Max Cavalera’s career in the metal scene features as many controversies as musical achievements. The Sepultura founder and Soulfly frontman created his reputation through numerous disputes, confrontations, and public statements.
Max Cavalera’s Religious Statements and Provocative Views
In a revealing interview with MusicOMH, Cavalera shared his complex views about religion. “I do hate a lot of ‘religion,’ but people like Christ – yeah they inspire me,” he said. “I mean if you look at Christ, He was hanging around with the lowlifes, prostitutes and the losers you know, not going around with those high society motherf*ckers you see trying to sell Jesus today!”
Perhaps one of his most controversial statements was about the Varg Vikernes church burnings. He said, “I support church burnings 100 percent, but why don’t we just burn everything? Mosques, temples, all religious buildings.”
His stance on church burnings evolved over time, though. He moved from initial support to later describing such actions as “too violent.”
Cavalera’s Feud With Marc Rizzo
The departure of guitarist Marc Rizzo from Soulfly created tension. According to Metal Injection, Cavalera parted ways with Rizzo for personal reasons. However, Rizzo didn’t agree with that. He cited lack of financial support during the pandemic, saying, “In this very difficult year I really got no support from Soulfly, you know? There was no sort of loans that were taken out for the bandmembers or the crew. I had to go back and get a day job, I was doing home renovations working very hard 10 hours a day.”
Cavalera countered these claims. He described Rizzo’s statements as a “mental breakdown” and added, “This is crazy. And I don’t understand all these accusations too; it’s so out of character for him. All these accusations — it hurts. It hurts to hear. After everything that we did for him, which was a lot — we put him on all the records and always took really good care of him, always really, really gave good treatment to him. To hear him backstabbing us like that, it’s just not nice. He’s obviously trying to get fans to be against me and make him the victim.”
Cavalera’s Rock Star Antics
The Phoenix New Times reported several notorious incidents from Cavalera’s wild days. These included throwing wine on Lemmy Kilmister’s head and vomiting on Eddie Vedder during a Ministry tour. “Those are f*cking amazing stories and you can’t fabricate this sh*t,” he said. “I pissed off a lot of people. I called Igor Cavalera’s ex-wife a wh*re. Early days of Sepultura . . . me hopping around like a Tasmanian devil on stage and that was usually after, like, six shots of vodka and some painkillers, but I wasn’t fucked up. It was fuel for the shows.”
Another incident took place when Sepultura performed naked with socks on their genitals during a Motörhead show. As he recalls, “I wanted Sepultura to play ‘Orgasmatron,’ but Lemmy wouldn’t let us, so I got pissed off and the last night of that tour we all went on stage during Motorhead’s last song naked with socks on our c*cks and ruined their night. Lemmy got super-pissed and yelled at Gloria. He told her we were never going to make it in rock ‘n’ roll and we were unprofessional. We’ve laughed about it since then, and I think we gained their respect.”
According to Cavalera’s memoir ‘My Bloody Roots,’ this isn’t the end. “There is a section in the book where I talk about when I met Dino Cazares from Fear Factory and he talks about us meeting in a bathroom in Los Angeles,” he recalled another incident. “We were taking a piss, and there was this kid between us, and I just started pissing on the kid. Dino talked about us laughing our *sses off and I don’t remember any of that.”
Max Cavalera – Bobby Burns Feud
Former bassist Bobby Burns shared his experiences working with Cavalera through Metal Injection. He talked about the tensions with the Cavalera family and recalled a particular incident involving his newborn child being removed from a dressing room. This led to a memorable interaction with Slash, who told Burns, ‘Welcome to Guns N’ Roses.’
“I thought they were happy for me when I got married,” Burns said. “To my face they were. I thought they were happy when my son Ryder was born. To my face they were. But you see.. in that band there’s only one family. Theirs. It is really sad and hurtful honestly. They had me fooled. Their old bass player had a baby and what happened? Back were turned on him. He was accused of a bunch of bullsh*t that wasn’t true and all that, only to make them feel better about themselves.”
He also recalled the following about meeting Slash: “I came across Slash, and he was like, ‘You play in Soulfly?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, man. You rock!’ He was like, ‘Why are you guys in here?’ and I told him. He said ‘Welcome to Guns N’ Roses.’ That stuck with me and burned into my brain. It was simply the truth. But he only had one Axl to deal with. Soulfly has a wife, a husband, and 9 million kids to deal with. 90% with the same attitude.”
Cavalera Loves You Hating Him
As you can see, Max Cavalera’s career is full of wild stories and many controversies. He doesn’t have a cellphone, but he asks his wife about what’s been written about him, and he thinks the hate is like gasoline. “I tell her like, ‘Show me some people talking sh*t.’ So she gives me the phone, and there’s all these people talking sh*t. And I read it, and I go on the stage and I f*ck sh*t up. It’s ammunition. It’s gasoline for the fire.”
Love him or hate him, he remains one of the most outspoken figures in metal.
