One of my all-time favorite bands from my youth is most definitely Stone Sour. The combination of enough heaviness and loads of catchy hooks made a lot of their songs stuck in my head for days. So when they happened to pass by Finland at Rockfest, I just knew I had to try and get to talk with one of the guys. Lucky me, before they got to play their show, I got to have a chat with one of the longest serving members of the band after Corey Taylor: guitarist Josh Rand.

When we started our conversation, Josh said he was feeling good and starting to get over the jetlag. Stoked to be out because for him, the summer festivals is the best time to tour.

To Josh, it absolutely feels great to be back after being away from the band for a while to get himself sorted out in rehab. In January he left the tour because he felt terrible after self-medicating for years on end to adjust that situation. It was a tough decision for him since he’s been involved in everything Stone Sour did to this point. But now he’s back, he has a new appreciation for what he has with the band and in it with a clear head, truly excited and feels like it was a blessing to go through this.

It was definitely hard for me, like they say, you know: you don’t know what you have until it’s gone!

Josh about leaving Stone Sour mid tour

He also thinks it’s going to be easier for him to move forward (knocking on wood), because he made the decision to go to rehab. No one told him to do this, because no one knew about the abuse. So instead of being forced into the process and spiral back into abusing those prescription drugs again, he thinks he’ll be able to keep a hold on it.

Getting to tour with Ozzy came as a surprise to them. When they got the call to be asked, they were taken aback by it. Being able to tour with this heavy metal legend that basically helped starting the genre, is awesome. And having Zakk (Wylde) back in the band makes it even better for Josh personally. As much as he appreciates the earlier Ozzy stuff and obviously Black Sabbath, he grew up with the band having Zakk on guitars, so it’s really a big bonus for him.

Josh recently shared a pic on his Instagram page, showing off his wardrobe for the coming tour, joking that his fiancee is dressing him everyday even from across the other side of the world. Since she’s a professional wardrobe stylist who even worked for Prince, it seemed obvious that she’d pick out outfits for him. He wanted to take special care in his stage outfits coming back from that former “haze” during which he got a bit lazy only wearing band shirts. So coming back, his fiancee worked out his outfits and actually took pictures of what goes with what so he could figure it out on his own, hence the joke. It was also a matter for him to show that he’s feeling good again. And plus, he doesn’t want to argue with James Brown who used to say “you don’t play the gig in the same clothes you showed up in”…

Josh also recently proclaimed to have accomplished 3 goals he wanted to achieve with Stone Sour when their album ‘Come What (Ever) May’ went platinum. Which is pretty amazing to him. It took them a while, but it’s crazy that they got to it after all the hurdles they had to overcome throughout the history of the band. They didn’t have that jump to the top slot, but are getting bigger and bigger every time at a steady pace.

To Josh it’s really amazing that they got where they are with Stone Sour, especially since they have a vocalist that is away for a couple of years when focusing on Slipknot. Which Corey is doing already at the time of speaking with Josh. But he sees it now as a good thing, because they get the time to properly work on new music. There is no pressure to get a new record done, because their vocalist is anyway otherwise occupied. And then once Corey is available again, they can record that new album really fast since they’ve been working on it already for months and months.

Plus, he also thinks that having a break from each other is a healthy thing. So that they don’t get fed up with each other by doing tour after tour and when they get back together it actually feels fresh and exciting to play again.

When discussing another artist he’d love to work with on some music, Josh immediately responded with “Jack White!”. He’d be interested to see Jack‘s twist on certain hard rock/metal things Josh writes and where he’d take it.

From a guitar side though, he’d love to write a song with Steve Vai. Where Josh would write the whole rhythm section of the song and then see what Vai would bring to the table. Since Josh thinks he’s a phenomenal composer besides a guitar legend. Because on his records, it gets easily forgotten that he does all the orchestrations of the other instruments as well. Where he has for instance 6 rhythm guitars going and so on, it’s impressive. (Pro tip from Josh: buy Steve Vai‘s ‘Naked Records’)

It would be the heaviest thing Steve ever played, basically! (laughs)

Josh about if he’d get to write with Steve Vai

At the end of our talk, Josh wanted to express his thanks to the fans for all the support since the beginning of the year (and beyond of course).

Later in the day, Josh played an amazing gig with Stone Sour that definitely was one of the highlights of my Rockfest weekend! For the full report go here and for the pics here.