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Josey Scott Interview; Celebrating
Every Six Seconds At The Foundry
January 18, 2026
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Josey Scott, the original voice of Saliva is headed out on a solo tour that will be celebrating the 25th Anniversary of Saliva's breakthrough album Every Six Seconds. Josey will be making a stop at The Foundry on January 24 to celebrate.
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We had the chance to chat with Josey over Zoom to help preview the show. He talked about his memories of making that album, touring with Kiss and Aerosmith as well as his future plans.
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Greg Drugan: Hey Josey, I appreciate you taking some time with me today. I know you have a busy schedule.
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Josey Scott: Of course!
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GD: Every Six Seconds turns 25 this year, when you look back at that album now, what does it represent to you personally and creatively?
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Josey Scott: That’s a good question. I think it represents the national release of that version of us. That birthing process of that level of being signed to a major record label and playing in the big leagues. That was the moment we all dreamed of. I used to hear cats say all the time, “When we get our record deal, that’s when we’ll make it.” When you get your record deal, that’s when the starting gun happens. I think that was the beginning, birthing process of our career. Like they say, you’ve had your whole life to write that record. Now you’ve got six weeks to write the next one.
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GD: No pressure! (laughs)
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JS: Right! No pressure for sure.
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GD: That record helped define a whole era of hard rock and nu-metal. Did you have any idea at the time that songs like “Click Click Boom” and “Your Disease” would still resonate decades later?
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JS: We were one of those bands that treated every song like it was going to be the single. They all become your babies. You raise these little children and you raise them up as good as they can possibly be and then you throw them out into the world for them to sink or swim. I think every song was that for us, every song was a single. When we were working on it, we really concentrated on making that song the best. Whether it was “Click Click Boom” or “Must Have Been Wrong” or “Faultline” or “Always” any of those songs. We gave each song it’s proper day in court. To see the success of “Click Click Boom” or “Always” and the songs that have really resonated with people, it’s just been a blessing. I’m so grateful and thankful to be a part of something that’s helped heal people. It’s helped people through some of the toughest parts of their life. Whether it be a heartbreak or bad parents or divorce or abusive partners. I’m glad we touched people in a healthy, healing way.
GD: Absolutely, for sure! Has your relationship with those songs changed, especially now that you’re performing them in a solo artist?
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JS: That’s a great question. I’ve been blessed with a really good band. There’s no replacing Wayne Swinny, god rest his soul. I adored Wayne and Wayne adored me. We were the toxic twins. We definitely had the fortunates of writing some great stuff together. Going back and rehearsing those songs with the band I’ve been blessed with, it’s sorta like being transported back in a time capsule to that moment in time. It takes you right back to everything that was going on around you in 1997 or 1998 or 2001. Whatever that time frame may be. It transports you back to that time in your life and exactly what was going on in your life. I’ve only been able to write about what’s going on in my life right then. I’ve never been one of those artists that just pulls lyrics from some imaginary place. It takes you right back to that place and I think that’s interesting and fun and sweet and adorable about these songs. Hopefully, it will be able to do that for other people.
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GD: Yeah, history is the best memory maker. You forget about a song and then you hear it and it’s like “My god, I remember what I was doing back then!” And you get to do it every night!
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JS: Absolutely!
GD: Man, what a gift! So what made you decide to do this album, Every Six Seconds on this anniversary tour and are you playing the album in its entirety?
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JS: Again, great questions. The twenty-fifth anniversary is sort of an important mile marker for us. It doesn’t feel like twenty-five years. It feels like maybe five years ago, maybe ten years ago. Since then, I’ve had three brand new children and I’ve been married for twenty years. All these blessings have happened and tragedies. Losing my son, Cody to COVID on May 22, 2021 was just, I can’t even tell you how awful that has been. You just try to do the best you can and I think this tour will be a tribute to the 25 years that the Every Six Seconds album has, like you said, resonated with people and it will be a celebration of that music. There’s a song on the record, “My Goodbyes” that’s really personal and it talks about my son that I lost and it talks about the father that I lost. The two men in my life that I loved the most. We will probably not be doing that one. But we’re going to play most of it except for a couple.
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GD: Very cool. When you revisit that period in your career, what memories stand out the most, either from the studio or from life on the road- hitting that big tour for the first time?
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JS: When we first signed our first record deal, I still lived at home. I lived with my mom there in East Memphis on Green Dolphin Street. I still had my bedroom at my mothers house. I didn’t own a car, I didn’t own my own home. My mother told me one time, “Things are never going to be the same now.” I was like, “Come on now mom, things are going to be the same. We aren’t going to change or be different.” She couldn’t have been more right. There’s no school on learning how to handle what’s coming. Only speaking for myself, we hit some great strides but we hit some pitfalls too. We were surrounded by things that we never got to be surrounded by before. It’s like someone handed you the keys to 31 Flavors, Baskin-Robins. They say “hey, eat all you want. Don’t worry about anything, we got you! Just go have a blast.” That first bowl of ice cream is amazing! Even the second bowl of ice cream is pretty damn good. But by the third bowl of ice cream you start to get nauseous and by the next one, it just becomes something that just makes you sick. It turns on you and I think that’s exactly what happened to us. We’re no different. We didn’t reinvent the wheel or anything. You can watch any “Behind The Music” and see these things. Right up to when they are going to a commercial, they say “And they would never be the same.” We had all of those stereotypical pitfalls, drugs, alcohol, girls, money, contracts, lawyers, record labels, managers, all of those things. For me, you have to have a pretty sober mind to deal with those things. And we were hard at it, dude! We were going full blast from 2001 to 2009. We were just four to the floor, gas pedal to the ground, son. I’m definitely not saying I’m proud of it, but I’m not denying it either. It’s something that I had to go through. It’s something we had to go through as a five-way marriage. Because it is a five-way marriage.
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If I could pass on anything to up and coming bands is that you have to learn to get along. You have to learn how to live with each other and not eat each other. You know what I mean? I think that’s why my first band, Blackbone sort of imploded. We didn’t know what we were doing. We didn’t know that you had to sort of compromise and communicate and do all these things. It’s the fundamentals that a lot of young bands miss and we certainly missed them. That’s why Blackbone didn’t work out. I call Blackbone bootcamp for Saliva. Nobody can ever prepare you for what is coming. I think if I could change anything about the music industry I would change the fact that they should have some type of school or course that you mandatorily have to take to learn how to deal with money and fame and lawyers and the wording of these contracts. Like Kat Williams said one time, the wording of these contracts is insane! How are you supposed to know what to do when it says “if you play throughout the universe” on your contract. I’m like “So if we play on Mars, they get a piece of it?” It’s a tricky business, and speaking only for myself, you have to be really sober minded and take that as it comes and take it head on. Take the bull by the horns.
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GD: Absolutely. Did you happen to have a favorite tour? Like you and some other bands back in the day and this is the one that stands out.
JS: Certainly. Kiss and Aerosmith was my favorite. We heard that tour was going to happen. I think we were out with Disturbed or Nickleback or maybe it was Sevendust. We heard “hey, Kiss and Aerosmith are going on tour together. They’ve never toured together since the ‘70s.” Apparently there was some kind of knife fight with two of their roadies. An Aerosmith roadie and the Kiss roadie got in this knife fight and they swore that they’d never tour together and they didn’t. But they said that they were going to tour together and they were looking for new, up and coming bands that want to open the show. We were like, “we’ll never get it, but can we put our name in the hat?” They were like, “sure.” We went back out on the road, putting our nose to the grindstone. A few months later, our manager came to us and said, “Hey, I think it’s down to you guys and Billy Idol.” I was like, “What? No way!” They said “yeah, they’re either going to do a retro tour with Billy Idol or they’re gonna go with a newer act and it’s gonna be you guys.” I was like “you are freaking kidding me, dude! There’s no way this is true.” I’ll never forget that they were in some type of boardroom talking about this and they were debating whether it was going to be Billy Idol or Saliva. Gene Simmons' kid came in and overheard them talking and said “Oh dad, please pick Saliva. Please let it be Saliva.” I could kiss him on the mouth when I see him for that. That was the most unforgettable, the most emotional, just absolute peak of our careers. Getting to spend every day and every night with our idols. Get to watch Kiss get ready and put their makeup on and watch Aerosmith pull up and see Steven Tyler get out of that limousine with a police escort. Every night playing on stage, they would come and watch us. Almost every night, Steven Tyler stood in the wings and watched every song we played. I finally got the chance to ask him, “Why do you come watch us every night? Little ol’ Saliva.” He poked me in the chest and said, “Because you're the fuckin’ competition, that’s why!”
