Interview by Kris Peters
Australia and New Zealand, big things are coming! In just a matter of days, two musical heavyweights will begin a colossal arena run, with Florida hybrid heavies A DAY TO REMEMBER and California mainstays PAPA ROACH joining forces for the BIG ROCK TOUR, joined by special guests LANDMVRKS.
Set to commence on Saturday, April 4 in Perth, A DAY TO REMEMBER and PAPA ROACH will journey the BIG ROCK TOUR through Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane arenas, before closing out in Auckland on Wednesday 15 April.
Two-time GRAMMY-nominated and Platinum-selling rockers PAPA ROACH have perfected evolution and raw power over the course of 30 years. Hailing from Vacaville, California and forming back in the early 90s, PAPA ROACH embody resilience in every sense of the word.
Teaming up with The Used in 2023 for a double-header Australian run, PAPA ROACH balanced fan-favourites with plenty of surprises for their Aussie fans. And if the walls could talk at any of the countless venues PAPA ROACH have played throughout their careers across the globe, both as the main event and alongside Red Hot Chili Peppers, Limp Bizkit, Eminem and more, the resounding sentiment would be that PAPA ROACH aren't just revered for their longevity; this is a band who can adapt, survive and thrive, brandishing an underdog spirit with prime-time appeal. And they'll be bringing it with spades alongside A DAY TO REMEMBER.
HEAVY sat down with frontman Jacoby Shaddix to chat more.
"It's gonna be a banger of a tour, man. We're super excited about it," he beamed. "I've been anticipating this one for a minute, so it's great to be here in Australia, and great to be on the Big Rock Tour - I love that name too (laughs)."
We ask what has changed with Papa Roach since they were here last with The Used in 2023.
"Oh man…" he measured. "A bunch of new music. We've been writing new music and we've got something that we're really excited about. We've been releasing new music and we've had some great successes recently worldwide that are just blowing my mind. We've got this song right now, Wake Up Calling, that's in it's third week at number one in the rock charts in America which is awesome. To be stepping into 2026 and kicking it off here in Australia is going to be amazing. We've got a big year planned ahead of us so there's a lot of good things going on in the P Roach world."
Down the track we dive deeper into the history of Papa Roach, touching on the success of their second album Infest and what his initial thoughts of the album were.
"It was special to us," he recalled, smiling "I really feel that we thought we had something special, we just didn't know the world was gonna connect with it in such a way that they did. We thought we were gonna put out an album, tour in a van and maybe sell 150, 200 000 records, and that's not what happened (smiles). We put out an album and it was like a rocket ship ride to the top. I didn't know how to handle fame. I didn't know how to handle success, and it was just a very wild time for us. I'll tell you this, we had a lot of great times in that era and a lot of big wins and a lot of big moments. I look back upon that time of my life with a lot of… there were great moments that I was proud of, and then there were moments that I was like 'man, I regret that'. There's no handbook to becoming famous. There were moments that I handled it gracefully, and moments that I just went at it like an idiot."
In the full interview, Jacoby talks more about the tour and what to expect, the three bands on the Big Rock Tour and how they compliment each other, the early days of Papa Roach, the success of Infest, sticking to their own path musically, mental health and more.
Tickets from www.destroyalllines.com
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