PipemanRadio Interviews Static X and Dope at Louder Than Life 2025

0:04 Hey, you lunto here censure wow, crazy you. This is the pipe Man here on the Adventures pipe Man W four C Y Radio, and I'm here. With Edzel from the band Dope, Tony Campos from steatic. X, Nice old Disco. Give us a little die motherfucker Not how many times of people think that motherfucker dies? That's better. I was a little one. I like that one that die, motherfucker die?

0:46 Like how old does that get? That? People will ask you do ship like that all the No, No, here's the one. I'm so grateful. I'm twenty five years in this ridiculous freaking business. I have nothing but blessings. But I find myself be humbly a reasonably talented fellow when it comes to songwriting and it comes to putting things together. And if you look at the depth of my Dope career, you have to go a little deeper. Because it's post major label. There's some pretty quality. Now, there's some There are definitely a few dingaling dingalings. I've I've hit a break or two. I get it. But there's some depth to my work and there's some stuff that, like a lot of people are not aware of where they would listen to and go, who the fuck is Wow? That's really good. The fact that I'm known for die motherfucker Die and you spin me around like a record, it's fucking hilarious because they're the two most embarrassing, weird, like controversially arguably stupid pieces of work that I've ever been a part of. And again, I know why I wrote Die motherfucker Die. It has had such a profound use for so many soldiers that went to war, and I have this really incredible relationship with so many marines that went to Afghanistan. It's like, weird how connected that song is to that. And again, so I'm so grateful for everything, but I never thought that song would be two hundred million plays on Spotify, like the most popular thing I ever did. So crazy.

2:14 And I started off with that because I know you have so much better songs in your cast. You'll edit it, so you said it instead of me, because I probably sounded like a prick. I didn't mean to. I liked it, Okay, I liked it because I just think I was an asshole for asking the question that I knew it going in. Because how about this, bro, I have a five year old daughter, motherfuckers google me after they meet me. I'm sure I'm this nice guy. My baseball hat on with the kids at the park. Hey, nice to meet man. Yes, my daughter, Oh yeah, we should get together sometime. He was my number one. My name is that? Why don't you go ahead and google me and then google the die motherfucker died guy. It ain't going near that guy, I know, right, Fuck who the fuck is that? So like it's very misrepresentative of like who I am at the core.

2:59 You're on the neighborhood. Watch. Yeah, dude, you know, I wrote this crazy punk rock song and I never thought it's so weird too, because we were on Sony Music when that song came out, and we were very prime to like take the next step forward in our career, and that was the song we were pushing at college radio and the World Trade Center fell and Sony Music was like, we love you guys, but we're not about this life. We gotta let you go. So I thought at the time, it was like, this is the worst thing that ever happened to me. I wrote this song that's violent and it's got no good will come from this, and it ruined my career with Epic Records, and then here it is twenty fucking five years later, and it's a ridiculous hit, Like it's bigger than I. I don't Staticga's a bigger band, obviously, they sell more tickets, obviously, but Die motherfucker Die has more plays on spins and push it. Yeah, it's crazy. Oh my god, it's a fucking legitimate lead, big song. And I never in a million years would have dream like, oh, you have a hit. It's called Die, motherfucker Died.

4:01 That's not a hit. Freaking Benjamin has hits and you're like, wait a minute, I wrote better shit than. That, And I fuck, you're gonna be like Ozzy almost SAYVI and theer's still gonna know you as the dying motherfucker. Died dude that And I think you're right. I think that's just part of the legacy and that'll be on the tombstone. And it's very weird because of all those reasons, like being a dad and trying to just slend into society. You got dope tattooed on my knuckles, Like that's enough, Like what the fuck's wrong with this mental patient? It's weird, man, But again, I'm blessed and I'm grateful, and it just shows the power of punk rock music and of middle fingers in the air. And when you get in a room, whether you're twenty years old or you're fucking fifty, it's fun to say motherfucker. It's fun to just let it out and direct it in a controlled, fun, irresponsible in the moment way.

