RICHARD CHRISTY – From Rags to Richard

(by Ben Hogg)

Richard Christy. Living the dream. To the uninitiated, a quick glance at his resume and you’ll find his drumming credits include such bands as Death, Iced Earth, Control Denied and Burning Inside. That in itself is impressive and noteworthy, but it’s probably not going to warrant this interview…

Metal Maniacs: In the mid-to-late ‘90s I recall a definite buzz surrounding Burning Inside, although I can’t really pinpoint which release it was for — maybe the demo or the debut (The Eve of the Entities). Refresh me on what was going on with you guys.

Richard Christy: Unfortunately Burning Inside never really played outside of the Midwest and Florida, but there was quite a buzz around our demos because we were so technical and brutal. Burning Inside grew out of another band that I played with in Springfield, Missouri, called Public Assassin. When Public Assassin broke up in 1994 Steve Childers and I decided to form Burning Inside because we wanted to go into a super-technical, but still heavy and melodic, direction. We hired Jamie Prim and Michael Estes because they were the most technically proficient metal musicians in the area.

MM: What about the band’s exodus from Kansas to Florida? Whose idea was that and what did you hope to accomplish?

RC: In 1995 we all decided that if Burning Inside was going to progress then we needed to move to an area where the metal scene was bigger and we could get more gigs and meet more people in the business. Michael Estes had an apartment in Orlando, and we knew that tons of killer bands lived in Florida so we decided to pack up and move in February of 1996. It was scary for me because I owned a Mustard Yellow 1973 Ford LTD with about 100,000 miles on it and that was what I was going to drive to Florida. Somehow I fit everything I owned (clothes, an NES system, a few dirty magazines, a horror movie collection on VHS, and a nine-piece Pearl drum kit with a rack and 15 cymbals) into that LTD. I remember driving through Nashville and bottoming out, then looking back to see hundreds of sparks flying behind me from the bumper hitting the pavement. Somehow the car made it, but it literally died when I pulled it into Michael’s apartment complex in Orlando!

MM: When did Chuck Schuldiner enter the picture and how did you come to play in Death?

RC: One of the reasons I wanted to move to Orlando was because in the back of my mind I had always dreamed of meeting Chuck Schuldiner and playing drums with Death. I’ve been a huge Death fan since 1991 when I heard the album Human. To me, Human is the perfect metal album. The drumming is unbelievably amazing, the songwriting is excellent, the vocals are brutal but you can still understand the lyrics, and the music is super heavy and melodic. I started practicing the drums to the Human album when it came out and it took me years before I could even get close to what Sean Reinert was playing on that album. In the summer of 1996 Steve Childers from Burning Inside and I were at the Altamonte Mall in Altamonte, Florida reading metal magazines at the B. Dalton Bookstore. All of the sudden Chuck Schuldiner walks past us! We both looked at each other and we couldn’t believe it. We walked over to Chuck to talk to him and he was the nicest guy ever. We talked metal with Chuck for about thirty minutes and I remember calling all of my metalhead friends in Missouri afterward to tell them that we had just met Chuck! For about the next year I would run into Chuck at parties and shows and we kind of got to know each other through the metal scene in Orlando. When I heard that he was looking for a drummer in the summer of 1997 I contacted two good friends of mine, B.C. Richards and Rick Renstrom from the band Wicked Ways who were good friends with Chuck, and they told Chuck I would like to audition for Death. At the audition it was just Chuck and I and I think we played the songs “Lack Of Comprehension,” “Flattening Of Emotions,” and “Overactive Imagination.” He was surprised that I had learned some of the hardest Death songs to play and I told him that I had been practicing drums to my Death albums about every day since 1991. So I got the gig and it was one of the happiest days in my life!

MM: Was it intimidating to be following Gene Hoglan/Sean Reinert? And to a lesser extent the other guys who made their names on the stool in Death (Chris Reifert/Bill Andrews)?

