Raising Hell

Backstage Tales from the Lives of Metal Legends

Jon Wiederhorn

• Publisher: Diversion Books
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9781635766493
• eBook ISBN:
  9781635766486
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music Biographies

From the author of the celebrated classic Louder Than Hell comes an oral history of the badass Heavy Metal lifestyle—the debauchery, demolition, and headbanging dedication—featuring metalhead musicians from Black Sabbath and Judas Priest to Twisted Sister and Quiet Riot to Disturbed, Megadeth, Throwdown and more.
In his song "You Can't Kill Rock and Roll" Ozzy Osbourne sings, "Rock and roll is my religion and my law." This is the mantra of the metal legends who populate Raising Hell—artists from Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Slipknot, Slayer, and Lamb of God to Twisted Sister, Quiet Riot, Disturbed, Megadeth, and many more! It's also the guiding principle for underground voices like Misery Index, Gorgoroth, Municipal Waste, and Throwdown.
Through the decades, the metal scene has been populated by colorful individuals who have thwarted convention and lived by their own rules. For many, vice has been virtue, and the opportunity to record albums and tour has been an invitation to push boundaries and blow the lid off a Pandora's box of riotous experiences: thievery, vandalism, hedonism, the occult, stage mishaps, mosh pit atrocities, and general insanity.
To the figures in this book, metal is a means of banding together to stick a big middle finger to a society that had already decided they didn't belong. Whether they were oddballs who didn't fit in or angry kids from troubled backgrounds, metal gave them a sense of identity.
Drawing from 150-plus first-hand interviews with vocalists, guitarists, bassists, keyboardists, and drummers, music journalist Jon Wiederhorn offers this collection of wild shenanigans from metal's heaviest and most iconic acts—the parties, the tours, the mosh pits, the rage, the joy, the sex, the drugs . . . the heavy metal life!
Horns up!

One of Judas Priest’s most enduring songs, “Breaking the Law” reached #12 on the British singles chart and remains a staple of the band’s live set. Priest included the tune on their 1980 record British Steel, and, along with the radio single “Living After Midnight” (which also hit #12), “Breaking the Law” helped catapult Judas Priest from a club act to arena rockers.

Considering their reputation for rebellious acts and inebriated antics, a surprising number of metal musicians have never done any time behind bars. A far greater percentage, however, have spent at least a day or so in the pokey for a variety of offenses, including being drunk and disorderly, assault, and drug possession. Then, there are all the long hairs that have been harassed by cops or interrogated and searched at the border—all of which makes for some pretty entertaining stories, and all at their expense.

COREY TAYLOR

Slipknot, Stone Sour

I had been throwing shot glasses at people all night at The Rainbow. They were on the verge of banning me from the club and I had no idea I was so fucking out of it.

So we left, and I was running down the street with my friend. We get to the corner of Sunset and Larrabee, right across the street from the fucking Viper Room. And we see a big window of this beeper shop, and he goes, “Man, I bet you could put your foot right through that.”

So I said, “Yeah?” and then I kicked it to pieces.

I swear to god, dude, it was slo-mo.

I turned around. There was a cop sitting at the stoplight. And I just wandered over and put my hands on the fucking hood. I am not trying to run from L.A. cops, no fucking way. And I’m out of my mind. I’ve got black makeup running down me, my hair’s fucked up. I’m barely dressed. I am fucking 200 pounds and I’m not giving a shit about anybody. So they cuff me and sit me in front of the Viper Room and all these Hollywood people are coming up and laughing at me, so I started spitting at them ’cause I don’t give a fuck.

They took me to the station, and I was so out of it, all I wanted to do was piss. So I kept making them take me to the bathroom, which was delaying my fingerprinting process. In that time, my buddy manages to work out a deal with the owners of the shop that if I could pay for the window, they won’t press charges.

So, I’m just about to be processed. I’m on the verge of LA County fucking jail and they get the call, help me put my clothes back on—because I was getting in the orange suit. I was going. They take me back down, uncuff me. I stumble across Sunset with a fistful of gnarly money and I drunkenly slur an apology. I go back home and pass out and I wake up and go, “Oh my god, what the fuck just happened.”

