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On the latest episode of Dean Delray’s “Let There Be Talk” podcast, TESTAMENT guitarist Eric Peterson was asked how he plans on spending the next several months during the coronavirus pandemic. He said (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “For me, my plan is to have some music — in case summer’s canceled. ‘All right, let’s jam. I’ve got a bunch of new riffs.’ I’ve got some stuff now, but I’m just kind of putting that hat on, like, ‘Okay.’ It’s perfect weather, too — it’s raining out, and my backyard’s really woodsy. [So I can] sit out here. I’ve got everything downstairs. I’ve done the last DRAGONLORD record and the last two TESTAMENT records in this room. I have Logic and a DI — I just do it all there, e-mail everything over to the producer, reamps and all. I wake up, just get some coffee, come down here and start jamming. I don’t have to drive from [my hometown of] Sac [Sacramento] all the way to Oakland. It’s a lot better to do.”

Over the weekend, TESTAMENT singer Chuck Billy told Rocking With Jam Man that Eric has been working on new music on his own. “I haven’t heard anything yet,” Chuck said. “It all starts with Eric, so I just kind of wait. He’s gotta be in the right mood. And probably, being stuck at home with the pandemic, I would think he would be jamming and writing some stuff. So I think we’ll probably at least have a couple of new songs. ‘Cause it makes sense — if we write a couple of new songs, maybe we can do a repackage of the [latest TESTAMENT album, ‘Titans Of Creation’]. We’re talking about possibly writing a song called ‘Titans Of Creation’, ’cause there is no title track. So, we could have a song called ‘Titans Of Creation’ and maybe re-push it out there with the record again. [That would be] more of a marketing thing. I think that’s kind of what the talk is [that] might happen.”

“Titans Of Creation” came out in April 2020 via Nuclear Blast. The disc was produced by Peterson and Billy, while Juan Urteaga of Trident Studios handled co-producing, recording and engineering. Andy Sneap was responsible for the mixing and mastering of the album. Eliran Kantor stepped up once again to create new artwork for the cover of this release.

Early last year, TESTAMENT completed “The Bay Strikes Back 2020” European tour with EXODUS and DEATH ANGEL.

Barely nine months after the release of last year’s magnificent “We Are The Night”, relentless workaholic Magnus Karlsson has conjured yet another gloriously overblown celebration of metal and melody. This time around it’s a full-blown concept album, replete with multiple vocalists playing an assortment of roles, but the essence of the Swede’s eminently classy take on prog, power and symphonic metal remains the same. HEART HEALER is/are all about big, bombastic and fervently glossy heavy metal, but delivered with such breathless conviction that the only sane response is to sit back and soak up the remorseless barrage of sugary pomp. This stuff will clog your arteries, but what a way to die.

Clearly a man with impeccable taste, Karlsson has made the shrewd decision to give this record’s starring role of The Heart Healer to Adrienne Cowan, best known as vocalist with SEVEN SPIRES and a member of WINDS OF PLAGUE, but also one of the most versatile and charismatic singers in metal today. From opener “Awake” onwards, Cowan wrings every last drop of drama and excitement from Karlsson’s songs, scales the octaves with unnerving skill and seems to flourish even more when paired with some of the record’s other notables. In particular, the moment when Cowan sings a duet with BATTLE BEAST’s Noora Louhimo is genuinely startling: a masterclass from both women, but also a wonderfully harmonious blending of voices. Similarly, when Annette Olzon (THE DARK ELEMENT/ex-NIGHTWISH) teams up with Cowan for “Who Can Stand All Alone”, it’s a match made in pop-metal heaven. Everything Karlsson writes is insanely catchy, but it’s the inspired weaving of seemingly incompatible voices that really hits home here.

Musically speaking, “The Metal Opera” offers little in the way of surprises or curveballs, but the sheer power of the melodies renders such concerns redundant. There are a few moments when Karlsson seems to stretch out and indulge himself a little more: “Into The Unknown” is a particularly sumptuous feast of dynamics and melodrama, with another astonishing vocal from Louhimo, and “Weaker” is a pitch-black power ballad to savor and Cowan’s finest performance of the lot.

To bring things to a suitably roof-raising close, all seven vocalists collide for “This Is Not The End”, and it really does feel like the grand climax to some wild, state-of-the-art exercise in heavy metal musical theater. Of course, if the idea of musical theater fills you with dread — and, if I’m honest, I’m with you on that — “The Metal Opera” works equally well as a straightforward collection of songs, all beautifully sung and performed with immaculate, virtuoso precision. A class act, basically.

