Today is the last day to sign up for your Body Shred challenge. Does fitness and staying healthy help with your performance?
It has made a huge difference. Just purely on the physical side, I’m less winded and not sore all the time. I do my cardio, take my supplements, eat clean. I have a meal prep company called Trifecta Nutrition that sends out my meals when I am on tour. Your body is a Ferrari -- don’t give it the regular gas, give it the premium! All this was the inspiration for Body Shred. I made this change for myself. First I wrote a book about it, “Body Shred: Your Guide To Feeling And Looking Like A Rock Star," and that’s basically motivation and making good choices. That’s not to say you need to be sober or you shouldn’t eat pizza, but you should be more conscious and make better decisions.
Then I thought of a way that I could get more people involved, which is where this challenge came about. You have to get people involved somehow, and what better way than to give a rad guitar and amp? So we’re giving away an Ibanez Jiva, my signature guitar, and a Marshall amp, and Trifecta is giving away some great food. We got all these companies to get involved in it, and it’s really exciting.
Let’s say I’m a metal musician. I’m going out on my first couple of tours, and looking for a way to be healthier. What are some basic ways to start?
The first thing you want to do is set yourself up for success. Already have the healthy food. Bring stuff you can use on the road, and getting yourself into it mentally. Tour isn’t a vacation, it’s work. Treat your tour like your day job, and set yourself up for success.
As an outsider, I definitely think of tour like a blank space, where you could do whatever you want.
Yeah, and you can’t. That only works when it’s a shorter tour. For me, I’ve been touring consistently for 17 years, and that just didn’t work for me. I gained a ton of weight, and even when I got sober that approach just didn’t work. You can’t say that calories don’t count when you’re on the road, because they do.