Mike Luce- Umm...well, for some reason right now Dallas is just thriving man. See two of us are from New Orleans (Mike and guitarist C.J. Pierce) and they have a real good music scene also but it's more of a uh, well, there's a lot of tourists you know? So it's got music coming out the ass, but you know they're gonna play the old provens...the tried and trues. C.J. and I being rock guys really couldn't get a break there. There were plenty of great guys and great musicians to jam with, but as far as an original rock band, we just couldn't get it goin 'cuz the clubs just really wouldn't allow it. I mean you could play like 4 to 5 nights a week if you were playing 70% covers...but you're just playin other people's stuff.

D.S. So how'd you two from "N'orlins" meet up with Stevie and Dave?

We got a call from Stevie--who I knew from high school (Mike lived in the Dallas area at that time before moving back to New Orleans), and he had a falling out with the guys in the band...he and the original Drowning Pool singer were the only two guys left. C.J. and I came up and we moved in and uh, after awhile the original singer split and we found David a little while later...and Dallas has a very nuturing thing. They have clubs out there that showcase original bands on three and four band bills like every Thursday, Friday,  Saturday and Sunday and they were just really cool down there. It was great.

D.S. Chicago has a mix of that...a lot of bars though do encourage and hire mostly cover bands though.

M.L. Yeah, right which you can understand you know? When people they go out and want to have a good time you know you attribute that to going out and tippin a few back singin along to your favorite songs. When you have a band that's up there playin say mostly their own shit...Well let's put it this way, if I owned a bar, I guess I'd want a band that was getting drinks being bought too you know? You can't blame anybody for any of that, but you do have to have the clubs that will support the original bands too and Dallas did that for us.

D.S. I heard a little about the band's name coming about, could you tell us the story of that?

M.L. Umm, as far as I know, Stevie lost his virginity while that movie was in the background I guess...now it wasn't like he thought when he lost it that that was what the band was going to be called. It was kinda coincidental and then when C.J. and I came up it kinda cemented further because the guy from the movie was from New Orleans. So that further cemented the name. So it was the combination of Stevie getting laid the first time and us two being from the same place the character in that movie was from.

D.S. One of the first breaks and tours you did came from Chicago band Sevendust. Can you tell me how that came about and what are your thoughts on them?

M.L.Oh yeah, Sevendust were the first band...well shit they were the only band that kinda took us out and showed us the ropes and basically took us back to the starting line. Those guys schooled us and continue to school us. Thankfully for us we just pestered them enough I guess where they finally said "O.K."! (laughs)

D.S. So is that how it all began?

M.L. Yeah, I mean we started to use that on our resume--I suppose you would call it, and that helped us. Local radio began to treat us as a  kinda like a "favored" lcocal band and got behind us and that's how our manager caught wind of us and with the help of him we got a demo up to New York to some entertainment lawyers and they passed it on to Wind Up who liked us and here we are. It was all started by Sevendust.

D.S. Odd that Wind Up has "Creed" who are almost Christian rock and now you guys who seem to openly question some of those ideals...both on the same label and both bands very much on a roll.

M.L. You know..ah, I don't think we're that different. I mean if you dive into some of Scott's lyrics (Scott Stapp from Creed) he's got a  lot of questioning going on on the religious thing himself...whereas Dave I think , has just gotten past the questioning part already (laughs). You know he (Dave) and his parents I think were questioning it as he was growing up. When you're told one thing and then you see something completely different by the people who were supposedly practicing what they preach. I myself, both my parents passed away when I was really young and I didn't get the benefit...if there is a benefit to going to church, so I grew up kinda ignorant to the whole religion thing....over time you start to realize though that it's not necessarily true that what's right for you is right for somebody else and I think that's what Dave writes about...things like that

D.S. One of the things I like about the band is that you aren't a one dimensional band like many that are out there...a lot of bands out there are just riding a wave or trend and seem to be writing for that. All the songs the same lyrically and musically.

