Pulse Content reports Five Finger Death Punch singer Ivan Moody has revealed in a new interview with Revolver magazine he developed a serious drinking problem while the band was touring in support of its last album, American Capitalist. Moody explained, “When I sang, I was a totally functional alcoholic. I could do my job. But then half of the tour for American Capitalist, I couldn’t even tell I had been onstage. I would literally wake up the next day and say, ‘Where the hell are we? What did we do last night?’ And someone would go, ‘Well, we played a show in front of 20,000 people.‘” The situation apparently got to the point where the band was threatening to replace Moody with a different frontman. He recalled, “While I was drinking myself into oblivion, I lost all contact with my three kids and my family . . . I got to a point where I wouldn’t wake up in the day at all. I’d just sleep through it and then wake up and go to the bar and then go back to bed.” Moody added, “I had just gotten divorced, so I was going through women like water and it just turned into a pattern. I felt gross. I felt like a junkie. My own bandmembers wouldn’t return my calls and I lost multiple tour managers, crew members. I can’t tell you how many friends stopped talking to me.” Guitarist Zoltan Bathory confirmed things got tense between him and Moody, saying, “We never actually punched each other. We’d shout at each other and go toe to toe like we were going to throw down . . . It came to that point many, many times, but I always knew that there’s no way I would ever let him go.” Moody said he finally decided to get sober after a heart-to-heart conversation with Korn frontman Jonathan Davis, who struggled with drugs and alcohol early in his career. Moody recalled, “I went on his bus and he sat there. He lit me a cigarette and he looked me in the eyes and said, ‘First things first, dude. You need to get off the juice. You’ve got the most talented band and you’re a great performer, but you’re f***ing up and I’ve been there.’ What he was saying was so potent because he was someone I had looked up to my entire life.” Wow, I had NO IDEA things had gotten that bad for Ivan. Yeah, we’d hang out, have a few drinks. Last time I hung with him was on the ShipRocked cruise last November. We were in the casino on the ship and Ivan was playing Blackjack or was it craps? All I know is he seemed normal. Nothing too crazy. But you never know what’s going on with someone til they come out and tell you something’s wrong. I hope Ivan is in a better place. I’ll see him again this weekend at the Rockstar Energy Mayhem stop in Saratoga Springs, NY….Man, what a week. Major Rockstar Interviews all week long here in blistering hot NYC. And, as always, if you want to submit questions, send them along to me via the email link on the home page. Today at 1:30 PM Eastern, I will be speaking with Dean and Robert Deleo of Stone Temple Pilots! Tomorrow, Corey Taylor is in to promote his new book. Wednesday, Jerry Cantrell and Sean Kinney of Alice In Chains and Thursday, Motionless in White. And sometime this week, Shaun Morgan of Seether. So if you have a good (ok, make it GREAT) question you want me to ask, send it along RIGHT AWAY!…..Speaking of our friend Corey Taylor, I got another item from Pulse the Stone Sour and Slipknot frontman reported on Friday (July 12th) that 98 percent of the musical equipment robbed from his house and storage unit in West Des Moines, Iowa by a friend while Taylor and his wife, Stephanie aka “The Boss,” were away has been recovered. The friend (some friend!) had stolen more than $36,000 worth of instruments and gear, including two bass guitars that once belonged to late Slipknot bassist Paul Gray. Taylor tweeted to fans nearly all the gear had been accounted for by the end of the week, including some of the most expensive items as well as sentimental ones. Taylor and his wife had been on tour when the heist took place, and suspicion fell on the friend when he was overheard trying to buy some of the gear back from a local music shop. Police told Taylor to change the locks on both his house and the storage unit. It is not clear whether Taylor intends to press charges or not. We asked Taylor for his thoughts on this troubling experience: “It’s a hard lesson, you know. You think you trust somebody and you turn your back for a second and they show their true colors. But the cool thing is the fact that yes, this one person did this, but our true friends came out of the woodwork and between them, my wife and the West Des Moines police department, we’ve been able to track down almost everything. That’s what I’m taking from this.”…Hinder apparently wanted American Idol season seven winner David Cook to fill in temporarily for frontman Austin Winkler, who recently left the group’s current tour for “personal reasons” — although it is now confirmed that Winkler has entered rehab. Hinder manager Kevin “Chief” Zaruk told the Hollywood Reporter, “David Cook was at the top of our list.” He added that season 10’s James Durbinwas also in the running, saying, “We would’ve loved to have either, but the timing didn’t work out.” Cook turned down the offer in order to continue to work on his own music, but was said to have been “very interested” in the gig. Zaruk also confirmed that Winkler had entered rehab for the second time in his career, saying, “We just want him to get healthy and get happy.” In other news, I emailed Chief, who is also the tour manager for Nickelback, to ask for a comment on Chad Kroeger and Avril Lavigne’s wedding in the south of France a few weeks ago. “Incredible” I believe was his response! Damn, I was in the area the week before. That’s a party I would’ve loved to attend!…..New dates added to the hardDrive Live presents the Monster Energy Outbreak Tour featuring Bullet For My Valentine, Black Veil Brides, Stars in Stereo and Throw the Fight. New cities include San Diego, Calgary, Lancaster, PA, Huntington, NY, Wallingford, CT, “Slayerville”, NJ, Norfolk, Hampton Beach. See the Road Rage page. Tickets for these shows go on sale Friday, Jul 19th. www.harddrivelivetour.com for more……For those of you who might be new to the music of Black Sabbath, here is some good news. With its new reunion album 13 a worldwide success, Black Sabbath is reissuing three of its early records on vinyl via the Rhino label. The discs are 1976’s compilation double album We Sold Our Souls For Rock ‘N’ Roll, that same year’s seventh studio effort, Technical Ecstasy, and 1978’s Never Say Die!, the last Sabbath set to feature Ozzy Osbourne on vocals until this year’s 13. The vinyl offerings will be released on July 30th….Happy 40th today to System of a Down’s John Dolmayan. Happy 57th to Marky Ramone (who has marketed a killer pasta sauce!), and Happy 47th to Jason Bonham!
