Drowning Pool Takes Over Spartanburg

Ambient Absie sits down with Drowning Pool's own C.J. Pierce to talk tour, favorite bands, and even upcoming new music.

Dallas Texas based rock band Drowning Pool graced recently graced the stage of Ground Zero in Spartanburg along with the bands A Killer’s Confession, Moon Fever, and SC locals Redefind.

Drowning Pool currently consisting of C.J. Pierce, Mike Luce, Stevie Benton, and Ryan McCombs (also vocalist of the band SOiL). The band is known for their songs “Bodies”, “Sinner”, “Tear Away”, and “Step Up”.

We recently sat down with guitarist C.J. Pierce to discuss their tour, home life, and even new music.

How long have you been with Drowning Pool?

C.J.: We started since the beginning, and we can count to four. Mike Luce (drummer) and I were jamming together in New Orleans. With Mike, the very last year of high school, his mom got a job, and he moved to Dallas, and he graduated with Stevie (bass).

So, we all knew each other, and when Mike came back, we were looking for a bass player and a singer, and Stevie was getting early Drowning Pool together with a guitar player and a drummer.

The scene in Dallas was amazing and there were great bands like Pantera coming out of Dallas at the time, and in the 90’s there was a lot happening.

We moved there with the intentions to get Drowning Pool together, and once we got Dave Williams in the band, that’s when everything clicked.

Mike, Stevie and I have always been writing together, along with Dave before he tragically passed away of cardiomyopathy of the left ventricle at the age of 30. He is still with us when we play our songs.

Now we have Ryan McCombs back in the band, and this last year has been awesome.

We had a great friendship/relationship in writing with him, and we wrote a lot of music together in the early 2000s, and it is a natural evolution that I never thought would happen, and it seems like it was just meant to be.

You will see it on stage that I am playing with my buddies from high school still. We are serious and it is a rock show, but it is like a glorified rehearsal, and we don’t take ourselves too seriously.

And yes, the bodies will hit the floor (but please don’t really hit the floor).

Speaking of Bodies, have you ever actually hit the floor?

C.J.- I want to start selling those LifeAlert things, we need to get some of those.

I have fallen on stage during that song, and it goes with right with it.

It has only happened 2 or 3 times, but during Bodies yes, I have hit the floor.

Big shows or small venues?

C.J.- I love playing all of them.

The big stage shows are great because you have a lot of lights and production.

We have been doing a lot of bike rally’s and it is a wide variety of people.

But like last night, we played at Hooligans (in Jacksonville, NC) on Sunday and here tonight, and it is a more intimate crowd, which I love.

Everyone here seems like true Drowning Pool fans, and they are here to have a good time.

Last night at Hooligans, they were slamming last night and going nuts, stage diving with a pit going on, and it was a great time, and that is what it is all about.

You get that from the club shows and you can meet everyone versus a bigger show, and it is more personal.

No matter who is there, we are going to play a good show.

How much further do you have left on the current tour?

C.J.- On this one, we try to keep it around 3 weeks due to family, kids, etc.

We previously did a 7-week tour with Saliva, and that last week or two just gets rough, and we need that break in-between.

Ryan McCombs is still singing with SOiL and is balancing between bands.

He’s always singing, but it is great for him because he can continue to keep his voice going.

November and December are going to be sporadic doing Christmas shows.

How do you prepare your kids for tour?

C.J.- It has been their whole lives like that, but the cool thing is now we have Facetime.

My kids are 27 and 25 and are married, but now I hav 8 and a 3-year-old, but I didn’t have that back then.

Back then, I had quarters in my pocket for a payphone because I’m 100 years old.

You stay in touch when you can, and I know when to call so I can still be present when I’m not there.

In between tours I’m home all the time and it is like a seesaw give and take, and it is rough being away from family, but I also love being out here entertaining the fans.

Is there anything crazy that has happened during this tour so far?

C.J.- Something always happens, blows up, or catches on fire, and madness ensues, and you can’t escape it.

We just started this run with this bus, but we can’t have the electrical on at night. We can have the generator on, but when the bus starts, it starts having an electrical fire on one side, so we have to turn everything off at night when we take off.

It’s fun in the dark with flashlights and you get under the sheets and stuff.

One of our trailer tires someone hit the metal part at a gas station and jacked the tire up.

To keep the tires from popping, I need to rotate them constantly, so every other night I am out here at 2 AM changing the tires until I can get home to fix it.

“What’s the band’s big thing after the show”, I am out here changing the tires on the trailer it’s not that glorious, but I’m out here rocking to music.

I am listening to Hed PE they are one of my favorite bands and I love those dudes, and I love touring with them.

One of the reasons I love playing music is so I can see other bands play their music too.

That’s why we want to get on these big fests so we can see everyone else play music too.

We were at Blue Ridge on the bus and our dressing room was next to Megadeth, and all the love and respect. So I go back to our area, and they were going back to their van to leave, and I was like “Hey guys, hi its C.J. Love you Megadeth!”. To play with then would have been awesome.

Who are some of your favorite bands?

