When Brooks Wackerman got the call about joining Avenged Sevenfold, it was a turning point in his musical career. Known for his long-standing work with Bad Religion, the seasoned drummer opened up in a recent interview with Steve Jocz (aka Stevo 32 of Sum 41) about the surprising pivot in his life.
“My friend Diony Sepulveda — he used to be my personal manager, and then he was Avenged Sevenfold‘s tour manager — they talked to him, and they started establishing a dialogue about, ‘Do you think Brooks would be into playing with Avenged?’” Wackerman recalled. “So he called me and I’m, like, ‘What? It was just so outta — maybe not outta left field, but when you get that call and you just start kind of envisioning yourself in a completely different light. It’s, like, metal festivals, even though, to me, Avenged is so much more than metal, but we are playing metal festivals.”
That moment brought excitement back into his musical life. “So, yeah, it was exciting. I’m, like, ‘Okay, I haven’t felt this way in a while’ at the time. I was grateful for all my work with Bad Religion, but I was in the band for 15 years, and I wanted to spread the wings a little wider, too, musically.”
The real clincher for Wackerman was the chance to collaborate on new material. “So I’m, like, ‘Okay, not only are they interested, but they’re also interested in writing with me for this record. They want me to contribute.’ And I’m, like, ‘Yeah, let’s do this.’ ‘Cause to actually feel like you’re a proponent between five guys in a studio, it’s special.”
That level of input was something he didn’t quite have in his early days with Bad Religion. Asked if he felt creatively stifled, he clarified, “The writers were Brett Gurewitz and Greg Graffin, and as they should be, because they created the sound. I always call them the Lennon and McCartney of punk rock. There’s no one that can write like those guys. I did parameters, but I’m not gonna sit here and say Bad Religion didn’t allow me creativity — they did — but I will say once I did the second record with Bad Religion, that’s when I really felt like myself.”
On his first outing with the band for The Process Of Belief, Wackerman was still finding his footing. “I didn’t feel a hundred percent like myself on The Process Of Belief, and I think that was a) nerves, b), not knowing the guys, and c) they had all the songs demoed. So by the second record, I was demoing at Brett‘s house. He wanted to hear what I would come up with, and it was more collaborative.”
What made the transition to Avenged Sevenfold truly energizing was the sheer breadth of musical possibility. “But when you get the Avenged call, it’s, like, ‘Okay, so the Latin beat that I practiced when I was 12, I can now apply this in a song.’ It’s, like, just the rhythmic possibilities, the creative possibilities were endless…”
As for the audition process itself, Wackerman recalled the setlist he was asked to perform: “’Nightmare’, ‘Little Piece Of Heaven’, ‘Bat Country’, I think ‘Buried Alive’. Yep, ‘Buried Alive’. I think it was just that.”
Interestingly, by the time fans heard the announcement that Arin Ilejay was out and Brooks Wackerman was in, the drummer had already been working with the band for over a year. While Ilejay left in 2014, his departure wasn’t publicly confirmed until July 2015.
