Richard HolmesDoes 2022 mark a new beginning for Canadian metal legend Jeff Waters? Is it the end of the road for Annihilator? And just what has he been cooking up in his UK studio? Rich Holmes found out…
The last time Rushonrock shared a coffee with Annihilator’s Jeff Waters, it was summer 2019. The Canadian was happily ensconced in his Durham studio, excitedly unveiling snippets from what would become the Ballistic Sadistic album… and enthusing about living in the UK with his wife, North Easterner Angie.
Just a few months later in October, Waters was ripping through Armed To The Teeth and Psycho Ward on stage in Newcastle.
It was opening night on his band’s extensive European tour.
The momentum was with Annihilator, ahead of the release of their 17th full-length.
2020 should have seen the famous metal/thrash act build on Ballistic Sadistic’s success… and celebrate the 30th anniversary of Never Neverland with a host of festival shows.
Then came the small matter of a global pandemic.
And Waters, like all of us, felt its ice cold grip.
It made him reflect.
Re-focus…
Chatting via Zoom from his own Watersound Studios, he’s certainly as affable and talkative as ever.
His passion for music and appreciation for Annihilator’s fans shines through.
He is delighted with the recently released Metal II, a reinvention of 2007’s Metal with Stu Block and Dave Lombardo in tow, and a host of A-list shredders in the mix.
He’s excited to be planning some long-awaited gigs.
To be getting back out there.
But Covid-19 hit Waters hard.
“I got a nasty version,” he says of that time. “I got the real lung hit.
“It was like a crackling fire for two weeks. I had this blood oxygen level that was literally deadly. And I was going to have to get the tube down my throat.
“I recovered from that, but it took about six months to get my lungs back.”
Today, thankfully, Annihilator’s chief songwriter, guitarist and vocalist looks fighting fit.
And he used the enforced hiatus to fix health problems – including a hernia – that had gestated across decades of wielding flying-Vs, sleeping on tour buses and hunching over mixing desks.
“I counted seven health issues that I had,” he reveals. “As a musician, when you’re touring all the time, you don’t stop. Maybe you’re not eating properly and not exercising regularly.
“And I’ve had a studio since 1994. Try spending three or four months on the computer, 10, 12 or 14 hours a day and then playing this crazy heavy metal guitar stuff! You’ll know why people like Eddie Van Halen got hip replacements.
“I went for a check up and they came back really worried that I had some kind of muscular problem. They wanted to start testing. They didn’t understand that since I was 14, I’ve been putting a guitar on my shoulder!”
A new chapter for Jeff Waters
There’s plenty of fire left in Waters’ belly (if not the junk food he’s kicked into touch).
Fans have been excited to learn that former Iced Earth singer Stu Block could front Annihilator for upcoming shows.
And Waters reveals he’s talking to members of thrash metal’s ‘Big Four’ about recording a tune or two. “I’m the little guy,” he jokes “My idea was to do a song or maybe an EP and not get managers involved. No labels, no bullshit.
“Let’s do at least one badass song. And do it right. And give it away, maybe for charity.”
However, he thinks that Ballistic Sadistic could be the final studio album from Annihilator.
The end of a run that stretches back to 1989’s Alice in Hell.
That may come as a shock to some fans, given the strength of that record and the success of the subsequent tour.
Even Waters admits that the 2019 European jaunt was the best they’d done in 20 years.
“We were selling out venues and they would upgrade the venues while we were still starting in England,” he recalls. “The bus driver was getting angry because he was having to change his driving routes!”
So what’s the story?
“My last record was the 17th studio record. That’s like 180 songs. That’s my whole life.
“When I finished (Ballistic Sadistic), I thought, you know what, it’s not my best record but it’s probably in my top seven. That’s not bad out of 17.
“I realised that it’s time to quit not when you’re on top, but when you’re definitely not at the bottom.
“So as far as studio work and writing a new Annihilator record goes, I’d say I’m about 96.73% not interested.
