Content Warning: This article discusses suicide. If you or someone you know are affected by the following story, you are not alone. To speak to someone, you can call Lifeline on 13 11 14.
It’s wild to think that it’s been 20 years since Papa Roach released their breakthrough album Infest, which catapulted the California rockers headfirst into the blossoming nü-metal scene of the early 2000s.
Ahead of the milestone, frontman Jacoby Shaddix spoke to LouderSound about the group’s plans to broadcast Infest via live stream, which will see them play the 2000 album in its entirety. They’ve also given the publication a track-by-track breakdown of each song featured on Infest, which you can read in full here.
Speaking of one of the band’s most famous songs ‘Last Resort’, Shaddix said that despite claims that the lyrics of the emotional track were based on him, the story was actually inspired by a close friend.
“A lot of people back in the day thought Last Resort was about me because I wrote it in the first person, but it was actually at the time about one of my best friends,” Shaddix began.
“I lived with him, and he attempted suicide as I was living with him, and that was really traumatic for me to be around, because I’m a 17-year-old kid, and one of my best buds tried to kill himself. That was just fucking heavy,” he continued.
“Heavy on me, and all of our friend circle. And so I just felt like at the time of writing, digging in and talking about my emotions, that was one of the things I needed to write about.”
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The ticketed live stream performance of the album is set to take place on June 20, with the band also taking time to reflect on 20 years Infest.
“We couldn’t take not performing any longer,” Shaddix said in a statement. “Having performed the Infest album in full as a surprise one time before (during the band’s sold-out 2015 gig at London’s Roundhouse on the album’s 15th anniversary), we decided to open this infestation to every living-room in the world to celebrate the 20th anniversary with us!”
Bassist Tobin Esperance added, “You’ll probably want to move your furniture around a little bit. We’ve all got to get some of that quarantine energy out of our system. We’ll also have our brother Jerry Horton back from his injury so watch out!”
Check out ‘Last Resort’ by Papa Roach:
