WAYNE STATIC: Former STATIC-X Bassist TONY CAMPOS 'Hates Me To Death'

Paige Montgomery of the LA Music Blog recently conducted an interview with STATIC-X frontman Wayne Static. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

LA Music Blog: Tell me about the new lineup. Is this group going to stick for the long run or is this just who is going out with you for this upcoming two-week run?

Wayne: Well, I love all my guys. I had a few changes in 2012. One of my bass players, Brent [Ashley] — he left. Then Frankie came in, then Frankie left. I've got this guy Andrew Cole right now, who's awesome. He plays in a band right now in L.A. with the COAL CHAMBER guys, with Meegs and Mikey.

LA Music Blog: WE ARE THE RIOT…

Wayne: Yeah, yeah. So the bass player from those guys jams with me. And then Ashes, he's been my guitar player since day one, so he's my guy. And then drums, I'm bringing back Bevan Davies, who did the last two STATIC-X tours. He lives in Atlanta. I've already toured with him, so I'm not worried about him. He's really solid. He's got that real old-school STATIC-X feel, ya know? The first STATIC-X drummer, Kenny Lacey, had this basic kind of style and that's what Bevan does — just real solid and basic. It's really cool playing the old shit with him because he really nails it.

LA Music Blog: Do you like going out on the smaller club runs? This tour is mostly 500-2,000 seat venues I see…

Wayne: Yeah. Ya know, we're starting slow, and I don't have the STATIC-X name anymore. I made a deal with Tony [Campos], my old bass player, last year. He's the only legal STATIC-X member besides me. I paid him a bunch of money last year to use the name, and he's just a greedy motherfucker, man. He just hates me to death. He's trying to gouge the shit out of me. I made him an offer to give him 25 percent of my net profits and he refused it. He wants this outrageous number. [laughs] He wants more money than I make in a year, and he's just doing it on purpose because he hates me for whatever reason. But he doesn't want to play in STATIC-X, though. I gave him the opportunity, like, "Do you want to tour with us?" He's like, "No." Okay, well, "Will you let me use the name?" "No." [laughs] He's basically just telling me, like, "Fuck you." Ya know? [laughs] I'm like well, at least my name is Wayne Static and people know who I am. I'm not just some jack-off bass player that used to play in a band called STATIC-X. I'm like, "Fuck you," ya know? I'm still playing in a band called WAYNE STATIC. It's a little bit smaller because not everyone knows the name WAYNE STATIC, and everyone knows the name STATIC-X, but we're gonna build it up. I basically made the choice that STATIC-X is done, unless Tony changes his mind at some point, which I doubt he will. We're just going to build on STATIC-X. The funny thing is that it's still the same guys that played with STATIC-X last year, the same songs basically…we just can't call it STATIC-X.

LA Music Blog: Has there been any communication at all with Tony since last November?

Wayne: I tried to reach out to him. I reached out to him at the end of 2012 when I had to cancel the end of the tour because my hernia was so bad, I just couldn't play anymore. I said, "Dude, this is a good deal we've got going. If you give me some time off, I can get my surgery and I'll heal up, then when I'm ready to go, we'll start the deal up again." And he basically told me to go fuck off. He said, "Keep paying me or the deal is done." So I'm like alright…I guess I'm fucking off then. Like who doesn't want free money? I'm paying the dude to do nothing, and he told me to fuck off. Whatever.

LA Music Blog: I just caught Tony a couple weeks ago in L.A. with SOULFLY…

Wayne: I don't know what his deal is, man. I just don't know. I know he's happy playing with SOULFLY, and it's a cool band and whatever, but I don't know why he's gotta be such a dick to me. I don't understand it.

LA Music Blog: So with all of that going on over the past year and the issues with STATIC-X, how important is 2014 for Wayne Static?

Wayne: Well, I plan on having a big-ass year. It's the fifteenth anniversary of "Wisconsin Death Trip". I'm doing the "Wisconsin Death Tour". I'm planning a world tour. We're gonna hit Europe, Australia, we're going to China. We're fucking doing Japan. I'm going to do two runs around the U.S. We're going to be on tour most of next year. We're going to play the first album front to back, then we're going to do an eight-song encore, which will be different songs each night. That will allow us to do multiple nights in big towns like L.A. and Chicago. I think it's going to be really cool, and I think fans are going to dig it. There are songs on "Wisconsin Death Trip" that we've never even played live, so it should be interesting. [laughs]

Read the entire interview at LA Music Blog.