Dust in the Wind

Dust in the Wind

METAL MAINSTAYS SEVENDUST SETTLED IN BALDWIN CITY FARMHOUSE TO WRITE NEW RECORD

By Nick Spacek

Lajon Witherspoon, frontman and vocalist for long-running hard rock band Sevendust, has traveled the world over while on tour with his bandmates, but a decade ago, Witherspoon and his family chose to settle in Overland Park. Additionally, his wife Ashley’s grandparents left the family their farmhouse and 300 acres in Baldwin City, KS, which became the place where half of Sevendust’s latest album, Truth Killer, was written. It had a positive effect on the songwriting process, says Witherspoon.

“It was amazing to be just there and not worrying about anything other than maybe me chasing one of the calves that got loose out of the fence on the farm,” jokes the frontman, going on to say it was like the band being kids again. “Imagine having to find an area to jam in—we would set up in grandma’s room, and Morgan [Rose] would set up in front of the bed with his electric drum set.”

Sevendust rocked out for 12 hours straight, demoing their songs in two of the farmhouse’s bedrooms much as they would have in the studio. They were able to reconnect post-COVID in a way far less structured than they would have anywhere else.

“The stuff that came outta the farmhouse was great,” Witherspoon reflects. “Watching the sunset, barbecuing together, popping fireworks out there, just laughing like kids, you know? It was exciting. I think it really did good for us.”

It was a “bro-down,” continues the singer. “There were no engineers. There was no one helping us other than my wife bringing us food down every once in a while.”

Truth Killer, the band’s 14th album, came out at the end of July. To celebrate, Sevendust is headed out on the road with longtime friends Static-X and Dope on the “Machine Killer Tour” this fall to support it. If it seems like it’s a tour that came straight out of the late ‘90s, that’s because this tour actually happened once before, all the way back in 1999. Given that Sevendust celebrates another milestone with its 30th anniversary next year, we ask Witherspoon what it’s like to still be standing after all this time.

“I just turned 50 last year,” Witherspoon says. “It’s an amazing feeling to go out there on stage and to look out and to see a young man the same age as me, but now he’s got kids, and now his kids have kids, and maybe his kids that have kids have kids, and they’re all at the show, and it’s like, ‘Oh my God, what are we doing?’ This is amazing that this is a family affair.”

In addition to getting to see their fans grow with them, the same can be said for some of the bands with which they’ve played. This past summer, Sevendust toured with Mammoth WVH, the band featuring Wolfgang Van Halen. From the outside, it seems like this would be a case of the Sevendust lifers playing with a hot new band, but Witherspoon doesn’t see it as getting onstage with some whippersnappers.

“Wolfie, man—we’ve known him ever since he was a kid,” says Witherspoon. “He’s a young man now, but he’s been coming around with us for years. He was actually with us when we recorded one of our albums. He was in the studio with us the whole time.”

The family aspect includes Sevendust’s fall tour, as well. While it’s been 24 years since Sevendust last shared the stage with either Static-X or Dope, Witherspoon has worked off and on with Dope frontman Edsel Dope for various projects over the years.

“We’ve been tight for years and years,” says Witherspoon. Sadly, Static-X frontman Wayne Static passed in 2014, so it’s not as true a return to 1999 as it might have been, but the Sevendust frontman is hyped about what the current version of the band has to offer as an homage.

“The production on this tour is gonna be amazing,” he says. “It’s gonna blow some people’s minds. Every night’s gonna be something special.”

Witherspoon promises video walls and a “massive” production for the tour, but he seems even more excited about reconnecting with both the bands onstage and the fans in the audience than the production aspects.

“I feel like there’s some fire that’s been set up under our butts, even after all these years,” Witherspoon says. “With signing that new record deal and that pandemic shutting everything down and us being back out and having the response and the new contagious energy, the good energy that’s out there definitely makes it feel new again.”