During a recent interview with Metal Global, Jacoby Shaddix of Papa Roach revealed that people made fun of his dream of starting a band and being a rock star. The frontman initially was questioned about whether he had expected his band’s longevity of 30 years. He affirmed that he had, later recalling how people doubted him. He said:
“It was the dream. That was the thing that everybody thought I was crazy for believing when I was a kid. You know, I’m 16 years old, and I’m like, ‘Yeah, I’m starting a band, man, I’ll be a rock star; that’s what I’m doing with my life,’ and people were just like, [imitates people laughing and mocking him], you know.”
Though he was mocked as a kid, Shaddix’s dreams came true. The frontman explained the band’s ups and downs and how it’s part of a band’s music career:
“That’s alright, because it’s a great, it’s a crazy dream, right? It’s a very small percentage of people get to do what we’re doing. A very small percentage of the bands are able to do what we’re doing and to sit out with this dream and then to make a career out of it that is spent so many years.
Yeah, we’ve had our highs, we’ve had our lows, we’ve had the in-betweens, but I think any great story or any great band is going to experience that.”
Experiencing ridicule did not contribute to his emotional resilience as an adult, and Shaddix made it clear in an earlier interview. The frontman told:
“I’m a super-sensitive-ass dude. I’m just gonna be real. I just am. Like hyper-sensitive. That’s why I liked to use and abuse drugs and alcohol back in the day. It was just ’cause feeling was just too much for me. I was weak, and I had to become a stronger person to have some thicker skin and exist out in this world.”
See the latest interview below.
