INTERVIEW WITH SONNY MAYO of SEVENDUST

After knowing the band and hanging out with its members for a decade, former SNOT/AMEN guitarist Sonny Mayo officially joined the ranks of SEVENDUST in February 2005, replacing the slot left blank by Clint Lowery, who has since gone on to form DARK NEW DAY. Rob from Paragon Music Magazine caught up with Sonny late last year and asked him a few questions about his band, his thoughts on the music business, and ...his diet. It went a little something like this:

Paragon Rob: You are the newest member of the band. Has the band put you through any kind of initiation or trial by fire since you’ve started?

Sonny Mayo: ::Laughs:: Not really, man. There wasn’t any special hazing or anything, no, but I joined the band on January 19th, well, I got to Florida on January 28th and started recording the record on February 1st. I don’t know if that’s any kind of initiation, like learn the songs real fast and then start to record them. But no, they didn’t put me through any kind of special hazing or anything like that. I’ve known these guys for 10 years and we’ve done enough damage, physically and mentally to each other in the past. So I’m all caught up already.

Paragon Rob:How different is it being a part of SEVENDUST compared to your previous bands?

Sonny Mayo: It’s a lot different, it’s a lot more comfortable. It’s more of a band atmosphere with 5 guys working together rather than 2 or 3 guys running the show, or even 1 guy running the show. It’s really a blessing, it’s exactly what I wanted, a band where all 5 members are active and contribute to the band’s material and decisions. And it’s good when everyone’s interested; there’s been a couple cases where 1 guy ran the show and a couple guys didn’t give a shit, whereas this is a band where everyone is concerned and work towards the same goal.

Paragon Rob:You were a big Sevendust fan before you joined the band, are there any other bands out there that you are a big fan of that you’d hope to play in or maybe tour with someday?

Sonny Mayo: ::Laughs:: Well, I’d like to play with CLUTCH, Clutch is one of my favorite bands, for sure. There’s a band out of Sweden that broke up a few years ago called REFUSED, they were one of my favorite bands too. I don’t wanna play in any other band though, I wanna be in this band, I don’t wanna move around anymore.

Paragon Rob:A lot of times I’ve realized that when I talk to people for interviews they are much different than what they make you believe they are like on stage. I know as a performer you have to play to the crowd, but how much different are you in everyday life compared to your onstage persona?

Sonny Mayo: Um, I’m not that much different, I guess, than I am now, because I’m not trying to prove anything or fit any bill. When I was in Amen we were trying to be really fuckin’ hardcore, so I would do shit that I don’t necessarily do in my everyday life. Whereas now I’m active, I’ll look you right in the eye, I’ll be honest with you, and that’s how I am onstage now, too.

Paragon Rob:Does it piss you off when you look at the music scene today and see guys with half your chops making the same or more money than you are?

Sonny Mayo: Sometimes.

Paragon Rob:Anybody in particular?

Sonny Mayo: No.::laughs:: It bugs me sometimes, yeah, but that’s usually on a day when there’s some stuff that’s been bothering me that I haven’t addressed. Like some unresolved issues in my own life that I haven’t taken a took at, so I’m looking outside of me and I’m saying “Oh this sucks, or that sucks.” But usually when I take care of what I gotta take care of for myself, usually I’m really happy and really content. Therefore, nothing really bothers me, even really bad shit can’t get to me as much. But I look at stuff and I watch videos and I’m like “These fuckin’ hacks…” ::laughs:: You see some bands that come out and they claim to be Metal or they claim to be Punk, and it’s like, motherfucker, you weren’t even alive when the shit was going down. And, you don’t know who BLACK FLAG is or you don’t know who JIMI HENDRIX is, so those are the things that piss me off. But, ya know, it’s all about music, man. There are people that get away with murder in every business. There are people that can’t act that make millions of dollars per movie, and so on and so forth. So it’s all just typical and it all comes back around and those people will either last or they won’t last. I’m fortunate to be able to do what I do and to have been doing it for so long. So, yeah, there’s a general answer for. ::laughs::

Paragon Rob:I love the single “Ugly” and the video is awesome as well, but I’m not quite sure how it reflects the meaning of the song though. Do you think you could explain the video at all?

