Dez Fafara: I regret nothing

Dez Fafara says he regrets nothing in his career – even the angry Coal Chamber split in 2003.

He’s gearing up for the release of the band’s comeback album Rivals and recently had to deal with Jeff Kendrik and John Boecklin leaving Devildriver, the band he formed after pulling the plug on Coal Chamber.

He tells The Age Of Metal: “Even with the tumultuous break-up, I wouldn’t have done anything different. It gave me a chance to do Devildriver – and that’s its own beast now.

“You can’t drive everything. I’m a believer in ‘Let the movie play itself out.’ Life is that way.”

Fafara plans to turn his focus back onto DevilDriver after Coal Chamber complete their tours of the US, South America, Europe and Australia.

He says: “We’re definitely releasing a Devildriver record next year. I wrote two new songs last night and I was blown away.”

Rivals is released on May 18 via Napalm Records and Coal Chamber play 11 UK dates in May:

May 20: Leeds Stylus

May 21: Norwich The LCR

May 22: Warwick Copper Rooms

May 23: Nottingham Rock City

May 24 Glasgow O2 ABC

May 26: Bristol Motion

May 27: Exeter Lemon Grove

May 28: Brighton Concorde 2

May 29: Wolverhampton Wulfrun Hall

May 30: Manchester The Ritz

May 31: London Koko

Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.