Corrision Of Conformity

Interview - Woody, Reed and Pepper

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After following C.O.C, Machine Head and Drain STH around for 3 days we finally cornered them in Providence, R.I. for an interview, and actually remembered the tape recorder...we ended up with some free beer that night (thax to Adam and Reed) and some funny shit on tape... nothing was cut out except for the occasional..."um" and comments from us in the background...so, here it is in exact order of what's on tape..The 2nd ever Absolut Metal interview...with Woody, Reed, and Pepper from C.O.C.

The interviewers:

Sam - Poor person who had to listen to this 500 times, write it all down exact, and type it out.

George - Got and beers?/Got any weed?

Steve - Guy who wanted Woody to sign his butt...nevermind

Alex - Guy who wears more makeup than Kirk...

Joe - Guy with the bad Boston accent

The Victims:

Woody Weatherman-Guitarist for C.O.C/walking beer keg

Reed Mullin-Drummer for C.O.C

Pepper Keenan-Singer/Guitarist for C.O.C "Smokin' the reefer"/Metallica Mascot

Woody/C.O.C.

George - Did you guys have fun smokin' with us the other night?
Woody- "It was a good time man, you guys had the kill"
(laughter)
Sam - How was the Metallica tour?
Woody - "It was long, and it was probably the funnest and best tour I've ever been on in my entire life..Absolutly..Those guys were the best man, I miss it ya know?...It's Metallica ya know, they set it all up just right"
George - What bands, like that you haven't toured with, do you want to tour with?
Woody - "Uh...the Allman Brothers"
George - Really?
(laughter)
Woody - "Yes, really, uh, Government Mule actually, yeah, I think we're gonna do some touring with those guys, next time around"
George - What's better, in the States, or out of the States?
Woody - "Um, that's a good question man, it's just like everything man, ya know? From state to state it varies, and from country to country it varies. I mean, some places are great ya know?...some places in the states are the best, and some places...other places are awesome ya know? It just depends...it's all good man, it's all good everywhere"
George - What's your favorite song to play live?
Woody - "Um...uh..'Senor Limpio', yeah, that's a good one"
Joe - What do you like playing better, arenas or small clubs?
Woody - "I like playing places lik tonight, like theatres like this size, they're the best, and plus these kinda places like theatres and stuff sound better. I mean really small clubs like last night in Boston, I mean, they're fun, but they're...it never sounds good in the small places ya know? But you come to like, a theatre, ya know, like a 1,000 seat kinda place where you can really...there's enough room for the speakers to breathe and shit..it sounds alot better"
Alex - What did you think of the Megadeth tour?
Woody - "Megadeth fuckin' sucks!
(laughter)
George - What about Dave Mustaine?
Woody - "He...ya know...he's a...he's..ya know..whatever..I mean, ya know...I probably shouldn't say that 'cause, I mean, even those guys treated us pretty good, but I'm not a Megadeth fan, and...and they had some lame rules and shit that we didn't agree with...and ya know...but, ya know, whatever, it's not for me to say...yeah, about partying and stuff, ya know...so..I wouldn't...that aspect of it..."
George - They're not heavy partyers?
Woody - "Yeaaahhh...I think they are heavy partyers, but they're... they don't wanna be, and so they try and force they're not wanting to be on everybody else...and it's really lame..yeah, if you can't handle your parying, then keep it to yourself...ya know?"
Alex - Did you call Kirk a bitch?
(laughter)
Woody - "No, not me...like the Korn fuckers? Nah, fuckin' Kirk is baaaddd man, he fuckin' i a bad guitar player, and anybody that thinks he's not is a fuckin' loser..ya know, he's fuckin' bad!"
Sam - When did you guys start playing ESP guitars?
Woody - "About a year and a half ago, and uh.this fella, this young man named James Hetfield sorta hooked us up with that...ya know, he sorta turned ESP onto us, and then they were stoked..and then.. so they started giving us guitars..and uh, they make excellent guitars man...what can I say...I don't even want to play my Gibsons anymore...they made some special for us, ya know? So they make them exactly the way we each wanted them...herrrreeee goes...BOOM!
(While we are interviewing Woody in an alleyway, Adam (Machine Head) is launching potatos at buildings and streetlights next to us, with a homemade spud gun)
Nice!....yeaaaaahhhhhh!"
(laughter)
Joe - Who was your favorite band to tour with besides Metallica?
Woody - "Oh man, Soundgarden..absolutly..we did a couple tours with them, we did the um...we toured with them when they were on the "Louder Than Love" tour, and then we did the "Badmotorfinger" tour with them in europe, and that was awesome, that was awesome man".
George - Influences, what made you play guitar?
Woody - "Uh..boredom"
(laughs)

Reed/C.O.C

George - Ever think about playing double bass?
Reed - "I had a double bass. My favorite drummer...no I had 2 favorite drummers when I was a kid, when I first started playing... The drummer from Black Flag and D.O.A, and the Circle Jerks...This guy named Chuck Biscuits, he plays with Social D.A....yeah Chuck rules..he still rules..and uh, this guy named Clive Burr, the first drummer for Iron Maiden...so, I ended up buying a drum set that was kinda like Clive Burr's."