In a new interview with SiriusXM Canada’s “Canada Now With Jeff Sammut”, KISS frontman Paul Stanley was asked if he would agree with his bandmate Gene Simmons’s recent declaration that “rock is dead.” He responded (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I think that life, rock, whatever it is, is never a constant. Let’s say, for example, if you take somebody’s pulse and it’s weak, it doesn’t mean they’re dead. It means that the pulse is weak. And it doesn’t mean it won’t come back stronger.

“I don’t think that music can ever be dead,” he continued. “I don’t think that bands can be dead, rock can be dead. It just takes somebody to reignite it to the level that it has been at some time in the past.

“A computer will never take the place of flesh-and-blood people making music. People may be enamored with it, and it may eclipse the other, but ultimately, it all comes full circle — it all comes back. It doesn’t go away. It may be sleeping. But there are bands out there making great music.

“Nobody’s complaining about FOO FIGHTERS,” Stanley added. “Dave [Grohl] is passionate about what he’s doing and they’re terrific. So there are bands out there. As far as new bands, somebody will come along. Somebody will pick up the flag and go forward.

“Like I said, the pulse may be a little weak, but the patient’s coming back.”

A few years ago, Simmons told Esquire magazine that “rock did not die of old age. It was murdered. Some brilliance, somewhere, was going to be expressed and now it won’t because it’s that much harder to earn a living playing and writing songs. No one will pay you to do it.”

A number of hard rock and heavy metal musicians have weighed in on the topic in a variety of interviews over the last several years, with some digging a little deeper into Simmons’s full remarks and others just glossing over the headline.

The “rock is dead” argument has popped up again and again throughout the years, including in 2018 after MAROON 5 lead singer Adam Levine told Variety magazine that “rock music is nowhere, really. I don’t know where it is,” he said. “If it’s around, no one’s invited me to the party. All of the innovation and the incredible things happening in music are in hip-hop. It’s better than everything else. Hip-hop is weird and avant-garde and flawed and real, and that’s why people love it.”

It wasn’t long ago that PANTERA’s Phil Anselmo and LAMB OF GOD’s Randy Blythe both filled in live on vocals for the notorious New Orleans crew EYEHATEGOD. That’s because their front man was out of action due to serious health issues. Five years have passed since Mike IX Williams successfully pulled through a liver transplant surgery. Hard and wild living has its consequences, but EYEHATEGOD’s infamous vocalist jumped back on the frontlines soon thereafter, as the band embarked upon a hefty three-year touring cycle that found them staining various parts of the globe with their filthy sludge.

Then, of course, the world came to a halt due to the ravaging pandemic. But there’s no rest for the wicked. The band already had music in tow, so Williams travelled to Chicago, layering his potent tales upon the band’s unique hybrid of eighties hardcore stomp that’s crossbred with SABBATH’s doom and gloom and soaked in blues, whiskey and absolute misery. The resulting musical vomit is encompassed within “A History of Nomadic Behavior”, the act’s first album since 2014’s self-titled effort, and just their sixth album in the band’s 33-year-long history. “A History of Nomadic Behavior” offers everything that longtime fans would want and expect, but it isn’t just more of the same. The songwriting has improved, and there is much more depth and dynamics at hand.

The squealing feedback, grit and coarse nature that defines EYEHATEGOD’s music remains, yet the band is noticeably more exploratory, relatively speaking, with stuttered tempos and an increased use of melody. These elements are employed right off the bat, in fact, with opening number “Built Beneath the Lies”. “High Risk Trigger” is one of the catchiest songs the band has written to date. It’s steeped in a SABBATH-ian groove and filtered through the swampy Southern style so inherent at the band’s core. While lyrical abstraction drives the song, it addresses topical and ubiquitous issues that are consuming the nation, including both the pandemic and civil unrest. “Infection is the way, disruptive crowd takes aim,” Williams spews forth, and elsewhere, “Burn down the rail yard house, destroy the USA.”

