Sepultura was gearing up for their farewell tour earlier this year when drummer Eloy Casagrande suddenly quit. It was later revealed that Casagrande would be joining Slipknot, and Sepultura would be recruiting former Suicidal Tendencies drummer Greyson Nekrutman for their world tour.
Now in an interview with One Life One Chance With Toby Morse, Sepultura vocalist Derrick Green talked about the total chaos that ensued when Casagrande suddenly quit. Green said the band was taken by surprise and was really scrambling to find someone, as their tour would be kicking off soon (and y'know, someone's gotta learn a whole boatload of songs).
"We had already announced that we're going to do a farewell tour. It was in December that we announced it. And so then I think it was February, we started playing shows. And so it was, like, Andreas calls me was, like, 'Yeah, we're gonna do rehearsals. It's all set. Everybody's in line. You'll come down to Brazil and then we'll rehearse a few days and then we'll start the tour.' And I was, like, 'Great.' [I was] literally waking up, packing my shit. I think I was flying out literally the next day to start rehearsals.
"Andreas [calls me and he's] is, like, 'Yo…' I was, like, 'What's going on?' He's, like, 'He's out.' I was, like, 'What do you mean? What are you talking about? Who's out?' And then he was just, like, 'Yeah, Eloy's out.' And I was just kind of like falling in a black hole, like, 'What are you talking about?' It was totally surreal. It was like literally in slow motion. I was just trying to get my breath. And he explained everything.
"[Eloy] wanted a meeting with everybody in the band and with the managers and everything, and I wasn't there. But he came in and it was just, like, 'I'm doing this gig. I signed a contract. And I'm out.' And I was just trying to get my head around it, because it'd been 13 years playing with this guy. And I was just really in shock. I was, like, 'Dude, what are we gonna do?' And we've been in this position where it's just, like, so crazy changes.
"I'm sure when Max left, [Andreas] was in that position, like, 'What are we gonna do?' And then when Jean left and Igor left, like different people: 'What are we gonna do?' It wouldn't be the first time of total chaos… I'm on the phone with [Andreas]. He's, like, 'My son showed me a video of Greyson.' I was, like, 'Greyson, he's in Suicidal. Yeah. I just saw the show.' And he's, like, 'I was thinking of maybe calling him.'
"I was like, yeah. 'Call him up. Call him up and see what's up with him.' I was, like, 'You should call him immediately.' He's, like, 'I am. I'm gonna get his number. I'm gonna call him up, see what's up. Just to see what's up.' I was, like, 'He's playing with Suicidal. Maybe he has some off dates.' And we're just, like panicking because we had no clue what to do. We weren't expecting this at all."
