Former Cannibal Corpse vocalist and current Six Feet Under frontman Chris Barnes recently offered some blunt thoughts regarding his estranged relationship with his former bandmates.
During a recent conversation with Scott Penfold on “Loaded Radio,” the veteran death metal singer was asked a hypothetical question about the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. If the institution ever decided to embrace extreme metal and induct Cannibal Corpse, the host wondered if the original vocalist would be open to sharing the stage with the current lineup.
“Oh, yeah. I’ve always been ready to do that. They wouldn’t do that, though, because that’s just how they are. I mean, they wouldn’t ask me and Jack [Owen, former Cannibal Corpse and current Six Feet Under guitarist] to go up on stage with them at all. They wouldn’t. It wouldn’t happen. They would exclude us from it. And they might invite us up on stage with them, but they would never want me and Jack to play a song with them or anything like that,” he said (as transcribed by Blabbermouth).
Expanding on why a live reunion seems completely out of the question, the frontman claimed that a mix of personal animosity and deep-seated insecurity still lingers within the death metal institution.
“I think it’s a part of they don’t like me and they also feel… Not to be boastful or conceited at all — I’m just being truthful — they feel threatened by my presence as far as a vocalist and my contribution to the band. They’ve always tried to marginalize that. They’ve always tried to ignore it, and they’ve always just not been very kind to me as far as that has gone, because my contribution to the band has always been a shadow to what they’ve tried to keep going and take on themselves. And that’s what they wanted to do. That’s why I was fired from the band, which I’m fine with. I’ve never had a problem with that. I’ve never been bitter about that at all. I’ve just stated my story and the facts that I know, and I’ve always said it, that the greatest blessing that’s come my way has been Six Feet Under and my putting this band together because it was my way out of that band, ’cause I wasn’t happy being in that band at a pretty early point. Six Feet Under was the best thing that ever happened to me. Getting kicked out of Cannibal Corpse was really — it was awesome when that happened. And Alex [Webster, Cannibal Corpse bassist] will even tell you, when he called me up to tell me that I was out of the band, I kind of laughed a little bit. I was, like, ‘That’s awesome. Thank you,’ basically.”
When questioned if creative differences were the primary cause of his dissatisfaction, he clarified that the divide was almost entirely personal. He explained that his second project ultimately served as a necessary, deliberate exit strategy.
“No. That was nothing to do with it at all. I mean, maybe in their minds, as far as the last recording session went, because I went on tour with Six Feet Under instead of finishing that album the way they were commanding me to finish it, and they knew I was not going to; I was sticking to my guns as far as those songs that I had written. And I guess I didn’t see that the way they wanted me to see it, so that might’ve been a creative difference. But for me, the most part was I just didn’t wanna be around those guys.”
He continued: “I had never had a problem with Jack. It was Alex, Paul [Mazurkiewicz, Cannibal Corpse drummer] and Rob [Barrett, Cannibal Corpse guitarist] that I just didn’t wanna be in the same room with. So that’s really why I started Six Feet Under. A lot of people were, like — the party line was it was a side project. It wasn’t a side project for me — never once. It was really my escape pod. I went along with the party line, but it was never that for me. It was my way out.”
Barnes was the original vocalist of Cannibal Corpse, appearing on the band’s first four studio albums: Eaten Back to Life (1990), Butchered at Birth (1991), Tomb of the Mutilated (1992), and The Bleeding (1994).
