Max Green (pt. 1) Drug Use Within The Scene and The Future of Escape The Fate
After a two-year absence from the band he helped found, Max Green has returned to Escape The Fate, completing a roller coaster story usually reserved for Hollywood screenwriters.
Following the success of their debut album Dying Is Your Latest Fashion in 2006, Escape The Fate’s lead singer Ronnie Radke was kicked from the band following legal issues that eventually led to his incarceration. The band replaced him with Blessthefall lead singer Craig Mabbitt and the drama has not stopped since. Somehow, through lineup changes and multiple different record labels, Escape The Fate managed to stay not only relevant, but also become one of the most well known bands of the genre. However, in 2011, following years of drug problems and other issues, Max Green was forced to leave the band.
In an interview with Alternative Press earlier this year, Max revealed that a heroin addiction had left him estranged from the band, his “real” friends, and had nearly left him dead. As the band forged ahead with a new record, Max went to rehab to finally get clean. When Michael and Monte Money refused to go on “The Wrong Side of Heaven Tour” with Escape The Fate in September, the band called on none other than Max Green to return, completing the cycle of rags to riches once again.
In part one of this two part interview, Max dishes on drug use within the scene, his relationship with Escape The Fate, and what the future holds for all those involved.
NOTE: Since the time of this interview, Max Green has been officially accepted back into Escape The Fate as a full-time member. Additionally, Escape The Fate has announced that they will be going on the Bury The Hatchet Tour with Ronnie Radke’s band Falling In Reverse in early 2014, ending a longtime feud between Radke and singer Craig Mabbitt.
How is recovery treating you so far?
Fantastic, man! I’ll have five months sober in about two days. It’s fucking killer. Plus, being able to be out on the road and see the response from the kids about it. That’s my new high.
Usually, when people think of drugs and rock n’ roll, they think about older bands and not necessarily the current ones. What’s the drug use like behind the scenes right now?
It’s real. It goes in waves, it really does. I remember when I first started touring, everyone in the scene was drinking Captain Morgan and taking Vicodin and Percocet. It was fucking everywhere. Then all of sudden, at least one or two members of every band had Oxycotin or a prescription for something similar. There are some bands that are notorious for partying and they put it out in the open so you would always know where to go to find whatever you wanted. It’s interesting now though because, after stepping away from music and the tour life for two years, there are actually a lot more current bands that have sober dudes or are a straightedge band. There are a lot of rockstars out there that are sober now like the dudes in Aerosmith or Motley Crüe, but now there are a lot of younger bands doing it too. It’s really cool because on the last tour I did, the Five Finger Death Punch tour, there was a guy or two from each band that was sober. It wasn’t too awkward for me to come back into the scene. The cool thing now is to not be all fucked up on stage and not be train-wreck everyday and actually go out there and do a good job.
Of course, it never fails that there will be rumors about so-and-so being a huge addict off stage and that kind of thing.
That’s one thing that’s kind of silly because to me, in my mind, just because someone is at a party and they are hanging out and having a couple drinks and they go to a bathroom or they go wherever with a friend or drug dealer… whatever the case may be… that’s just what happens. That’s called high school. That’s called college. That’s not just being a rockstar. That’s life and experimenting with things. Some guys dive in too deep and some others don’t. It’s very interesting that just because someone has a little bit of popularity and they do something one time, it gets blown out of proportion and they are labeled as something that’s exaggerated or just not true.
Just to clear some rumors, what was the reasoning behind pulling out of the Five Finger Death Punch tour early?
I would love to clear that up. Craig is having another kid so we were going to pull off of that tour a week early anyway. We just pulled off a few days earlier because he’s going have his kid any day now.
That makes sense. There just always seems to be rumors surrounding you guys.
We’re just too rock n’ roll, man. We party fucking hard. We’re too badass for most people. Some people can’t handle Vegas, some people can, you know what I mean? That’s it. [Laughs.]
You’ve really been one of the only people to be a part of Escape The Fate during every era. How has the mindset of the band changed over the years?
It’s interesting because from the beginning it was like Ronnie and I had this idea together and we wanted to do something. We had this vision for the band and we were really the only two dudes in the band that would pull the trigger on something and say, “This is what we have to do, this is how we have to do it, so let’s go.” We had the vision for the band and even after Ronnie left I was doing everything. Like, “Hey guys, this is my idea for the album cover, these are my ideas for the merch, this is my concept for this album cycle.” I always appreciated the fact that the band gave me the freedom and creativity to take each album cycle and try to apply a certain era and sound so that it kind of tells a story. It’s one thing that I think is really lacking in today’s artists and bands. But it’s cool to be there from the beginning and to be the man and own it and kill it. Then to walk away and leave for two years and have them come out with a new album and see how they do it on their own, without me.
