Interview With Richard Christy
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Chad Bowar: After Chuck passed away you became a member of Iced Earth, right?
Richard Christy: Actually, it was during the time that I was also in Control Denied and Death that I became a member of Iced Earth. That was through the producer Jim Morris. He worked with Death and Iced Earth. It was also through a friend of mine Andrew Sample from Century Media Records. They both suggested me to Jon from Iced Earth, who called me.
I made sure that the schedules would work out between my two main bands at the time, Control Denied and Iced Earth. I decided to go for it. I auditioned and it went great.
Did you have any problems working with Jon Schaffer in Iced Earth?
No, I got along with Jon great. He's a really determined guy, and as long as you do your job he's cool. We had some great times on tour. He's a really hard working and dedicated guy. I never had any problems with him.
You also did some tour fill ins for a couple different bands during that time frame, right?
That was in the year 2000. It was a busy year. I was in Control Denied at the time. I joined Iced Earth and Demons and Wizards that year and went on tour with Incantation. John McEntee from Incantation called me in April of 2000 and it happened to work out that I would be able to tour with them for a month and a half. A few days after I got home I flew to Europe with Demons and Wizards. That was a lot of fun. It was a big contrast. The Incantation tour was in a van playing small clubs to around 300 to 500 people a night.
Then we went to Europe on a big tour bus with Demons and Wizards playing festivals that were about 10,000 to 20,000 people each weekend.
I actually had a lot of fun on both tours. The Incantation tour was a blast because I've been friends with all those guys since the mid '90s when I lived in Missouri. We had a lot of freedom. When you tour in a van you're able to do a lot more then when you're in a bus. If you have a day off and want to go camping or see some sights you're free to do that. With a bus you have to park somewhere. Those guys are big horror movie fans, so I went on the internet and mapped out a whole horror movie tour that went along with our tour. In each city we'd do to we'd go to different sites from different horror movies, like the mall from Dawn Of The Dead when we were in Pittsburgh. We went to the lighthouse from John Carpenter's The Fog when we were in San Francisco and went to all the shooting locations from the original Halloween when we were in Pasadena. The coolest thing of all was the bar and abandoned house where they filmed John Carpenter's Vampires. It was out in the middle of nowhere in New Mexico. We had about three days off in Albuquerque so we'd go out to the desert and drink at this bar where they filmed Vampires. It was really cool.
The temptations of the road can be pretty overwhelming. Were you able to enjoy yourself without burning out?
I would have to save it for days when we had a day off the next day. That was the only time I drank more than usual. I'd usually have a couple of beers after a show, but nothing crazy because in all the bands I played in it was physically exhausting to play a show. I didn't want to be sick or tired for the next show because of partying. When we had a day off the next day I'd tie one on drinking. I've had a few instances where I threw up on our guitar tech's feet in Europe and threw up in the Incantation van. I had some pretty wild times, but kept to days when we had the next day off so I could nurse my hangover for a day.
There are so many different genres of metal, and you've played in bands of several different genres. Do you have a favorite genre of metal?
I'm into every type of metal as long as it's melodic. I'm really into metal that has melody and as long as you can remember a riff or a lyric five minutes after you hear a song then that's a good song. As long as it's memorable I don't really care what type of metal it is. Malevolent Creation, Morbid Angel and Dismember are super heavy bands, but they also have really melodic and catchy songs. That's one thing I loved about Death and why they were my favorite band. They were super heavy but at the same time really melodic and had really great leads and catchy riffs and catchy vocal lines. As long as a metal song has that I like it, no matter what genre it is.
Chad Bowar: After Chuck passed away you became a member of Iced Earth, right?
Richard Christy: Actually, it was during the time that I was also in Control Denied and Death that I became a member of Iced Earth. That was through the producer Jim Morris. He worked with Death and Iced Earth. It was also through a friend of mine Andrew Sample from Century Media Records. They both suggested me to Jon from Iced Earth, who called me.
I made sure that the schedules would work out between my two main bands at the time, Control Denied and Iced Earth. I decided to go for it. I auditioned and it went great.
Did you have any problems working with Jon Schaffer in Iced Earth?
No, I got along with Jon great. He's a really determined guy, and as long as you do your job he's cool. We had some great times on tour. He's a really hard working and dedicated guy. I never had any problems with him.
You also did some tour fill ins for a couple different bands during that time frame, right?
That was in the year 2000. It was a busy year. I was in Control Denied at the time. I joined Iced Earth and Demons and Wizards that year and went on tour with Incantation. John McEntee from Incantation called me in April of 2000 and it happened to work out that I would be able to tour with them for a month and a half. A few days after I got home I flew to Europe with Demons and Wizards. That was a lot of fun. It was a big contrast. The Incantation tour was in a van playing small clubs to around 300 to 500 people a night.
Then we went to Europe on a big tour bus with Demons and Wizards playing festivals that were about 10,000 to 20,000 people each weekend.
I actually had a lot of fun on both tours. The Incantation tour was a blast because I've been friends with all those guys since the mid '90s when I lived in Missouri. We had a lot of freedom. When you tour in a van you're able to do a lot more then when you're in a bus. If you have a day off and want to go camping or see some sights you're free to do that. With a bus you have to park somewhere. Those guys are big horror movie fans, so I went on the internet and mapped out a whole horror movie tour that went along with our tour. In each city we'd do to we'd go to different sites from different horror movies, like the mall from Dawn Of The Dead when we were in Pittsburgh. We went to the lighthouse from John Carpenter's The Fog when we were in San Francisco and went to all the shooting locations from the original Halloween when we were in Pasadena. The coolest thing of all was the bar and abandoned house where they filmed John Carpenter's Vampires. It was out in the middle of nowhere in New Mexico. We had about three days off in Albuquerque so we'd go out to the desert and drink at this bar where they filmed Vampires. It was really cool.
The temptations of the road can be pretty overwhelming. Were you able to enjoy yourself without burning out?
I would have to save it for days when we had a day off the next day. That was the only time I drank more than usual. I'd usually have a couple of beers after a show, but nothing crazy because in all the bands I played in it was physically exhausting to play a show. I didn't want to be sick or tired for the next show because of partying. When we had a day off the next day I'd tie one on drinking. I've had a few instances where I threw up on our guitar tech's feet in Europe and threw up in the Incantation van. I had some pretty wild times, but kept to days when we had the next day off so I could nurse my hangover for a day.
There are so many different genres of metal, and you've played in bands of several different genres. Do you have a favorite genre of metal?
I'm into every type of metal as long as it's melodic. I'm really into metal that has melody and as long as you can remember a riff or a lyric five minutes after you hear a song then that's a good song. As long as it's memorable I don't really care what type of metal it is. Malevolent Creation, Morbid Angel and Dismember are super heavy bands, but they also have really melodic and catchy songs. That's one thing I loved about Death and why they were my favorite band. They were super heavy but at the same time really melodic and had really great leads and catchy riffs and catchy vocal lines. As long as a metal song has that I like it, no matter what genre it is.
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