Saliva discusses Memphis soul influence

Saliva lead vocalist Josey Scott doesn't care much for critics of his Memphis-based hard rock band.

No surprise, really, as recording artists and the media have always shared a cantankerous relationship, but Scott felt critics of Saliva's 2001 "Every Six Seconds" debut album weren't listening closely enough to what he and his arena rock cohorts were striving to achieve.

"Reviewers called us a poor man's rap-rock," the 36-year-old Scott (born Joseph Sappington) said by telephone from a recent tour stop in Fayetteville, Ark. "People didn't recognize our Memphis roots, man. We have a lot of soul in us, and that's something that's overlooked when people talk about our music."

Born and raised in Memphis – a city famously nicknamed "Soulsville, USA" after the Stax Records roster turned the music world upside-down in the late 1950s and 1960s – Scott melded his band's hook-laden hard rock around the town's famous sounds.

"Most of us were raised in the 'hood," he said, "and we heard everything from Al Green to Otis Redding, Three 6 Mafia to the Mississippi Mass Choir, Elvis, and the Staple Singers. How could you not be influenced by all of that great music?"

Rock radio listeners heralded Saliva's "Every Six Seconds," which spawned two high-octane hits in "Your Disease" and the sports anthem "Click Click Boom." Music writers, however, panned the band for riding the coattails of the Kid Rocks, Limp Bizkits, and KoRns of that era.

"Every Six Seconds," still the band's biggest-selling album, went gold in America to the critics' chagrin, but it firmly planted Saliva on the hard rock map.

The band enjoyed sophomore success in 2003 with radio hits "Always," a midtempo rocker with soaring melodies that hit #1 on the modern rock charts, and "Rest in Pieces," a weepy track that found moderate success.

Since their 2001 debut, the band has released three more albums, including "Blood Stained Love Story" this past January. It entered the Billboard Top 200 Album Sales chart at #19, driven by the boisterous first single "Ladies and Gentlemen," which peaked at #2 on the magazine's Mainstream Active Rock Radio chart.

"Blood Stained Love Story" is the band's first album without co-founding guitarist Chris D'abaldo, who left the band in 2005, citing creative differences. The band recruited former Full Devil Jacket guitarist Jonathan Montoya to fill that void last year. He rounds out the quintet, which includes Wayne Swinny (guitar), Dave Novotny (bass), and Paul Crosby (drums).

Scott believes there's a familiarity to the band's new material that long-time Saliva fans will easily recognize, but he adds they continue to develop new, bolder ideas to keep their music fresh. Fans will notice a stronger Memphis-inspired blues melodies on songs like "One More Chance" and the latest single "Broken Sunday."

"We're not afraid to push ourselves musically in different directions, and I attribute that, too, from being from Memphis," Scott said. "Elvis wasn't afraid to take old blues music and turn it into rock-n-roll. We're inspired by people like that. We're inspired by guys like W.C. Handy, B.B. King and Albert King – guys who didn't care where the spirit of music came from as long as it was there."

As their sound continues to grow, and Saliva take on new textures and tones, Scott stresses that their southern, blue-collar roots remain intact.

"We will always be a straight-up 'party all night, get up on Sunday and ask forgiveness type of rock band.' That's just who we are, and that will never change about us. As long as people are still listening to our music, we'll continue to be the sty in the eye of rock-n-roll."