The lead singer of Wilson, the veritable front man, Chad is the face and voice of the band. And as much as he shrieks and screams to provide the vocals for the band’s album, Full Blast Fuckery, and subsequent songs, he’s generally a pretty even-keeled, mild-enough mannered, but fun-loving dude every time we get a chance to chat. Except, I guess, when he’s talking about his boner.
When I called him up last week I had to ring him three times. It was 1 in the afternoon, but Chad was in the middle of getting some beauty sleep. Having partaken in a birthday celebration the night before, he was slightly hungover and you could tell in his voice. Though slightly groggy with a scratchy throat, Chad was as kind and obliging as he always is. Asking me how I was doing and how things were going. As always, I responded with my usual: “Just working, living the dream.”
“I was working and then I stopped and I started to dream, so I took a nap,” says Chad.
“Lot’s of stuff has been happening,” he says of the year and a half since we last spoke. “We released our record in July of last year and we’re re-releasing our record on vinyl, so we’re going to be celebrating that.”
That celebrating will take place at the Magic Stick this Saturday, June 28. The show will also host Against the Grain, ANA, and Red Stone Souls. And with Wilson headlining in their hometown, it’s likely it will be a sweaty, raucous party that will be unlike any other show to take place at the Stick this year. And it might be the last we see of Wilson in Detroit for a while.
“We leave again in July, which takes up through to all the way, like, mid-October, or something like that. So, it’s going to be a long stint,” Chad says.
Though last year’s tour with GWAR was a big deal for the boys of Wilson, their opportunities haven't been slowing down. This summer they’ll be hitting the road with some big names as well.
“We do a couple dates with Rob Zombie in mid-July," says Chad. "After that we go out with Sons of Disaster and He is Legend and we’re opening that tour and that will take us through the end of August. We come home for a few days and then we go out and headline Canada for like two weeks and then we come home in mid-September for a week and then we go out and do this thing called Motorboat, which is a Motorhead cruise boat, so it’s like Motorhead and Anthrax and Megadeth and a bunch of other bands like that around us for like six days. I don’t think that we will probably ever actually leave that ship. We’re probably going to fucking die. But for six days we’re going to potentially – potentially – going to be living on a ship in September and then after that we go out again in October through November.”
Though they've been on their own headlining tours and taken to the road with internationally-known names like GWAR, hearing Wilson will tour with Rob Zombie seems like a huge deal. Even Chad admits some wizardry was in the works to get on the roster for those couple of shows.
“It’s been a little bit of working magic with our manager and agents and other times they’ve just asked us to do it. it’s happened a few times this past year where a band has asked us to tour with them,” says Chad. “We confirmed the show and then they were like, ‘Rob Zombie is headlining’ and I was like ‘What?’”
As excited Chad seems to meet the famous shock rocker, he seems just as excited about interacting with a new audience, although figuring out how to best appeal to that audience can be stressful.
"We get a chance to show what we do to them, you know when you're supporting a band like Rob Zombie there is inherently a shit ton of people who have never heard your band before because you're the little guy on the bill, so yea, I get a little nervous to go out there and show them what we do, but it goes away after the first few songs. I don't know how to really describe it," Chad says. "When you're in situations where it's Rob Zombie's crowd, it's not your crowd, then you have to win them over and finding out how to not be the unwanted stepchild can be a little nerve-wracking."
Backing up, we return to the conversation about Wilson's show at the Magic Stick and why it was important for the band to re-release the material on Full Blast Fuckery.
"Well, we really wanted to put our record out on vinyl because when we first put the record out, we were under a contract that wouldn't let us do it on our own and didn't want to do it and when the contract went up, we thought that this is what we would do. So we decided to re-imagine the artwork and put some new twists on it. As much as the record is Full Blast Fuckery, we went full blast fuckery with the artwork," he says.
Expect a see-through, puke green vinyl, posters, cool packaging, special bonuses, and hidden negative tracks if you're planning on picking the record up.
Records, obviously, will be available at the record release show, and they'll be available for cheap. Buy a ticket for $20 and it'll come complete with an album.
Playing the the city of Detroit was important to Chad and the rest of the band as well, in order to properly commemorate the first anniversary of their first album release. And what better way than with a re-release of that album in a bigger and better way than before?
"We decided to release it and we haven't played Detroit proper since the record came out last July, so we're trying to make it a cool thing and we got some bands we really love on the bill," says Chad. "For me, it's the first time I've ever put out a record proper on vinyl, in all of the musical endeavors and I'm pretty sure that everyone in the band is on that same page as well."
While they'll be re-releasing their first album this Saturday, Wilson is also ready to get going on their sophomore record as well, though you'll have to wait to hear more about that.
For now, we suggest you enjoy Wilson while they're in town. And pick up a record while you're at it.
Wilson play the Magic Stick on Saturday, June 28. 4140 Woodward Ave., Detroit; 313-833-9700; majesticdetroit.com; tickets are $8-$20.
