In the 2000s, nü-metal darlings Papa Roach were living the dream, proving that stardom is in fact possible and that maybe someday you, too, could become famous for slapping an Iron Maiden riff over a Green Day song and being like “I made that.” But, early in their career, some bands were apparently more supportive of Papa Roach doing what they wanted to do than others were.
In a recent interview with the band’s vocalist Jacoby Shaddix and guitarist Jerry Horton on Chicago radio station Q101, the pair talked about their favorite tours, and both men talked about touring with Korn as being their favorite, in a large part because of how supportive Korn was. Horton said in the interview (as transcribed by Blabbermouth):
“I would say the KORN tour. ‘Cause we were young. We did Warped Tour in 2000, and then right after that we did KORN. And they us under their wing. They were, like, ‘Grasshopper, we’ll show you how to do it.’ And they treated us great, and they set the bar for how we treated bands when we took them out.”
Shaddix agreed, adding:
“They were just, like, ‘Turn up as loud as you want. You can use the stage however you want. Just get up there and throw down.’ And like some bands aren’t like that. They wanna squash your sound. They wanna, ‘Oh, you can’t use this part of the stage.’”
The part about not using a portion of the stage seemed like an oddly specific detail to bring up and, when asked about the bands Shaddix was talking about that would place restrictions like that on them, Shaddix didn’t hold back and named names, particularly the names of the members of Mötley Crüe. Apparently there was an incident on the 2008 Crüe Fest tour—which featured Mötley Crüe touring with Papa Roach, Buckcherry, Sixx:A.M., and Trapt—in which Vince Neil threatened to kick Papa Roach off the tour. To celebrate that particular tour, Crüe released a song called “Saints of Los Angeles” which featured vocals from all of the backing bands; but apparently, Mötley Crüe and Papa Roach weren’t in perfect harmony after all.
Shaddix said about an incident on the tour:
“I’ll tell you right now. We did a tour with MÖTLEY CRÜE [in 2008]. And they had these wings. It was ‘Crüe Fest’. It was sick, dude. And I had befriended the guys in the band. And I didn’t know Vince [Neil, MÖTLEY CRÜE singer] very well. And there were these wings out on the side, and they were, like… The stage manager comes over and he goes, ‘You can’t use the wings.’ I’m, like, ‘Don’t tell me [not] to do it, ’cause I will.’ So I’m out there on the wing doing my thing. And it’s, like, halfway through the tour, and I continue to not listen. And I’m getting calls from management and this and that. And we get off and we’re in — it was in Ohio somewhere. And I remember getting off stage I’m all sweaty. I’m walking back to the bus. And you never see Vince and Nikki [Sixx, MÖTLEY CRÜE bassist] together on tour. And these two dudes are walking side by side, and they stop and they’re, like, ‘Hey, how’d the show go?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it was banging, dude. What’s up?’ Vince looks at me, and he goes, ‘You know, next time you walk out on that wing over there, you could just walk right off this tour.’ And I didn’t skip a beat, and I just looked at him. I said, ‘So there is a fucking way off this tour.’ I just walked away. And I’m, like, ‘Man…’ I love the dudes in MÖTLEY CRÜE, but it was, like, ‘How are you gonna try to tell somebody to live by rules? You’re fucking MÖTLEY CRÜE. Give me a break.’ Like, nah, dude. You can’t. Nah, it’s, like, it just don’t work.”
Shaddix went on to state that he stayed on good terms with members of Mötley Crüe and was even invited back to the second Crüe Fest. That’s strange, though, because Papa Roach was not announced as part of Crüe Fest 2 in 2009 so, unless there was a one-off performance somewhere along the tour that’s not mentioned in any of the press about the tour from that time, the evidence on the web would seem to suggest that Shaddix is misremembering something. That or this is a Mandela Effect thing and we’ve shifted into an alternate universe. Both are possibilities, I suppose.