Drowning Pool’s juggernaut single Bodies was released on May 14, 2001. The debut single from the Texan metal mob quickly made its presence known to hard rock fans around the world, and changed the lives of the four musicians who recorded it.
Their signature brand of nu-metal placed equal emphasis on heavy groove and melody. For guitarist C.J. Pierce, who wrote the iconic riff, it was a case of combining the Mardi Gras music that soundtracked his childhood with the distortion and intensity he fell in love with as a teenager, in order to create something joyful and spirited.
This is Pierce’s story of the song that filled the floor of almost every metal club across the globe and become an anthem for a generation.
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A house in New Orleans
I grew up in New Orleans, surrounded by jazz and funk. One of my first loves was funk – stuff by James Brown and The Meters. Later on the Red Hot Chili Peppers came out, and John Frusciante was a huge influence on me.
Then I got into Testament. Alex Skolnick is one of my favorite guitarists of all time, so that was my journey from funk into thrash. I’ve met him at the NAMM conventions. I’m always nervous – like, “Hello Mr. Skolnick, so nice to meet you!”
Then you have players like Nuno Bettencourt who mix heavy with funky. Faith No More were huge for me. When we started, Angel Dust was an album every single member loved.
I was doing a lot of electrical work during the early ’90s. I’d get home and rock out on my guitar. I still have the four-track tape with the first version of the riff. You’d be surprised; everything on it, including Bodies, was in a straight-up funk style.
The song carried on evolving when me and [drummer] Mike Luce moved to Dallas and found Stevie Benton [bass]. Our original singer Dave Williams’ voice was the icing on the cake. When he came in, he added more heavy. There was more of a Pantera influence coming through.
In the beginning we used to count to eight. In the studio we cut it down to four. There was also some wacky Mike Patton-style stuff that Dave used to do – some local people might still have that demo version.
Dive bombs
When we started out as a local band we didn’t have many fans. We had friends who wanted to stage dive, but nobody would catch them. They would literally hit the floor, which is how we came up with the lyrics.
I remember drinking a couple of Coors Lights and Jägermeister shots then trying to write a good rock song while having fun with music and lyrics. I wasn’t trying to be the best guitar player or songwriter in the world; I just wanted to create something fun. I had six strings and definitely had three of them figured out. In the end that was good enough!
The song is in drop C. Maybe it wouldn’t have sounded as big in standard or regular drop D. Lower tunings add that bottom end and thickness. I currently use 13-65 gauge strings, but for the recording it would have been 12-60.
We tracked Bodies at NRG Studios with Jay Baumgardner. There was this modded Marshall JCM800 head and a black Les Paul that James Hetfield from Metallica had recorded with. We turned that shit up way loud and just went for it.
That’s been my setup ever since. I still swear by Marshalls – they’ve always been a big part of my rig. They have such a wide range. Turn any knob and the tone will change a lot. Other amps don’t do that as much.
You can have five people play the same rig and it’ll sound different, because these amps let you hear the player. Marshalls are just the universal rock amp for me. I didn’t need any overdrive pedals for the recording; I just went straight in.
Break stuff
The first time we played it live was at Zeppelin’s in Metairie. My mom was at the show and there was such a vibe. I figured if she liked the song, then it must be cool. Now it doesn’t matter if there’s four people or 4,000 people – everyone goes nuts. It’s not really about the band, it’s purely about the music. The pit becomes like a tornado.
One time someone was crowdsurfing and threw out their prosthetic leg for me to sign! Another time we saw a guy crowdsurfing in his wheelchair – it got totally destroyed. The audience threw all the pieces on stage and we had to call the security to help him out. Luckily nobody got hurt.
Crazy things happen when we play this song. One time we played it outdoors where they’d just put new grass down. People started throwing chunks everywhere. By the end of the song it had all ended up on stage. I swear we didn’t incite that!
Don’t get me wrong
Bodies has been quite misinterpreted. It’s about being in the pit of a rock show and helping your friends get back up. So the idea of our music being used for anything negative – especially torturing prisoners in Guantanamo Bay – is very strange to us. We didn’t want that to happen. We still don’t know if it did even happen; it might have been a hearsay thing. I jokingly tell everyone that I torture people every day when I pick up my guitar!
Seriously though, music should be a positive thing, so we had to hit this on the head and explain that it’s a moshpit anthem. It’s definitely not about killing people. I don’t mind it being used in sports – you’ll hear it at wrestling events. I’ve heard it in movies and on soundtracks. That’s all great. The torture thing is terrible. It never made any sense to me.
A 25-year rollercoaster ride
I couldn’t have imagined how far this song would end up taking us. But I guess thinking back to that first live performance, we could tell something magical was happening. Our lives changed pretty fast once the single came out and went straight to MTV.
We were the last band added to Ozzfest 2001, going on stage at 10am every morning. They’d open the gate, everybody would come running to the stage and then we’d start playing Bodies. I remember seeing Tony Iommi watching from the side of the stage.
We ended up playing shows with Korn, Rob Zombie, Alice In Chains and Limp Bizkit. I try to be cool when I meet my heroes, but I’m screaming in the back of my head. We even ended up working with Nikki Sixx on some songs.
It’s been a rollercoaster ride. A lot of great things happened in the first two years of this band. To get to that level and still be touring 25 years later is crazy. There’s nothing like the adrenaline rush I get when I come off stage after playing Bodies. It takes hours to come back down every night.
