Ovaltine and O'Douls with Drowning Pool
Drowning Pool have had an eventful year. Their single "Bodies" put them on the map and sent them around the globe. Before the group heads back overseas for their second European tour, they are playing a handful of dates to round out the year, including one in Fort Wayne. While in town, drummer Mike Luce sits down with us for a few minutes to discuss the roller coaster ride that you and I refer to as a tour. The scenery surrounding us is much like that of any other interview I've ever done, but there are a few subtle differences. Picture, if you will, a table. On this table are abundant amounts of beer and Crown Royal, neither of which is uncommon given the present situation. However, there are also a few other things sitting on this table that you don't see everyday, including a 2-gallon tub of Ovaltine. Yes, Ovaltine; that stuff your mom used to make you drink, because chocolate milk was just wrong. This container demanded an explanation, and so our conversation began.
Crazewire: I take it you guys like Ovaltine?
Mike Luce: (Shakes his head) Dude, there's two people on our bus that drink Ovaltine, and it doesn't constitute having that much. Every time you stop and play somewhere, you've got a huge fricken vat of the shit. That and herb cheese. I just can't even try herb cheese. It sounds too fu-fu for me. 'Can I have some herb cheese with my Grey Poupon please? And maybe an O'Douls?'
Non-Alcoholic beer has got to be the most useless thing on the face of this earth.
Yeah. No offense to all the non-drinkers out there, but if you're not gonna' drink, don't drink.
It ranks right up there with decaf, I think.
That's like if you're trying to quit smoking crack, so instead of smoking crack, you smoke less crack. 'Here's some less-substantial crack. It tastes just the same, but you just don't get the buzz."
Alright, let's get rolling. You, C.J. [Pierce, guitarist], and Steve [Benton, bassist] got started as a trio. When did you begin your search for a lead vocalist, and how did you wind up with Dave [Williams, vocalist]?
Well, C.J. and I moved from New Orleans in the beginning of '97 to Dallas, and I had known Stevey since high school. C.J. and I had been jammin' together in New Orleans since '92, off-and-on in different bands. Stevey was in a band with a singer named Shaun and another guitarist. He asked me if I wanted to come up and join the band, and I was like 'Yeah, if I can bring my friend C.J.' You know, he's my brother, and I had been jammin' with him for all those years. They were like, 'we've already got a guitarist.' Stevey was into it, but the rest of the guys really weren't. Stevey, C.J, and I instantly clicked, and we knew where we wanted to go. We were kind of straying away from the singer and the other guitarist, and eventually they stepped out. We were like, 'You know what? The three of us are gonna' stay together, and sooner or later, if things are gonna' work, we're gonna' find the right guy.' We knew we wanted somebody like Dave; exuberant, over-the-top, crazy. That's how we are onstage. We like to get up there and have fun and get crazy. The guy we had before was just a complete 180. This guy was all about the head-down, lookin' at the shoes, poor me, soaking-in-the-shadows kind of a thing. That had been played out by that time and plus, that wasn't us. We were writing stuff like Tool writes; these 7, 8, 9-minute-long songs and it just wasn't happening. Nothing was happening until we got Dave. When we got Dave, we started concentrating on more direct, point-a-to-point-b music; just jam the whole time and get the hell out of it. As opposed to, 'Check me out. I'm gonna' do this little drum opus for two minutes during the breakdown of the third bridge of the song.' Dave just brought this life to it. He's a great singer and he's got great melody. He can sing and scream. One of his greater influences, in addition to anybody from Van Halen or Motley Crue, is your boy from Faith No More, Mike Patton, who's just completely off the hook like that. He can sing, he can scream, and he does little noises and sound effects. Once Dave got in the band, things just started gradually falling into place.
Tell us how Steve came up with the band's name.
Basically, he lost his virginity while the movie ["The Drowning Pool", 1975] played in the background. I don't think he planned it that way. I don't think he ever said, 'Hey, that's the movie I lost my virginity during. One day I'm gonna' start a band when I'm twenty-some-odd years old and I'm gonna' call it this name.' It just so happens that the guy in the movie was from New Orleans. He was a detective. C.J. and I, coming from New Orleans, we heard the story. We dug it, and thought it was funny and for lack of a better name, we went with it. But we got artistic, though. We dropped the 'The' off of it. (laughs) We're creative.
When Ozz-Fest got underway this year, I don't think your album had even been released. Describe your experience with the tour, and how it changed as the summer went on.
