Interview: Corrosion Of Conformity
I hope this is one of those records that people can sit down with a big fat doobie and a little bucket of beer and put it on and listen to the whole thing.
Corrosion Of Conformity have just brought out their latest opus Good God / Baad Man and it is a blistering and sprawling record that more than adds to the legacy life affirming music that Corrosion Of Conformity have been making since their inception. Ahead of the release of Good God / Baad Man, Gavin Brown caught up with COC guitar legend Woody Weatherman to hear all about it and its creation as well as talking about returning to the UK, summer festivals, the band’s early hardcore years, 30 years of the Wiseblood album and touring with Metallica.
E&D: Your new album Good God / Baad Man is out very soon. How excited are you to be to be back with this album?
Woody: Extremely. It’s been a long process getting this thing done. I mean, I’ve had a blast making it, but me and Pepper have spent a couple years bouncing back and forth. I’d fly down to New Orleans and we’d work on it. I’d come home for a few days and fly back. So it’s nice to have it finally, almost out. It’s kind of a relief. I’ve been waiting for a while. We’ve all been waiting.
E&D: How was it having Bobby Landgraf on bass on the album, and working with Stanton Moore again on drums?
Woody: Both of them are immense talents. Bobby’s an amazing bass player. He’s an even better guitar player. He’s smoking! Stanton is amongst the finest drummers on the planet. So we couldn’t have asked for much more, it’s a real pleasure to work with true musicians.
E&D: This is the first COC album since Reed Mullin passed, does it feel as if his spirit is on the record as well?
Woody: I do man, and there’s a few different reasons. Once Stanton got involved, Pepper and I gathered the songs and we demoed them without drums, and we started jamming, and Stanton started adding his little beats, and, all of his tricks that he does. There were several things that he would do, and Pepper and I would look at each other and be like, Man, that sounds like a Mullin riff, that sounds like a double kick, it sounds like something Reed would have done. So it was cool to have that going on and feel that.
E&D: How was it working with Warren Riker on the album?
Woody: I’ll put it this way. He’s got three more Grammys than I do. I have zero! He’s a pretty seasoned studio guy, he’s done a lot of work with different bands, some of them heavy. He’s done some Cathedral records. I know he did Down and other things. He’s one of these guys that he has so much confidence. He goes into things like the COC record, and he knew what we wanted. We wanted a raw record. So he’s not afraid to use these guerrilla recording tactics, Throwing a mic on the floor in front of a guitar rig or something like that, and makes it sound unconventional, but brutal. He was a big part of the making of this record. The conditions we were working in, we did some of it in a big studio with old gear, especially when we were recording the drums, but a lot of it we did in just a big room that we had converted into our own studio, and he brought a bunch of gear in, and it was cool. It’s fun to work with him.
E&D: Was it a live sound that you wanted a bit more?
Woody: I think it’s what we got. We weren’t going for a sterile studio tone on this record, and it’s obvious for the listener. I hope this is one of those records that people can sit down with a big fat doobie and a little bucket of beer and put it on and listen to the whole thing. I don’t feel there’s any duds on the record. I don’t think you need to stand up to skip a song, hopefully most of the listeners feel the same way.
E&D: What were the biggest influences on the sound of the record?
Woody: We listened to a lot of stuff, me and Pepper during the making of this album, we were constantly jumping up and taking a beer break or whatever. We’d go over and throw some vinyl on the stereo. We were listening to everything. To us, it feels like little snippets of all eras of COC are present on this record. How do you put up the Blind album next to the America’s Volume Dealer record? They’re different animals, but there’s some of that together on parts of this album. It’s kind of a double record. Well, it is two vinyls and it needed to be, because there’s just so much info,
E&D: You’ve got a couple of guest in Al Jourgensen and Monte Pittman on the album. How was i working with them and having them on the album?
Woody: Well, they just popped in and we said, why don’t you just do something on this track? They just did a little fun thing, but we had done some touring with them fairly recently. So we’re good buds, we went out with Ministry and they’re characters, man, they’re just fun dudes, so we invited them to just come do a quick little bit on a song, and they did and it was cool.
E&D: Are you look forward to hitting the road co-headlining with Clutch, with Whores, Crobot and JD Pinkus in support, when the new record comes out?
Woody: Yeah, the album comes out April 3, and the first show is April 7. So we’re right on top of the record release, we kick it off with some headline dates, with Whores and Crobot, and then shortly thereafter, we join up with our buddies in Clutch and JD Pinkus and then we’re back to Whores and Crobot after that. So it’s going to be a nice long run. It’s gonna be a pretty lengthy tour. So that’s good.
E&D: You first toured with Clutch in 1991 and have toured lots over the years, is that just like touring with family now?
Woody: I mean, they’re brothers, we go way back there. We’ve been bros for a long time. We get along well, so it’s natural that we’re going to go out and do a few dates. It’s been a number of years, sonI’m looking forward to it.
