Rock fans from around the state of Florida will be heading to Daytona International Speedway this weekend to attend “Welcome to Rockville.” The 4-day 5-stage rock festival will feature over 150 bands of varying genres from pop-punk to heavy metal. Some popular bands performing at the festival include Linkin Park, Shinedown, Trivium, Green Day, and Finger Eleven.
Finger Eleven guitarist Rick Jackett talks with WOKV’s Chase Bunker ahead of their Thursday performance about their tour with Creed, the band’s upcoming album, and creating the “Greatest Hits” album.
When talking about the band’s most recent tour with Creed, Jackett says “So when we got that call from Creed, it definitely felt out of the blue, but it really was a 20-year friendship that started on that first run of tours that we did with them way back in the beginning when we were all with Wind-up [Records]. During those tours, we created some serious friendships and bonds and you know, like a good friendship, you don’t talk every day but when you see each other it picks up. Well, when we took off back to Canada, we weren’t sure if we’d ever see these guys again, and all of a sudden out of the blue, they gave us a call and they were like ‘Hey we’re putting shows together do you want to be a part of it?’ We were pretty stoked, to be honest. It was like a double win because obviously the tour was incredible and it was exciting that they were getting back together, but the fact that they remembered us and they were excited to have us like we were their first pick. They were like ‘If we’re going to do this, let’s call Finger Eleven.’”
On assembling the track list for their “Greatest Hits” album, Rick says, “It wasn’t easy. It wasn’t, like we had a lot of...like no disagreements but we all probably feel like there was one that got put on and it should have been left off and they’re on different, you know what I mean. I think for us, we’re music nerds we’re like ‘Okay, this isn’t a best of, this is a greatest hits,’ you know what I mean? So it was more single-focused, as far as our songs that we created that have actually succeeded on radio and video and stuff like that.”
Rick reflects on the band being labeled as “nu metal”, gives an update on the upcoming album, and talks about the popular TV show “The Wire” in the full interview.
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