Yeah, three days before Ozz-Fest, we didn't even have an album out yet. The album came out June 5th, and we started the tour June 8th. But we did very respectable from what we're told, as far as numbers or stats go. We came out of the gates really, really strong, and we just kept gaining momentum between Ozz-Fest and the 'Bodies' video. We were the first band to open the tour. The first date was in Chicago, and the first slot of that first day was us; 10 minutes after 10 in the a.m. So, it was ridiculous. I know there are all-day-long rock events that start at like 10 or 12, but I had never went to one that early. I couldn't roll out of bed, and if it was a Saturday or something, Hell No! I wouldn't be up 'til 2. But, as the gates started to squeak open, we started the first song. So, it was a trip to start off playing in front of nobody, and then by the time we ended, a quick 20 minutes later, there was probably a good 2 to 5-thousand people in front of us in that small, little area where that stage was. Then, by the end of the tour, WWF picked it up, and I had no idea there were that many damn wrestling fans out there. I was watching WWF at 4 o'clock in the morning in London, and there's 'Sinner' in the background. You know, I had never been there before in my life; never gone anywhere outside of the states, and it was just crazy.
I've been fortunate enough to speak with Lejon from Sevendust in the past. Apparently you guys go back quite a bit. Tell us about Drowning Pool's history with Sevendust.
They were the first band to take the four of us outside of Texas; to take us anywhere. They were the first major-label band, the first of anybody for that matter, to really acknowledge us. John Conelly [Sevendust guitarist] was living in Dallas at the time, and there was a New Year's Eve show at a place called The Galaxy Club. It was like 2 years ago, and John just happened to be out that night, and we were all at the same club. We jammed and we were playin' that night, and he came up and did a salute with us and did a toast. We just kept pestering him after that. 'Hey man, if you ever need an opening band for a show somewhere here or there, let us know.' And for whatever reason, he said okay. 'We've got four shows to get ready for the release of 'Home' [their '99 release]'. They hadn't put it out yet. The shows were in Knoxville, Lafayette, Memphis, and Lubbock, Texas. They just gave us a handout, and I've got to say thanks a lot to them, because once they did that, Dallas radio started hearing about us, and they started getting behind us. We started doing some local programming down there on the weekends. That's how we got hooked up with our management, and everything just started falling into place. Those guys are just super-fricken cool. The one story that I'll always remember is the last day we were with them, in Lafayette, Louisiana. I remember sitting on the steps of their bus. They had this big, huge, black, kick-ass bus with all the trim lighting. I was sitting there with Lejon, and he was like, 'Man, why you all bummed out? What's wrong?' I was like, 'Man, this sucks. This is the last day.' He goes, 'Man, this might be the last day this time, but I promise you we'll be playing again.' And, like a year later, we got a CD into the hands of the people at Wind-Up in New York. They were like, 'If you guys get a chance to pick who you want to tour with, who's it gonna' be?' And we were like, 'Hands down, Sevendust! We've got to.' And that's what ultimately led up to us going on tour a few months ago. Great guys. Super. Those guys are just too cool. And, really quick, I want to say congratulations to Clint [Lowery, Sevendust guitarist] and Jill, who recently announced their wedding for March 2nd in Kentucky.
At the close of the summer, you guys clearly had one of the biggest rock songs in America with 'Bodies'. Then, in the aftermath of September 11th, the single was placed on a list, along with about 150 others, due to lyrics that were deemed offensive to some. What were your thoughts regarding that matter?
Well, with that song? yeah, it was gaining momentum and it was kicking ass at the time, but when something like that goes down man, you're not thinking about where the hell your song is on the charts or how your album's selling. You know, for a few weeks everybody walked around in a cloud. The only thing that kept Sevendust and us out on the road, as opposed to some other bands who were canceling gigs, was the fact that people started asking us not to go home. We were gonna' go home out of respect. There were so many things going on at the time, and who gives us the audacity to say we're gonna' put on a rock show when there's fricken World War 3 going on? So, we weren't thinking about our song. The one thing that kind of pissed us off about that was that some radio stations started playin' it ultra-safe. I can see them taking our song off, and a few other songs. We were completely supportive and sensitive to that. But the fact that they took off some songs like 'Imagine' from John Lennon?How the hell do you pull that song? I was like, 'Imagine by John Lennon? He's writing this song about everything that's going on right now! You should be blaring that 24/7 at top volume!'