E&D: You’ve got Nick Shabatura playing drums live for COC, how is that working out?
Woody: He’s a banger, man. He’s a damn banger drummer. He’s going to be coming out and doing all the live dates with us. We weren’t really actively looking do a drummer, we didn’t put it on the internet, hey, we’re looking for a drummer, but Charlie Benante got wind through Anselmo, they’re doing Pantera, and Benante got wind, we were looking for a drummer, and he’s like, man, I got a guy for you. Nick Shabatura from Chicago. He fits you guys perfectly, and sure enough, he came to New Orleans and Mississippi, were doing some rehearsals for the tour coming up, and he came and jammed with us, and it was amazing. It’s going to be great. Fans are going to love him. He’s a smoker!
E&D: How is the material from the new album working out live, and have you got a lot of it planned into the set?
Woody: There’s a lot of it we can do live, because it’s such a live sounding album. Right off the bat, it’s going to be tough, man, because we’ve got eleven records, and there’s a lot of tunes that we got to play, we want to play and we still enjoy playing them. But we’re going to try and squeeze as much of this new record in as we can. I think right off the bat, there’s two definitely that are going to be in the in the live set, and we’ll probably add more as we go along.
E&D; Would you ever play the album in full live?
Woody: Yeah, I think we probably could. It’s one of those kind of records. No plans on that at the moment, but I think that we could, if we felt like it, at some point. It’d be fun to do, because it’s a lot. It would be a long set. I mean, the record is around an hour and ten minutes, it’s a double record, so it’s quite a long, album.
E&D: Are you looking forward to coming back to the UK in June?
Woody: Yes, absolutely. Apparently the shows are already sold out in London and Manchester, and Glasgow, there’s only a few tickets left. We’re coming back to the Download fest too. which is always a blast. It reminds me back to one of the earliest times we played a big festival, which was Donington in 1995, back when it was a one day thing.
E&D: That was the first festival I ever went to! Such a brilliant day!
Woody: It was amazing, because we were actually first that day, which was kind of tough, because it was at noon but everyone was good to go. They had a couple of beverages already! It was amazing, man. At that time, that was the biggest audience that I had ever played in front of, I do believe, and it was hard to soak it all in at twelve noon!
E&D: COC were mindblowing! I always remember the opening riff of ‘Clean My Wounds’ kicking in and looking behind me and seeing a sea of people running down the hill towards the stage!
Woody: Nice!
E&D: It must be fun for you to still be playing the big summer festivals, which other ones had you got coming up this summer?
Woody: We’ve got Hellfest, Brutal Assault, and even some of them over here in the States, they’ve modelled them after the European festival style, outdoor, bunch of stages, a million bands three or four days long, so it’s really taken off over here. They’re fun, and it’s a great way to reach new fans, that’s for sure. Possibly some people that had never seen the band before. So that’s always good, and we enjoy doing them. I kind of prefer the smaller venues. I love playing the clubs and the theatres and the halls and stuff. Those are fun too.
E&D: After the summer, are you going to keep on touring for the remainder of the year?
Woody: We’re just getting started! We’re already making plans for 2027. This record is gonna carry us for a while. I mean, it’s gonna take us a while to go all the places we want to go.
E&D: Obviously, you’ve toured all around the globe. Is there places you’ve not played that yet, that you’d like to?
Woody: Absolutely, I mean, we’ve been to, like you said, a lot of countries, a lot of places. There are some that I can’t wait to go back to, one of which is Japan. We’ve only played Japan one time, and it was in, 1997 so almost thirty years ago, something ridiculous like that. We haven’t been back. I want to knock that out. We just got finished with a South American run, and that was phenomenal. They’re already asking us back. So I’m ready to go back to Brazil and Chile and all that kind of stuff. We always enjoy Spain. We got to get back to Ireland, get then, of course, we’re coming to the UK, and maybe we’re going to come back. We’re coming back over in August for more of the festivals. I don’t know if we’re doing any more UK dates on that run, but I hope we do.
E&D: Do you still love touring even though you have done it for so long?
Woody: I love the travel. I love to play live, I still do. We all do or else we wouldn’t do it! It can be tough sometimes, but I think we all have a good time doing it, so we don’t plan to stop anytime soon.
E&D: How has touring changed for you now since you first started doing it?
Woody: I mean, not an awful lot. I move a little slower, maybe because I’m older, but it’s the same thing. I do it because I like it, otherwise I just wouldn’t do it. But we have so much fun! It’s always been such a big part of my life, since I was about 17 or 18, really, I’ve been in the band, we’ve been we’ve been going full tilt the whole time, pretty much.
E&D: Talking of UK dates, how was the experience of headlining the Damnation Festival last November in Manchester?
