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Rock My Monkey: Hello, you are listening to the Rock My Monkey netcast on RockMyMonkey.com. Today we are speaking with Stevie of the band Drowning Pool. How are you doing today, Stevie
Stevie Benton: I’m great, brother. Thanks for having me.
Rock My Monkey: Now, many bands view an out of control hit like Bodies to be a curse as much as a gift. What song off your new cd has the chance of making people forget about that song, and truly bring things full circle?
Stevie Benton: You know, I think there’s a lot of stuff on the new cd that’s going to kind of pull people in a different direction. Maybe give them a different perspective of the band. You know, I think a lot of people think that a straight forward, heavy song like Bodies is all that we’re capable of. But on the new record we tried to be extremely diverse, and put in I guess a lot of musical feelings and just kind of cover the spectrum as far as songs go. There’s going to be songs on the record that are very much in that Bodies vein, because you can’t just overnight change who you are. That’s kind of what we’ve always done is the heavy rock stuff. We also wanted to reach out-you know, when you got a really great singer like Ryan, it makes it possible for you to kind of go in different directions at times.
Rock My Monkey: Okay. Now, while so many other bands are focused on being either pro-war or anti-war, you guys jumped on what seems to be a purely pro-soldier mantra. What inspired this, and who in the band started talking about it first, and how quickly did the band know it was going to be such a focal point of this new cd?
Stevie Benton: It goes back a long way. Every since Bodies was a hit folks in the military latched onto it really quick, even after the song got banned from the radio after 9/11. It was people in the military that really kept the song going and gave it life, because in a time of war they used the song-I hear stories all the time. They’re blaring it in their Humvees or whatever on their missions into hostile territory to keep them on their toes, and keep them fired up, and hopefully the song in doing that brought a lot of people back home safely. After hearing that story so often, that’s kind of what led us down the path of being able to go and play for the troops overseas in Iraq, and Kuwait, and places like that. After that experience, meeting so many people over there and hearing so many stories, it was such an overwhelming experience, that’s what led us to write the song Soldiers. Kind of our thank you, our tip of the hat to the troops that we met over there. Like I was saying, it was such a, just an overwhelming experience for us, and it just felt so great to give something back to the country and those people over there working for our country, that when we got home it just felt like it wasn’t enough. So we kind of started looking around for other ways to help out, and that eventually, through just different contacts, led us to the IAVA, the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. A guy from there named Paul Rieckhoff, I think that’s how you say his last name, he kind of filled us in on lots of the issues the IAVA’s been working on. (static cuts in) …unbelievable, like the fact that of the million and a half people that have served over there so far, at least a third will come back with some type of mental health disorder, like post traumatic stress disorder, depression, things like that. The VA, the hospitals all over, are just not equipped at this time to handle that volume, that many people. You hear the stories all over the news, like the Walter Reed scandal and things like that. It’s pretty much just a disaster. When our troops come home they just have no resources to help them. They can’t just assimilate back into normal life in 24 hours, not after being stationed over there in hell for fifteen months. They need some type of face to face counseling when they get home. So there’s this, along with the IAVA, we started this online petition. It’s ThisIsForTheSoliders.org. If you got to that and sign that petition, if you want to help the troops but you’re not sure what you can do, this is one thing that’s quick and easy that hopefully can help a lot of people. Once we get enough signatures on a petition, we will take it to Bob Filner, who’s the head of the Veterans Affairs subcommittee, and there’s this bill sitting there called the Lane Evans Bill that we really need to get passed as soon as possible because this bill will create the funding and really, really get this whole thing started with mental health care for the troops when they get back. Sorry that’s kind of a long winded answer, but it’s a long story.
Rock My Monkey: Well, it’s also a very important story I feel. I know that the veteran’s hospital that my father died in not only stunk, but you could tell just by walking around there that the hospital was horribly managed, horribly kept up, and the equipment was horribly outdated.
Stevie Benton: That is so terrible, man. I am so sorry. You know, my father who served in Vietnam is now getting up there in age, so I worry about it every day. Eventually he’s going to start having some type of health problems, and that’s where he’s going to go is to the VA. And I’m terrified of him having to go through that.
Rock My Monkey: What do you say to those who promote the idea that you can’t support the troops if you don’t support the war?