Pepper/C.O.C

Pepper - "Hey! where you guys been?"
George - We're just recording for the fanzine...
Pepper - "One question, one question interview...
(laughter)
Sam/George - Who can drink more..yeah who can outdrink who, you or Jaymz?
Pepper - "I think it just kinds of ends up in a blackout usually...he gets real mean though, when he drinks..starts kickin' shit around... yeah, punchin' walls, fuckin' up my hotel room (;aughter) yeah, usually just ends up in a stalemate...we both wake up goin' huh?"
(laughter)
Sam - When did you start playing ESP guitars man?
Pepper - "Hetfield set us up with that actually...ya know, which was cool because..uh..I mean..he's that type of dude, ya know? He didn't have to do that ya know? And we had a Gibson endorsement for a long time...I like Gibson guitars..but the ESP guys goes man, alright, give me your favorite guitar, I'll make you 3 of 'um, and if you don't think they play better than your favorite guitar, don't play 'um, no money attached, no nothin'..ya know..so, he took my favorite guitar and fuckin' re-measured it, and did all this shit to it, and I just changed what I didn't like about it, ya know? From playin' the same guitar for so many years, I knew there were certain things...like, I made the body think, like a Les Paul, and put the jack in backwards 'cause there's...see it always sticks out the bottom and it would always break off from jumpin' around. So, I had that done, changed the pickups, got rid of the tone knobs, and made the neck real thick, so it wouldn't go out of tune. Got Fleur-De-Lis inlays on the neck, It was like a four thousand dollar guitar man, they just gave it to me...just imagine getting an ESP, but taking your favorite guitar and having them..make it better. Yeah man, Hetfield set us up with that, he is a fuckin' gentleman ...for all the shit he's done, everywhere he's been, man, that guy is fuckin'..cool...ya know? Metallica has got class, ya know, they're fuckin'...they've been there, they've done everything, they've done it their way, the whol fuckin' time...and to be with 'um and to see the inside workings of how they do it..I mean they love what they do..end of story."
Alex - Haven't you guys been around for the same time?
Pepper - "Yeah, but not as, as..I mean we don't have a jet for christ sake (laughter) you know, they jet around and they're STILL fuckin' cool man."
George - What do you like playing better clubs or arenas?
Pepper - "It's apples and oranges, you know? clubs are cool, and you can't bitch about an areans when you've got ten thousand watts of P.A. you know? And you hit an 'E' chord and it's like (explosion noise)"
George - Was it hard to work off of Metallica's stage?
Pepper -"Uh no, it wa just..uh..like our first show was in Vienna, and it was like..we went from ..like doing clubs and theatres..and all of a sudden it wasn't...I didn't mind..the scary part wasn't fuckin' uo in front of the crowd, it was fuckin' up in front of Metallica. You know, they took a chance, they brought us man, you know? They didn't have to, they liked us, and I wanted to make it worth it, ya know? So we just made sure we had our shit together... and it went over killer . But it took some getting used to..I mean the stage is just..you're surrounded by people for one thing"
Steve - The response seems better in a club
Pepper - "Oh, sure...we were opening for Metallica...that's the roughest slot in the world, it's lik being thrown to the lions, ya know? But nobody ever screamed "Metallica!" or any of that shit, ya know we knew what we were up against. It's like...we just gotta get on it and go, and they liked it, and we liked it. so we stayed with 'um for nine months. Longer than any other band has ever lasted with Metallica ...it was fuckin' cool. I mean some of the weidest shit was like in Spain and shit...playing soccer stadiums...60,000 people..it's like wwwhhhooa..and they open the doors at like two in the afternoon...so by the time you go on it's packed, and they're fuckin' drunk...fuckin' amazing. Yeah, man, Metallica's great guys...it's just cool to see your mentor and how they really work, ya know?...just gentlemen... all the way man. Yeah, it was a good tour man...was sad when it ended...9 months man."
George - What other bands are you into?
Pepper - "Not too many new bands, ya know.."
Steve - What do you guys tune to?
Pepper - "Some of 'um are in 'C', drop 'D', drop 'C' actually...and 'D'...top string a whole step."
Sam - What about "Vote With A Bullet"?
Pepper - "Oh..it's 'C', but it's only the top string is dropped, so your intervals real fucked up...makes everything creepy. Just tune to 'D' and drop your top string to 'C'...then you just... fuckin' ya know..it's 'C', 'A', 'C' and...it's a whole step.."
Sam - On Headbanger's Ball in England James refered to you as "The Antichrist", and comment on that?
Pepper - (laughs) "He was all drunk and he thought I had 666...I wore this wristband the whole time...I never took it off...and I showed him one time...I drew a 666 underneath it. I took it off real quick and put it back on...he was like 'DUDE!!!'"