WOODY WEATHERMAN Explains CORROSION OF CONFORMITY's Cover Of QUEEN's 'Son And Daughter'

CORROSION OF CONFORMITY guitarist Woody Weatherman talked to The Aquarian Weekly about the making of the band's latest album, last year's "No Cross No Crown". Recorded in North Carolina with longtime producer John Custer, the LP marked CORROSION OF CONFORMITY's first studio output with vocalist/guitarist Pepper Keenan in over a decade.

Speaking about the songwriting process for "No Cross No Crown", Woody said: "We would all show up in town because Mike [Dean, bass] is in the only dude that lives in Raleigh anymore. Pepper would fly in from New Orleans. I would come down out of the hills of Virginia and make my appearance in Raleigh. At the beginning of the day, we would literally show up at the studio, and there not be that much floating around our heads. There would be a few riffs and ideas and we would start jamming on it. Hopefully by the end of the day we would have something on tape that was a viable good song. Then the next day show up and finish it. We would hope to have three or four more songs done at the end of every one of those four-tofive d-ay sessions. It worked out pretty good."

He added: "We have never done an album like that before. I think we didn't waste a bunch of time demoing a bunch of stuff and watering it down. To be honest, I would like to make another record the same way. Maybe we will. I don't know."

Asked if there was any material he had, or Pepper had, that was stashed away for a while to be used when Keenan came back to the band, Woody said: "About 90 percent of the album the music pretty much came out of thin air. There were a couple of ideas of older songs that had been laying around for a little bit, that we revamped and reworked. Most of it was on the spot just jamming it out. Everybody has riffs in their heads. They were brand new in song form."

Weatherman also talked about CORROSION OF CONFORMITY's continuing working relationship with Custer. He said: "John is fantastic and an amazing musician. He makes me look like a child on the guitar. He is a wizard. He has been making records with us since the 'Blind' album. He doesn't dictate how the songs are written. Once we have our groove going, he starts putting in ideas of timing issues; or when it's time to start busting out vocals, and guitar overdubs and whatnot. He'll go, 'When do you want to start the solo? If you started it a half a beat later…' I would say on this record he had been trying to get us do a QUEEN cover for a number of years. Every time we showed up and made a record, he would be, like, 'You know that QUEEN song 'Son And Daughter'? That's the one you guys should do.' We just never did it. This time, he buckled down and was, like, 'You guys are doing this.' We showed up one morning, started working on it, and learned it, and slapped it on tape. I think John's contribution to that was immense. He is a massive QUEEN fan, which we all are."

CORROSION OF CONFORMITY has just kicked off an American tour with CROWBAR and MOTHERSHIP. The trek also includes WEEDEATER and THE OBSESSED on select dates.