SEVENDUST HAPPY TO HAVE LOWERY BROTHER BACK

Sevendust is out promoting Hope And Sorrow, and we asked Lajon and Morgan about their first tour since the return of Clint Lowery.

Sevendust is currently touring on their latest album, Hope And Sorrow, and it’s their first tour with guitarist Clint Lowery since he rejoined the band earlier this year. The album features the work of Snot guitarist Sonny Mayo, but the set comprises Lowery covering those songs as well as performing the old standbys.

We asked Sevendust about reuniting with Lowery.

“He regrets that he left, and we regret that he walked out. Sonny came in and did a really good job in holding us together and filling that spot. Not to take anything away from Sonny, but Sonny was brought in strictly because he was family with us. Sonny didn’t sing. Sonny didn’t play leads like Clint. Sonny was not the same guitar player or musician as Clint, totally different guys, in a band that had put out five or six records. So it was really kind of weird. Our way of justifying that is, ‘We know he’s not an asshole, and what happens if we go and get some guy that can play like Clint and sing like Clint. Then we go get another guy, then after a month he might not mesh so after a while it’s the band’s problem. We’re known as a family kind of band, He was the cousin, and we got the brother back.”

We asked how the reunion came about.

“Ironically, the one that talked the most s–t on him, me, was the one that made it start. It was one of those things where Clint had to get his life together, and we needed to really sit down and evaluate, re-evaluate what we were going to do. We started talking together, and pretty much it was, ‘We’re going to have to do this because we need to do this. This guy is our brother. He made a mistake. He had been apologizing for three-and-a-half years. It’s not like he came and called up and said, ‘Hey, I’m better. I feel good. Sorry about that. Can I get in the band?’ He was apologizing a month after he left.'”

And what was it like the day of the first rehearsal with their old friend?

[Lajon] “We cried. We… And this was before jamming together. We did a meet and greet, and mind you we still hadn’t jammed. And then we got to Florida to rehearse and those guitars went in and Clint started playing, and I got a smile on my face I turned around and looked at Morgan and said, ‘That’s all we’ve got to do. It’s back.’ [Morgan] “It was weird.” [Lajon] “We sang a song together and… (oohh!) This is what we… This is home.”

Lowery had been battling substance abuse and left the band because of the lifestyle. He then hooked up with brother Corey Lowery to form Dark New Day. Sonny Mayo is working on reforming his old band, Snot, and we’ll have more on the messy parting of the ways with Mayo in the next few days.