"It's funny," muses Papa Roach frontman Jacoby Shaddix. "I'll be out and about sometimes and people are like, 'Oh, you're still doing this?' I'm like, 'We're about to play in front of 7,000 people tonight. So yeah, I'm still doing this, bro.'"
Papa Roach is one of those bands that might not chart very high on the Billboard Top 200 these days, but that hasn't slowed them down. And frankly, having notched 23 Top 10s and 7 No. 1s on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Airplay chart over their 25-year recording career — including "Kill The Noise," which just topped the chart last year — they have proven to be rock mainstays.
That's further exemplified by their high-energy shows. At 46 years old, Shaddix runs on more adrenaline than many singers half his age. And as he reminds GRAMMY.com, the group routinely plays to thousands of people per night, like on the current Rockzilla tour with co-headliners Falling In Reverse. In terms of touring, Papa Roach is arguably bigger now than they ever have been.
Perhaps that's because Shaddix and his bandmates (bassist Tobin Esperance, guitarist Jerry Horton and drummer Tony Palermo) have always ensured that their music is as raw and real as rock can get — telling tales of emotional turmoil, hope, redemption, and moving forward. That's exactly what's showcased on the group's latest album, Ego Trip.
Possibly their most musically diverse album yet, the band's 11th LP — but first on their own label, New Noize — finds the group churning hip-hop, alt-pop, and '90s rock influences into their guitar-driven crunch. Fueled by hard-driving riffs and Shaddix's confessional and motivational lyrics, the songs rage, empower, muse, and sometimes even soothe. "Swerve" (with Sueco and FEVER 333) admittedly veers into an "F the haters" rant that Shaddix admits is immature, but "was a little breath of fresh air in the process of making an album that was so deep."
One thing is for sure: The band's passion to make music that emotionally connects with their fans has not ebbed over time.
Just after the Rockzilla tour kicked off, Shaddix sat down for a video chat with GRAMMY.com to discuss musical diversity, personal growth, and how life as a father has greatly altered his perspective on life.
These days it seems there are three different Papa Roaches — the hip-hop group, the alt-rock/alt-pop band, and the hard rockers. Will the real Papa Roach please stand up?
I wouldn't say [we have an] identity crisis, we just have these different itches that we scratch. I've always looked up to bands like Faith No More or Queen that really go all over the place with their music. We don't sound anything like those bands, but that path is the one that we're taking where we keep evolving, trying new things, and also finding ways to hybrid all those styles together. Some songs, we're able to mesh all those pieces together, and some songs are a bit more straight-ahead rock.
A lot of your personal lyrics in the past were about "I," and it feels like more recent ones include more about "we" or "you," such as the new "Cut The Line." Do you feel like a mentor or father figure to some of your younger fans?
I've experienced a lot of personal growth over the last 10 or 15 years and really taking accountability for my actions in my life and my lifestyle. Finally putting the bottle down 10 years ago was game-changing for me.
As I've grown, as a father — I got three kids, and I've raised these boys up — it definitely changes my perspective on how I approach the mic, how I interact with fans, how I am on stage, who I am on a daily basis. It has evolved into a bit more of a mature me, but I still like to cut it up. Because when you're in rock and roll, you're forever young. But I feel like there is a certain level of responsibility that comes along with this thing now.
It wasn't necessarily the goal, but now that I'm here — and I understand how influential pop culture can be, how influential media can be, how influential music can be — I act accordingly. I want to have a positive impact. The goal for me, if I can distill it down, is not to be iconic or legendary. It is to be inspirational. That's it.
Congratulations on a decade of sobriety.
Yeah, man. I'm stoked, dude. It's a way of life for me.
Was it tough during the pandemic?
You know, I fell off. I was smoking some weed for a while during the pandemic, and I had to clean that up. But I didn't pick the bottle up. I've been cleaned up again for quite some time.
I will say that in the pandemic I got super fit. And then I got depressed and I got chunky again. Then I got fit again. Then I got a little chunky again. That's how long I was away from the road. I'm trying to take care of my physical fitness, because I'm out here on the road and I got a show to put on — and we're slaying it right now.
"No Apologies" is about forgiving your father for abandoning your family when you were young. He struggled with his own substance abuse problems. What age did you reconnect with him? And have you formed a relationship with him since then?
He left when I was 8, and I saw him one time until I was 22 years old. I finally searched him out when I was 22, and I found that I had two half-sisters. My dad was a war veteran. He came from a broken home himself, and abusive. His life was hell, to be completely honest. He was drafted and went to Vietnam. It just really destroyed my father, and he had demons from that. He really found some peace, I guess — maybe not even peace — in drugs and alcohol. So he continued with that for a lot of years.
He's still alive. I check in with him every once in a while just to say hey, but recently it's getting to that age where it's like, every time I get a call from one of my sisters, I'm always like, "Is this the call? Your dad's passed." Fortunately, that hasn't happened.
