Max Cavalera Relives His Family’s Insane Metal History On This Week’s Last Words

Andreas Lawen, Fotandi, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
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Family: the backbone of your life and the pride of your heart, or an assemblage of people you wouldn’t hang out with otherwise whose intimate knowledge of your most embarrassing moments leaves you hopelessly stuck with them? For many metal musicians, family can feel like an anchor that drags one from the heights of rock stardom to the scorched earth of responsibility. But maybe there’s a better way! Could one’s family actually be a boon to their metal dreams, rather than a hindrance?

On this week’s episode of our heavy metal talk show Last Words, hosts Katy Irizarry (Season Of Mist), Doc Coyle (Bad Wolves/Ex Man Podcast), and Beez (MoshTalks Cover Stories) sit down with none other than Max Cavalera, the man behind of such legendary acts as Soulfly, Sepultura, Killer Be Killed, and Go Ahead and Die, to discuss fostering a supportive scene and involving your family in the metal business. The latter is something Max knows plenty about, having come up in a band with his younger brother — though to hear him tell it, one wonders if he had any choice in the matter.

“We were like two peas in a pod,” says Max, but quickly adds, “My mom was crazy — she would make me take my brother out when I went out with my girlfriend. I had to bring him along with me. And I’d be like, Mom, I REALLY don’t need him there…she made us really close, which was cool. And once we discovered music between us, that was whole ‘nother thing. We were like partners in crime. And there’s something Igorr [Cavalera, Max’s brother] says a lot — Igorr was always straightedge, he never liked to drink or do drugs, and I was the opposite — that the reason he didn’t drink was to watch out for me. Which is kind of messed up, man!”

Check out the episode below:

And if that doesn’t have you calling your brother and sobbing that you forgive him for accidentally dropping your amp in the creek that one time, listen to the full, uncensored podcast version of the episode.

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Words by Chris Krovatin