M.L. Well some of it is going to be the same 'cuz you know art is life and life is a representation of art you know? You wake up one day and you're in a pissed off mood and you write a song it's going to have pissy overtones and then you wake up another day feeling great and all the world is fucking great and hunky dory--then you'll write a song that's about birds singing and sunshine over the mountain tops and shit...it takes all kinds man you know? There's good and bad, there's ugly there's pretty, not so pretty, nice and mean    aggressive, low key...you gotta have all of that. Balance is the key that makes the whole world go around.

D.S. That's another thing the band has going...like some of the N-U Metal bands and obviously death metal bands get old with everything being ultra aggressive and over the top...very one sided.

M.L. Well that's what we try not to be, I mean life's all about a bunch of crutches and vices. We all have them. BUT, to use it as your excuse, it's going to get to be an old tired excuse within a week. Fuck, get on with life you know? You can sit and think about it all day long but it's up to you to change it ultimately.

D.S. How does it feel having already written what could be considered a bona fide rock anthem in "Bodies"?

M.L. We just started carrying the flag really that somebody gave to us. We were told the song was good and to run with it and it wasn't like we wrote it as that you know? More and more people kept saying it was a great song and we were looking at it like just being happy anyone liked the son of a bitch. We never knew it was gonna have the uh, impact that it did. It puts the pressure I think more on the people who are responsible for making us what we are more so than for us to write another song like it you know? We didn't know that one was gonna be any good. Our label knew it...when we were told they were goign to release that one we were like, "Really...that song (laughs)? Are you crazy?" So we're gonna leave it up to them again. We'll write the next album and see where it goes and let the people that know make the decisions.

D.S. What's the deal behind the "Bodies" video having nothing to do with the song?

M.L. That's kinda what attracted us to that video treatment idea that was sent to us. We're a brand new band, debut album, debut band, debut song and you could have worked the wrestling tie in with the song...it seems like a no brainer. So therefore, the video felt like a no brainer. A club video, people sweatin, there should be a mosh pit, there should be live, band and audience shots...What I just described would work but I just described half the frickin video's that bands put out though. So, with that in mind we thought if we did that kind of video we might just get put on the shelf. At that time we were into like "12 Monkeys", "Seven" and "Fight Club"as some of our favorite movies and the director of the video, Glenn Bennett, submitted a very similar treatment to us on the idea for the video. Hell, he even had some of the same phrases and things that we say that were in the treatment so we knew this had to be the guy. He included us on the production ideas and it just went great. We saw eye to eye and it worked out great.

D.S. Tell me how the WWF tie in came about?

M.L. The WWE now you mean?

D.S. Ahhh yeah  you got me there I guess...

M.L. Have to make sure we get that right now.

D.S. Yeah we might get sued!

M.L. Yeah...hahah, well that all came about before the video even and it's one of those which came first the chicken or the egg sorta questions? If you ask the WWE they say the record company came to them and if you ask the label they say the WWE came to them with the idea to use it. Nobody can really remember what happened when and you know it just worked out though....it was another one of those no brainer things that have happened. We always wanted that song to be a tie in to some kind of extreme sport type of footage  and now Blue Torch has used it, ESPN has, X Games I think and with those and that marriage with the wrestling thing, that song has kinda just took on a life of it's own.

D.S. Last question...highs and lows of Ozzfest for Drowning Pool?

M.L. In a word, Ozzfest itself is the high...it's a high all on it's own man. Like summer camp for rock people. I mean this is your job you travel from city to city and you hang out with not only some of the coolest people on the planet but some of the coolest bands ever..and you get the chance to meet new bands. I mean shit, we're still new too, but this is our second run on the fest. The only low right now is that we don't see enough of Sharon and Ozzy with the obvious health concerns for Sharon. I mean last year, we would see or run into Sharon, Ozzy, Jack and Kelly all over the place every day and this year that isn't the case...and you know with Ozzy coming back we take that as a good sign that maybe things are going well for Sharon and we just pray for her and the whole family. It's one of those things right now where you hate for it to happen...but you know that it has to happen for things to get better and get back the way they should be.

D.S. Any final words for Chicago?

M.L. Thanks for supporting us and we hope to see you all again next year.