BLACK LABEL SOCIETY'S NICK CATANESE:

‘I’m a guitar player that got lucky’

May 3, 2009

On its way to becoming one of the top touring metal bands in the United States, Black Label Society has sprouted its own branch of a family tree that begins with Black Sabbath. Zakk Wylde, of course, rose to fame as Ozzy Osbourne’s guitarist before creating what has become an unstoppable BLS machine. It’s no surprise that his bandmates are multitalented musicians, as well. Drummer Craig Nunenmacher is playing guitar and singing in a solo project called Mourning Doves. Bassist John “J.D.” DeServio has reunited with his old friends to form Cycle of Pain; their self-titled debut album is in stores now. And the Evil Twin, guitarist Nick Catanese, has teamed up with former Queensryche guitarist Mike Stone in the new band Speed X. When Black Label Society’s Black Label Bash tour recently rolled through Philadelphia, Live-Metal.net’s Greg Maki sat down with Nick backstage at the Electric Factory to discuss the tour, Speed X, Star Wars and more.

Live-Metal.net: I want to talk about your new endorsement deal. First, why did you leave Washburn?

Nick Catanese: My contract was up January 7, and nobody came to even ask if I wanted to come back (and) there was no calls. So at NAMM, we went over to Paul Reed Smith and talked to them, and they just welcomed me with open arms, took me to Baltimore and went to the shop and gave me nine guitars for this tour. We’re working on a signature Evil Twin series that will be out in September. It's amazing. All the places that my Washburns weren’t, they’re gonna be there now. And the great thing about it, too, is it’s gonna be affordable. That’s the thing we planned on. It’s not gonna be $2,000 for the custom that I play. I want it to be affordable, like $800, $900, I take it off the rack (and) play it. That's the way I want it to be.
 
Their factory is down in Maryland not far from where I live, so that’s kind of cool.
 
The first time I went there they took us to this nice little restaurant, me and my father, and they had lobster tempura, and it was so good, dude. I hope to go back there. They have been treating me great. It’s amazing. Dave Allen, our sound engineer, said the difference is just mind blowing. Sound-wise, it cuts through more.
 
How’s the tour, the Black Label Bash, going so far?
 
Great. All the shows have been sold out or borderline to. We were in Calgary and did a full-on arena. Two nights ago, we did the Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester, New Hampshire. Did that and last night we played at Hammerstein Ballroom. So it’s been great, man.
 
Yeah, you guys just keep getting bigger every tour.
 
The cool thing about it is Black Label, Sevendust, Dope and Infinite Staircase—it’s four different bands. It’s not like a baby Black Label. Everybody gets their own type of music. And what I’ve been seeing is Sevendust bring their crowd and they get to see Black Label. And then the Black Label crowd gets to see Sevendust. That's a great combination, I think. It’s been really, really great.
 
So I guess you’ve had a chance to check out the other bands and watch them.
 
Oh, dude, I've been friends with Sevendust for 12 years. Clint [Lowery], the guitar player, he was in a band called Still Rain in Atlanta when I was in my old band called High Voltage back in Pittsburgh, and we used to tour up and down the East Coast together. So we’ve known each since like ‘91-‘92. Then he went with Sevendust and his brother Corey went with Stuck Mojo. So we’ve been friends forever. I’ve known them for probably 12 years. Lajon [Witherspoon], the singer, he's always wanted a vest. I got one made before we left, and it was new and I was looking at mine, and I'm like, “You know what, I'm not gonna get rid of mine.” So the second or third show, I gave LJ my (new) vest, and he wears it like the last two songs. It’s cool. It's like a big family.
 
A week or two ago, you got to play your hometown, Pittsburgh. That must be fun.
 
You know what, it is and it isn’t. It’s a tease. You get to see your house. You get to see your bed. But then it’s like, I've got to get in a bus again and leave and go in a bus bunk. I laid in my bed for maybe an hour or two, but then I’ve gotta go back and get in my bus bunk. And then when you’re playing, you’ve gotta be a host to hosts and all that stuff.
 
Everybody’s calling you for tickets, right?
 