“Smoker’s Place” is a minute-long, calming and sedative instrumental that reflects New Orleans’s blues and jazz obsession. That blues and jazz quality is also a key facet of the mighty BLACK SABBATH that’s actually lost upon most SABBATH-worshiping bands, including SLEEP, who only focus upon the monstrous doom riffs. Indeed, EYEHATEGOD has never been this diverse in its expression. Yet the vitriol and scathing hatred are still present, as we would expect. It’s hard to believe that these maniacs are still at it. And as “A History of Nomadic Behavior” proves, it doesn’t sound like they’re going to run out of ideas any time soon: EYEHATEGOD is back in a big way.

BREAKING IN A SEQUENCE (a.k.a. BIAS), the hard rock band featuring former KORN drummer David Silveria, has released behind-the-scenes footage from the making of the music video for its cover of FAITH NO MORE’s “Midlife Crisis”. Featured on the band’s debut EP “Acronym”, the song and accompanying video pay tribute to the seminal ’90s alt rockers, who, vocalist Rich Nguyen says, “had a major impact on all of us — David and me, specifically.”

To properly pay homage to the original video, the Southern California-based rockers teamed up with director/producer Matt Zane to recreate the iconic FAITH NO MORE classic. Identical live performance shots, color composition and color shift effects, and editing techniques and cuts were used to convey the frenetic, albeit nostalgic, feel of the original — with BREAKING IN A SEQUENCE’s signature style woven throughout.

“When we originally decided to cover ‘Midlife Crisis’, it was supposed to be an Easter egg on our EP, not a single release. But things changed when COVID-19 hit and the world transformed into a ‘Black Mirror’ episode,” says Nguyen. “In the fall of 2020, we sat down to discuss the release with our managers and they encouraged us to release our rendition of the song, as it’s familiar, yet different enough to not get lost in the madness of the year. That gave me the idea to do an homage to the original video. Bands do cover songs all the time, but they often don’t cover the video, too.”

“Acronym” hit digital service providers January 23. Also included on the six-track EP is BREAKING IN A SEQUENCE’s debut single “Pity”, which reached No. 23 on the Billboard Indicator chart and No. 9 on the Foundations chart upon its initial release.

BREAKING IN A SEQUENCE is rounded out by guitarists Mike Martin and Joe Taback and bassist Chris Dorame.

“Acronym” track listing:

01. Pity
02. Hesitation
03. Change Your Mind
04. Midlife Crisis (FAITH NO MORE cover)
05. Anything But Right
06. Delusional

Silveria, Dorame and Taback previously played together in CORE 10, which “imploded” in 2018 after releasing a couple of singles and playing a number of local shows.

Taback said about BIAS: “We received hundreds of submissions from all over the world and heard a lot of amazingly talented people. Rich came in and we just instantly vibed. The songs flowed without a hitch. We were able to get a lot done with him in a very short span of time.”

Added Dorame: “I felt that he immediately connected with what we are trying to portray musically; he fit right in. His style is unique, yet familiar enough to be the perfect voice for our music.”

Silveria concurred. “Rich’s work ethic drives us all to work harder in the studio; it’s amazing,” he said.

BIAS made a big splash with “Pity”, which came out in January 2019.

“The lyrics that I write are both personal and abstract. Every song I write has two meanings; mine and your interpretation,” Nguyen told OC Weekly. “I try to write my lyrics vague enough for people to relate to and form their own opinions. However, if you know me personally, you may be able to figure what I’m talking about, maybe.”

“This band doesn’t feel like work; it feels like getting together with buddies and just having fun,” Silveria added. “This is how it should be.”

KREATOR guitarist/vocalist Mille Petrozza spoke to the official podcast of Italy’s Metalitalia.com about the progress of the songwriting sessions for the follow-up to 2017’s “Gods Of Violence” album. He said (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Last summer, in August, we felt that we were done [writing], and we were very enthusiastic about, like, ‘Okay, this is almost an album. We have 12 songs. And we take the 10 best, or whatever we come up with.’ And we already planned on going into the studio in February. Now it’s February, and the world is still kind of fucked with the COVID. So we have to wait and be patient.

“I want the album to come out and go on a world tour right afterwards,” he explained. “I don’t see us putting out a COVID album, or something, and just have it [disappear]. And people go, like, ‘Okay, there was an album. Okay, they have a new album or not? Am I going to this tour or not?’

“I know that the world is changing — albums don’t have the importance that they might have had 10 years ago anymore — but I refuse to believe that. Especially in metal, there’s still a lot of people that celebrate an album from the beginning to the end. And I think the last genre of music where this is gonna die will be metal, because people really love albums.

