Interview by Ace Sims
Hear the interview now or read on below
RockRevolt: This is Ace with RockRevolt Magazine I am talking with Lajon (Witherspoon) of Sevendust. How are you doing today?
Lajon Witherspoon: I am fantastic. Trying to be as positive as I can living in this obscure world we are living in now.
RR: Well you’ve got some positives, you just released your thirteenth album, wow.
LW: It’s pretty crazy to believe that, the word that I’m trying to use is relevant. I can’t believe we are still relevant in the music industry today. It’s a dream come true to still be relevant.
RR: Released about a month ago, I’ve seen some good success. You’ve got the Chris Cornell cover on there.
LW: Check this out can you believe for the first time we went number one on Billboard for the album and I get to have a Billboard Award, which I’m excited about (laughs).
RR: The first time after thirteen albums. Sevendust has been one of them bands, you guys are road dogs. You put on this amazing, energetic live performance.
LW: We said at the beginning Sevendust is like a sport. I feel like a seasoned athlete, maybe now and old athlete (laughing). It’s something that when we go out on stage we leave it all out there. That’s where we don’t worry about the bills, regular life stuff. It’s a world where we can take that hour or two to not only release our energy but the people that come to see us they don’t have to think about all the crazy stuff going on. Music is a healer. I’ve always said that.
RR: I don’t think there is anyone who has seen one of the thousands of shows you have put on that could deny that you bring it every night. I’m sure there are nights some of the guys aren’t feeling it but nobody would ever notice it at a live show.
LW: That’s funny I just got off a Zoom from Germany and he asked how many shows we’ve done and have I ever been sick on stage. I can’t say how many shows we’ve done but its been a lot. But if someone is under the weather, like you mentioned, once we get on stage I think that energy from everyone that’s out there that under the weather feeling goes away. If we could bottle that up I think that would solve a lot of problems (laughing). If we could bottle that up we might have a cure for Corona.
RR: Hell with the vaccine we’ve got the Sevendust! With this being your thirteenth album, with COVID was the recording process a little different for you? Was it harder, did it change any of your normality’s of recording?
LW: Luckily we were able to do this album before the pandemic and not having that cloud anything. I promise you if we were in the studio and this was going on and somebody sneezed we would have shut it down. So we got very lucky. When it got weird, when COVID hit and all of a sudden we were getting asked by certain people to not put the album out until 2021. Are you kidding me? Sevendust, we are musical people we had this album sitting we felt like it would have been ridiculous not to put this album out. That what people need right now is music. It’s something that’s going to get us over this hump. Hopefully we can look back at this time, reflect and realize that music was something that got us through it. Not seeing the bands, I know it’s crazy everyone having to be at home. That’s why we did that live stream to kind of bring back some type of normalcy. It was important for us to bring this album out even though we were asked not to. Looks what’s going on, people seem to be enjoying it and I’m very happy that we had this opportunity. God knows what’s going to happen in the future. We don’t know.
RR: I can tell you myself and many others are glad you didn’t take the advice that was giving. When it came out my Facebook timeline was nothing but oh my god new music from Sevendust. So when it comes to my friends they were very grateful you did not take that advice.
LW: I’m so glad we didn’t either. You know I feel like at this point in our career we’ve done it long enough to know right from wrong. What should be done and the way it should be done. I think it was a very good decision amongst all of us.
RR: Like you said what the world needs right now is an escape from all of the nonsense and chaos. With this second wave hitting we have a little something extra to knuckle down and listen to while we are getting through this second wave.
LW: Absolutely, you said it right. Nobody says that, second wave. We’ve got all these knuckleheads running around not believing it, how could they not believe it.
RR: Like we were talking about earlier you and I live in almost the same neighborhood, not sure if you say the viral video referring to the mask mandate as Nazi Germany? It just came out in the last couple days here in Johnson County.
LW: Oh my god I’m going to look it up. I have not seen it, wow. It’s ridiculous, if we could just get those people on a boat and let them hang out in the middle of the ocean that would be better.
RR: You’ve done a lot of other cool stuff throughout this. Labor Day weekend I was driving and that Friday I had Octane (Sirius XM radio) on and you hosted a virtual festival.
LW: How did you like that?
RR: I thought it was fantastic. It was super cool hearing the stories. Kind of like being backstage. Hearing the stories of festivals. It made my five and a half hour drive awesome.