Stevie Benton: I think that’s a bit of a copout if you ask me. Those people, the troops that are over there, I’m sure that they don’t want to be there. They don’t want to be stuck in the desert for a year at a time. Who would? But the point is, they have a duty, they have an obligation, and they’re proud and brave enough to do this for the rest of us, so the rest of us can play in a rock band or do whatever you do everyday. So it’s very important, whether you’re pro-war or against the war, whether you’re Republican or Democrat, whatever, don’t forget about that there are just people stuck in the middle that really don’t have a choice. We have to take care of them when they come home. If anybody wants to debate me on that, I just can’t see why you would not want to take care of the troops when they come home.
Rock My Monkey: There’s a lot of people, maybe there’s a lot of people that are against the war, but are in total support of the troops, and they’re constantly told ‘You can’t be supportive of the troops because you don’t support the war.’
Stevie Benton: Right.
Rock My Monkey: That was actually my thinking on that question, kind of exposing and bringing up the subject of the ignorance behind that mentality that you can be totally behind the soldiers, and you can be totally behind a cause like ThisIsForTheSoldiers.org without being pro-Bush, or being pro-war, or being whatever.
Stevie Benton: Absolutely.
Rock My Monkey: They’re separate things.
Stevie Benton: Absolutely.
Rock My Monkey: Now, one thing I want to know is, I’ve got a website. We’ve got a few thousand visitors a day. Will ThisIsForTheSoldiers.org website, is there any donations buttons or online widgets that sites like RockMyMonkey.com can use, or fans can utilize through their MySpace or Facebook to help out with this awesome cause and network with the band on this mission?
Stevie Benton: Yes. At ThisIsForTheSoldiers.org you can from there link with the IAVA and donate to their cause.
Rock My Monkey: Okay. But is there any kind of online widgets that they can put on their own websites?
Stevie Benton: You know, I’m pretty sure there is.
Rock My Monkey: Cool. Cool.
Stevie Benton: You know, I’m not very computer savvy. I don’t know anything. I can barely check my own email. But I’m sure they have links that are set up there.
Rock My Monkey: On to the musical side, because you guys are actually a band. You guys aren’t just a political action committee.
Stevie Benton: (both laugh) Right. We’re not a lobby group or anything.
Rock My Monkey: What do you think makes Drowning Pool unique in the rock scene today, and what do you offer fans that no other rock band currently does?
Stevie Benton: Hmm. Good question. I don’t know. Man, that’s a good question. It’s hard for us to really describe ourselves, because to us, I’ve never really gotten into the whole genre, name thing. We’ve been tagged with nu-metal before. I don’t know if we really fit in with that. We’re certainly not an emo band. We’re not goth. We’re just regular guys in a band, and I can tell you probably more than any other band out there, if you come see us live, you will not ever see us any night, no matter what show you ever come to, where we do not give everything. Every night, blood, sweat, other bodily fluids all over the stage. It’s all out, every single night, whether the crowd’s fifty people, or fifty thousand. It doesn’t matter. We really take pride in the fact that we put on an awesome show every single night. And I can’t say that there are a lot of bands that do that.
Rock My Monkey: With this being the third cd with the third singer, does it feel like you have more to prove than ever, or do you feel that this is more right than ever?
Stevie Benton: It’s certainly-it’s more right than it has been since Davey passed, you know? The singer that we had in the interim for the second record, we’d always been such a family-oriented type band. We were all like brothers. There was never any problems. Never personality conflicts. It was always just a great time. During the touring on our second record, we had a singer that we didn’t really know very well before he joined the band, and it just turned into a disaster. No one was having any fun at all. We were too busy fighting with this other dude every single night to enjoy anything. So having Ryan in the band now and having that family feeling, having an old friend with us now, it’s a lot of fun. It’s a lot of fun again. And that is what I’m most thankful for. If that’s the most that we accomplish on this record, we don’t sell anything, and nobody buys a record, the single does terrible, at least we’re having a great time, and it’s fun being on the bus with all the guys and hanging out again.
Rock My Monkey: Nikki Sixx from Motley Crue wrote the song Reason I’m Alive, and both him and DJ Ashba produced it. Did they approach you, or did the band ask them? How did that come about?