How did you feel about the new album Ungrateful?
I didn’t listen to it at first. I heard the songs they had videos for and those were the only two I heard before this tour. I just didn’t listen to it at all and it took me awhile to accept that it wasn’t my band anymore and get over the feeling that I gave away or lost my child. That’s how intense it was for me. But coming back into the band… it’s awesome because all the guys had a really great response to me coming back and it wasn’t really awkward at all. No one was walking on any eggshells.
But the new album cycle is rad. I enjoy playing it. It’s cool because it’s really easy to play on bass and it gives me time to interact with the crowd on stage. I think that’s something that people kind of expect from me at shows, to get the kids hyped up and stuff like that. So I always have fun playing the new jams because I really get to get into it and swing my head around and shout at people. [Laughs.]
Are you going to Europe with the band?
It’s funny because I actually had a meeting about this the other day because now I have my own set of managers and my own people separate from Escape The Fate. It’s kind of like having two girlfriends at the same time that know about each other and you have to try and keep them both happy. [Laughs.] They’ve asked me to go to Europe and I’ve accepted so assuming that everything works out and there are no complications with Craig’s kid or anything like that, the band will definitely be in Europe and I’ll definitely be there with them.
Will Monte and Michael Money be returning to Escape The Fate?
They’ve asked if I wanted to be included in conversations like this, but I’ve decided not to because if I’m not a member, my opinion really doesn’t hold any weight at this time. I decided to come back just for this tour and do them a solid and get my own name back out there. What exactly they have planned for that, I’m not sure, but definitely the way it’s looking right now is that the Money brothers will not be coming back. They’ve already started their own thing.
NOTE: It has been confirmed that the Money brothers will not be returning to the band.
It seemed obvious from the band’s statement after the Money brothers refused to go on tour that there was some negative history in that regard.
There were a lot of things that I was unhappy with the Money brothers about when I was in the band. I just think it grew and escalated between them and the other guys after I left.
What do you think the future of Escape The Fate looks like?
We were all just talking about that on tour…. Well, we are planning to promote a couple more songs off the album as singles and then there are already talks about writing a new album, which is awesome. Everyone in the band now is a writer, has done their own writing, and been in other bands. We’re all guitar players as well so we’ve already talked about getting down on a lot of that stuff starting now to get ideas together and songs together for the next album. But it’s kind of weird because we’ve got this line-up of people that have been in and out of this band and these are all the people that have been the bands go-to every time something happens, people that can really hit the mark when we need it. I think that we’re just going to do a couple more tours with this lineup and see what happens. Everything just came up so abruptly. Like two or three days before this tour, the guys called me to come back and I had only talked to them once in two years.
It seemed like for how rushed it was, everyone was getting along really well.
Oh yeah, man. It’s funny you bring that up because earlier I was thinking earlier that I can’t remember a time in the last 6 years that the band was this happy. Ever since like the first album, everyone was fucking stoked, but then shit went down. Then we’re doing the second album and everyone is getting to know each other again, new people and stuff. Then the third album, touring extensively on that, shit going down again…. This band hasn’t been this happy in a really long time.
I couldn’t help but notice the headline on the cover of the new issue of Alternative Press about Ronnie and Craig making up. It seems like you were always kind of in the middle of them and all three of you have had your own issues. What can you tell me about the whole situation?
Basically, they wanted to do this interview together and throw everything out in the open. It was great when everyone knew Ronnie and I were cool again and shit like that, but a lot of people were still on about the whole Ronnie and Craig thing because stuff was pretty heated there for a while. I think that everyone now is just at a place where they are a little more grown up and are just sick and tired of hearing shit and just want it to be over. Literally, like the caption says, bury the hatchet. Be over it and let everyone know that things are cool and everyone is onward and upward. It was such a big deal in the public eye for so long and everyone made a big deal about it, it was definitely something that needed done.
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Watch Escape The Fate’s newest music video for the song “One For The Money”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0vU81Nr9nc
Connect with Escape The Fate and Max Green — Facebook — Band Twitter — Max’s Twitter
Catch them on the “Bury The Hatchet Tour” in 2014 — Tickets Available Now!
