Dream It, Fight for It, Become It

By Jillian Locke

ent-lead-stone-sour-copyWhat better way to honor the hard working local bands who struggle day in and day out to make their labor of love into something bigger than themselves than to talk with a couple musicians who have done exactly that ~ and persevered. I had the opportunity to talk with Stone Sour drummer Roy Mayorga and Theory of a Deadman vocalist Tyler Connolly and get a glimpse into two very different paths of two extremely successful musicians who are both currently billed on The Avalanche Tour (which also features Halestorm, Skillet and Art of Dying), which touched down at Mohegan Sun on Sunday, May 1.

With a resume boasting such projects as NYC thrash band Nausea, the legendary Sepultura, the Roadrunner United project with Dino Cazares, and loads of session drummer and scoring experience, Mayorga has ridden the emotional rollercoaster of rock and roll all the way to the top. Starting at the ripe old age of 14, Mayorga played in more than a few punk rock and hardcore bands; it was the inspiration he drew from his heroes ~ Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Who, Kiss, and Thin Lizzy ~ that got him through exhaustion and less-than-ideal jobs. “I struggled a lot, went through lots of ups and downs and did a lot of jobs I didn’t want to do,” Mayorga reflects. “But you gotta do what you gotta do.”

Connolly’s musical background was a bit more genetic, giving him a head start on the competition. “My Dad was a musician, so I pretty much grew up with instruments and recording equipment all around me; we even had a jam space in the basement. I was really lucky.” TOADM traces its roots back to a restaurant job Connelly and bassist Dean Back worked together, and since the late 90s the boys have been pressing towards their current success that no one saw coming.

ent-lead-theory-of-a-deadm-copyMayorga never anticipated Stone Sour’s success either. “Five, six years ago, I almost gave up. Before Soulfly, there were so many different bands and situations that I moved on from. I came to a halt, and at 34-35 years old, I thought I was done.” But clearly, being done with music was not in the cards. His motto, “Believe in yourself and you’ll get there eventually,” resonates with musicians and non-musicians alike. “I’ve been doing this for a good 30 something years of my life, and I’m lucky to have a gig like Stone Sour and to play music for a living.”

For Connolly, his path naturally unfurled before him, leading him towards a means of artistic and financial sustenance that he now knows was destined all along. “I’ve given up family and relationships to do what I do. This is the path I chose, and I love to sing songs for a living. I didn’t really know if I could accept this ~ being who I am ~ but I’ve always been a really independent guy, kind of the oddball of all my friends. I never knew what that would lead to…I would have never expected it to be this, but I guess I should have seen it coming.”

To all of the bands nominated in the 2011 WMAs: What is your destiny? Is it laid out before you, or is it something for which you’ll fight and sacrifice almost anything? Will you grab it by the horns and pursue it with every fiber of your being?

Make sure to pick up Stone Sour’s latest album, Audio Secrecy, and stay tuned for a new release by TOADM that they’ve been busy recording at Bay 7 Studios in Los Angeles, CA.

www.theoryofadeadman.com, www.stonesour.com