SEVENDUST’s MORGAN ROSE On Playing First Virtual Concert Without A Live Audience: ‘It Was Terrible’

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SEVENDUST will perform its entire "Animosity" album during a January 8, 2021 livestream event from Opav in Orlando, Florida. It will be the band's second virtual concert in three months. Back in October, SEVENDUST played its first-ever livestream and its only show of 2020: "Sevendust: Live In Your Living Room". The event took place on October 23 — the release date of SEVENDUST's 13th studio album, "Blood & Stone", via Rise Records. Speaking to Chris Akin of Aftershocks TV about the experience of playing a show without an audience, SEVENDUST drummer Morgan Rose said (see video below): "It was terrible. It sucked. The only thing that saved it was we hadn't seen each other in a long time. So we were excited to see each other. We were excited to be able to play together again. But there was some anxiety. I hadn't played a real show, like playing hard, in probably about a year. It was wild; it was wild to do that. And the people not being there, it felt like when we were first starting out — going on tour and having three or four people out there. We had a few crew guys and a few lighting guys out there, and that was about it. So I just tried to go inside, you know, imagine. I played a lot with my eyes closed on that — I just tried to envision there being people there. I don't really see the people that much when we're playing live anymore either, but the response and the sound of it — that's the drug. That feeling of 'that's fulfillment.' That's the sound of you just pleased somebody. So that's what I get out of it. So to not have that, it was, like, 'Damn.' And Lajon [Witherspoon, vocals] said a few things, like he was talking to the crowd through the TV, and that made me feel super weird. But we're gonna do another one, and we know what we're getting ourselves into now, so I'm sure that it'll be much better. We'll be prepared a little better as far as what to expect. I'm not a huge fan of them, though. I know that people said that they liked it, and that's all that really counts, and I always enjoy playing with the guys. It's a win-win, but it's fuckin' weird." Tickets for the "Animosity" virtual concert can be purchased at this location. Earlier this month, Witherspoon told Midwest Beatdown that he was excited about SEVENDUST's upcoming "Animosity" livestream. "Oh my God. There's some songs on there that we've never played, I think," he said. "It's gonna be fun to get back and do it, and also to play some of those songs we've never had the time to play, and to see each other again and to laugh with each other and look at each other, and start jamming and somebody's back breaks or falls out, because we're old now. "I'm really looking forward to getting back and doing 'Animosity' and having a good time, and hopefully bringing some type of sense of weird normalcy in this world that we're trying to navigate through during this pandemic," he continued. "And I can't believe it's gonna be 20-something years since we recorded it. Oh my God. "So many people have been asking for it, so that was another weird thing. It was, like, 'We've gotta do this,'" Lajon added. "And I've kind of gone [back] and listened to the songs, and there were some really cool songs. And what a great time in our careers as young men growing up and just kind of learning about life and the industry and everything that was going on with it. It's just really cool." SEVENDUST's third album, "Animosity" was released in November 2001 through TVT Records. The disc peaked at No. 28 on the Billboard 200 and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in March 2002 for shipments in excess of half a million copies. The follow-up to 2018's "All I See Is War", "Blood & Stone" was once again tracked at Studio Barbarosa in Gotha, Florida with producer Michael "Elvis" Baskette, who has previously worked with ALTER BRIDGE and SLASH, among others.