Congratulations on all of that.
JACOBY SHADDIX: Thank you very much.
I appreciate the compliments.
Image via Bryson Roatch
This is purpose-driven music.
Its taken us to a lot of different places.
We started this band back in high school.
Image via Bryson Roatch
Ive been with these dudes since 93, doing this.
But then, sometimes those risks end up being wildly successful.
Weve got a good reputation on the business side.
Image via Bryson Roatch
Heres my birthday gift to you.
I was like, All right, cool, and I was waiting for some wisdom.
Hes one of my favorite drummers of all time.
Image via Bryson Roatch
I remember that, to this day.
That was some of the best advice Id gotten, as a young artist.
I treat people the way I wanna be treated.
Image via Bryson Roatch
Thats just how I roll.
This business is so small and everybody knows each other, and things change so often.
SHADDIX: No shit.
Thats facts, right there.
Theres a lyric in the song that says, I cant go on living this way.
Ive exposed myself in a lot of ways with that, and its helped me come to an understanding.
In that moment, we all realized, This is fucking heavy.
This is a real problem.
Our music is very intentional.
Thats an important message.
And so, the song is a true reflection of that.
I was like, No way.
Things just kept falling into place.
She was like, I love Papa Roach.
We listen to Papa Roach all the time at the house.
I heard that and I was like, Dude, this is sick.
Lets invite her out to a show.
So, her and her husband came out to our show in Nashville and we hit it off.
Theyre good people, and she loved the show.
And Carrie and I looked at each other like, That would be tight.
I left and hit the team up and said, Dude, shes a fan.
Maybe shes the person thats the guest vocal on this song.
SHADDIX: I love genre bending and blending.
I think its awesome.
With Leave a Light On, it’s got a little bit of twang to it.
Its always fun to break down walls and try new things, creatively.
I really enjoyed this collaboration with Carrie and sharing this song with her.
Shes got some magic in her voice, and that inspired me.
I love collaborating with people outside of the genre.
Ive done that with Kazo and Sullivan King from the EDM/dubstep world.
Ive worked with dudes in the metal world.
Ive worked with the Black Eyed Peas.
We did a song called Anxiety on their big breakout album,Elephunk.
Ive really enjoyed that, through the years.
I definitely feel like theres a lot more room for collaboration in the future.
Its something thats near and dear to my heart.
I love breaking walls down.
This was has just seemed to hit and its really cool.
I definitely look forward to more genre-bending, genre-blending collaboration.
SHADDIX: I think its important for us to get out of our comfort zone, honestly.
Even in my life, when I stay in my comfort zone, my life gets stagnant.
Im always challenging myself.
And so, when I apply that to the artistic space, it pops off for us sometimes.
But then, they took to it and it soon became a classic for us.
Its one of our top-streamed songs, and its totally outside the box.
When we first came in with Last Resort, thats punk and hip-hop and metal, blended together.
Its important for us to keep pushing the boundaries.
The albumEgo Tripis about extremes, and Leave a Light On is another one of those extremes.
Are you someone who can appreciate your own work?
Do you know when a great song is a great song?
That experience, as a writer and a creator, is really fun.
Sometimes it’s possible for you to overthink things.
For me, I think one of my gifts is that I dont overthink shit.
Dont mess with it.
Dont get caught in the weeds.
I have a tendency to be able to pull back and look at it.
Ive got a gut feeling when I feel somethings great, and Ill go with it.
That intuition is important to have.
There have been moments in my life when I didnt have my gut instinct.
Hearing their stories, I was like, Wow, this is therapeutic.
This group therapy, in a weird way.
It wasnt something that I intended, but I stumbled on it.
Before then, a lot of nineties music that I was inspired by had some very nonsensical lyrics.
Stop writing about nonsense.
Put your life into this.
When I did that, thats when things connected in this way that I didnt expect.
And then, traveling and meeting all the people just really solidified that.
I really understood the power in music because it was being reflected back at me.
And whats it like for you to still perform that song, so many years later?
Does that song have a different significance for you now?
SHADDIX: That song took us on a rocket ship ride to the top.
It took me from this nobody to us being on top, and that was a trip for me.
I am so grateful to have something like that and to make an impact through music that way.
Its something that I hold near and dear to my heart.
To this day, every time we perform it, it just goes off.
It pops off and people connect with it.
[“Last Resort”] is one of those songs thats timeless.
It still means something, its still important, its still powerful, it still moves people.
Im really stoked for it.
Im grateful for it.
At different points in my life, Ive found different meaning in that song.
At one point, back in 2011, I found myself in my own battle.
All of a sudden, I was singing that song and thinking, This song is about me.
That was a dark moment in my life, but I overcame those thoughts and those demons.
What Im grateful for is that we wrote a song and its not trash.
Its not one of those songs that just came and went.
Thats a badge of honor.
Ive still got more to prove.
Ive still got more to say.
I feel like the story is still being told.
SHADDIX: Early on, success looked like us getting a record deal.
We had these realistic goals that we would make a run at go achieve.
Im in the success.
Some people are like, Oh, youre still a band?
And Im like, Yeah, were still a band.
Why did you fall asleep on us, man?
Check out this new shit.
Im not afraid to continually be promoting myself, in that way.
Thats a new success to us.
That trips me out in ways that I never expected.
What has it been like to explore music with them?
SHADDIX: My oldest, Makaile, is 24, and hes really into metal music and hardcore music.
And then, my youngest (Brixton) is all over the place.
We like that one.
We wanna play that one on repeat.
So, I was like, All right, cool.
Ill take that."
They know what they like and theyve got their own taste.
Ill turn them onto music, and theyll turn me onto music.
I enjoy that experience with our boys.
Its pretty cool to be able to have that.
And then, when I play my music for my wife, shes just not a big music person.
I think thats really special about her.
Shell just be like, Yeah, I like it, or Thats not my thing.
She just wants me to take out the trash.
“Rise of the Roach” North American tour kicks off in March 2025.
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