RANDY BLYTHE

Lamb of God

The first time I ever went to prison in Richmond I had bright blue hair because I had gone to an Eyehategod concert and had to take a leak, so I ducked out back of the club and took a piss. And [there was] an undercover peepee patrol cop.

The guy was a cop the other cops didn’t like. So they made him cruise around in this stupid Honda 250 motorcycle pretending he was a fucking Hells Angel or something and he was on piss patrol. So I’m taking a leak in this alley, and this cop was a complete fucking idiot. I’m standing there in shorts and a short sleeve t-shirt. It’s summertime. He asks my name; I give it to him. Then he goes, “Do you have any tattoos?”

They’re on my arms. You can see them.

I’m like, “No.”

And he goes, “Okay.”

So I figure, okay, I gotta go to court but it’ll be no big deal. I’ll pay fifty dollars or something. So I go to court and I wind up going before this motherfucker of a judge. May he rot in hell.

I didn’t dress up for court because I figured it’s a fifty-dollar fine. So I walk in there and he took one look at me and was not pleased. And he said, “Sixty-five community service hours for taking a leak.”

“Can’t I just pay a fine?” I asked.

“Nope, I think you need to learn a lesson, son,” he said.

I wound up not doing them and a cop arrested me during a Critical Mass, it’s a bicycle ride thing. So I went to jail for not doing community service and I still had blue hair. I walked into jail and all the dudes sitting there were like, “Holy fuck.”

I remember this one big dude looking at me and he was like, “You’re one of those motherfuckers who killed the native’s neighbors, aren’t you? You crazy looking.”

And I was like, “Yeah, that’s right.” Nobody bothered me. I was there for a couple evenings.

MAX CAVALERA

Soulfly, Cavalera Conspiracy, ex-Sepultura

My wife and I went to see a Rage Against the Machine concert in Phoenix between the time Sepultura did Chaos A.D. and Roots. As we were leaving the show to go home, a jeep full of jocks started to give us shit. I screamed, “Fuck you!” and they came back with guns and shot at us.

I got really freaked out because my wife was pregnant, so I was trying to protect her. The police heard the shots and showed up. They grabbed my passport, which was Brazilian, and they said, “We’re gonna deport you, motherfucker.”

I explained that these guys had shot at us, but it was like talking to a wall. The cops ignored me and came up with their own story. They blamed us and let these asshole jocks go. We spent eighteen hours in jail and the whole time I was thinking, “When I get out of here, I’m going to write so much hateful shit!”

GARY HOLT

Exodus, Slayer

After some of the guys in Exodus stole this gear from another band, our former guitarist Tim Agnello—who I replaced—ratted them out because he was so mad he was out of the band. There was bitter hatred there. The heist happened between the time Tim left in a rage and I got hired. So, I wasn’t a member yet at the time of theft. Back then, I let them rehearse in my garage, so they stored the stolen equipment there. After they got caught, I got dragged out of a local show at Alvarado Park. My father showed up with a policeman, and my first thought was that someone in the family died. The cop says, “You gotta come with me.”

He took me down to the Richmond Police Department. They asked if I helped steal from this band and I said I didn’t know anything about any stolen equipment, and I convinced them I was an innocent pawn in this whole chess game—until I got home and transported the remaining gear out of the garage and went and hid it. Someone saw me doing that, which cemented my guilt.

I was a juvenile and so was [Exodus drummer] Tom Hunting so we had to do work detail. They had us shoveling roads to help clear these giant floods and mudslides. It was heavy fuckin’ labor and it fucking sucked. I was seventeen.

[Our lead guitarist] Kirk [Hammett] (who later joined Metallica), [bassist] Geoff Andrews, and our friend Mark were all adults, so they had to spend a lot of money to get off, but they didn’t do a day of time. I missed a day of work duty, and if you miss a day you have to go straight to Juvenile Hall. I had to do a night in there. That was the only night in my life that I spent behind bars, but that was enough for me. It sucked. Being behind a locked door is no fun. I’ve just never liked being confined in any way. And by the time I was locked up, I was in the band. We were playing a party the very next day, so I got picked up from Juvenile Hall and went straight to the party and partied very hard. So I guess the story sort of had a happy ending.

