Louder Than Hell

COURTNEY LOVE (Hole) [2010 stage banter]: I have to say, as much as I like Fred [Durst], he brought about the worst years in rock history. That just be a fact, okay? That just be a fact. “I did it for the nookie!” I did not do it for the nookie, I did it for the rock. . . . I see [a] guy with [a] backwards baseball cap. “Dude, you! You scare me! You make me feel like you’re going to rape me or something, and all my children. You did it for the nookie, dude in the red baseball hat? I’m so sorry you’re here for the nookie. I could beat your ass.”

WES BORLAND: Korn was one of our influences, and I think some of the guitar tones and a few of the rhythms sound like Korn, but it’s not the same band at all. Fred raps most of the time and Jonathan doesn’t rap at all. They were our big brothers. They helped us out insanely in the beginning, but we quickly got to the level where we didn’t need to always have their name tagged on to everything we do

ROB HALFORD: The way I view a Korn/Deftones situation is much the same way I viewed Judas Priest and Iron Maiden. Two very, very different bands, but they just happen to be from the same kind of mode, and they popped up in the same general time. It’s unfortunate that the media tries to pick up on the supposed conflict, because a lot

JONATHAN DAVIS (Korn): When I was a kid, I was into death rock, industrial, and Duran Duran. Bauhaus, Christian Death. I was called a fag because I wore eyeliner and had my hair up in the air. I was a nerd. I was picked on, and that shit’s never gonna change. I’m a rock star now, and people still call me a fag. There’s all these things on message boards about how I suck dick and fuck guys, and you know it’s never gonna change. So fuck it. I’m just who I am.

CHINO MORENO: I didn’t grow up on heavy music at all. I grew up on new wave and bands like the Cure and Depeche Mode, that were really moody and had a lot of sorrow. My heart has always been really into sad music, and I incorporate it naturally into our songs. That’s what sets us apart.

TOM MORELLO: Unfortunately, I’d say I played a large part in the evolution of nu metal. There was a wave of bands that composed the first Lollapalooza nation: Tool, Nine Inch Nails, Rage Against the Machine, Nirvana, etc., that were artistically forward-looking, combining elements of arena rock with artistry and punk. But they all had qualms about playing the same arenas that Poison was playing. It took those Lollapalooza bands four or five years to make a record because they were busy kvetching. I’m quite confident that at the same time, record company executives in boardrooms across the nation were saying, “If only we can find a Rage Against the Machine that would make five videos per record and have songs about chicks and show off.”

TOM MORELLO (Rage Against the Machine): I moved out to LA with a Harvard guy, Ivy League mentality. I wanted to form a band that combined Sabbath and Run-DMC with some Aerosmith, and we put an ad in The Music Connection for a socialist lead singer. I wanted to play the music I really love and make a statement at the same time. As a band, we have a realization that from top to bottom the system is corrupt and that’s essentially what our songs are about. As Chairman Mao said, “You learn to make revolution through the process of revolting.”

FRED DURST (Limp Bizkit): When Rage Against the Machine came out in 1992, that was fucking huge for me. I came from this break-dance and hip-hop background, so to see this band that put a lot of hip-hop into this heavy rock was really inspiring.

TOM MORELLO: I have a complete love for Led Zeppelin, KISS, and Black Sabbath, as well as funk and hip-hop, and I love to express myself on guitar. Tony Iommi was one of the biggest influences on me as a riff writer. Early on, as a fledgling guitar player, I was trying to learn some Black Sabbath songs, and I asked this guy to show them to me and he almost didn’t want to lower himself. He was like, “It’s so easy, why would you want to learn them?” I said, “Dude, because they rule!” That, to me, is absolutely as much a part of this band as any political agenda. But the fact that we’ve been able to extend the message contained in the music into the realm of political

SCOTT IAN: Public Enemy was my favorite rap band from the first time I heard the demos for [1987’s] Yo! Bum Rush the Show. All I could think of was, “How the fuck can we work with these guys?”

WES BORLAND (Limp Bizkit): “Bring the Noise” was the main reason I got into Public Enemy, and that’s what got me into hip-hop. I got [their 1990 album] Fear of a Black Planet and went back and listened to all their old records. Then I checked out N.W.A and Ice Cube, which a lot of my friends hated because they were metalhead

The next great evolutionary step in rap-metal came from a collaboration between Anthrax and rap act Public Enemy. The New York thrash band had already toyed with hip-hop on its 1990 spoof “I’m the Man,” but in 1991 Anthrax got serious, inviting Public Enemy to contribute to a re-recording of their 1988 song “Bring the Noise” from It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back.