“I think going on a tour, the artwork, everything has to connect,” Mille added. “So we’ll wait until that’s possible again, and then we’ll put out the album.”

On the topic of the musical direction of the new KREATOR material, Mille said: “It’s definitely different. It’s hard for me to describe, but I think it’s definitely more thrash again. It has a lot of melody, and it has a lot of traditional parts, and it has a lot of ingredients of the last four or five albums. But it also has some very old-school moments. I think it’s definitely the next step.”

Asked if KREATOR will once again work with producer Jens Bogren, who helmed “Gods Of Violence” and 2012’s “Phantom Antichrist”, Mille said: “At this point, it looks like we’re working with Arthur Rizk [CAVALERA CONSPIRACY, CODE ORANGE, POWER TRIP]. That’s what we have planned at this point. And I’m kind of exchanging demo tapes and discussing recording techniques [with him]. So, yeah, it looks like we’re working with Arthur.”

KREATOR’s next album will mark the band’s first with bassist Frédéric Leclercq, who joined the group in 2019.

Last September, KREATOR guitarist Sami Yli-Sirniö described the sessions for the band’s new album to Italy’s Poisoned Rock as “a lot of fun,” adding that the “mood” in the band “is great. And the general vibe and the atmosphere is very good,” he said. “[These are] creative times for KREATOR at the moment.”

In March 2020, KREATOR surprise-released a new single, “666 – World Divided”. The song was produced by Andy Sneap and Markus Ganter and was recorded at Hansa Tonstudios in Berlin, Germany.

The music video for “666 – World Divided” was created under the direction of Jörn Heitmann, who was responsible for the music videos for “Radio” and “Ausländer” by RAMMSTEIN.

KREATOR played its first show with Leclercq in October 2019 in Santiago, Chile.

Before joining KREATOR, Leclercq rose to fame with U.K.-based extreme power metallers DRAGONFORCE for whom he handled bass duties from 2005 until August 2019.

KREATOR’s previously announced “State Of Unrest” European tour with LAMB OF GOD has been rescheduled for 2021 in the wake of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

KREATOR released a new live set, “London Apocalypticon – Live At The Roundhouse”, in February 2020 via Nuclear Blast. The effort was professionally filmed and recorded on December 16, 2018 at the Roundhouse in London, England.

Yngwie Malmsteen says that he is the “sole decision maker in all matters” related to his albums and live performances.

The legendary Swedish guitarist, who turned 57 last June, made the comment while responding to fan-submitted questions via video.

Asked by a fan to to tell his “management” to get him “better musicians than the ones” his management “has given” him, Yngwie responded (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “My management doesn’t tell me what to do. I am the sole decision maker in all matters when it comes to my music, the people I hire, the people I fire, whoever plays on my records, whoever [doesn’t] play on my records, whoever plays on my tours. These are all my decisions. Besides, I own the management company. So, yes, I can tell myself to get better musicians. I think that’s a big insult to the musicians I have right now. I think they’re exceptionally good, and they’re as good as any others that have ever been involved with me before.

“Once again, I’d like to make it very clear that no one tells me what to do,” he continued. “And also management doesn’t hire and fire musicians — management does record deals and stuff like that. Then you have another entity that books the gigs, another entity that does promotion, another entity that does press. These are not done from the management. Unfortunately, a lot of people have a misconstrued idea on how the function is from each entity and so forth.

“When I was very, very young — I was seven years old; it was exactly 50 years ago — I started playing the guitar. From that point on, I made every decision and never compromised. I made every decision on what I play, who I play with, and so on.

“If you are so longing for other musicians, you’re more than welcome to go listen to them and ask them to do what they wanna do, what you want [them] to do,” Yngwie added. “But with me, this is what you get. Okay? And the decisions are made by me — solely by me. I make decisions on how my records are made, how my tours are being made — everything. Okay?”

Malmsteen now handles much of the lead vocals himself in his own band, backed by a lineup that includes keyboardist Nick Marino, bassist/vocalist Ralph Ciavolino and drummer Brian Wilson.

