Richard Christy may be known as one of Howard Stern’s sidekicks by many, but to a lot of us metalheads he is possibly one of the best metal drummers of all time. His playing with DEATH helped influence many, and he along with Ripper Owens’ helped create ICED EARTH’s best album to date. At least as far as I’m concerned! For those of you that don’t know Richard formed a new project called CHARRED WALLS OF THE DAMNED, with Owens, bassist extraordinaire Steve DiGiorgio, and producer/guitarist Jason Suecoff.

1. How different was it for you to prepare for this tour as opposed to touring with other bands in the past?

Well with this tour I not only had to practice the drums several hours a day to make sure I was in good shape and knew the songs well, but I also was involved in all of the behind the scenes decisions, like renting a van and trailer for the tour, merchandise for the tour, etc. so it was a lot of work but well worth it.

2. Do you feel that there is added pressure on you due to the notoriety you’ve received from the Stern show?

Ya probably a little bit but there’s also added pressure from people who know me from DEATH and ICED EARTH because those are two very popular heavy metal bands and I definitely want to make sure that I meet all of the expectations of all of the fans who know me from my former bands because I really want people to like Charred Walls of the Damned too.

3. Some people may refer to this as a solo project, or “Richard Christy’s band” due to said notoriety from the Stern show. What would you say to them?

I want them to consider this a full band and I want people to know that every person in this band is equally important. We all worked equally very hard to create our album and we’re all very proud of it. I’m honored that some people are curious about this band because of me but when they hear our music I want the important thing to be that the music is heavy and very catchy and something that headbangers can bang their head to!

4. Given your day job, how often do you get to practice?

I get to practice about an hour or two hours a day in the afternoon. By about 3 or 4 in the afternoon I’m usually getting a little sleepy cause I get up at 4 in the morning but after having an energy drink and sitting behind the drums something just takes over and I catch my second wind!

5. Do you feel that you need tons of practice to keep your chops up or can you just get behind a kit and pick up where you left off?

I think practice is always super important to keep my chops up and drums are something where no matter how many years you’ve played, there’s always something else that you can learn, and it’s the same way with any instrument, you’re always learning. It’s also important to practice to keep up my stamina which is something I wanted to work on a lot before our tour because we did at least an hour and a half a night and I wanted to make sure that I had the same amount of energy at the beginning of the show that I have at the end of the show.
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