Yeah, it’s like people that used to make fun of you when you were little now are calling you to be your best friends, and it’s like, “No, no, no, no.” I mean, it was nice. We played, like I said, the Verizon Wireless Arena, then we played Hammerstein and here. Then Pittsburgh, they put us in this—I don’t want to say crappy, but there was a bunch different places we could’ve played. There’s a place called the Peterson Event Center, which is better. It’s just, I guess, planning. Hopefully, next time it’s a bigger place.
 
You’re pretty close with your family. Your dad’s your manager.
 
Yeah. My mother does all of my accounting and everything.
 
So does that make it hard sometimes being out on tour away from everyone?
 
Um, well, yes and no. He’s constantly working with my project, Speed X with Mike Stone and everything. But now what I’m finding is I’m losing my family. I have a manager and an accountant, but when I call home, when I go home, they have like four things for me to sign. I’m like, “What happened to my parents? I want my parents back. I don’t want a manager and an accountant. I want my parents back.”

[laughter]

I love them to death and they’ll go to the face of the earth for me. Everybody on the crew and every band, they adopt everybody and they love them. It’s a tricky business, man. It really is.
 
You’ve been doing these meet-and-greets at every show. I know you’ve always been very fan-friendly, but this is the first time it’s been really organized like this.
 
Yeah. To me, it’s odd. I get it. It’s all for charity, which is great. To me, it’s Zakk. There’s sometimes where it’s like—the other night, we were in Jersey, and me and J.D. and Craig were there and Zakk was there, and this girl walked up and she goes, “OK, you three, out.” OK, so we just left. I mean, this is his band. But I’ve been here 13 years. I’m not like a new guy. But Zakk … this is his band. I’ll meet people for free. I'll go off the bus and talk to people, but I understand it’s all for a good cause and all for charity. It’s been cool. You get to meet different people and see some crazy tattoos.
 
What are some of the most—I don’t know if crazy is the right word—but the most devoted fans, more hardcore-type things you've seen from fans?
 
Oh, man. This guy had a full back piece of Zakk, different poses and pictures. Zakk said to me, he goes, “Dude, I’m a guy and he has me on his back. It’s not Marilyn Monroe or Betty Page or something, but me.” That’s how far dedication goes. Then there was a guy in Canada—I thought he was joking—sent me an e-mail and he asked me about a caricature he was gonna get done of me on his forearm. And he goes, “Would you rather have a guitar or a pitchfork?” I just laughingly, I was like, “Pitchfork.” So we played Canada, he showed me the caricature, I had a pitchfork. I’m like, “Are you kidding me? You actually did it?” There’s people that just go crazy and God bless them because they love the band. They find ways to show their love for it and that’s great.
 
There are people who are getting your Evil Twin tattoo.
 
I know. That’s the thing that freaks me out. One girl actually has a picture—right when I got my tattoo colored, there’s a picture of me showing my tattoo—she got that tattooed on her forearm. What do you say to that? It’s an honor. That’s on there for life. I’m a normal person, man. I hate the “R” word. I hate the “rock star” thing. I’m a guitar player. I’m a guitar player that got lucky and gets to do what he likes to do for a living and hang with his best friends and play video games. People are like, “Man, what’s your bus like?” I’m like, “Dude, when we’re done, me and Marty [part of the BLS road crew] and J.D., we’ll go in the back and we play hockey. NHL ‘09, bam, we’re in the back.” Or if the venue’s big enough, like when we played that arena, me and Marty and J.D., we put on our roller blades, we get our hockey sticks and we’re playing hockey. It’s not the way it was before. If you can get exercise, you get exercise. If not, just trying to do what you can do.
 
Before a show, is there something that you need to do to get yourself in the mindset to go out there and play?
 