4:50 So I'll tell you what's funny about it is, my kids always made fun of me, like, Dad, you shouldn't curse. You don't know how curse, because I would say something like motherfucker. And then I'd realized my kids are there, I'm like mother the yeah mother, brother And then why my doors worked at my radio station for several years and she's telling her siblings but like, oh yeah, dad does curse, like and she's telling people. I never heard my dad curse until I worked at the radio station. And there supposed to be some kind of censor for that. I know, right, I keep missing that button. Somebody with a button, right, And so let's. Talk to Tony about Static X. And my biggest questionnaire is who's the singer? Yeah, fuck that, I don't give a fuck who this singer is. Okay, Robot. I want to know if it really is Wayne and we've like Paul McCartney was dead that nineteen sixty nine radio show.

5:50 Is that really what's happening, is that this is the thing we're doing. Or seriously, though, do you feel he's up on stage with you every time perform? It's a surreal moment, man, where catch zero in the periphery of my fucking vision and and it's just that vibe, Like that's him right there, that's his spirit, that's his vibe. The energy seems spinning around doing his thing. And yeah, it really captures this vibe and what he the energy that he brought on stage, man, And that's what it's all about. Presenting the band how. You would have seen us back in like ninety nine, two thousands, bring that energy and that vibe to everybody again twenty twenty five years later.

6:40 You know, absolutely. And what's your favorite memory of when. Oh, man, this is Johnny. It's a lot of good times with that dude. I'm on tour. There was this one time we were doing oz Fest, our first os Fest, and we're doing a signing and we had played like one thirty in the afternoon or something. Really early and then we had a signing like at five, and we'd already had some drinks and I smoked some weed. Maybe he did, I don't remember, but we were pretty blasted and we're like signing eight by tens and we're like making fun of each other, but like not verbally. We were like writing shit on our pictures and the fans were getting all these pictures are like this weird.

7:24 Shit on the It's. Oh that's good. Yeah that was fun. Man, oh man. Now check this out. This is my eighties battle vest. Yeah I remember seeing this. We saw this at Bloodstock, right. That's right, but that's all day. Yeah he hasn't seen. This at all. You haven't seen this. This is my eighties battle vest. Tell me what you find here on this piece of history. You just want me to read it? No, just check it out. Just check it out, all right? What smarts your interests? I'm not looking for autographs. I'm just looking okay, so I'm just looking for paying no autographs.

8:05 I drew everything on here, Like, why was that hell fest? I was interviewing Geene Hoakland and Dark Angel has a new album. I'm like, do you recognize that logo or like Exos played here you Go two weeks ago. Oh I'm jealous because they were my one of my favorites. First club show, I went to Dark Angel, Fenders, Ball Ruble. I gotta be honest. I'm the die motherfucker die guy, but there's a lot of metal. Here on this sty motherfucker die on this side. I'm saying that, like you would think I'm more of a metal guy than I actually am, as far as like so, I'm looking at all this and I only recognize about half of it. Well, you got exploiting on here. I mean, of course Slayer, Metallica, Mega Death, GPN.

8:48 S O D. But I couldn't tell you an s OD song. Yeah, I'm not familiar. Well you can't. Most are songs you can't do. They're gonna be ri shot. I know, I've seen the T shirts. No one's ever played me d R, I though, I gotta Isn't that weird? I'm gonna have to send you some DR. Isn't that weird? Right? I got their whole catalog on my phone, all right, Stormtroopers of Death and that's O d oh. See, I'm fucking retarded. I'm not allowed to say that. I just got canceled. I know right well, they would be canceled today for sure because their most their album was called Speak English. Or Die, System of a Down. I know you forgot to. But here's a funny story. Okay, I don't know if we should say this live, but you mentioned something you did with Wayne that was green.

9:37 Smoking weed here and it's with a robot a lot more than he did with Wayne. And somebody here, somebody here, I won't name who it is, but he plays in a band here, but he's from a band that you might have mentioned in this interview. And we were up on stage watch him down, and he's like, oh, dude, do you have a lighter? I forgot I only am by cigar lighter and I need to light this meaning the Green Ship. So that's my fund. That's my memory of Louder than life. This smoking weed with somebody big. What can't you say? I'm like, what? Maybe maybe he doesn't want.

