If you turn on your television to a sporting event – particularly wrestling – on any given day, there’s a good chance that a Saliva song will be playing as the athletes make their entrances. The Memphis-based band has earned a lot of attention thanks to its ability to write the perfect song for getting crowds pumped up, and the first single “Ladies And Gentlemen” off of Blood Stained Love Story is no exception. What you’ll find on the latest album isn’t just one theme song after another, however. The record is more of a chronicle describing the heartaches that the bandmates have experienced over the past few years.
Vocalist Josey Scott actually was able to dodge most of the pain and instead experienced a series of milestones: marriage, fatherhood, and a successful acting stint. Even so, the band as a whole was shaken when guitarist Chris D’Abaldo quit the group over what he called “creative differences.” Despite the setback, the band seems to be recovering nicely with new guitarist Jonathan Montoya and an album that marked the Saliva’s biggest debut on the charts. Scott talked with UG writer Amy Kelly about the band’s highs and lows that ultimately shaped the songs on Blood Stained Love Story.
UG: You described your last album Survival Of The Sickest “a 12-pack of ass-whoopin.” How would you describe Blood Stained Love Story?
Josey: An emotional roller coaster of a human fixation on love and death and sex and surviving, overcoming, joy and hurt. It’s about 2 years old. I did a bunch of acting stuff. I did Hustle And Flow. I was actually on Aaron Spelling’s last series that he would ever produce. I did this cop show and played an undercover cop for Wanted on TNT. During that time, I planned on putting this record out in 2006. Then just the way everything worked out, it came out in 2007. During that time, we had everything happen to us that could possibly happen to a band. We had funerals, divorces, marriages, babies being born, love, death, betrayal, a band member that left, a new band member coming in. Everything wonderful and everything horrible about life happened to one of the five of us in a year and a half.
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| "Everything wonderful and everything horrible about life happened to one of the five of us in a year and a half." |
When you go through difficult situations like those, does the music come easier or harder for you?
I absolutely draw from it. I’m a textbook left-handed Taurus. I’m an open wound. I’ve always drawn from sadness and pain. Personally, I had a pretty good year. I had fallen in love with the woman of my dreams. I got married in Graceland. I had a beautiful, gorgeous little supermodel of a son named Justice this past St. Patrick’s Day. Yeah, my year had been pretty good. I had some issues, but nothing really awful. But the rest of the guys had a lot of stuff like divorces, a family member die.
There was a lot of material to draw from, good and bad. I draw more off the bad than the good. I draw some from joy as well. I wrote the last song on the record, “Here With You,” as basically a love letter to my wife. Songs like “Never Gonna Change” are about one of the band member’s nasty divorce and the heartbreak that he went through. Songs like “Starting Over” are about my sister, who basically went through a divorce and was starting her life over, having to hit the reset button on pretty much every aspect of her life. Our ongoing battle with drugs for all of us is what “Going Under” is about. Then there’s songs like “Ladies And Gentlemen” and “Black Sheep,” where you just take the gloves off.
“Black Sheep” stands out by being a bit rawer and just a great all-around rock song. What was the songwriting process like on that track?
We came up with it in preproduction in Los Angeles. We did about 2 weeks of preproduction with Bob Marlette. We stuck its head out like a snake. We grabbed a hold of it and I sort of went to what I’ve been taught as an actor and created a character. I’ve always been kind of the black sheep of my family because everybody in my family are medical professionals. I totally identify with being a black sheep, even though my family is totally supportive of me. I’m very thankful and happy for that. But I certainly can identify with what it’s like to be different than the rest of them. But my mom told me that when I was like 12 years old. She said, “There’s something different about you. You’re going to do something that the whole world is going notice.” I just couldn’t wrap my head around that as a 12-year-old boy.
Does your mom tell you “I told you so” now?
Yeah. Pretty much that! Like I say in “Click Click Boom,” she’s always right. Her and my wife, they’re pretty much the same woman – except my wife is a lot hotter! I go to them for guidance and advice. When I’m stuck on something, they always know what to do.
Even on the lyrics, my mom challenged me. She said, “I want you to try to write a record with no cuss words. Just try. Not for any kind of religious act, but just try to challenge your intelligence. Be intelligent enough to write a record that you don’t have to say a cuss word.” So I took that challenge. Like Al Pacino said in The Devil’s Advocate, “When I squeeze some people, they focus.” I like to be squeezed, like back into the corner. I waited until the last minute to write the lyrics to this record. I took it one song at a time, and I wrote the lyrics in probably 5 or 10 minutes for most songs.
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| "You go in and do something as a joke, and the next thing you know it’s a number 1 hit!" |
Was there any song that might have taken a little more time to write because of the emotions behind it?
The saddest personal one is probably “Going Under” for me. It’s about my struggle with drugs, the band’s struggle with drugs, and trying to survive that. Trying to realize that that’s not a lifestyle, it’s a deathstyle. Realizing that I’m not like everybody else. I can’t have a glass of wine with dinner and I can’t just go out and party with my friends because I don’t know when to stop. But it’s good to be a self-aware person. I’m just thankful that I recognized that and I tried to fix that.
What was the turning point that helped you become aware of your problem?
There’s been several, but certainly falling in love and having a beautiful child has made me think about my life and how I live it and how I want to be an influence to my son. How I have every reason in the world to live and prosper and just be happy.
When former guitarist Chris D’Abaldo left the band, there was a lot of talk about creative differences in the band. What went wrong?