Four years ago, Jeff Scott Soto, who sang on Yngwie’s first two albums, 1984’s “Rising Force” and 1985’s “Marching Out”, engaged in a war of words with the Swedish guitarist over the fact that Malmsteen claimed in an interview that he “always wrote everything,” including the lyrics and melodies, and simply hired various vocalists to sing his material. Soto told the “US American Made Guitars” show that “it’s false information” to suggest that he contributed nothing to Yngwie’s early albums “because we co-wrote [some of] those songs together. I actually authored those songs,” he said. “For him to say, ‘I wrote every lyric, every melody,’ it’s absolute falsity. And he’s speaking out of whatever anger or whatever throwaway conversation he might be having, but when it’s put on text, it comes across as very crude and very arrogant. So, of course, I don’t take that kind of stuff too personally.”

In the days after Yngwie’s original interview with Metal Wani was published on BLABBERMOUTH.NET, several of the guitarist’s other former singers — including Joe Lynn Turner and Tim “Ripper” Owens — responded on social media, with Turner describing Malmsteen’s statements as “the rantings of a megalomaniac desperately trying to justify his own insecurity.” This was followed by a retort from a member of Yngwie’s management team, who wrote on Malmsteen’s Facebook page that the three vocalists “came out enraged, spitting insults and profanities” at the guitarist because “Yngwie said something that they didn’t like.” The management representative added: ” It’s very unfortunate that these past hired vocalists must resort to mudslinging and insults to elicit any kind of media attention towards them. Such classless, puerile words are ungentlemanly at best and absolutely disgraceful at worst.”

Burley Auction will present the Ted Nugent “Guns, Guitars & Hot Rod Cars” auction on Saturday, March 27 at 10 a.m. at Tucker Hall in Waco, Texas.

Over 400 items from Nugent’s personal collection will be auctioned off, including a fine collection of custom guns and personal carry guns, a fine collection of rare, prototype and one-of-a-kind guitars from Nugent’s personal collection: 1958 Gibson Les Paul, 1959 Gibson Les Paul, 1956 Fender Strat, Black Gibson Byrdland, Gibson Custom Shop Les Paul, early Paul Reed Smith prototype and one-of-a-kind Ted Nugent guitars, rare custom guitars, Ted’s vintage touring equipment including his entire back line, pyrotechnic stage guns, tour used speaker cabinets, concert equipment and stage decor, fully restored 1968 Ford Bronco, custom 2015 Dodge Hellcat Challenger, over 200 of Ted’s personal firearms featuring custom Ted Nugent guns, presentation guns, Ted Nugent ammo, vast selection of Ted’s personal archery equipment, memorabilia and more. All are personally owned by Ted and covered with Nugent mojo.

For more information, visit BurleyAuction.com.

Nugent is an avid gun fan who has long been open about his ownership of firearms. He has also insisted that guns have a place in American society because statistics allegedly prove crime rates are lower in areas where residents are armed.

He told CNN host Piers Morgan in a 2011 interview: “Anybody that wants to disarm me can drop dead. Anybody that wants to make me unarmed and helpless, people that want to literally create the proven places where more innocents are killed called gun-free zones, we’re going to beat you. We’re going to vote you out of office or suck on my machine gun.”

But when Morgan told him that 80 people across America die each day from a gunshot wound, Nugent fired back: “78 of those 80 are let out of their cages by corrupt judges and prosecutors who know the recidivism is out of control, know that they’ll commit the crimes again, and they let them walk through plea bargaining, early release, and programs. Kiss my ass. Where you have the most armed citizens in America, you have the lowest violent crime rate. Where you have the worst gun control, you have the highest crime rate… More guns equals less crime. Period.”

While taking part in this past weekend’s Headbangers Con, drummer Morgan Rose of SEVENDUST — whose frontman, Lajon Witherspoon, is African American — was asked by Rocking With Jam Man if he had his bandmates have ever experienced racism during their nearly three-decade-long career. He responded (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Yes, we have. A few times. Not as much as you would think. That never entered our ignorant, or naïve, minds when we started. We never looked at anything [in terms of race] — it had nothing to do with that. So when it happened, it was, like, ‘Oh, shit!’

“I think the first time I really saw it and it freaked me out was [the] ‘Tattoo The Earth’ [tour in 2000],” he continued. “And we were playing in Phoenix, Arizona, which was a big city for us. And we were playing, and I’m in the middle of the show, and I hear ‘clink, clink.’ And I’m, like, ‘What is that?’, the sound of this dinging off of my stands. And I looked. My drum tech looks at me, and he lifts up this fucking rock. It was, like, big — that if it were to hit me in the face or in the head, it would do real damage. And they’re all over the place. And I look out, and there’s these guys with their shirts [pulled over the faces], and they’re going like this [makes ‘Sieg Heil’ arm salute] in the back of the crowd. So we got off the stage and hauled ass immediately — like, literally, show’s over, and we ran to get to ’em. And the police had already gotten there. But it happens. A few times that’s happened to us.”

