitely one of those people you’re
not even sure she really knows who you are, but when she stops and talks
to you she has all the time in the world; she’s not in a hurry.
She definitely has this demeanour like she listens to what you want
to say and she’s interested in everything you have to say about
the tour.
Can you imagine doing anything other than music?
Never. And that’s what our record, An Education In Rebellion,
really represents. Since I was 13- or 14-years-old, I made that decision,
not to just be a fuckin’ rebellious teenager and say ‘fuck
you’ to everything. I made a conscious decision to do this, and
I’ve never looked back since that day, and I’m very proud
of that. Never once did I ever second-guess or regret my decision.
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