RC: It was very intimidating. I’m a huge fan of every drummer that Death has ever had. Death is known for having amazing drummers so there was a lot of pressure but I just practiced every day for two to three hours by myself and practiced with Burning Inside and Death every day for several hours so that I could build up my drumming chops. I lived in a storage building in Florida so that I could always be near my drums and from 1996 until 2004 pretty much my whole life was wake up, go to work at my electrician’s job, get off work at 3:30 pm and drive to the warehouse, practice drums by myself for two to three hours, practice with either Death or Burning Inside for two to three hours, then go to sleep and do the same thing the next day. On the weekends I’d do the same thing except practice a lot more by myself during the day.

MM: What new worlds opened up for you after joining this established act?

RC: Well, the best thing that happened to me after joining Death was that I was able to take a break from my day job and go on tour. I had always dreamed of touring overseas and I remember Chuck telling me in early 1998 that in May of that year we would be touring Europe and playing the Dynamo festival. I think my third or fourth gig with Death was playing in front of 35,000 people at the Dynamo festival in Holland. I remember Phil Anselmo sitting behind my drums and air drumming which was amazing! I was so nervous before that gig but when we got up there it was everything I had ever dreamed of as a drummer, playing in front of thousands of people with my favorite band. It was the biggest adrenaline rush ever. I’m so happy that the Dynamo show was captured and released on DVD because that was a magical show for all of us. I was also able to meet tons of great people and metal musicians on tour who I’m still great friends with to this day. The only bummer about going on tour for me was coming off tour and having to go back my day job as an electrician. I always thought that if somebody played on an album that’s in all the stores and they go on a world tour then that’s what they do for the rest of their life and they don’t have to have a day job. Needless to say I was wrong, the music business doesn’t work like that, and I think the night before I had to go back to my day job after having the best four months of my life on the 1998 Death tour was one of the worst nights of my life. But I still consider myself extremely lucky that I was able to take a few months off a year from my regular job to go on tour and have the time of my life.

MM: How do you remember the time spent doing Control Denied?

RC: I remember Chuck being so happy that he was going to be able to play guitar without having to sing. I don’t think Chuck liked singing much, especially on tour because it was really tough on his voice. It was very exciting because it was something totally new but still had Chuck’s signature melodic sound. The writing sessions for both Control Denied albums were a lot of fun and I have many great memories from that time. Chuck was so cool about me bringing in ideas and coming up with drum patterns that he could write riffs around. It was inspiring watching Chuck create music because he was so gifted and was such an amazing songwriter and guitar player. I remember on Saturdays we would practice all day, then go to Chuck’s house and drink his homemade beer, eat food that Chuck would cook (Chuck was an amazing cook), and watch Saturday Night Live and listen to metal albums on vinyl like Watchtower and Riot. Those were some of the best times of my life.

MM: It has to be asked, how deeply did Chucks death affect you?

RC: It’s something that I think about every single day. Chuck was not only the most talented musician I’ve ever met in my life, but he was also my best friend. I spent every day for several years with Chuck and his family, even holidays. Chuck’s family was and still is like my second family. Chuck was the nicest guy I’ve ever met and he had the exact same sense of humor that I have. We used to have so much fun on tour and would laugh our asses off at the silliest stuff. I remember when we were on tour in Switzerland in 1998 and I was trying to find a toilet but no one spoke English so I squatted on the ground in front of some Swiss guy and acted like I was taking a crap and then he knew exactly what I was looking for! Chuck was laughing so hard when I did that and we always talked about all the crazy and fun stuff we did on tour. I still listen to Chuck’s music almost every day and it’s unbelievable to think that he’s gone. I know one of Chuck’s last wishes was for the second Control Denied album to be released and I know that it’s up to me and the other guys in the band and Chuck’s family to make sure that happens because that’s what Chuck wanted.

MM: How did the Incantation touring gig and the full-fledged gig in Iced Earth occur?

