thinking about how we were going to get
all of this on a record, and then we met
Greg Fidelman [engineer for Johnny Cash’s
American V and Slayer’s World Painted
Blood]. We started playing him the stuff we
had, and he told us that we had about four
or five albums’ worth and that we needed
to cut the fat. He thought we were going
around in circles, just chasing our tail, and
that we could make something great out of
what we had. It was a good thing, because
we’re so good at writing stuff together that
sometimes we’ll just keep writing and writ-
ing if no one is there to yell “Stop!” or “You
need to record that!” and “You need to
hone in on one thing.”
Basically, my main rig starts with a Soldano
SLO. It was custom made for me by Mike
Soldano, and it’s the best investment I ever
made. They’re not cheap. I’m using it with a
Marshall Kerry King head, which has a built-in
noise gate. It runs with the Assault control,
which adjusts the intensity of the channel. I
use it in the right way, because there is no
clean tone whatsoever in that amp.
Yeah, it’s hard to associate clean with Kerry King.
Dude, that head is so gnarly sounding. It’s
the closest thing I could find to punching
a guy in the face. [Laughs] I used to use
a Green Matamp, an MXR distortion, and
a power amp, and then I got a Soldano
unit, one of the old purple ones. I really
liked the way the extra tubes in the chain
made a difference in the tone. So once I
figured that out, running the Soldano into
the Green Matamp, through another power
amp and then a bunch of 4x12s, it was like,
“I’m on to something!” So then I called
You guys have played with some really talented bassists over the years, too.
We went through George Rice, our first
bass player, and he was incredible. He
just got sick of the touring, and he’s a lot
like me. You know, he has to be out loud
and a smartass all the time. Then we got
Joe Preston [formerly of the Melvins and
Thrones], recorded Blessed Black Wings,
and asked him to tour. After a while, he said
that he was sick of us and the huge amount
of touring that we do, which is like nine out
of 12 months a year. Who would want to
do that, right? [Laughs] It really bummed
me out when he left, because I love Joe
Preston. Then, we found Jeff after touring
with his band Zeke. Des and I said to each
other after seeing him play “We need him
in our band!” I felt guilty because I didn’t
want to steal him from another band. It
worked out though.
Was he the only candidate at that point?
I called Hank [Williams] III, who’s a really good
buddy of mine. I said “Shelton, do you want
to play on the album?” That dude’s making,
like, five albums all of the time, so he was
pretty busy then. He’s a big High on Fire fan
but he said he wouldn’t feel right there. But
then he said, “Jeff Matz”— the bassist from
Zeke that Des and I toured with—“is looking
for a band.” Des and I were stoked, and I
called him up to come practice. He can play
guitar exactly like I do, and he knew all the
songs. About 50 to 60 percent of Snakes for
the Divine was written by him, too. I told him
“I’ll just put lyrics over your riff, I don’t even
know what to say.” [Laughs]
So let’s talk gear for a bit. What are you
using for the tour?
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