Staind Admits to Almost Breaking Up While Recording Latest Album

Friction between band members is practically a prerequisite to recording as a rock band. But, do members push through and get the recording out, or does the entire ensemble fall apart? Although Staind released their last studio album in the fall, the band, apparently, nearly broke up during the recording process.

In a recent interview, frontman Aaron Lewis mentioned that Staind always has had difficulties recording together in the past, but their latest release brought these disagreements to a whole new level. He said: "We weren't even finished with jamming the songs and figuring out the skeletons (of the songs) and everything before it had completely fallen apart. It had never gone this far sideways before, and it was the most grueling, almost unenjoyable, stressful, it was just friggin' horrible."

As a result, the group just about called it quits. In analyzing the situation, however, Lewis mentioned that the group’s continuous 13-year cycle of touring and recording started to fracture Staind. Apparently, producer Johnny K. thought it would be best for all members to record their parts separately, and to finish the album, none of them were in the same location. After all studio sessions, however, drummer Jon Wysocki left.

Staind, their self-titled album released September 13, 2011, is considered one of their darkest releases to date and debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard 200. Since that point, the band decided to do the Mass Chaos 2012 tour, co-headlining with Godsmack.