Mudvayne is one of my favorite bands as well, and I would love to do another run with Mudvayne it’s been a long time. We drove to New York and played at CBGB’s to open for Mudvayne.

They already had 5 bands on the bill, and there was a booking company called TKO, all amazing people that work with us.

So, we drove up there to do a showcase for them, and they stuck us on the front of CBGB’s with a foot of room, and we had 20 minutes to perform, and my shoes came untied. I’m stepping on my shoes, and trying to jump around, I am going to fall off the stage, my whole career is done, but that was the first time we got to play with them.

After CBGB we got to do Ozzfest and tour with them. I love those dudes they are one of my favorite bands.

Pantera is another band, along with Nonpoint.

Nonpoint is the best we would love to tour with them again.

Are you working on any new music?

I am getting the final mix today from our producer for a new song. This is the first new song in 13 years.

If you could collab with any artist, who would it be?

Hed PE would be a big one, but stuff keeps coming up for that one.

I did this one cover song that I would love to do with them with Jared in mind for part of the song, and I am hoping that still happens.

It has been 2 years since we have been able to tour with Ill Niño, us and Hed PE, and it was a great run.

On the dream bucket list would be Jimmy Page, and Jack White.

We got to play a festival in Australia, and it was the first time I heard of the White Stripes, and they were going on before us, and it was just this dude and a chick playing raw nasty stuff, but there was something amazing about it, and I can’t stop jamming.

Post Malone is another big one for me we listen to him on the bus.

He is also from Texas and is awesome I think that would make sense, and if he ever sees or reads this, come on Postie.

I go to Cane’s all the time, and the only one I go to in Dallas is Post’s I have eaten so much chicken there.

Do you ever get nervous at show?

C.J.- I don’t usually, but there have been 3 distinct times, but I can only remember 2 of them.

I started playing at a church at 14 because of my mom. I got my guitar at 11 and didn’t know how to play that well. Someone that had been there forever was leaving, and someone asked my mom if someone in the parish knew how to play, and my mom was like “MY SON! MY SON PLAYS”. And I was like “MA I DON’T KNOW HOW TO PLAY I’M 14 DON’T DO THIS TO ME”.

But it fast tracked me into learning how to site read music, and it was a sink or swim situation. When your mom says to play for the church in front of all these people you do it, but it came naturally, and I am very fortunate to get to do that.

I have played jazz in jazz band, blues, death metal in a band called Flesh Parade.

The first time that I distinctly got nervous was WrestleMania 18. It was the first time I met Wayne Swinny, God rest his soul, and played with Saliva. He was an amazing friend and amazing guy.

We were backstage, it was sold out, and millions of people were going to watch us. It was supposed to be the most televised WrestleMania at time, and I was getting sweaty palm nervous.

So, Wayne comes up and was like “Hey man I have one of these Canadian cigarettes” wink wink, so we got super stoney baloney there, and I go out there in front of American and we played Tear Away and Bodies and killed it.

The latest one was a couple years ago at Shiprocked.

It was Geoff Tate from Queensrÿche, and we were doing the stowaway, and we were supposed to do a jamming version of a song, and my name was down to do that song.

I already knew the song Silent Lucidity from high school but come to find out they had so many songs and people that they made it an acoustic mix. It was going to be Bumblefoot (Ron Thal) from Guns n Roses. He is such an insane guitar player, and one of the sweetest dudes.

So, him and Geoff were about to go up, and I said, “It would be really cool to play with you guys”, and Ron goes “Oh you want to come play with us right now, who’s got a guitar?” I was like “Ron why does this keep happening to me”, and I got nervous, and you see this on film.

He gives me a guitar, and Geoff was like “Who is this guy”, and I said, “I promise you Mr. Tate I won’t embarrass the family”. I go up there and Ron was like we are cutting this part, so don’t do that, and he is yelling things at me and goes “Ok go”.

I go to play, and they have the monitor cranked up, and the guitar was feeding back, and then I start singing harmonies with Geoff, and people in the front row were crying. It was in a four-story atrium, and it was an epic moment, but I was nervous for that.

After that Geoff was like, what are you doing tomorrow we are hanging out at a place called Wet Wendy’s in Cozumel, and we start talking about kids and life. It was so cool because that is one of my hero’s.

What is your favorite thing to do outside of music?

It has always been music, but during Covid, we couldn’t play, and Mike and I were electricians before doing music, and I went back into that out of necessity.

Getting back into it, I forgot how much I loved electrical work and I nerd out on that stuff.

It’s so funny the company that I went back and worked with, the first thing they tripped out was the band aspect. Once you get past that, I know what I am doing with that stuff, and I love doing it.

It’s like playing Operation, but for real. You hit the wrong thing and that’s lights out, and it keeps me awake.

Do you have any words of encouragement?

We had prior management that wasn’t the right people or path for us. Be independent and do everything yourself. If you want to do something right, you do it yourself.

And if you want to be successful focus on your own work.

That is C.J.’s 2 commandments because 10 is too many.

You can find Drowning Pool on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/drowningpool

and Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/drowningpoolofficial/

Catch them on tour this fall at Louder Than Life and Aftershock! Tour Dates can be found on their site: https://drowningpool.live/