During a recent appearance on the “This Day In Metal” podcast with host Ed Hack, Corrosion of Conformity guitarist Woody Weatherman opened up about the tragic 2020 passing of the band’s co-founding drummer, Reed Mullin.
Alongside bassist Mike Dean and the guitarist himself, the late percussionist helped launch the iconic group back in 1982. Before his death, he had been sidelined from touring for several years due to compounding health problems, including a severe alcohol-induced seizure in the summer of 2016.
Reflecting on the heavy emotional toll of losing a lifelong friend and bandmate, Woody explained how his presence can still be felt all over the group’s upcoming double album, Good God / Baad Man.
“[Reed and I] went to high school together, he and I. [His death] was an immense loss. It wasn’t entirely unexpected — he had some health issues and stuff — but it was a hard hit. Anytime you lose a brother like that, it’s tough. I feel like his spirit appears on the new [Corrosion of Conformity] record [the upcoming Good God / Baad Man], in my opinion, even though he’s not actually playing on it. I think Stanton [Moore, who played drums on Good God / Baad Man] hit on some of his signature-type licks and stuff. He would be playing things, and Pepper [Keenan, Corrosion of Conformity guitarist/vocalist] and I would look at each other and go, ‘Man, that sounds like a little fill that Reed would’ve probably put there.’ So he’s kind of still with us in that way,” he said (as transcribed by Blabbermouth).
“It’s a tough loss,” he added. “He’s been gone now six years. But the train don’t stop, man. Corrosion is a bigger thing than its individual members, we always kind of say. It’s a family.”
Shifting the conversation toward their highly anticipated 14-track studio return, the guitarist detailed how the massive project naturally expanded into a double record. Helmed by Grammy-winning producer Warren Riker (known for his work with the Fugees, Down, and Cathedral), the album features custom artwork by Scott Guion and was tracked across three different studios, including Bee Gees legend Barry Gibb‘s private setup in Miami.
“Well, after we were in a few sessions, I would fly down to Louisiana, and we would do these four- or five-day sessions, just me and Pep sitting in a shack — we called it the Blak Shak — and we just had a pile of guitars in there, a few amps, and we were just cracking at it, butting heads on riffs and stuff. And we were the only ones there. And so it was very productive. And I would say five, six sessions of doing like that and we already had way more than an album’s worth of material, and we were nowhere close to running out of ideas. And we knew it was gonna be something special, because it was already sounding pumping before drums ever made it on to it, or bass or anything. And, of course, once everybody showed up, once we brought Bobby ‘Rock’ [Landgraf, Corrosion of Conformity bassist] in and we were ready to bring Stanton in and start really rehearsing for the actual recording it, it really blossomed then. But it was very early on that we figured out it was gonna be basically a double album. It was just too much material. And we didn’t wanna break it up, ’cause it just flows together.”
When asked if the stylistic shift on the second half of the record was due to differing songwriting approaches between himself and frontman Pepper Keenan, he clarified the highly collaborative nature of the writing sessions.
“[It was] a little bit of both, to be honest. And there’s some things where there’ll be a Pepper riff and then a Woody riff. So it’s, like, we do combine things like that a lot of times. But I agree with you, the second half or the second disc, whatever you wanna call it, the ‘Baad Man’ side, I think we do a little more branching out into different areas on that part of the record. But it matches up well with the first slab of vinyl. It goes smoothly. It seems like another one of those to me that you could drop the needle or put in the disc or where whatever you’re playing, and have a bucket of beer beside you and just enjoy the whole thing without really picking the needle up.”
Ultimately, the veteran musician described the unique, stripped-down creative process as one of the most enjoyable experiences of his entire career.
“It was written completely different, because the normal way that C.O.C. has made albums is all four dudes getting kind of our little jam room and hash out songs — with drums there, with everybody there making it. And this was totally different. It was just Pepper and I with a giant bucket of beer and a room full of guitars and amps, just throwing riffs at each other and seeing how we could put ’em together and all that. And everything was already together before we ever even brought drums into the situation. So, it was a completely different way of writing a record. And, in my opinion, this was the funnest record I’ve ever made. I had a fun time making it, just ’cause it was easy. There was nobody there to tell us ‘no’, whether it be a record label or a producer or anything. It was, like, ‘You guys go and do your thing. We trust you.'”
Good God / Baad Man is scheduled to hit shelves on April 3 via Nuclear Blast.
Good God / Baad Man Official Tracklist:
Album 1
- “Good God? / Final Dawn”
- “You Or Me”
- “Gimme Some Moore”
- “The Handler”
- “Bedouin’s Hand”
- “Run For Your Life”
Album 2
- “Baad Man”
- “Lose Yourself”
- “Mandra Sonos”
- “Asleep On The Killing Floor”
- “Handcuff County”
- “Swallowing The Anchor”
- “Brickman”
- “Forever Amplified”