10:20 It's not cocaine. Well, let's put it this way. You know, it starts with an S and it ends with an oh, and it's not System of a Down. I gotcha. Gave him a hug this evening. There you go, there, you go like it nicest guy in the world too. Oh my god. But that's the thing with metal heads, punks, all industrial, doesn't matter what it is. We are the nicest people in the world and people just think we're scary as fuck. Yeah, I mean that's kind of the image you present on stage. But then you get done and the older we get, the less rightening we look. I don't right, you know what I mean.

11:03 It's like when I walk up to people, now, the fucker's out there. When I walk up to people now, that piss me off. I'm like, motherfucker die, motherfucker die. They look at me like, okay whatever. Well, also too, like we come from a time where, like when I tattooed dope on my knuckles, bro, it was like removal from society. You'll never work a retail job, blah blah blah. Now it's like, if you don't have your fucking eyeballs tattooed, you're not fucking. On the edge exactly. It's right. I mean, if you're a young dude in a band trying to prepare portray the image of like commitment to the fucking lifestyle, you gotta be tatted from neck to fucking fingertip and your face has to be fucking disfigured.

11:45 It's banana land, how commercial, like not even commercial? How politically correct I. Look is It's like, now I don't even want I get tattoos because it's fucking trend. If I didn't have the four letters of dope tattooed on my knuckles, which just give off a very ignorant like if you didn't know I was in a band and you met me, you'd be like, who would tattoo that? Like what were you a heroin at? Like what is your fuck? You're an idiot? Like you meet him at the fucking PTA meet he would do that. But aside from the word being ridiculous on my hands, the fact that I have two sleeves of tattoos is like my doctor has two sleeves of tattoos. I know right, No, it's me. Well you why I hear something? If I have a brother who's very judgy, got a cheer drop, okay, and I talk about this, A is like I'm like, he made some comment about somebody with a tattoo. I'm like, dude, everybody has tattoos nowadays.

12:34 Well maybe with the people you hang out, but I never see that. Then you're fucking blind. Yeah, there's every fucking person on the face of the earth. Man, Like, come on, well, maybe once you leave the Fomish commune, find me a surgically altered female from the. Waist up that doesn't have a tattoo, right, find me one. Find me one chick that like prioritizes like sex appeal that doesn't have tattoos. I can't fight's gonna happen. I can't find exists. And my daughter always when we go somewhere, she's like, Dad, why you always like the freaks? But I think the freaks are the ones that are not the metal heads in the punk.

13:17 My wife refers to them as mental patients in a good way. She's like, your fans are fucking mental patients. I'm like, I know, so I call when I'm on stage now. It's like, how are you doing, your bunch of fucking mental patients? And they're like, yes, that's what we are. Oh man, that's great, dude, we are a bunch of fucking mental patients. Bro. How's it feel to be here at lower than life though? And how does it feel doing this all this time and having those massive crowds here just to see you guys. This is great, man, This is our first time here. Really well yeah, so after all. This time to get to do this and see that audience out there getting down to some evil disco. Man, is this really special? Man? And we're honored. Beer Well, I can't tell you how I excited I am that you are here, because I've been gotten out of this fucking hole all day. But I love every time I get to see both your bams because it's just like fuck, it's just a great feeling.

14:14 We're very blessed. We just got done doing all the European festivals circuits together do open static X, and it's really against all odds, especially when you consider the challenges that static X face, Like it's really against all odds that we would majority of us would all be here together twenty five years later, like having new memories and reflecting on old ones and just being grown ass men. Still blessed to do this at the level that we're doing it, playing these big festivals with over there. Dude, it's a hundred and fifty thousand people. It's as far as your eyes. Yeah, I just got back from download Bloodstock hell faest resurrection fast some of those.

