Jerry Horton of Papa Roach Checks In At The Blaze For Rockzilla

Papa Roach guitarist Jerry Horton joined Shawn on the Rockstar Radio show this week to talk about the upcoming show at the Adams Center in Missoula and the changing landscape of touring.

Looking back I can pinpoint the day I discovered Papa Roach. It was July 7th, 2000 in Bozeman Montana. The band was fairly new to everyone, but I'll never forget the show or the pit. It was so hot and sweaty as everyone was moshing on black asphalt and dirt. You could barely breathe or even see by the end of the set. It was awesome.

From that day forward I was a fan. It's incredible to see a band remain successful in the studio and on the road for over twenty years, especially with the changes. in 2000 there were no music streaming services, or social media, hell we still bought physical concert tickets at a record store to the show.

So how has Papa Roach stayed at the top of their game this long in a digitally driven world when it comes to music?

Everybody has a niche. Everybody has direct access to their fans, and with streaming, and even with radio, more of the data is accessible and we can find out how we're doing in a certain area. You know on one side of it it's created more work for us in terms of getting out there and doing all the social media stuff, but when I think about it we were doing just as much work back in the day doing promos and interviews and all that kind of stuff too.  - Jerry Horton/Papa Roach

Papa Roach are the veteran band on this RockZilla tour. Joined with Falling In Reverse, Escape The Fate, and Hollywood Undead, you have to wonder if they had any advice for these younger bands when it came to the tour and industry in general?

You know the whole "maybe you don't want to spend money on that or whatever". We got those speeches too, but we didn't pay any attention to them.....  We're happy to have that conversation but we know it's going to fall on deaf ears. Most people have to learn the hard way. - Jerry Horton/Papa Roach

After a slight show postponement due to the weather, Papa Roach is ready to take over Missoula once more, and I'm stoked to get another one of their sets under my concert belt. You can listen to the interview with Jerry below.