Oh, yeah. It was an amazing time. We did three and a half weeks of sold out shows with them. Made some good friends. Those guys are great guys and great musicians. It's one of the best tours we've done.

Those guys are awesome. Especially John Campbell.

I love them all individually.

I guess tonight is the first night of the tour with In Flames in Arizona. Are you pretty excited about that?

Yeah, we are. Good times. We've been at the Marquee Theatre here many times and it's always good. It's always crazy. The first night of the tour has always got that first night jitters like a first date or something. I love that.

Yeah, you feel like you're 16 years old all over again.

Look man, I've been on the road for 10 years and I've felt like I'm 16 for the last 10. I'm wondering when I'm going to grow up.

I hope you never do.

Thank God, darling.

I know I don't plan on growing up any time soon. That's always kind of boring.

There you go.

You guys put out a record called The Fury Of Our Makers Hand. How's that doing so far?

It's doing great. I know that it's been selling well. It's been received extremely well. I usually bury my head in the sand when it comes to journalism but I've been really taking a look at what people have been saying. It's getting all 9 out of 10's and we couldn't be more pleased right now.

How do you feel this record differs from your debut record?

The debut was a little linear. It could have been more on a scope of things but it was primarily written by one guitar player who refused to share the duties with the rest of the band thus his departure. Now that it's more of a cohesive unit and everybody is writing, it's just a better product. It's better overall. It's more melodic, it's heavier, and it's got so many more emotional parts than the first record. I tell people all the time if they're going to pick up DevilDriver, pick up the second record. Then go pick up the first record for the gems that are in there because there are six or seven just amazing gems in there too. Like "I Could Care Less" and "The Mountain" and songs like that.

When you formed DevilDriver after having left Coal Chamber, what kind of vision did you have for the band?

I'd been trying for years and years for the people in Coal Chamber to follow the vision that I had originally planned for the band which was to stay heavy and get heavier and they wouldn't. Michael wanted to just do the music that I'm into and the music that I love and that's stuff with good grooves, heavy hooks, and mean guitar playing. I don't even know if I consider us a metal band even. I really just consider us a good rock and roll band that's come in and get the party started really.

I was reading somewhere where it was said that you guys brought black metal, thrash, and rock and roll and combined all of that into your second release.

Yeah, we're influenced by many, many forms of music. Everybody listens to many different things and I can wake up in the morning and listen to black metal and five minutes later I'm listening to Johnny Cash. Really the eclectic style of the band I think is what makes DevilDriver stand out from the rest really and separates us from the pack. When you asked me what I wanted to do, I wanted to form something that was definitely separated from the pack and not jumping on any kind of a wagon which obviously we didn't or we'd be doing this eyeliner, screamo, emo core which we're not. The vision was to do something that I felt true with and I wanted to stick by as DevilDriver.

I saw you guys on the Sounds Of The Underground tour. You guys definitely put on a damn good show. How did you guys feel about that tour?

Thanks. You know I loved that festival. I think as a startup festival the Sounds Of The Underground is going to do great things and we got on it last minute. They said "hey, we've only got one slot and it's a rotating early morning slot." We said no problem, we don't mind. I think we had a great time. I'd like to see what that festival is going to do in the future and I'm looking forward to being a part of it in the future. We'll see what happens.

I thought it was a pretty exciting festival. Of course I saw you guys in Dallas and I thought it was kind of funny how GWAR got the rain gods to open up the skies there.

I think it's just great when you get Lamb Of God, GWAR, Madball, DevilDriver, and Strapping Young Lad on a tour. It's so eclectic. It's so cool for kids. We were proud to be part of it.

I read that when you started DevilDriver, it was started over barbecues, red wine, and a near death experience. I love that.

Basically, yeah. Basically. When we first went out we took an RV and we almost died in the thing. We had an awning come open and it opened like a parachute. It dragged us over into some freeway lanes doing it at 70 miles an hour in the snow and we almost went straight up a semi truck. When it says bonded over life experience, that's definitely an experience and a half.

Damn, that's rock and roll isn't it babe?

Yeah, even if we did form over that, the way that we formed is I was doing Coal Chamber at the time and I moved to a small town called Santa Barbara up in California. I started having barbecues and stuff and local musicians would come over that I would meet. Pretty soon it's like I'm sitting next to a drummer. I'm sitting next to a bunch of guitar players. A bass player. It's like let's jam and that's really how it happened. Extremely organically.

During the years you had a little lineup change. Do you feel that the guys you have with you right now are basically delivering the goods?

Yeah, most definitely. The guitar player that I originally started the band with left me 24 hours before we were going over with In Flames to do a European tour. He's just afraid of touring. I can understand leaving the country can be difficult but you don't leave your band 24 hours beforehand. I think the lineup change was excellent for the band and really it's what made the second record happen is not having him around. I guess it's one of those things where you leave a job or you leave a relationship and a little while down the line you look back and you're like "God, I'm glad I did that." So there you go.

The whole exciting thing about being in a band is so you can tour and you can go places.

I love it. I've got rabbit in my blood and I've been on the road for 10 years straight. I don't know any different. I sit on my couch for five days and I go crazy. If you don't hand me a microphone every night I'm going to get edgy so you get me out on the road and I'm all good to go.

I can imagine. How do you think the tour with In Flames is going to go?

Great. I just ran into all of them right now and Trivium and Zao. Ran into all of those guys. It just looks like it's going to be a killer tour. Cannot wait to play tonight. Getting ready to crack a bottle of wine as we speak.

Is it red?

Always red. I'm Italian so I drink Chianti primarily.

Ah, Italian guys. They're always so sexy.

Well, thank you for that.

What do you have planned after the In Flames tour?

After In Flames we're going out with Opeth. We love them. We've toured with them before here in the States and we love those guys. We get along real well. Then after that we're going to do a headliner late April and all of May. We'll be doing our first headliner and we're talking to some great bands so we'd like to do a five band package so when the kids come out and pay 20 bucks they get their money's worth.

This is going to be your first headline tour ever?

Yeah, and it's going to be great. When you get 35 or 42 minutes when you're opening, you only get to play a certain amount of songs. We'll get to play for an hour and a half and get to play everything that everybody wants to hear.

Awesome. Any other thoughts or comments?