You know what’s weird? I was actually just talking about this. Right now, there’s not a bone in my body that wants to play. I’m just not there. We don’t go on until 11:30. It’s not even 7 o’clock. But the minute I put my stage clothes on, I put my beanie on, I come into the building and the house lights go out and you hear that roar, you’re on. Something takes over and that’s what it is, man. There’s something there that you feed off of that energy. Like the other night, for instance, we were in Hartford. It was a hot venue and we’re all tired. I look down and there’s this kid in a wheelchair. We’ve seen him before, a kid in a wheelchair and there’s something wrong with him and he’s a sweetheart of a kid. But he’s getting into it and just got the biggest smile on his face. I’m looking at him, going, could I tell him my problems? It’s so miniscule. This kid is smiling bigger than I’ve smiled in days and he has a severe problem. What’s my problem? Oh, I’ve got to get up for this or I’ve got to do this. It’s like, waaah, you know?

Things put you in check. That’s where you find your strength, talking to my folks every day, talking to my fiancée every day, just getting myself back home. They’re putting myself in check. If they hear something, they’re like, “OK, get back.” And I’m like, “Right on. Thank you.” The road messes with you. People are like, “You get paid to play.” I’m like, no, I don’t. I get paid to live out of a suitcase, live in a bus with 10 guys, not knowing when you're gonna do your laundry next, eating crap food. That’s where you get paid. I’ll play for free. Playing is the best hour, two hours of my night. The rest of it, you can keep it. It’s tough, man. It’s tough.
 
It’s got to be a pretty amazing feeling to look out over the crowd and see a couple thousand people all in the Black Label shirts and the colors.
 
Yeah. It’s grown since—shit, I joined him in ‘96. We’ve seen this happen. The other night when we played that arena, Zakk came up and gave me a hug and he’s like, “This is what we dreamt of.” And I’m like, “You’re right.” When we were riding around in that little Astro van—we literally played a laundromat during our acoustic tour, called Sudsy Malone’s. People doing laundry while we're up there playing. And that’s what we did. It was funny because when he started talking about selling the colors, I was so against it because I’m like, that’s what we have to feel like a band. When I walk off that bus, I know that I’m part of the band. Now, everybody has them. There’s sometimes when I walk into a venue and they’re like, “Can I see your pass?” I’m like, “Dude, I’m in the band. I’ve been here for 13 years.” But they can’t tell because everybody has a vest. There’s nothing to separate what the band is. Then he made us rings, these bigass rings. He’s such a giving person and his ideas are endless. The stuff he comes up with is amazing.

I've been lucky enough to—I'm the only guitar player he’s ever played with. That’s amazing and it’s a compliment to actually sit there and go, “Wow, I’m the only guitar player Zakk Wylde has ever played with.” What has kept me here? The biggest compliment he gives me is whenever he introduces us, he’s like, “I’m Keith and he’s Ronnie.” Wow, that’s heavy. That’s a heavy compliment to be Ronnie Wood with Keith Richards.
 
Speed X. You played a couple shows. How did they go?
 
Good. One word that comes to mind is humbling. The monster that this is, you walk on stage and you’re on autopilot. I know Zakk’s there. I know J.D.’s there. I know Craig’s there. And they’re pulling their weight. I’ve just gotta concentrate on my guitar and that’s it. I’ve gotta do my thing. With Speed X, it’s all new. You’re like, “Do they like it? Does it suck? What?” We’re taking baby steps, man. We did those two shows. It’s me, Mike Stone, Mike Froedge, who played drums for doubleDrive, Josh Sattler, who played for doubleDrive, and we have a new singer. His name’s Jason. He’s been friends with Josh and Mike.

Stony, who has a great voice, bluesy voice, just didn’t have that frontman charisma and you need that. You need that to where you can own the crowd, you own them. And Stony’s such a nice person. My dad, who manages us, he’s like, “Maybe, we can rehearse.” I’m like, “Dad, you can’t rehearse charisma. You either have it or you don’t.” Like Scott Weiland, that’s part of him. Axl Rose, that’s part of him. David Lee Roth, part of him.

We’re just trying to take baby steps. That’s why we didn’t get put on this Bash. J.D.’s band, Cycle of Pain, they’re gonna play. Their CD just came out and it’s amazing. I’m so proud of him. He played it for me and I’m like, “You did it.” I’m excited to hear them. But yeah, Speed X, we’re just trying to take things right, just do it right. We’re not 18 anymore. We can’t just work and work and work, and keep working. It’s got to be done right. I’m not gonna be clubbing and all that stuff. See what we can do, if we can sell a couple songs, make a little bit of money, cool.
 
