Featured Artist: Papa Roach

Papa Roach frontman Jacoby Shaddix

Papa Roach frontman Jacoby Shaddix performing at Rock on the Range 2010. © 2011 Audio Ink Radio


The Red Hot Chili Peppers influence guitarist Jerry Horton; interview

Even rock stars get star-struck.

Just ask Jerry Horton, guitarist for hard rock band Papa Roach. Horton says Papa Roach adores the Red Hot Chili Peppers— so much, in fact, that Papa Roach records albums in the same vein as the Peppers.

“We saw [the documentary] ‘Funky Monks, the making of Blood Sugar Sex Magik,’ and it showed the Chili Peppers all living together and recording their album” Horton said, speaking to the Lansing State Journal by phone from his home in Sacramento, Calif. “The Chili Peppers are a band we look up to and have been influenced by, so to take our music to the next level, we needed to live together when recording.

“We would just wake up and go play music for six to eight hours, and we have a better record for it.”

Formed in 1993 in Vacaville, CA, the guys of Papa Roach – Horton, singer Jacoby Shaddix, bass player Tobin Esperance and drummer Dave Buckner churned out their major-label debut in 2000, Infest, to immediate fanfare. The disc  produced the mega-hit, “Last Resort,” with rap-rock flourishes, hard rock fire and lyrics about a friend’s struggle to find the will to live.

2002’s lovehatetragedy and 2004’s Getting Away With Murder followed, the latter spawning new rock hit “Scars.” Then, The Paramour Sessions and Metamorphasis. Along the way, they shed their rap-rock and nü-metal sounds when rock tastes changed and stayed modern, fresh.

Papa Roach’s latest offering is 2010’s, Time for Annihilation, which is their seventh studio disc and first live album. The disc captures the band’s crazy-wild live shows, plus carries the rock song, “Kick In the Teeth.”

For a band that’s going on two decades of rock, one thing stays consistent: a killer live show.

“Our live show is something we pride ourselves upon,” Horton said. “It’s a great time and a great energy exchange. I’m sure there are a lot of people there who haven’t seen us live. Everybody is going to come away with different opinion of Papa Roach.”

Xtra: Saving Able fan, too? Check out Audio Ink Radio’s interview with Saving Able in the Features section.

Anne Erickson
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Posted by Anne Erickson | Band Profiles, Features, Interviews, Music, Rock

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