I think that Chris was just really concerned about my other stuff. He thought that I was going to leave the band behind and go to Hollywood, become an actor, and that was going to be it. He just wouldn’t believe me when I told him because I told him before I did anything – before I did “Hero” with Chad Kroeger or before I did this television series of any kind of project outside of Saliva – I told him, “Don’t worry about my loyalty to you because my loyalty to Saliva is first and foremost.” It’s sort of like a 5-way marriage. You have to assure them that what is good for the goose is good for the gander and that you’re coming back. You’re not going anywhere. I just don’t think Chris could wrap his head around that and be settled with it. He decided that he wanted to move on and it was not on bad terms. We absolutely wish him the best, truly. We wish him all the luck in the world.
Jonathan is just a rock star to me! I wouldn’t trade him with a full-metal jacket. We’ve been friends since we’ve been 17 or 18 years old, but I’ve just always known that he’s had that “thing,” that “it.” The thing that makes people look at each other, snap their fingers a couple times and go, “I don’t know what it is. It’s just that thing.” He’s an absolute dynamo onstage and an incredible musician and songwriter. He was a natural pick. It was obvious who we were going to pick. It wasn’t like we were going to do auditions or anything like that.
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| "My mom and my wife, they're pretty much the same woman – except my wife is a lot hotter!" |
When you sat down to write music with Jonathan, was there a distinct difference from writing with Chris?
Jon is just a lot more involved lyrically. Chris donates as the song progresses. He’ll donate this or that, or musically he’ll brainstorm an idea. Jon will come up to you with the whole kit and caboodle. He’ll give you the whole song. We’re a lot alike. He’s really fascinated like me with lyrics and how something is said and how creatively it can be said and how catch-ily it can be said. He’s just really fascinated with running the gamut as far as songwriting and trying anything.
You’ve had quite a few songs chosen as World Wrestling Entertainment theme songs. What’s it like to hear your song getting sporting audiences pumped up?
Actually it was really ironic this year. We had the theme song to the Superbowl on the NFL Network. I played football when I was in high school. I’ve always imagined wanting to be a rock star. Since I was 5 years old I wanted to be a rock star. But when I started playing football I was like, “Well, maybe, I’ll be that guy. Maybe I’ll be that guy running down the field, getting the pass or whatever.” What was so ironic is seeing on the NFL Network the actual guy running down the field, getting the pass. But what I didn’t understand is it would be my music that was playing while that was happening, but I wasn’t the guy catching the ball.
Did you know that the song (“Ladies And Gentlemen”) would be a hit?
We sort of wrote that song kind sort of premeditated to be a song that was filled with dynamics that we knew the sporting community would love and video games and movies would love. So it was really premeditated, but kind of a joke because we had an incredible riff in the middle. It was sort of like the 10th or 11th song, so I was just brainstorming, trying to come up with some ideas about what to do. I told the producer Bob Marlette, who is like the Obi-Wan Kenobi of the rock world, “What if I do the verses like a circus announcer? Remember when you were a kid and you go to the circus and the ringmaster comes out? ‘Ladies and gentlemen…’” I was like, “What if I do that?” And I thought he was going to tell me what an idiot I was. He goes, “That’s brilliant! Try that!” So I jotted down some stuff, we recorded it, and it sounded pretty cool.
Then I went to the pre-choruses and I always wanted to say, “Welcome to the show” like Def Leppard did back in the day. I go to do that. Then we got to the main chorus and I was like, “Well, the last time we said “boom” in a song, it was used in a lot of sports and a lot of video games and movie trailers and stuff. I think we should go, ‘Ladies and gentlemen….boom!’” We were like, “Wow! That’s badass!”
It was literally supposed to be another heavy track on the record. The next thing you know, the record company goes, “That’s the first single.” I’m like, “What?” I wasn’t mad. I was just like, “Wow.” I just couldn’t believe that they picked that song. But that’s how it happens. You go in and do something as a joke, and the next thing you know it’s a number 1 hit! I think it’s like Elvis said. It’s not from me, it’s through me.
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| "I'm a textbook left-handed Taurus. I've always drawn from sadness and pain." |
Have you ever taken flack for being a radio-friendly band? If so, does it bother you?
It really doesn’t because I try to be 2 moves ahead of this career. I can’t always do that, of course, but I try. I’ve always told the guys, like on the first record when they tried to shove us in the Limp Bizkit box, the rap-rock box, “Don’t listen. Just keep your head down and keep making music.” Then we put out Back Into Your System and we were all of the sudden an alternative band. We’re Bush or we’re this or that. I said, “Just don’t listen. Keep your head down.” We put out Survival Of The Sickest, and we were drug-crazed, women-goggling, rock stars. I said, “Keep your head down.”
Now on this record, I think our critics are getting to the point where they just have to accept the fact that we’re not going away and that we’re going to continue to make good rock and roll music that is relevant. I want to be in the fraternity of bands like Aerosmith and KISS and AC/DC, just good American rock and roll. Someday when I’m 40 years old, I want to tour, play our hits, and bring the house down every night. And that will be that. I think if you keep your head down, sort of put blinders on, then you can accomplish what agenda you have as opposed to an agenda someone else has.
What other bands do you think might be able to one day join the likes of Aerosmith or AC/DC?
I think Nickelback certainly. I think there’s a lot of stuff coming out that is really pushing the limits like Imogen Heap. I really dig her record. It’s all her, self-produced. She wrote it herself, produced it herself. I listen to a lot of classics. I listen to a lot of AC/DC. I listen to a lot of Motley Crue, Aerosmith.
If I want to get pumped up for a show, we’ll listen to Marilyn Manson. Turn it up to 50. We’ll listen to “Mob Scene” or something before we go on because that’s kind of what our lives are like, a mob scene when we get off the bus. I love it. People ask me everyday, “Doesn’t it bother you? I’m sorry if I’m bothering you. I don’t mean to bother you.” And I tell them, “Look, I’ve been waiting since I was 5 years old to be a famous rock star.”
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