Sevendust celebrates 21st anniversary of ‘Animosity’ and new album on tour

Sevendust finished recording “Blood & Stone,” the group’s latest studio album, in early 2020, just before the pandemic hit and changed life as we knew it.

With much of the country still on lockdown as fall 2020 approached, there were those who advised Sevendust to wait to release the album, according to singer Lajon Witherspoon, because it was still far from clear when the country would be able to reopen and enable bands to tour again.

Sevendust, though, decided to go ahead and release “Blood & Stone” that October and take their chances on how the album would sell.

“There was pressure on us to wait to (put it out), but we felt we had an obligation not only to ourselves, but to our family out there that follows us. We needed to at least give them this. While they’re not doing anything, let’s give them something,” Witherspoon said in a recent phone interview. “I’m glad we were able to release it. I believe everyone’s happy and thank the lord that things are hopefully getting back to normal.”

Sevendust didn’t get to play any shows during the pandemic, other than a few livestream performances (including one to coincided with the release of “Blood & Stone”). Several of the band members used the unexpected free time to do other music projects.

Drummer Morgan Rose teamed up with Sevendust guitarist Clint Lowery and bassist Jason Christopher to make his debut solo EP, “Controlled Chaos.” Lowery made a solo album, “God Bless the Renegades” and a five-song EP, “Grief & Distance.” Hornsby joined a group, CEO, which released its debut album, “Redemption,” in June 21.

As for Witherspoon, he made significant progress on his first solo album, completing a dozen-plus songs so far for the project. Witherspoon, though, said he’s in no rush to finish his solo album, which will retain some of Sevendust’s hard rock sound but will show some of his other influences, including R&B and country.

“I’m just taking my time,” he said of the solo album. “I’m going back into the studio again and doing a couple more co-writes, which I’m excited about. And I’m so excited about another cat that I’m writing with in Nashville, actually, that it’s really cool. I’m not even going to tell you about it because he’s a big, big, big artist who’s doing really big things right now. The other night, my session with him got canceled because he’s with Elton John. OK, I get it. So I’m excited about that, but I’m taking my time on that. There’s some label interest out there, but I just feel like I want to get it (the album) right.”

Witherspoon is proud of “Blood & Stone.” Exactly how many new songs to put into Sevendust’s live set this spring is an open question.

This tour, which stops in Wichita at the Cotillion on March 20, celebrates the 21st anniversary of the band’s “Animosity” album. With that album featured in the set, an already challenging task of crafting a set list figures to be even trickier.

“It’s like what do we do?” Witherspoon said. “The catalog is deep. Do we play the big ones? We’ve got to play the big ones, but how many of the big ones are we playing? Can we do this? . . . So there are a lot of questions. But that’s fun. That’s the fun thing about it.”

Witherspoon isn’t exaggerating when he refers to Sevendust’s deep catalog. “Blood & Stone” is the 13th studio album from the group, whose lineup of Witherspoon, Lowery, Rose, guitarist John Connolly and bassist Vince Hornsby formed in Atlanta in 1994.

The lineup has remained intact for nearly the entire time — with Lowery leaving the group in 2004 and rejoining in 2008. The band has had some ups and downs, the highs including seeing the first three albums each go gold and amassing some 30 top 40 mainstream rock singles, including four that went top 10 (“Enemy,” “Driven,” “Unraveling” and “Decay”).

But there have also been problems with record labels, and in 2006, Sevendust nearly went bankrupt. The situation prompted the group to change management and other business employees and educate themselves further on what it takes for a music act to remain profitable. Since then, the band has been on firmer ground, releasing albums and touring at a steady clip.

“Blood & Stone” is another solid album from Sevendust, but it marks a move in a more melodic direction for the band. There are still several bangers such as “Blood From a Stone,” “Desperation” and “Dying To Live.” But while songs like “Love,” “Nothing Left To See Here Anymore” and “Criminal” also rock hard, they have big melodies in the vocals and plenty of instrumental ear worms.

“That was a conscious decision we made within ourselves,” Witherspoon said of the emphasis on melody. “I definitely felt I wanted to sing. I think this album definitely lent itself to song melody more, and so that’s definitely the route we went. I think it’s amazing.”

What’s also notable about “Blood & Stone” is it includes Sevendust’s version of the Soundgarden classic “The Day I Tried To Live.” The band members agreed early on that they wanted to do a cover song on the album, but couldn’t agree on a song to perform until producer Elvis Baskette suggested the Soundgarden anthem.

“I laughed and said ‘That is an amazing song. I love that, Soundgarden, Chris Cornell (Soundgarden’s singer), I love him. That would be amazing,’” Witherspoon recalled. “And I said ‘Who’s going to sing that, though?’ And I was really serious.”

Cornell, who committed suicide in 2017, was one of rock’s great singers, and Witherspoon said covering a Soundgarden song was a daunting prospect. He was able to get his head around singing “The Day I Tried To Live” when he decided he couldn’t compete with Cornell’s vocal.

“I said I have to do this like Lajon Witherspoon would sing it,” he said. “But then I had to think to myself what an amazing energy and presence (Cornell was), not only in my life and career, but how many other people he touched. Then I thought about myself being a dad and him being a dad and I thought about his kids and I thought about my kids and I thought about him losing his life. God knows that he didn’t want that to happen. And I kind of put all of those emotions into a very emotional song and I just went in there and I sang that song that way. That’s how I did it.”