Richard Christy: I'm hoping that metal fans will enjoy it. I've been a metalhead since I was a little kid, and there are so many metal bands and albums that mean so much to me and bring back great memories. I hope that maybe 20 years from now some metalhead will be grown up and remember being 20 years old and hearing the Charred Walls Of The Damned album for the first time. I'm very proud of it and hope that people hear that when they listen to the album, the passion for metal and the fun we had making the album.
Were you able to raid the warehouse of your new label Metal Blade?
Everybody at Metal Blade is so nice, and it's such an honor to work with Brian Slagel, who is a metal legend. He's fun to hang out with. The coolest thing that I've gotten from Metal Blade is an Amon Amarth Viking drinking horn with the logo carved into the horn. I have it in my office at the Stern show. It's the coolest thing ever. When Amon Amarth came to play in New York, I thought about bringing it to the show, but I knew I would get drunk and probably lose it or break it. So I found a generic drinking horn and took it to the show.
Are you going to be able to plug or promote the album on the Stern show?
I don't know. That's always up to Howard. I would never expect that. He played the song “Ghost Town” on the show, which I was really excited about and honored. That would be cool if he does, but if not I totally understand. They are playing “Ghost Town” on Liquid Metal, the heavy metal station on Sirius/XM, which is awesome. I'm a huge fan of that channel and am friends with all the DJs. I'm trying to get the word out and doing a lot of interviews. We also did a video for “Ghost Town,” and it turned out really killer.
What's the status of the unfinished second Control Denied album?
We are definitely going to finish the album. It looks like all the legal issues have been settled with the label. I've been talking with Chuck Schuldiner's family and Jim Morris and Tim and Shannon and Steve about going in and finishing it. My drums and Chuck's guitars were recorded back in 2000, and we have to finish the vocals, guitar and bass. It depends on everybody's schedules. Hopefully sometime this year we'll finish the album.
Are you guys going to be able to play any live shows?
Yes. We are talking with some booking agents now about doing some live shows. It depends on everybody's schedule, but if we have enough notice we can make it happen. We are talking about doing some festivals this summer, maybe doing New England Metalfest in April. When I put the band together I knew the other guys were as busy as I was. We all understand that if we can make our schedules work out and do some shows, that will be great. We won't be able to do a month long tour like most bands, but we'll be able to go out a week at a time and do some weekend shows. I'm psyched to get back on stage. I haven't played drums on stage in about 5 ½ years.
In your years of touring, what are the smallest crowds you've played in front of?
I did a tour with the band Incantation in 2000. We played in Norfolk, Virginia at a strip club on a Sunday night. There were two metalheads there and one very overweight stripper who was pole dancing as we were playing brutal death metal. It was fun, though. The guys in Incantation are laid back. At the end we did “Freebird” as our last song and did a 25 minute ending, just to see if the two guys would stick around for the ending, and they did. They were hardcore. That was a memorable gig.
I did a gig with my old band Public Assassin in Missouri when I was about 19. It was at a community center, and there was hardly anybody there. There was a kitchen, and the singer dared me to take a dump in a Folger's can and put it in the oven and cook it at 400 degrees while we were on stage. I did it. We went on stage, played our set for about 45 minutes, and the community center started filling up with smoke. After we got done I was excited to go back to the oven and see what my dump looked like. There were just two shriveled up pellets. It was one of the funniest things ever.
What's the best prank you've played on the road?
The last show of Death/Hammerfall tour was December, 1998. Our last show was in Atlanta at the Masquerade. That was such a fun tour. We were sharing a bus. Every night we went to Waffle House. We would drive 50 miles out of our way to find a Waffle House. Over the course of a month, we asked every Waffle House if they had a manager's shirt or piece of clothing or hat we could have. Almost everybody in the band ended up with a whole Waffle House outfit. After our set, we all went back on stage with our Waffle House uniforms and played a cover song called “Let Your Tongue Roll Over My Bunghole.” I was on vocals for that song and came out in nothing but a g-string, suspenders and Waffle House hat. The crowd was just staring at us. It was a lot of fun watching their reaction.