Witherspoon discussed the issue of racism in metal during an appearance on Full Metal Jackie’s nationally syndicated radio show last September. At the time, he said: “I think today we definitely can see that there’s been a lack of equality in this world that’s being put in the forefront. Luckily, in the industry that I’m in, in the metal community, I feel like that’s definitely something that’s not tolerated, I would like to say, as far as I’ve seen. I feel like this community is incredibly welcoming, and I’ve been very blessed to be in it. I also feel like there’s definitely a lot of people that are hiding behind masks that are racist out there. But if there’s anything that I can do, I will never not be a leader of bringing peace, love and equality to this industry and to what I do. I can say love sees no color, but I do — I believe that people do see color, obviously. But I still want to bring everyone together and [have] it not be a problem.

“I feel like in our community, there’s not only black — there’s white, there’s Asian, there’s everybody — and that’s what this world should [be like],” he added. “We should definitely get to that page and to the point, again, to where we don’t have that problem. I pray that we get there. But me, musically, I feel like, thank you for letting us have our voices and to be able to speak and to bring people together. And I think that’s something that we’re able to do as SEVENDUST, as a band. People see us. and they see a bunch of different guys from different backgrounds and different ethnicities. It’s something that we’ve done for 20-something years now — we haven’t stopped — and I hope that’s something that people will understand and see and learn from.”

Earlier last year, SEVENDUST guitarist Clint Lowery addressed his band’s past use of the Confederate flag, explaining that it was done “as a spoof.”

The Confederate battle emblem has long been decried as a symbol of racism and violence, and it has become a frequent target for protesters following the May 2020 death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, at the hands of police.

When SEVENDUST played Woodstock ’99, SEVENDUST’s Vince Hornsby played a bass with a Confederate flag on the body.

Asked in an interview with the “Talk Toomey” podcast how he feels about SEVENDUST’s past association with such an offensive and divisive symbol, Clint said: “Our thing was funny, because we were doing it as a spoof. We were trying to kinda use it in this cynical way, so it’s gonna be completely misunderstood now. We were using it in a smart-ass way… It’s confusing.

“We’re all being educated — everyone’s being educated,” he added. “Things we thought were cool before aren’t cool anymore, and I understand why they’re not cool anymore. And it’s, like, okay, yeah, I didn’t know enough about what the situation was to even have a… It was just ignorance. You do things as a younger person — you’re, like, ‘Oh yeah, this is cool. This is against the grain’ — and you realize the sensitivities; you learn about it. And that’s what I think that I’m trying to do — is, like, okay, that wasn’t cool. That wasn’t a decision that was something I’m very proud of. You live and learn, you admit when you do wrong and you change. And that’s what everyone needs to do. I can’t control anybody. I just do what I do, try to be as open and loving as I can. And that’s it.”

Witherspoon voiced his views on the Confederate flag during a 2018 interviw with Billboard. He said: “Listen, man, I used to wear a belt buckle that had a Confederate flag on it. Just ’cause I flew that flag doesn’t mean I was a racist. We’re just country boys, and that’s a country-boy thing. That’s what the cool thing about it was — that Vinnie would have a Confederate flag with me [a black man] standing beside him. At that point, love sees no color at all. But I can’t say, ‘This guy flies the flag the same as this guy,’ because everyone has different values.”

In a 2013 interview with Bloody Disgusting, Witherspoon was asked if he or SEVENDUST are viewed or treated differently because he is black. “No, not at all,” he responded. “You know, if it is, I don’t see it. I have no room for ignorance in my life. I think that we’ve built a relationship and… not a fanbase, but a family base that really doesn’t tolerate that. I’m the kind of guy that says, ‘If you don’t like it, don’t come,’ you know what I mean? We’re not forcing anything on anyone. I know that that’s still there, but I don’t have time for that ignorance. We just keep on moving because it can never be the way it was before.”

Five years ago, Witherspoon told The Salt Lake Tribune he sometimes thinks about whether his race might have slowed the band’s rise. “I’ve always wondered if I had not been a black man in SEVENDUST, would it have even gotten bigger?” he asked. “At the end of the day, I’m glad that it took this long because we’re still here.”