Sonny Mayo: Sure, well, the video is kind of based on the theme of an outcast. In the video, what it is, is we’re a part of society but we’re not a part of society. They need us and we need them but we hate each other and we hide from each other. They need us because they hook us up to this “thing” and they can see through our eyes, they get visions by hooking us up. “It’s hard to keep you by my side/Haunted by the vision/Too ugly for one day/If only you’d go live your life.” Like, if they’d only go live their lives and we go live our lives, everything would be fine, but we kind of need each other. It’s really a reflection on a toxic relationship, but we didn’t want to make a video that was exactly acting out the words of the song, like so many videos are. Like, they say “I picked up the phone” and you see somebody picking up a phone. We didn’t wanna fuckin’ do that, we wanted to be artistic.

Paragon Rob:Your tour will end just a few days before Christmas. The holidays tend to be stressful for most people, how do you think you’ll deal with all the stress from the tour and then dive right into family gatherings?

Sonny Mayo: It won’t be a problem, man. My family actually, is meeting in Orlando, for a Florida Christmas. We’re actually playing the House of Blues in Orlando on New Years Eve. I don’t think I have any stress dude. I travel all the time and it’s not really that stressful to me anymore, I mean, I’ve got my plans all set up. And none of my family members are drunks or anything, the only one that was a drunk was me, and I’m not that drunk anymore. ::laughs:: But I won’t be causing any shit around the family, so I don’t anticipate it being stressful at all. And the tour, by the way, isn’t stressful at all either, because the bands are getting along really well. Every night there’s at least 2 or 3 members of every band on our bus hanging out. Every night, all the bands hang out, so there’s no stress.

Paragon Rob:Are there any meals or snacks that you enjoy while you’re home that you can’t get on the road that you miss while on tour?

Sonny Mayo: Well, I’m a big coffee freak, I drink a lot of coffee. I get this particular brand of coffee, it’s a southern California place, they might ship it out a little bit, but it’s called Peets Coffee. It’s a really strong blend of coffee that I can’t really find when I’m on tour so we just keep the generic Starbucks House Blend, which is ok, and I make it super strong so it kind of compensates. So, I can’t get my coffee, or my particular creamer either, which is a soy-based, hazelnut creamer. ::laughs::

Paragon Rob:I figured by now, in this day and age everyone’s a health freak…

Sonny Mayo: You get some of these mid-west towns that are like “HUH!? Soy!? What you talking ‘bout, boy!?” ::laughs:: So, I just try to get some kind of low-carb creamer. I eat really healthy now, I’m not a young man. Well, I’m a young man, but I’m not a youngster anymore so I try not to eat a bunch of shit all the time.

Paragon Rob:That’s gotta be hard when you’re on the road.

Sonny Mayo: It is, man! The worst part about it is the fried foods. You’re starving after a show and the only thing available are some mozzarella sticks or pizza. That’s the worst.

Paragon Rob:You guys set up an office for your label in Boca Raton, Florida. After this rough summer of storms, is the office still standing, or do you need a kayak to get through the rooms?

Sonny Mayo: ::Laughs:: They did need a kayak to get back to it. They actually left for two weeks and went to Orlando because it got really bad down there. So, yeah, we took off, really fast, and came back two weeks later. Everything’s OK, but it was nasty for a while.

Paragon Rob:Any last words or plugs for our readers?

Sonny Mayo: Sure, man. Coming from me personally, and the life that I’ve lived and the situations that I’ve been in and the chances that I’ve been given, to continue to play music. If you’re a musician and you really want to do this, keep going with it. When it seems like things are falling apart, they’re probably just falling into place, so keep on going forward with it.

Check out Sonny and the rest of SEVENDUST online at SEVENDUST.INFO

Read the review of Sevendust's latest disc Next

This interview will also be featured in print in Paragon Music Magazine. To get your copy of Paragon Music Magazine, email your name and address to ParagonMM@hotmail.com and include $2 per copy by cash, money order, or Paypal (email them for payment info)