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GD: What a compliment!
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JS: I know! What do you say to that? I could never be your competition. What a compliment for him to say that. He’s the sweetest, most giving, most humble, most grateful human being that I’ve ever seen in my life. He had his daughters out there. He was so kind and considerate to us, he took us under his wing. Just an absolute sweetheart. I got to hang with Gene and Paul a lot and just absolute the same. They were so giving and kind to us, being an up and coming band. I had food poisoning on the tour one time and Peter Criss came and took care of me and made sure I was ok. Him and his wife took me into Kiss’ dressing room and put a cold towel on my head and laid me out on the couch. When it came time for Kiss to go on stage, they’re my hero’s! They literally walk by the couch and Gene Simmons leans down with his bass and says, “I hope you feel better, bro.” I’m like…. Speechless! So that’s an easy answer for me.
GD: Besides the hits that you are going to be playing, are there any deeper cuts that you’ve gained a new appreciation for over the years?
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JS: The songs that we never played with Saliva, or didn’t play a lot or maybe played only one or two times that got ejected from the setlist because there were so many songs that we were trying to compile into an hour and a half or two hour show. Some of those deep cuts that you love, sort of get lost in the shuffle. We treated every song like it was a single to us. Whether the record company pushed it or not. I think getting to play songs like “Faultline” and “Must Have Been Wrong” those songs are really special moments to me. Because I had experienced my first heartbreak back then, I had gotten hurt by a girl really bad back then for the first time and I know what wrote those songs. It’s fun to revisit those emotions in that time frame in my life. It’s really fun to play the deep tracks that we never got to play.
GD: You will be playing The Foundry next weekend in Cleveland. Do you have any memories of playing Cleveland in the past?
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JS: Absolutely, man! I had two friends that were in Blackbone with me, Trent Anderson and Brian, we call him Cheese, he was the bass player, they’re both from Cleveland so we definitely spent some time there. I remember back in the mid to late nineties all the cool punk bands and glam bands that came out of Cleveland. It’s just a cool town, you got the boardwalk and it’s just a cool place to play. I’m looking forward to getting to go back to Cleveland. We get back to Cleveland, Cleveland!
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GD: That’s right, brother! Do you have any up and coming projects that you would like to talk about?
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JS: Sure! We just released three new singles under the Josey Scott name. We have “Famous” and a song called “Who?” and we have a brand new single that just came out a few weeks ago called “FAFO” fuck around and find out. It’s crazy with what’s going on in the world because everything is FAFO now. So three brand new singles, I’m definitely interested in doing some more acting. My son, Justice is an amazing actor as well. You’ll probably be seeing Justice Scott acting out there as well. I’ve always wanted to do a western, that’s on my bucket list. I just love the art of acting, it sort of lends itself to songwriting. Like they say, musicians make better actors than actors make musicians. I don’t know how true that is, but I definitely enjoy the craft of acting and getting together with a bunch of people and contributing to making something beautiful. I got some other projects that I can’t really talk about. I’m working on a book. I’ve got a lot of big things coming in 2026!
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GD: That’s awesome. When does your tour officially start? We have to be one of the early dates.
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JS: We’re leaving on the 23rd and we’re gonna be out there for a couple of weeks. We can’t wait. We’re going to a lot of our favorite places and Cleveland being one of them.
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GD: Josey, I wish you the best of luck and safe travels on the road and I’m looking forward to seeing you next weekend at The Foundry and we will pack the place for you!
JS: Awesome, brother! We look forward to seeing you! Thank you for all of your cool questions too.
GD: I appreciate that! You take care!
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JS: Alright, brother. I appreciate you!
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Make sure you check out Josey Scott celebrating the 25th Anniversary of Saliva's Every Six Seconds at The Foundry on January 24!
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You can watch the entire Zoom call below.
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