14:57 Yeah, we were at Bloodstock, so yeah, yeah, yeah, it's banana Land, dude. So we're just grateful to like, like and like we did everything we set out to do and we're still doing it. It's like, if you can't wake up and have some humility and gratitude to the universe for all that, you're just fucking mental. No doubt, in the wrong way. And I've gratitude that you guys are still around both your bands, because man, it's it just feels good to know and especially even with Wayne gone, that it must feel cool that still he still has this kind of or thing aura with people.

15:37 And he did it right too. I think a lot of bands try to move forward right feel their instincts are we got to put a new guy up front, and we got to tell everybody that we're okay and we're moving forward. And their goal was not to move forward. The goal was to celebrate the achievement and then figure out a way for these experiences to take place for the for the betterment of the people that love the band and love the record and want to celebrate and say goodbye, but also hello again. It's very it's a very interesting human. For the three of us, you know, it was a very cathartic thing for us to close up some chapters and there's all some feelings, and because we never really got to just say goodbye to the dude, but a lot of fans didn't get to say goodbye to him, and so this was an opportunity for all of us to.

16:30 Celebrate. And you get to tip your hat to him every night, you know, right, that's the That's so fucking cool to me. It is cool. And what I think is the coolest thing is keeping his memory alive, because some music keeps his memory alive. Well, the truth of the matter, and I say this with great respect, is that the music was bigger than one person. The music connected to millions of people around the world. So like he knew that, we all know that. And you're right though, it's really amazing. The reasons was not guaranteed. Yeah, there was a lot of doubt ors. Yeah, there there was the fact that that static X I like to use the word, is as healthy in twenty twenty five as it is after being as unhealthy as it was is fucking remarkable.

17:15 This may be an unpopular opinion that I might get canceled for but I am friends with Phil, so hopefully he'll forgive me for this. I think what you're doing with static X is better than what's being done with Pan Terror. I would, in my opinion, just wouldn't compare. I think it's an I understand the compliment and I. Appreciate based on what you're saying. You know what I'm saying, because it's like you're not replacing anything, but. They aren't either, Like like, well, Zach is Zach. Yeah, he loved Dime. He's the right guy. That's what's cool about. Like I love the pan Terror thing, sure, you know. And reason that Tera hits harder for people's because they were brothers.

17:55 Yeah you know what I mean. Like that's a different bond too, and it's just such a weird thing. And but again, like the point that point of you bringing them up, and you know, earlier we were talking about Chester and like, yeah, if you really just want to simplify it all and say what are you grateful for? I'm grateful to just be here right, Like there's so many of us that aren't here anymore. Yeah, for one reason or another. Too many, dude, that alone being one of them that like has been healthy enough and has dodged those pitfalls of health and accidents, and dude, like we're all there's enough of us are still here to be like, Wow, this is remarkable and I'm very grateful to just be above the dirt man.

18:42 And I will add that the good thing about Panther is like you brought up Zach. If anybody Dime wanted playing guitar, it would be Zach, And if anyone Vinny Y playing drums, it was Charlie. And again, and I don't care about the differences that the band had or how because that's just how shit works. Like hopefully everyone grows and lives long enough to reconcile, but most of the time it doesn't work like that. And anybody that says any different as a hypocrite, because we all have a friend we had a falling out with and we wish that, oh maybe I should just pick up the family member whatever, and you don't. But at the end of the day, the fact that thirteen year old kids are being taken to a Pantera concert by their uncle or their dad and they're hearing walk for the first time, and they're getting the same chill bumps that we all got is good for Pantera, it's good for Diamond Vinnie, it's good for Metal so like, and.

19:32 The fact that Rita gives the blessing that says it all to make. And that was the big part of Static X that when this whole thing came together that Tony was absolutely one hundred percent behind, was that if Wayne's family wasn't on board with every decision, that they weren't going to make a single decision. Yeah, I love it. And you have to respect the people closest to the ones that aren't here, because that's the best barometer you can get. And anybody that's outside that's going to tell you what they think the person would have thought has no idea because the people closest to these people that have passed on are the ones that are supporting and embracing and so again, this is the world we live in. Everybody's got to give their basement opinion with doritos on their dorito fucking crumbs on their chest. Yeah, dude, you can't please them all. And as my old friend Racy Say from Dope used to say, if you can't fuck them, fuck them.