“When you’re the main writer since summer 1984 to now, are you really going to get anything better than this? You’re not going to go back and be able to recapture what you did. You tried that 10 times. It doesn’t work like that.
“This time, it’s like, screw it. I don’t think I can get better. I just don’t have that inspiration to do another studio record.”
But that doesn’t mean Annihilator’s founder won’t be creating new music.
Waters is busy with a new band, inspired by 70s and 80s hard rock.
Given his love of Van Halen, The Sweet, Kiss and AC/DC, that’s perhaps no surprise…
“The stuff that I’ve been doing in here is unbelievably fun,” he says, gesturing to the mixing desk and racks of guitars behind him. “I have to shut it off for the weekend so my wife doesn’t totally divorce me!
“I’m having a blast. I get to do what I want outside of the heavy metal side of my life. And I’ve been waiting to do this for 20 or 25 years.”
A re-think.
A re-appraisal.
Whatever you want to call it, Waters has made some big life and career decisions recently.
And one of them led to earMusic’s extensive Annihilator re-release campaign, which launched with Metal II.
There’ll be bonus tracks, unreleased material and special editions. Around 18 records are set to be included.
“As soon as I got hit by COVID, I’m like ‘okay, wake-up call, get your house in order,” says the adopted North Easterner. “Does your family know you love them, your kids? Check. Are they financially going to be ok? Check.
“How’s your music? And I thought, wow, most of the titles aren’t available on Spotify or iTunes, maybe in six countries, but the other 60… there’s nothing there.
“We all have legacies. Collecting baseball cards your entire life, that’s a legacy. My legacy was Annihilator.
“And I thought, ‘what a mess’. Crappy recordings, expired deals, companies that are still selling them illegally. I had to figure it all out.
“So once the first two things on the checklist were done after I recovered from COVID it was ‘I’ve got to get the musical house in order’. And I did. I just said I don’t want to manage all this mess that I created as far as scattered expiring deals go and all that.”
Hence the deal with earMusic…
Waters says he spent three months in the studio remastering, reordering and finding bonus material. Getting Annihilator’s back catalogue in optimum shape.
“I’m never going to deal with it again,” he says. “I sold it to a company that guaranteed they would make it available on every platform. So it’s all coming out over the next two years and it will be there forever.
“So if anybody wants to see my little legacy, it will be available.”
It’s not the end for Annihilator
Waters has proposed a reunion tour focusing on Annihilator’s first three albums, possibly including Never Neverland-era vocalist Coburn Pharr and Aaron Randall, who sang on 1993’s Set The World On Fire. According to the Canadian guitarist, Stu Block has offered to take up the late Randy Rampage’s mantle for performances of Alice in Hell – which happens to be his favourite Annihilator opus.
A second tour would feature songs from the rest of the band’s extensive catalogue, with the potential for former Annihilator singers Joe Comeau and Dave Padden to play a part.
It’s early days.
But Waters is already grinning ear to ear at the prospect.
Taking festivals into account, the run, he says, could last until 2026: “I guess if we were Kiss we could do this Annihilator thing for 30 more years!”
He seems to be looking forward to stepping down from the mic though…
“We’re just going to have fun,” explains Waters. “It’s at that point. It’s not about money or survival. It’s a great way to end the career, so to speak.
“I can just play guitar now and let real singers go out and do the real singing.
“And I can kick back and eat more pizza!”
Take a look at Annihilator’s Facebook page and you’ll be left in no doubt at fans’ demand for live shows. They may not have had the mainstream success of Metallica or a bona fide radio hit (“you don’t expect that’s going to happen with a band called Annihilator”) but the band are entrenched with metalheads across the globe.
When those tours do eventually happen, Jeff and co. might need a bigger bus…
“You have always got to pinch yourself that you’re this age and you’re still planning these tours,” says Waters. “And that part is mind blowing.”
Metal II is out now on earMusic. Check out our review here.