JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. — Mushroom covers Adele.
Several hours before their Capone’s packed show on the band’s 20th Anniversary Tour, the popular Cleveland-based industrial metal band held court in the back lounge of their million-dollar Prevost bus. Mushroomhead wrapped recording on their forthcoming new album last month, one day before their tour started.
“It’s coming out next year, probably in either February or March,” said Steve “Skinny” Felton, the band’s co-founder and drummer. “It’s violent and in your face.”
It’s also unpredictable.
Their record label, Megaforce, requested they cover a popular pop song.
“We talked about doing something from Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga,” said Ryan “Dr. F” Farrell, Mushroomhead’s bass guitarist.
People are also reading…
Seriously.
“We tried four or five covers like The Stooges’ ‘Search and Destroy,’” Skinny said. “We did Faith No More’s ‘Epic.’ We did Chicago’s ‘25 or 6 to 4.’ It’s so strange.”
Farrell, who holds a degree in music composition, suggested they record a tune from a particular pop su-perstar.
“We covered Adele,” Skinny said.
Co-lead singer, Waylon Reavis, who hails from Wilkes County, N.C., couldn’t contain his excitement.
“It’s ‘Rumor Has It,’” Reavis said. “Wait until you hear it!”
Skinny inserted a CD of the new album into a CD player. He hit a few buttons, located track nine and turned it way up.
Mushroomhead’s atomic bombast struck with a bus-shaking roar. Skinny’s drums coupled with Farrell’s bass pummeled with a ‘HULK SMASH!’ might. Adele’s lyrics leapt from the acidic lips of co-lead singers Reavis, Jeffrey “Nothing” Hatrix and Jason “JMANN” Popson like fire on a fuse.
Adele’s “Rumor Has It” explodes in the industrial metal meets mad scientists band Mushroomhead.
“The label doesn’t know what to make of it,” Skinny said, excitedly. “It’s so … strange.”
Reavis knows what he hears on their cover of one of the world’s most popular and endearing pop songs of the past decade.
“This just might be our ‘Sweet Dreams,’” Reavis said.
Fellow Ohioan and industrial metal rock, Marilyn Manson, broke into superstar status when he recorded the Eurythmics’ pop smash, “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This),” in 1995.
Meanwhile, Mushroomhead will canvas the country from now until Christmas. They’ll hit markets in Washington, D.C., throughout Texas, the Midwest and far west. They cherish their 20th Anniversary Tour, which signifies a fervent fan base coincided with the band’s intense devotion to their music.
“I started with nothing,” Skinny said, who along with Hatrix (“Nothing”) and keyboardist Tom “Shmotz” Schmitz, have led the band since its 1993 inception.
“Our first show, which was on Oct. 23, 1993, we made $60,” Skinny said as he reached for a pair of Mushroomhead signature line of Converse sneakers. Another pair occupied a drawer. Sketches of the shoes filled the screen of Skinny’s laptop computer.
That $60 went back into the band.
“Always investing in our future,” Skinny said as he pointed a finger at one of the Converse shoes. “About 50 percent of what I make goes back into the band.”
Skinny owns the recording studio inside of which Mushroomhead craft and record their songs and al-bums. Just as important as the band’s sound, he said, is the band’s signature look.
Mushroomhead wear highly detailed masks, which are designed from exact molds of each man’s head. They change over time, typically from album to album, but a horror movie look remains from change to change.
“It’s definitely contributed to our longevity,” Skinny said of the band’s imposing stage appearance. “It’s great to look out at the fans and see their faces when they see us.”
Couple the band’s use of “water drums.” When pounded, the stage bookending drums deliver fountains of water skyward and into the crowd. Call it a touch of Las Vegas showmanship added to Mushroomhead’s “Dawn of the Dead” persona.
“It’s like a heavy metal Blue Man Group,” Skinny said. “I’m 42. Sometimes my knees and back ache after a show now. But when I put that mask on, go on stage and, oh yeah, I feel like a kid again.”
Skinny, who has kids ages 10 and 13 back home in Cleveland, isn’t menacing whatsoever sans mask. Neither is Reavis (who was named after country legend Waylon Jennings) or Hatrix or the suburban dad-looking Schmitz.
Masks on, music pummeling, they appear maniacal. Yet consider them among the many children of shock rock godfather Alice Cooper. They’re all show.
Patrons inside sardine-sandwiched Capone’s went ballistic as Mushroomhead hammered them with such tunes as “Come On” and “Before I Die.”
“I’m not rich financially, but I’m rich in what I do,” Skinny said. “I love what I do.”