A: I’ve known John McEntee since around 1995 when Incantation did some gigs in Missouri with Burning Inside. He’s one of the coolest and funniest guys I’ve ever met and when he called me up and said they needed a drummer for a US tour in 2000, I immediately said yes. I love Incantation’s music and I knew it would be a fun tour to do because all of the guys in the band were good friends of mine. That tour was one of the funnest tours I’ve ever done. Since we were in a van we were able to do a lot of fun things on our days off, and since I’m a huge horror movie fan, I mapped out horror movie locations all across the country for us to visit on our days off. We saw the mall from Dawn of the Dead, the lighthouse from The Fog, every location from the original Halloween, the house and ghost town from John Carpenter’s Vampires and tons of other cool places. I could do a whole interview on all the fun times we had on that tour but I’ll save that for next time! The Iced Earth gig happened through my friends Jim Morris from Morrisound Studios and Andrew Sample from Century Media. They called me and said Iced Earth was looking for a drummer, I was a big Iced Earth fan so I was psyched to hear about the chance to audition for them. I flew to Indiana to meet Jon Schaffer and I remember the first song we jammed on was “Violate” which is a super-fast song and a hard one to play, drumming-wise. Everything clicked and I was invited to join the band. My first tour with Jon was the Demons & Wizards tour in Europe which I was really psyched about because I loved the Demons & Wizards album. I really wish I would have been able to play on that one but I was pumped to be able to tour with them. It was a festival tour in the summer of 2000 and we played festivals with Iron Maiden, The Scorpions, Motörhead, Rage and tons of other bands that I’m huge fans of so that was definitely a dream tour for me. Then in August of 2000 my first live gig with Iced Earth was in front of 25,000 people at the Wacken Festival in Germany. I remember the massive crowd singing along to every song which was amazing!

MM: Describe your daily life prior to getting the call to report to the Stern show?

RC: I didn’t exactly live the lifestyle of a rock star. Everybody thinks that if you tour and play on albums then you’re all set. That might have been the case in the ‘80s but nowadays it is very, very tough to make a living at playing music. I lived in a metal storage warehouse in Florida that got up to about 110 degrees in the summer, although I was very thin and in shape at the time because of that! I drove a 1978 Plymouth Volare station wagon with no air conditioning and one of the windows wouldn’t roll down! And I worked as a commercial electrician; my nickname was Flash because a high voltage junction box once exploded in my face when a 277 volt wire grounded out while I had my pliers inside the box! It melted the end of my pliers and scared the crap out of me. It was that day in 1996 that I knew I didn’t want to be an electrician for the rest of my life because electricity and me didn’t jive!

MM: You were a longtime listener to Howard’s show, as well as an e-mailer who sent in songs mostly dealing with KC Armstrong’s alleged homosexuality, what drove you to participate on that level as opposed to just listening?

RC: I’ve been a huge fan of the Howard Stern Show since 1996 when I moved to Florida. The show was on the radio in Orlando and I would listen while I was at work every day on my headphones. The Stern Show would help get me through the day at my job and would make me laugh every morning. When I would listen to the show I would get ideas and eventually I got the phone number for their voicemail off the internet and started leaving voicemail messages. They played my first message on the air in 1999 then started regularly playing voicemail messages from me in 2000. They kind of got to know me because of my thick Midwestern accent and sometimes they would imitate my voice on the air which was a huge honor for me because I was such a big fan. In 2001, I started mailing in songs and bits, most of them about K.C. Armstrong who was on the show at the time, and I got to be known as the mystery guy who calls and rags on K.C. Armstrong. I really owe everything I have now to K.C. because he was the reason I was known on The Howard Stern Show before I actually worked there. I also remember sending the Death CD to the show and hearing it on the air several days later as bumper music which blew me away! I remember recording it and playing that part of the Stern Show for Chuck Schuldiner and he couldn’t believe it when he heard “Spirit Crusher” come on the radio!

MM: Were you hit with an epiphany when you heard that a contest to “Win Stuttering John’s Job” was being opened to the public?

RC: Absolutely! The day I heard that they were having a contest to find somebody to replace Stuttering John; I immediately went home after work that day and started to work on a demo CD to send in. I always dreamed about what it would be like to work for the greatest entertainment show in the world. This was a show that made me laugh every day for the last eight years and here was a chance to work for them, it was unbelievable! I knew it was a long shot because Howard has millions of fans and they all would be vying for the job but it was something I absolutely had to try out for.

MM: I know you’ve denied that we, the metal public, had much to do with your contest victory, but can you not give the metal community the props they are due for putting you over the top in votes?

