Black Stone Cherry say Download Festival was like 'an out of body experience'
Black Stone Cherry say their triumphant performance at Download Festival was 'surreal' and like an 'out of body experience.'
Taking to the Main Stage ahead of headliners Guns N’ Roses, the Kentucky rockers performed in front of one of the biggest crowds of the entire weekend on late Saturday afternoon.
Speaking to Planet Rock on Sunday, despite almost 24 hours passing, singer Chris Robertson and guitarist Ben Wells were still struggling to comprehend the enormity of the occasion.
Chris said: “We got off stage yesterday and this is the legitimate truth, we got off stage and I texted my wife and I said we’re done. And she goes ‘how was it?’ And I reply with ‘amazing, I think’.
“Because from the minute the intro rolled, from the minute Joe Cocker started playing right, it was like something just clicked and this kind of euphoria came over man.
“It was almost like we were watching ourselves play… for me anyway, I know Ben said he felt the same. At times it felt like we were watching the show rather than performing the show.”
Ben added: “It was an out of body experience.”
“I’m still like, ‘did we play yesterday?!’,” Chris continues. “It’s one of those things when you play to that many people and then when they’re receptive of the music singing it back it’s the stuff dreams are made of.”
Ben interjects: “It’s almost hard to comprehend once you’re on stage because y’know you’re playing and you’re focusing on playing of course but you’re entertaining with the audience.
“When there’s that many people you can’t even comprehend how many people are actually out there so when we watched the video at the end of the night and we were looking at all those photos that’s when it starts to go ‘woah! That’s insane!’”
Chris: “What rung if for me last night, I was sitting there thinking that Edmonton is 1500 people right, that’s a town, me and John Fred (Young, drums) still live in Edmonton, Ben and Jon (Lawhon, bass) live in Glasgow (Kentucky).
“But Edmonton is like 1500 people man, y’see there’s damn near ten times – or a hundred times rather – that many people out there today. There’s over 100,000 people. When you think about it like that, I can’t wrap my head around it.”
Ben: “It was pretty surreal.”
Chris: “The big man was watching over us yesterday, literally the sun came out right before we went on, it was sunny the entire show and the energy was just…”
Reflecting on Black Stone Cherry’s newly-announced December 2018 arena tour with special guests The Cadillac Three and Monster Truck, Ben promises it will be “a night of riffs and good times.”
“Monster Truck, y’know they bring it every time they play and Cadillac Three, we’ve known those for a long time and they bring it. And we’re going to attempt to bring it,” says Ben.
“I’m not gonna say… I feel weird saying ‘we bring it’ We’re just not those kind of guys. We’re going to give it our best shot but we’re going to bring it. yes. It’s going to be a great tour and it’s definitely a southern fried tour, a night of riffs and good times.”
Watch the full interview at Download Festival below where Chris and Ben talk about the challenges of performing at Download 2015 in the lashing rain, how ‘Family Tree’ is 100% them and Chris’s son appearing on the record, and not taking their fans for granted.
See Black Stone Cherry at the following shows:
DECEMBER 2018
Cardiff Motorpoint Arena – Thu 6th
Newcastle Metro Radio Arena – Fri 7th
Glasgow SECC – Sun 9th
Manchester Arena – Mon 10th
Birmingham Arena – Tue 11th
Leeds First Direct Arena – Thu 13th
London The SSE Arena Wembley – Fri 14th
>> Click here to buy tickets <<
PHOTO GALLERY: Friday at Download Festival 2018