Stevie Benton: It was another part of things coming full circle. Like after the Sinner record, we were on that last tour, we had, along with Dave, we had already spoken with Nikki about writing a song together back then. Then of course Dave passed and we sort of fell out of touch. We all went about our own business. Then on working on this third record, we’re in the studio in Dallas, it just so happens that Nikki is in the studio on L.A. working on his Heroin Diaries record. Nikki and Drowning Pool share now the same manager. Our manager called us up and said ‘Hey, Nikki happens to be sitting in the studio, and I know you guys had talked about working with him in the past. Do you guys want to go down there and do a song?’ And for me being a bass player growing up worshipping Nikki Sixx, they couldn’t get me on the plane fast enough. I was so fired up about it, and it was such a great experience, and Nikki Sixx is as cool as I ever thought he would be. And more so. He’s just the coolest guy in the world. It was a dream come true to be able to do that song with him.
Rock My Monkey: How did DJ Ashba get involved?
Stevie Benton: DJ Ashba was working on the Heroin Diaries along with Nikki. Their band is called Six A.M. He was just there in the studio, all of us kind of hanging out. We’d been on tour with DJ’s previous band before, when he was in Beautiful Creatures, so we knew the guy from back in the day. It was just a great time. We all just kind of hang out and throw song ideas around. I got to lay bass tracks with Nikki Sixx sitting right next to me. It was just freakin’ killer.
Rock My Monkey: What do you think that Ben Schigel added to the Full Circle release as a producer that would not have been there otherwise?
Stevie Benton: Man, you know, Ben is just an awesome musician. He can play everything. He’s an awesome drummer. It’s unbelievable. He’s a great singer. He was like the fifth member the whole time just coming up with everything. He contributed on every aspect of the record. Him and Mike was sitting there and kind of messed with different drum fills together. Him and Ryan would be in there and they’d mess around with different harmonies. Ben’s little touches are here and there all over this new record. It wouldn’t have been the same record without him, most definitely.
Rock My Monkey: How much collaboration did the band have with Paul Brown on the cover artwork, and who came up with the concept?
Stevie Benton: What ended up being the album cover is from, it’s kind of a combination of two different ideas, one being a very, like the outside window view was at one point going to be a cover, just because we wanted that kind of classic kind of, you know, like Pink Floyd type album cover. But then at the same time we wanted something that represented a little bit more of, kind of the feeling of, what’s a good word for that? You know, an inside looking out type perspective? Kind of the vibe that the record gives me. Someone twisted in knots, stuck in a room, but you look outside and it’s blue skies. So that all, it came together, it was a process. We first had a conference call with Paul Brown, all of us together, throwing out different ideas. Where we gave him to go was kind of a vibe. Nothing really specific because none of us are artists. We can’t draw. I couldn’t draw a stick figure. We just kind of gave him a vibe and a feeling, and then he really just took it and ran with it, and came up with some awesome ideas. I don’t know how he did it. He must have a really warped mind if he could listen to all the crap we were throwing out at him and actually make it make sense on an album cover. It blew me away when I saw it.
Rock My Monkey: What made the band want to do a cover of Rebel Yell by Billy Idol, and how much of an influence was he on the band overall?
Stevie Benton: You know, it wasn’t really much of a thought. Kind of where it came from, Mike and I were at our favorite restaurant in Dallas just having a few beers and hanging out, and we got to talking about how the record that we were working on was a very, very serious record. There’s a lot of issues that are being sung about and talked about on the record. We just didn’t want the record to be too serious. I mean, it’s a serious record, but at the end of the day we wanted people to remember that we’re just a rock band. We want to have fun. We want people to have fun when they come to see us. So Rebel Yell was like the most throw your hands up, beer drinking, good time song that we could think of. That’s the reason that song ends our record. It wasn’t a lot of thought put into it. Just a couple guys sitting around having drinks, and that’s what we came up with.
Rock My Monkey: Looking at your current tour dates, they seem a little light on the West Coast. Will you be going out again after Christmas and hitting those other cities?
Stevie Benton: Yeah. Absolutely. We’ve got a lot of stuff to cover. And they are putting West Coast stuff together. The last time I looked at my updated tour sheet I saw L.A., San Diego, Portland, Seattle. Maybe a couple others in there now. I can’t remember. But we are definitely going to do a swing to the West Coast before the holidays.
Rock My Monkey: What was there about Eleven Seven Music that made them the right choice for Drowning Pool at this time?