RC: I never denied that the metal public had something to do with me winning the job. They definitely had a lot to do with me winning the job and I thank them so much for that, but also the Howard Stern fans who know me from all of my bits and songs and voicemails had a lot to do with it too. So it was a combination of people who know me as Richard Christy the metal drummer and Richard Christy the guy with a Midwest accent who does songs about K.C. Armstrong that voted for me to win the contest. I wasn’t an established personality on the Stern Show at the time, like a lot of the other finalists, so I definitely think the metal community helped out a lot with me winning the job as well as the Stern fans who only knew my voice and songs and comedy bits.

MM: Did the Iced Earth guys know that you were applying for John’s job?

RC: Yeah, I told the guys about halfway through out US tour that I was going to have to leave the band to tryout for the “Get John’s Job” contest after they accepted my demo tape as one of the top 10 finalists. The touring dates and date of the tryout conflicted so I had to make a decision. It was definitely the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make. On one hand, here was the chance to try out for the job of my dreams on the Howard Stern Show, but it wasn’t a sure thing and if I quit Iced Earth and didn’t win the job then I’d be totally screwed because I loved playing in Iced Earth and I didn’t want to quit. But it was something I had to do, if I hadn’t quit Iced Earth and never tried out for John’s job, I would wonder for the rest of my life what might have happened. Needless to say, the Iced Earth guys weren’t happy about me quitting the band during a tour so I tried to make it as easy as I could on the band by finishing the US tour and calling up my good friend Bobby Jarzombek to replace me in the band. Bobby was a lifesaver for me because he accepted the gig and learned all the Iced Earth songs. I can’t thank him enough. I still feel bad about putting the band into a tough situation but after all that’s happened in my life since then I know it was the right decision for me and something I absolutely had to do.

MM: Was the period of attempting to become ingrained into the show difficult? How long did it take to stop being star struck and start to feel confident?

RC: It definitely took a few months. I was very nervous and wanted to do a good job, plus at first it was just a three-month job, then they would decide if I would get hired on permanently, so the first three months were definitely nerve-wracking because I really wanted to keep the job.

MM: Did it help when Sal the Stockbroker joined the staff because it seems like you guys really took to each other?

RC: It absolutely helped. Sal is the man. He’s the Cheech to my Chong, the Doug McKenzie to my Bob McKenzie, and the Beavis to my Butt-Head! We work great together and have the exact same sense of humor so I’m extremely thankful and lucky to have such an awesome coworker to share all the fun with.

MM: Your daily input at this point has never been higher, between the crazy (gay) stunts, the high phony phone call output, and getting beaten up over your booze intake and Tico Taco by the crew. Rate your professional life and personal life at this point.

RC: Right now I’m the happiest I’ve ever been. I was happy back in the day too, when I was in the bands and touring, but living in a warehouse and working a day job that I didn’t really enjoy was tough. I always thought that having a job that you can go to every day and have fun is the ultimate American dream and right now I’m living it. I’m thankful for the tough times too because they really make me appreciate what I have now. Even having an indoor shower is a huge thing for me now! When I lived in Florida, in the warehouse, the only shower I had was an old garden hose outside! I would wear my underwear, grab a bar of soap and shower outside where everyone else in the warehouse complex could see me! Plus even in the winter when it would get down into the 40’s in Florida I still had to shower outside, it was brutal! So now that I live in Manhattan and have an actual apartment I feel like the luckiest guy in the world and I have the Howard Stern Show to thank for that.

MM: I understand you are a stand-up comedian as well these days. How is that working out? Tell us a little about your time with the Killers of Comedy.

RC: Stand up comedy is something I’ve wanted to do since I was seven years old when I would listen to Steve Martin albums with my mom and dad. I’ve been doing it for three years now and it’s something that I’m definitely still learning. I’m lucky to have sort of a name from working on the Stern show so I’m able to do some pretty sizeable comedy gigs. I’ve done a few shows with Artie Lange in front of 2,000-3,000 people. It’s a lot scarier than getting onstage with a band because you’re just up there by yourself and if you make a mistake it doesn’t get covered up by what someone else is doing. When I would drop a stick while playing drums nobody really noticed because there were so many other things going on. But when it’s just you, a microphone and an audience full of people, it’s very scary and intimidating. I have so much respect for anybody who has the balls to get up onstage and do standup comedy.

