It's been a rough year for Five Finger Death Punch frontman Ivan Moody. Last year, he made a mess of himself onstage, causing the rest of his band to walk out on him. He's been accused of domestic abuse (which he's vehemently denied). Australian dates were cancelled two months ago because Moody was hospitalized, and their label eventually sued them to stop making a new record claiming the band is "shamelessly attempting to cash in before the anticipated downfall of their addicted bandmate."
Well, now the band are taking steps to help Ivan get clean. On the road to recovery, the band have begun requesting there be no alcohol backstage at their shows, not even mouthwash. Guitarist Zoltan Bathory explains to Metal Hammer that it's all about triggers, and keeping them away from Ivan:
"You have to change the habits on the road — what happens, what's on the rider. You have to take off all the alcohol — even mouthwash. It's about trying to eliminate all of the triggers.
"He's been battling his demons, and when you're in a rock band, it can be really difficult to be on the road.
"If you have any kind of addiction or addictive personality, everybody wants to hang out and party. People are going to come up to you and say, 'Hey man, let me buy you a drink,' or 'Let's hang out.' For them, that's a big thing. They don't realize that to us, it was the same thing yesterday, and the day before that, and the past 300 days before that.
"But you don't want to be rude. It's just hard for people to understand that."
You have to respect the band for supporting their frontman, and trying to create a "safe space" for him on the road. The road seems like the absolute hardest place to stay sober because all you have, other than that one hour onstage, is 23 hours of downtime, and drinking sure helps the time pass quicker. Kudos to Moody for trying to clean up.
Bathory also offered an update on the band's new album, which they are recording regardless if their label is happy with it or not:
"Since we have six records, I think now is the time when technically we could do any kind of album. This is the moment where we can sort of experiment.
"We have a couple of ideas floating around. One of them is to make a little bit of a retro record, just to have fun and do a thrash metal vibe, and then there are new ideas that are completely different, involving elements that we've never had before. Both directions are exciting, so we'll have to make a decision."
I guess we'll see how that turns out.