LW: Man, thank you. That’s really cool, no one has said anything about that. It was so fun for me to do even though I recorded that in my studio at home. It was really cool because they said it was going to sound like we were really backstage. It made it fun for me to do even though I wasn’t there. It didn’t sound like it you know what I mean.
RR: Yeah, it was super cool I enjoyed it. Me and my girlfriend always go on a canoe trip each year and listening to the stories I was like I remember that. It was very nostalgic.
LW: Cool, thanks so much man. I told them lets do that again, so hopefully we can make that happen. I’ll let you know. It was a cool experience.
RR: That would be great, I’ll definitely be tuning in. That’s actually been my lifelong dream to be a radio DJ, so I listen to all that stuff. I love hearing all of that. Just different off the wall stuff that isn’t just music being played on the radio. I enjoy the hell out of it.
LW: Right on man. So how are you and the family doing during crazy time.
RR: You know we’re doing good. In real life I’m in the transportation industry so I have not been affected that much. We’re in an office of about 50 people and all but 4 of us have been coming in everyday. I live three miles from the office so I said I’m not packing up and going home. There’s 4 of us, we can stay socially distanced. We are enjoying the things we can. We are having football parties every weekend with just us at the house. Cooking up a big old feast every week watching the Chiefs do what they do.
LW: Yeah that’s what we are doing. We’ve only been to a couple places out. We haven’t been to a restaurant to sit down. We’ve only done curbside. It’s been weird but I feel like I guess we don’t really have to go to a restaurant to sit down. I told my wife you know what when we go to a restaurant nobody wants to talk anyway (laughing).
RR: I think I’ve been out once to sit down at a restaurant since this whole thing started. And it was like yeah everything seems cool but lets not do this again.
LW: Lets make our home the most fun we can have. That’s what we try to do with our kids. Try to make it so they don’t want to leave. You know what it’s not that bad here.
RR: Since the Chiefs play Sunday night I’m getting up at 6am Sunday morning firing up the smoker and putting on 4 pork butts and about 5 slabs of ribs and have a nice little family get together at home for the game. It’s going to be a good time.
LW: I might swing by and get one of those butts for my grill.
RR: Come on by. I have this giant smoker and I’m like I’m going to smoke 1 pork butt so I tell all my friends come over drop off whatever you want and I’ll cook it.
LW: That’s a good plan. Last time I smoked something I was up at 5am and I told my wife I’m going to have to be really focused to do that again because the only people that ate it was me and Nico from Sidewise (band). I did all this work just for Nico to eat it.
RR: Lets talk about the solo album you are working on.
LW: Absolutely I’ve working with my very good friend Sahaj from Ra. We’ve been working on this for probably over a year. We started working on it in California for fun. Then it started turning into something, a sound I’m very excited about. Now we’ve moved back to the mid-west, came out to the farmhouse and we finished up three more songs. I think I have an albums worth of material. At the beginning of the new year we will be shopping for a record deal. I can’t believe I’m saying I’m looking for a record deal for my solo stuff, I never would have thought that I would say that one day being in Sevendust. But it’s definitely been a beautiful outlet for me to be able to do something different.
RR: What brough this on. Are you just trying to explore a different side of you musical inspiration?
LW: I’ve always done different music. It’s just the first time in my life to be able to sit down and focus on it. Sevendust is the most important thing. Now the opportunity to get my music out there is very important. At the age I am now and the way things are going on in the world. I like to say this, I feel like life and music is like a chess game and so I’ve just been kind of waiting to make the right move. It might be a boring game to have to wait but at the end of the day hopefully it will work the way I want it to.
RR: What would you say are some of the differences are between your solo and Sevendust?
LW: I’m not afraid to get a little country and a little bit of rock n roll. And a lot of soul. There’s also some dance beats, this album will be able to be played on the radio and clubs. I think it will be a universal thing. That what I want my music and voice to be heard as. Not just as, I love Sevendust and that’s my thing but I want to be known as a singer and remembered as a singer, voice and artist. Someone who loves music and not just one type.
RR: Sounds like you are putting a lot of your personality in there. I know the times I’ve met and talked to you, you’ve always been this fun, vibrant, full of energy, happy, always with a smile on your face. That’s kind of sounds like that’s what you are going to put into this album.
LW: Oh absolutely. There’s some sad stuff but I’m definitely happy to.
RR: I’ve enjoyed being able to talk some music with you. Congratulations on the new Sevendust album Blood and Stone, everybody go get that. Released on October 23rd. I know I can’t wait to hear what you’ve got on this solo album.