Stevie Benton: Really what it was, we had done all the work necessary to get out of our deal with Windup. After we did that, then we started making our record. Once we got most of the way through with the record and we started kind of shopping little songs here and there, they’re the ones that came to us with a real vision and a real plan, and above all what we feel was a sincere enthusiasm. That’s immeasurable in the success of a record. The people behind it in marketing have to be on fire about it. If they’re not then they’re just going to stick it out there. If they act like they don’t care, then who else is going to really freakin’ care? So just talking with people at Eleven Seven and 10th Street, they just seemed like sincere, enthusiastic people. That’s really what it comes down to for us is the people. We could have taken more money somewhere else, but that’s really not what it’s about.
Rock My Monkey: I’ve only got three questions left, but this next question is actually a trivia question for you.
Stevie Benton: Uh oh.
Rock My Monkey: I’m going to name a whole bunch of artists, and you tell me what they all have in common.
Stevie Benton: Okay.
Rock My Monkey: The Doors, Waylon Jennings, Dixie Dregs, Randy Travis, Pennywise, Boyz II Men, Charlie Peacock, Xzibit, and California Transit Authority.
Stevie Benton: Excuse me? I have no freakin’ idea. You gotta be kidding me.
Rock My Monkey: They all have one thing in common with Drowning Pool.
Stevie Benton: Are you-? Name those again?
Rock My Monkey: The Doors, Waylon Jennings, Dixie Dregs, Randy Travis, Pennywise, Boyz II Men, Charlie Peacock, Xzibit, and California Transit Authority. All have one thing in common with Drowning Pool.
Stevie Benton: Bro, you have got me completely stumped. I can’t even venture a guess.
Rock My Monkey: They all have released albums called Full Circle.
Stevie Benton: Are you serious?
Rock My Monkey: (laughs) And there’s actually a whole bunch-
Stevie Benton: I had no idea!
Rock My Monkey: Those are actually the biggest names listed.
Stevie Benton: Really? And here we thought we were so damn original. Wow.
Rock My Monkey: (laughs) Yeah. Actually, California Transit Authority, their album Full Circle is being released the same month as yours.
Stevie Benton: (laughs) They’re going to be pissed at us.
Rock My Monkey: Well, you’re getting a little bit more exposure than they are.
Stevie Benton: If I ever run into them I certainly will apologize. We thought we were-that’s just what the record felt like to us. Once again, there wasn’t a lot of thought put into it. It was just, that was the way things felt for us, so that’s why we named it that. I’m sure these other people had their reasons. I don’t know. Wow. That’s crazy, bro. I had no idea.
Rock My Monkey: I’m so glad. It makes a journalist really feel good when they can stump the artist, and it’s not a question that they’ve been asked ten million times before.
Stevie Benton: No, that’s a-you did your homework, brother.
Rock My Monkey: Before I ask my final question, is there anything you’d like to say to the fans of Drowning Pool, or specifically to the readers of RockMyMonkey.com.
Stevie Benton: I would definitely like to thank everyone for their support. Everyone that’s picked up our record, I hope you enjoy it. I can promise you that every song on there is from the heart. Except for the Billy Idol cover. That’s just for fun. So rock it out. And thank you all very much.
Rock My Monkey: I do have one final question. Every year we ask one final question to every single band, from classic rock legends to the most extreme death metal bands at the end of every interview, partially to stump people, and also to kind of separate the men from the boys.
Stevie Benton: Uh oh. I’m going to be a boy.
Rock My Monkey: (laughs) This year I’m asking people to look into their crystal ball and predict what political figure, world leader, musician, celebrity, anybody well known, anybody famous, who do you think might die before the end of the year?
Stevie Benton: Oh, man. That’s a horrible question to ask me, bro. Jeesh.
Rock My Monkey: Maybe somebody partying too hard, or a world leader getting on in the years.
Stevie Benton: Jeesh. Someone that might die in the next year. Okay. This is an easy one. Maybe Dick Cheney.
Rock My Monkey: Dick Cheney. Alright.
Stevie Benton: He’s having quite a few health problems.
Rock My Monkey: Alright. Cool. Well, I thank you very much for doing this interview, and anybody listening to the audio version can go to RockMyMonkey.com for the full featured version with clickable links, readable text, and many more wonderful features. I’m asking people to click on the album cover above and below this interview to purchase Full Circle by Drowning Pool, and I do hope to see you guys up on tour in the Northwest sometime soon. And thank you very much for your time.
Stevie Benton: Awesome. Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.