On the clips of the songs you have on the MySpace page, who is singing on those?
 
Stony, I think. I haven’t been on there in a while. I don’t know if they changed it and put Jason up yet.
 
Have you gotten in and recorded stuff with Jason?
 
No, not yet. While I’m out here, there’s nothing I can do. But they’re taking everything we recorded and just putting Jason on top of it. It’s gonna be exciting when I get home ‘cause they’ll have it all ready.
 
Are there plans for how it will be released yet?
 
No, not yet. Hopefully, once we get home, say, maybe September. I’m guesstimating, I’m not giving a definite. That’s a guesstimation, I guess.
 
I really like those clips that are up.
 
Oh, thank you. Thank you.
 
It’s good to hear a heavy rock band that has actual melody and singing ‘cause that’s rare these days.
 
That’s what we wanted. There was a band called Saigon Kick. Remember Saigon Kick?
 
Yeah.
 
I loved them. They were always one of my favorite bands. A heavy Beatles. I was like, if I ever put a band together, I want it to be something like that, something that has harmonies, something that you can sing along with. You say Saigon Kick and they’re like, “Oh, ‘Love Is on the Way.’” I’m like, “No, you gotta hear The Lizard. You gotta hear the first album. You gotta hear all that.” That’s what we’re trying for, something melodic but something with a groove. It’s hard. It’s hard because everything’s been written and to try to come up with something new is really, really difficult. Hopefully, we do.
 
Do you have any musical influences that someone like a Black Label fan would be surprised to find out about?
 
Well, my main guy is Keith Richards. I love Keith Richards. I listen to a lot of Stones, a lot of Zeppelin, Prince. Prince plays his ass off. You listen to some of the new stuff, the guitar playing is sick. What is he, like three apples high? But that dude, he can shred. He’s a shredder. Good music’s good music. It doesn’t have to be heavy or it doesn’t have to be rock. Just as long as it’s good music, and sadly sometimes that’s hard to find with everything that’s around.
 
Yeah, you've got to really look for it.
 
Yeah, that’s why I kind of go old school. You can’t really go wrong with KISS, Zeppelin, Stones. You put that in, you know you’ve got good songs. AC/DC. Right before we come on, they always play Alice in Chains. I’m like, “Goddamn!”
 
Oh yeah, still sounds as good as it ever did.
 
It just kills me, man, (Layne Staley) being gone and never hearing anything again from him. Now they got William [Duvall], but nothing’s ever gonna be Layne. He was sent here for a reason, and he came down and kicked ass and left. Layne-style, too. Two weeks gone and nobody’s looked. And that’s crazy. He went out the way he—I don’t know if he wanted to go that way. Even the Unplugged, how much power he had and just commanding presence.
 
That’s probably my favorite thing they ever did.
 
Oh yeah, yeah. Did you hear the song that was on the box set, “Died”?
 
I know I’ve heard it, but I don’t remember it.
 
It’s a wicked riff. It’s like a demo they did before Layne passed and it’s called “Died.” And it’s weird because after that, he passed. What a great riff. And how they come up with their harmonies and stuff was so amazing. Alice was Alice, man. Out of all the Seattle things that came out, Alice was the thing for me. Soundgarden was great. Nirvana—whatever.
 
That’s the thing. Because of when he died, it was right around the anniversary of Kurt Cobain and it gets overshadowed by that all the time.
 
I know. To me, he smoked him. I went to when Alice played with Heart in Atlantic City, when they did that thing, it was Alice in Chains and Heart. Jerry [Cantrell], Mike [Inez] and Sean [Kinney] come out, and they kick into “Man in the Box.” I’m like, “Man, this is kickass.” Then William came out and started singing, and I’m like, he has a great voice, but you close your eyes and you look up and there’s not that dude in that trenchcoat with those shades on that just owned the crowd. It just gives me goosebumps thinking about it. I saw Alice when they opened for Van Halen. It was Facelift. All you heard was “Man in the Box” on the radio. I remember they opened for Van Halen and Layne had the dreads then. It was like 98 degrees and he’s in a black trenchcoat, shades and them dreads, and he goes, “We’re gonna play our single.” Everybody starts clapping, thinking it’s “Man in the Box” and they kick into “We Die Young.” As soon as I left there, I went straight to the record store and bought Facelift. Then that was it.
 