20:31 Oh man, I don't even think we could stop that line. Maybe that should be in wisdom. That should be a new Dope song. If you can't fuck them, fuck them. It might wash out the die motherfucker died. I don't think that I'm ever gonna beat that song. Bro. Two hundred million fucking plays on Spotify and here you are, two million monthly listeners for this stupid band. It's crazy. It's great crazy because it's not a stupid band the top. Both of you, both of your bands are fucking badass. I'm so happy you're here at Louder than Life. We're happy. I'm happy I got to see in Europe, in the UK, and you know what, I'm glad that there's new kids out there to experiences going.

21:17 Man, and I'm that new generation coming up and down to your ship. And I'll end it on this. It's really cool to watch Static X play and two and you look out in the audience and again, Dope tours with Static X a lot and Dope will be playing. We'll play dime, motherfucker. And I look out and I see a young kids in the shows, whether they're finding the bands through whatever mediums or they're being brought by family members. There's definitely a youth movement happening where more there's more kids in the crowd than you would think. And as you know, I come out on stage and I die, motherfucker, Die Am, and I see them and they're into it. But then static X comes up and they they're able to connect with this faceless cyborg thing that sings for X now and it's not a fifty year old man, so there's a different they're willing to give theirselves over to it to a different degree than again, even with Die Motherfucker and Die and Dope, because they're looking at a man going like, hey, kind of remind me and my dad.

22:15 You're cool and all with the tattoos, but you're still a man. But then static X comes up and the guy shooting laser beams out his fucking eyes and he's wearing a fucking Iron Man mask, and the kids are like, oh, I'm in this is like call of duty metal warfare. I'm into this. And so I've really seen static X be able to turn these youths onto their music without that division of wrinkles and age, to make the kids sort of like question whether it's cool to be into it. It's a really cool thing. Yeah, It's funny because I was just saying in the last interview, I came up with this idea that maybe I'm gonna start a band wear a mask that shows teenage may instead of now man. I like it, dude, and you just make your music videos.

22:56 Just do the shit in AI. You'll look like you're fucking you have washboard abs, be the man. I know. Right there, you go get it on the beauty of technology. Fucking AA. Right, well, you guys fucking wrong. Have you seen the AI version of fifty cents Many Men? No, they took many men, the lyrics in the vibe, they put it into an AI generator and they generated it in the style of like nineteen sixty five jazz blues motown whoa, and the lyrics are like heavy and it's inward murder. It's fucking shit that you would never have written back then, sang, but it's saying with the soul and the vigorous of that, you're it's gonna blow your mind. Go on YouTube and listen to it on your headphones, and you're gonna be like, this is the world we live in. That's AI. That's not real human beings. That's an interpretation that AI made of this amazing rap cultural thing, and they put it in the time and the delivery mechanism that you would have gotten it in nineteen sixty five.

23:54 It will blow your fucking mind. Wow, it's crazy. That's pretty fucking cool. That's the world we're in, AI. I know right, we're all gonna lose our jobs. Yes, static X came back eight years too early. If they would have just waited to come back, they would have fucking done it with AI instead of some douchebag in a mask. I know, right, A. You know what, I think maybe they should fire that douchebag and just replace. There's still time. There's a contract, I hear, it's not negotiable. Hey, that's what lawyers are for. Well, you know what, everybody has to check out. You guys live both Dope and stack X or I'm gonna say they can die, motherfucker die. Well.

24:42 I appreciate that kind sir, and we appreciate your hard work. Yes, we very much, bro, thank you for helping us reach more people into giving us time on your platform. We do appreciate you. I know you work your balls off man. Well, thank you, and we appreciate you giving us the best therapy eater is. We'll take it mental patience. There I go, and thanks for being on the Adventures of Pipe Man. Yo. This is Exxel from the band Dope and you are listening to Pipeman on W four c Y.

25:24 Thank you for listening to the Adventures of Pipemin on W for CUI Radio.