So I wanted to tell him, "Hey, old man, water under the bridge. I love you, dude, I understand. I understand why you are the way you are. And I hold no grudge, because I've been through my own s— and dealt with my own stuff. Life's too short to carry this thing to the grave." You know, I don't want to be at my father's funeral saying, "I wish I would have told him. I wish I would have cleared the air with him."
I think being a father myself has really softened my heart, because life's too short. I love that old man regardless, and he is where I get a lot of my personality from. I was around him till I was 8 years old, so that's a lot of formative years. There's a lot of Rico Shaddix in me. There's a line in the song: "I can see the you in me and I see double." It's because there's so many personality traits that he and I share, good and bad.
I wanted him to know that there's no need to say sorry about what went down. Please don't let that be a weight that just keeps dragging you down — because he's got enough demons in his life.
Ego Trip contains the band's first acoustic ballad, "Leave A Light On." Why did you decide to release one of those 11 albums in?
I just felt like, for how dynamic the range of music is on this album, we had to go all the way. We felt like it was time to do something that's straight acoustic, because every time we do some type of acoustic performance, our fans always love it.
We love stripping down these songs to their purest form. A bunch of things we write start on an acoustic guitar. We're sitting in the room riffing and working on melodies. It's either acoustic guitar or piano, and this one started on the guitar and piano and stayed there.
Lyrically, it was the right song to do. It's super emotional. I wrote this for my kids as a reminder that as they venture out as young men into this world — and they give themselves to this world, or they get caught up in the drama of this world or their own troubles or struggles — I just need them to know I'm here, no matter what. Never be afraid to come and sit with me and be open and honest.
I've built a relationship like that with my boys intentionally, so my kids come to me and talk to me about their feelings. I had that from my mother, but I didn't have that from my father, so I just wanted to write a song about that story.
It seems like you also rekindled your relationship with your original drummer, Dave Buckner, as he took part in a celebration of the 20th anniversary of your album Infest two years ago. Had you guys been in touch at all since he departed? Was that the first time you had reunited?
Eight years ago we really started to make a connection, and slowly but surely, these walls have been breaking down. We've become really good, close friends again. We chat regularly. When we got done with the record, I sent him the album. He's a sounding board sometimes.
I'm grateful that we've been able to build up a friendship again, because it was tough, man. I was hurt and he was hurt. We were all hurt. But it's crazy how life changes and evolves. Time can heal some wounds and forgiveness can heal some wounds — just letting the past be the past and move on. So I'm stoked that Dave is part of my life again.
I've got to tell you this conversation we had a few years ago. It was really healing for the both of us. I've been out here touring for years. I've missed a lot of stuff with my family and my kids. I would quietly follow him on social media, watch his relationship with his son, and watch all these moments that they're sharing.
He said to me, "Man, it's been kind of tough to sit on the sidelines and watch you guys crush it, but I know that my life where it is now is where I belong. My life is meant to be this way." And I'm like, "It's trippy, because I've sat over here admiring what a beautiful life you've built and this family you've built. This relationship with your son that you've built, and you've been able to enjoy those moments."
It was a pretty cool experience for both of us to hear we're quietly admiring each other's lives from the sidelines for a while. To be able to get that out across to each other is healing, man.
What is the most personal song on the new album for you?
They're all very personal, but one that I can really relate to and helps keep me grounded is "Ego Trip." It's a story of coming from this old version of myself into this new version of myself, and the realization that I gotta remind myself sometimes to never get high on my own supply. Don't believe your own hype. I used to for so long, and it would just get me in trouble.
It's a good reminder [that] the ego must be smashed for me to progress and evolve as a man — as a husband, as a father, as a frontman, as a rock star. It sounds counterproductive to being a rock star. But you see all these VH1 documentaries from back in the day when all these dudes were just chasing the dragon. It never ends well. People go down in flames. I got a different story to tell.
"Getting high on your supply" is also a drug metaphor, right?
Absolutely. [Laughs.]
Was it fun doing the "Feel Like Home" video two years back with your and all your bandmates' kids?
These kids wear me out, but they keep me young. My little guy Brixton keeps me on my toes. "Dad, can we go to the skatepark?" "I'd rather just be sitting around on my ass right now, but alright, let's go to the skate park."
They're definitely a light in my life. I honor and cherish my boys, and I'm so grateful I got the relationship that I do have with them. It's a good one.
Sometimes I get bummed out. I talked to my older sons when they were probably 14 or 15. I asked them point blank, "Do you resent me for being gone all the time? And not always being here for your birthdays or important things in your lives?" They both looked at me and they're like, "No, we don't resent you, we just get sad sometimes. It makes us sad that you can't be here. But it's something that we can get through, Dad. We get it, we understand it. It's tough on us sometimes."
That was a good conversation to have, because I didn't want my kids to be resenting me for this career I've had. I think my experience as a kid has really made me a bit more mindful of those scenarios. Plus, I know some other people that are children of rock stars and they have terrible, terrible relationships with their parents. I don't want to have that. That's what I'm going for.