MM: Listeners of the show know that you cling firmly to the fact that you have a girlfriend who likes doing all the wacky off-air shit you like to do. Will you curtail any “taint kissing” or perhaps refrain from painting your genitals to resemble Shaggy Too Dope on her account?

RC: I’m very lucky to have a girlfriend who’s totally cool with everything I do. We have a lot of fun together and she has an amazing sense of humor. As long as I’m not on the Stern show grabbing girls and things like that she’s fine with all the other crazy stunts I do on the show.

MM: Describe your current living situation, judging by pictures I’ve seen of the apartment, they really haven’t changed a lot.

RC: I have a small one bedroom apartment in Manhattan which I’m very happy with. I’d love something a bit bigger but I consider myself very lucky to be able to even afford to live in Manhattan. It’s so expensive here but I save a lot of money by not owning a car and having to pay for gas and car insurance. I love using mass transit in New York City because I get so stressed out from driving. I used to hate living in Orlando and being stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic on a 95 degree day with no air conditioning in my car! Needless to say that not driving now has taken tons of stress out of my life! Plus, I love the fact that I can walk downstairs from my apartment and walk right to a bar or restaurant within a block or two. New York City is the most amazing city in the world and I could definitely live here for the rest of my life. It’s completely different from how I grew up and when I lived in Redfield, Kansas, a town of about 200 people, I always dreamed about living in the big city. I consider myself a very lucky person and I’m thankful every day for what I have.

MM: Last words and give us those plugs!!!

RC: I’m a big fan of Metal Maniacs, I’ve been reading it since the early 1990’s and one of the most exciting moments in my music career was when Death was on the cover of Metal Maniacs in 1998. Everybody in my family in Kansas bought a copy and couldn’t believe I was on the cover! If you don’t have Sirius Satellite Radio right now you have to get it! The Howard Stern Show is better than ever and it’s uncensored! If you’re a metalhead, Sirius has Hard Attack, the heaviest radio channel ever! Plus you should check out Howard TV which is also uncensored and has some of the craziest and funniest stuff you’ll ever see on TV! You can go to Sirius.com and Howard.tv to check it out! The new and probably final Burning Inside album is available on all the download sites including iTunes and Napster. Please go buy it if you’re a fan of extreme technical, melodic death metal! It is self-titled, called Burning Inside, and contains six of the heaviest songs ever! Also, go see Harold and Kumar part 2: Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay. It’s my first big acting role and I’m really excited about it! I play a guy named Kenny in a hilarious scene where Harold and Kumar run into me at a party in the Deep South! It’s in theaters this April. I’m also in a horror movie called Albino Farm which will be coming out in 2008. I’ve always been a huge horror fan so I’m really excited about this film. It’s going to be scary as hell! I’m doing four voices on one episode of Metalocalypse and it’ll be aired in ‘08 too! I’ve also been getting a lot of fan emails from people asking if I still play drums. I absolutely still play the drums every day. It’s something I’ll do forever and I love playing just as much today as I always have. There’s an amazing drumming school in Manhattan called The Drummers Collective and they let me practice there. I also have a Roland VDrum kit at my apartment that I play every day. I’ve been playing guitar a lot lately and writing a lot of music so I’m hoping to release something musically either in late 2008 or 2009 whenever I can find the time. There’s a lot of killer metal out nowadays that inspires me and makes me want to write new music, like Amon Amarth, whose album With Oden on Our Side is one of the greatest metal albums of all time in my opinion. If you’re a metal head you HAVE to buy that album, it is heavy metal at its best and most brutal! Every riff on that album is genius and it’s really inspired me to get a lot better at guitar playing and songwriting. I would like to say thank you to my boss, Howard Stern, for giving me the greatest job that I could ever dream of. I get paid to have fun and be a goofball every day and I can’t thank Howard and everybody at the show enough for what they’ve given me. I would also like to thank my family for supporting everything I’ve ever done; they’re so cool and they always supported my dream of being a heavy metal drummer and being on the Howard Stern Show. Finally, I would like to say thank you to all the fans I’ve met over the years and the fans who’ve emailed me through my website. Without you I wouldn’t even be doing this interview and I wouldn’t be where I am at right now, I’m eternally grateful towards you. Thank you.