Woody: That was fantastic. The curators of that festival do a great job. I think there was a nice mix of different kinds of bands. I know it’s geared towards the more extreme metal, which is great, and that was a nice festival that I hope they’ll invite us back sometime in the future. It would be fun.
E&D: Obviously, you’ve got the new album, but this year marks thirty years since the Wiseblood record. Are you big on celebrating anniversaries and will you be doing anything to mark this?
Woody: Yeah, I don’t think we will. We did little run of the 25th anniversary of Deliverance, and that was cool. We play a lot of that album anyway. We might slim down a little bit on it because we’re trying to squeeze so much new stuff. But, it’s awesome. I’d forgotten that it was the 30th year, but thanks for pointing it out. That’s cool.
E&D: What are you your main memories of making that record?
Woody: Well, we were spending Sony’s money, we were in very nice studios, and it took us a while to make that record. It wasn’t as easy a record to make, say as the new record, but I have fond memories of it. A lot of it was done in New York City at Electric Ladyland, fantastic studio, but still kind of old school, still a lot of the classic gear and stuff. You can tell in the sound of that album, it sounds great to this day.
E&D: You toured extensively with Metallica on that record. Do you have good memories of doing that with them?
Woody: Yeah, fantastic memories. They kept adding us on to more days as we went, and it was over a period of a year and a half. I mean, it was like nine months solid of touring. I think we did five months in North America and four months in Europe. It was a long time, and it was a lot of touring. We released Wiseblood in the middle of those Metallica dates, if I’m not mistaken. But, yeah it was a blast. I mean, we got thrown to the dogs, because we’re on Metallica’s stage. We’re in the centre, and it was that stage, they had this slab in the centre of the arena. There’s nowhere to hide. You’re just out there.
E&D: Was that the first time you were playing in arenas?
Woody: No, but it was the first time doing it on that scale, for sure. It doesn’t get much bigger than Metallica! So it was definitely the biggest tour we’d ever been on, for sure.
E&D: Who else have you loved touring with?
Woody: Oh, I mean, played with every kind of band you can imagine, Ramones. We did quite a bit of touring with Soundgarden, which is still one of my favorite times ever, because I’m a huge Soundgarden fan. It was their Louder Than Love tour, and then, they invited us back, and we did their Badmotorfinger tour. I think we were on the Blind tour at that time, if I’m not mistaken, great band! Man, we’ve played with everybody, and just had such a good time. We just got finished with a Judas Priest / Alice Cooper tour over here couple months ago, and that was phenomenal. Talk about a couple of great bands, man and both acts are just true gentlemen all the Judas Priest guys and Alice Cooper and his band, fantastic tour. I could name 89 bands that I love touring with, but you get the gist!
E&D: Do you credit the longevity of Corrosion Of Conformity to your love of the music?
Woody: Yeah, people ask that sometimes, and I would have to credit, that the band has just always stayed true. We’ve never wanted to chase the flavour of the moment, that has never really been our thing. Nobody’s there to tell us no, so we just do whatever the hell we want and have a good time. That’s why we’re still here after all these years, and having a fantastic fanbase, a lot of them have been with us about the whole time. We’ve got fantastic fans. We’re not chasing the trends, just doing our thing, that’s what the name of the band kind of stands for.
E&D: Do you have good memories of the bands early hardcore days too?
Woody: Yeah! The early period of COC. I mean, our first record Eye For An Eye, was recorded in 83, I think it came out in January 84. We played with all the hardcore bands, Dead Kennedys Black Flag, DOA, and we did shows with GBH and things like that. The first album, a lot of people don’t know it, but half that album was just sped up Sabbath riffs, we even did the Judas Priest cover ‘The Green Manalishi (With the Two Prong Crown)’, the Peter Green song, but we did it in the Judas Priest fashion. So even then, we loved heavy metal, hard rock and punk rock. We dug it all, and we still feel that way.
E&D: Was as it cool to revisit as COC as a trio in 2012?
Woody: Yeah. We made a couple records as a trio. Keenan was busy with Down at the time they were working, they were doing all kinds of stuff. There was a couple of really cool instances during that period, that time period where we wound up on the same festival, same day as Down, which was great, and Pepper could come up and play a couple of Deliverance era songs with us and things like that. So it was a good time, but we made some a couple of cool records during that time, definitely
E&D: Going back to the new album. Can you tell us a bit about the guitars you were using for the recording of this new record?
Woody: I used some of my standby guitars during this, some of my old ESPs and stuff that I always love to use. But, man, we had a room full of all different things and whatever worked on the songs. There were some old Gibsons that we pulled out and up here on the record , different every song. It was almost different guitars, we had some Strats laying around that worked. Pepper had a Telecaster with one of those little thumb vendor things on it, which you’ll hear, it sounds kind of like a whammy bar, but a little different, and it makes an appearance on the record. So a lot of stuff. It was crazy. Lot of amps, too. A lot of different amps.