BILLY GRAZIADEI

Biohazard

I was in Montreal and I was with this punk rock girl I was friends with. Suddenly, some cops pulled us over and started talking to us in French. I said, “I’m American. I only speak English.”

They wouldn’t speak English to me.

I said, “Dude, ask me in English. If you got a beef with me speak to me in my language. I know you speak English. I don’t know French.”

They refused. So I walked away.

They pulled up on the curb and arrested me and my homegirl. I had no idea what they were arresting us for. My friend knew a little French and she said, “Billy, I heard the word battery.”

I thought, “Fuck, maybe I got in a fight at a show here once and something happened.”

The police brought us into the station. They wouldn’t let us talk. They took all my shit. I emptied my pockets. They took my belt and my shoelaces out of my Docs. I remember thinking, “That’s weird. That’s what they do to people on suicide watch.”

They put me in a cell by myself. No one else was there and I sat there for an hour. I was hoping for the best and I thought, “Okay, I’ll have a story to tell my homeboys.”

Finally, some of our crew guys came in and they asked me, “Do you know what you’re arrested for?”

“The dude said something about assault and battery,” I said,

“Yeah, but it’s worse than that,” he said.

“What do you mean it’s worse than that?”

“You’ve been arrested for attempted murder.”

I was like, “What the fuck? This is a case of mistaken identity!”

The police asked me all these questions and interrogated me while I was in the cell. They asked me where I was the night in question.

“I was back in New York,” I said.

“Can you prove you were there?”

“Yeah, call my job.”

The thing is, back then, once or so a week I would leave early or come in late and ask my buddy to punch me out or punch me in. So I was sitting there in this cell praying, “Please let this not be one of those times when I forgot to punch in or punch out.” I was shitting my pants for two or three hours and then they came back and let me go. They said I checked out.

Then they told me [that this was about an] attempted murder and my friend and I fit the description of this couple who abducted a young girl and kidnapped her and raped her and cut her throat. The girl lived, but man, that shook my soul. I’m a d...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Raising Hell
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword: Bonded by Blood by Exodus and Slayer Guitarist Gary Holt
• Preface: Why Raise Hell?
• CHAPTER 1: Breaking the Law: Cops, Border Patrol & Pesky Airline Stewardesses
• CHAPTER 2: Trashed: Happy Drunks vs. Uninhibited Idiots
• CHAPTER 3: Take as Needed for Pain: From Weed Warriors to Smack Addicts
• CHAPTER 4: Revelation Nausea: Technicolor Rainbows & “Yuck Malts” for All
• CHAPTER 5: Girls, Girls, Girls: Groupies, Strippers & Chicks that Rock
• CHAPTER 6(66): Welcome to Hell: Playing the Devil’s Advocate for Kicks or Damnation
• CHAPTER 7: Caught in a Mosh: Diving Into the Pit & Living to Laugh About It
• CHAPTER 8: Raining Blood: Suffering & Bleeding for Metal
• CHAPTER 9: Die with Your Boots On: Near-Death Experiences & Other Atrocities
• CHAPTER 10: Thieves: Stealing for Food, Gear & Kicks
• CHAPTER 11: That Was Spinal Tap: “This One Goes to 11”
• CHAPTER 12: Highway to Hell: Why Bands Should Maybe Tour by Train
• CHAPTER 13: Symphony of Destruction: Trashing Hotels, Venues & Buses
• CHAPTER 14: Laugh? I Nearly Bought One: Pranks, Practical Jokes & Other Antics
• CHAPTER 15: Fighting the World: Security Scraps, Band Brawls & Nazis, Oh My
• CHAPTER 16: When the Going Gets Tough: Staring Down Hostile Crowds & Dodging Projectiles
• CHAPTER 17: Metal on Metal: Influences & Inspirations
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author