I remember seeing the “We Die Young” video on Headbangers Ball.
 
They’re all underneath, like, pool covers. Oh, that was great, man. That was awesome. Yeah, I've always been an Alice fan.

With Speed X, it’s taking four or five people, different influences. It doesn’t sound like Queensryche. It doesn’t sound like Black Label. It doesn’t sound like doubleDrive. It’s just its own thing. And hopefully, with Jason coming in, it’ll help. So we’ll see. We’ll see what happens and go from there. Hopefully next time we go out, we can play.
 
I know you’re a big Star Wars fan. Which is your favorite of the movies?
 
You know what, man, it sounds cheesy but all of them, actually, because when you actually think about it, it’s all one story. For George Lucas to actually sit there and come up in the ‘70s and call it Episode IV, that’s brilliant, and make it all about Vader and the first three all about how he got manipulated and all that stuff. It’s genius, to me. But if I had to pick a favorite, it’s gotta be the first one—not the first No. 1, like No. 4. Just the scene where you see the Star Destroyer coming and Darth Vader makes his first entrance and choking the guy, it was just all that. Did you see the Robot Chicken Star Wars?
 
No, I didn’t see that.
 
Download it on iTunes. You will crack up. Seth Green does all that. It’s an all Star Wars Robot Chicken, the funny things about it. Luke’s sitting there after Obi-Won dies and Princess Leia comes in and she goes, “What’s wrong?” He goes, “Ben.” And she goes, “Aw, are you upset about that old man that you’ve known for only a couple hours? My whole planet got blown up!”

[laughter]

When you think about it, that’s right. That got totally forgotten. She lost her whole planet. That’s genius. That is complete genius.
 
I saw the Family Guy one.
 
Family Guy was great. Stewie as Darth Vader, he’s like, “I made a Darth duty. I Sithed my pants. My diaper’s gone to the dark side.” He’s like, “I could go on for days.”

[laughter]

But that’s awesome. Star Wars is the best, man. I love it.
 
Favorite character?
 
Boba Fett. Dude, Boba Fett is the man. The thing that sucks is how he went out. You’ve got the baddest character, he’s on the ship, then just his jetpack, he bounces off the thing and goes into the Sarlacc pit. You couldn’t come up with something better for him? I mean, god!

[laughter]

See it’s funny because when you’re on the road, you come up with funny things just to pass time. So all of us have our Star Wars characters. The buses are the Death Star. For a while, Zakk was Vader. I remember it was Ozzfest and Mark [Ferguson] came over, our tour manger, and he’s like, “Zakk wants to see you.” I walk into Zakk’s bus and he has the bedsheet over him like a cloak and he’s like, “You are now Vader. I’m the Emperor.” It’s just hysterical. He’s like, “We’ve got to think of names for everybody.” But it’s all Star Wars. Like the last scene of the last movie, where it’s just Vader and the Emperor looking at the Death Star being built, he’s like, “It’s me and you.” That’s pretty cool. Zakk Wylde’s calling me Vader. He’s the Emperor. He’s like, “Dude, I don’t even need a light saber anymore. I can shoot lightning bolts out of my hands.” Yeah, it’s cool, man. It’s just things to pass the time. That’s all you’ve got to do. That and Xbox. Xbox saves your life.
 
What games are you playing?
 
Hockey. We’ve got Rainbow Six. Craig’s a big golf guy, so we’ve got Tiger Woods ‘09. We’ve got this one game, it’s called Left for Dead. You can play four people at the same time. You’ve got to kill these zombies that are chasing you. It’s fun, just to go in the back afterwards, releasing, shooting some shit. It’s cool.
 
Alright, I guess that’s about all the questions I have for you. Anything you want to add?
 
Well, we’ve got eviltwinhq.net. My MySpace is myspace.com/nicket13 and Speed X is myspace.com/speedxband. So check it out and see what you think.

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