CHAPTER 9 DANGEROUSLY VULGAR ‘Touring Cowboys lasted almost to years, hough becanse it was al so new to ws it seemed lke no time at all We had very few days of, not evento do laundry, and the aly real gap came inthe sumner f 1991, price to an important phoae call from Mark Ross He asked us we wanted to go to Moscow to play a concert, which was gong to be recorded for a video, and of couse we said. “Yeah.” Because we had gotten so used to rejection in the past we sid “Yeah” to most opportunities now and this one seemed 2 good one, although we didn't know too much about where we were going other than that Russia wns famous for vodka But before traveling cversene, we went back nto Pantego Sound mith Tear to lay down drum tracks for what would he oor next cord. This was a very cftcal plat a the evoltion of music, particulary the kind of music we were paving and things were deftly about to change inthe coming months and year Navana and the whole grunge movement hadn't cute taken over, but we'd heard the demo tapes for Nevermind because we'd had them played tous by Dale Kroeger ‘om the band the Mehins. We al thought Nivana were fucking reat and we also loved Soundgarden. Then, on the other hand, yom had Metalca, who came out with something overtly commercial lice “Enter Sandman.” and while it ido't completely change heavy metal t certainly gave us a ile opportunity to seize hold of an opportune ‘moment in ime when we most needed i Meaasile Mer told s ta get our gear packed and ready to ship 20 that we could be flown over business class. When we anived in Rustin, a translator and a bus met us. Well the fs thing we all notice i tha theres no acon ght in Moscow—no sigs or ads for anvthing—and the whole pace ist up by whatloaks He ast sixty wat it babs. WALTER O°BRIEN ‘Because the Russian federation had taken over ony weeks previously, thee was technically wobody to grant us visas or aathing so we had to ave letters fromthe ‘mayor of Moscow, the President of Russa, and someone heavy inthe army, explaining what this was 50 that wea we got to the airport we had to eomvnce them to et ‘usin. etooke a coupe of hows of fogalng and bribing this and that person to alow int the country. Tt was petty wld “What ate al these people doing standing in fae around the Comer?” I asked the interpreter, seeing Scenes I just did't recognize ‘She ssid they were wating fora loaf of read and we locked at hr in disbeie? We'd never heard of shit tice thar happening. anywhere. Moscow had only jut gotten its ‘Sst fastfood restamasts, so there were fies ouside McDonald's and Pizza Hut because these people had simply aever eaten fastfood. This wasn't the post-Werld War I ra or something hs was the fucking "90s! WALTER O°BRIEN ‘Wiha's the thing you see lot of wen you're diving around « major iy? Restaurants, restaurants, and more resturants. In Moscow there were no restaurants ‘whatsoever. We Gi find what people refered to asthe one good restaurant in town” and when we got there it wes lice you were eating in somebody's ving room. It 1was a buffet and everthing onthe mem was cabbage. Cabbage with tis, cabbage with that, fed cabbage, bold cabbage. Which was fie if you lice eabbage but of couse ths was Pantera so they sald, “We want brisket barbecue, goddamn!” which they did't have so we ended up ving on McDonald's and Prza Hut. ‘When we got down tothe tourist areas, Gatley Pare and Red Square, places lice that, the ina impression of hack-asswardne:s wes futher confimed. There were a bbanch of black madket stalls sling cassettes of just tenible recording quay, bat the people thought tis was seat, whch t probably was compared to how things had been in the past So that explined why before coming over, we were advised to bring two things extra toiet paper and Levis—anything we bad with Levi on because we were told We coald barter with tha stuff to get better deals on almost anything simply because these things—good toler paper aad jeans—jost dn't exist in Moscow. WALTER O'BRIEN “he fist thing I wanted to do was to go down to Red Square and see the place you've seen so cfea on television, but twas at at night when we got there. So we asked ou tranclator we could go, and they said, “I's possible to go tomorrow.” In Russia tha means “oo.” So Rex and I went into the subway sation and found our ‘way to Red Square, where we wandered around, and people were coming up to Res—tey knew who he was, ‘We stayed inthe first American hotel they ever had there, right across from the Embassy, and that was very strange also because it was not in any way hmurous. What ‘must the sity hotels have been ice? WALTER O°BRIEN Alte bands were booked in the Moscow Radisson, wich wasn't even due to icy open for another tree weeks. And what happened was tha there was major state department mesing going on herween the U.S. and Russia, and they were woking ott ofthe hotel, oo. We went ata a ballcom upstairs and twas setup wth a ‘nandced tables with a black phone anda red telephone on each one. Tas red phonss were secure nes back to America. Oas tins Iwas coming out ofthe elevator and ‘Wo Blitzer fom CNN was walling out! There was 2 restaurant in tc hotel which everyone recomamcaded we ale at andi sid on the board “Special Today Meat sand Vegetables,” so Rex asked, “What kind of meat sit?” so the guy behind the couter shrugged hs shoulders and said, “I's meat” Rex seid, “But what kind? Beet? Perc? Veal? Wha is #7” and the guy agin jos sai, “hs mear™ “The nextday they let ws slegp ia before they took us oul to Tushino Atel which was the ste forthe concert. As we rived. they were jst staring ose the stage wp and kids were already starting to camp amid a sea of old war planes, turret guns, and what looked like facking space satelites, all of which were just laying out in a huge field. Teves one of te most sural sight I've ever seen. Equally sreal probably—for thei ox 0 fas that were reportedly tere—was the ine-up for the gig Ast heavy mca and cock des in fact. Thre was ACDDC Metallica, us, and the Black Crowes, and all I can rememiber is this big fucking sea of people at this huge afield and flags from every fucking country you could think of Shon He is by Westen euscan were previously uaheard of a the Soviet Uren (at trams ou the ae Rusia federon tone over the cour a couple of oaths afer we ef), 0 thre was definitely the sease that othe andence we wee a ginipee ofthe extingSare rather than the repressive past. ‘Bat eveso, the backstage faites vere defintely from a bygone era. The cessing rooms were Be faking tens just tebl, wih oly one ite ht bulb for iit. The were no reffeshments whatsoever, maybe just a basic case of water, so fortunately we'd brought over our own liquids, but none of that really mattered because the show ‘seas facing beable and one ofthe best pieces of pubic tar could ever come ou a}, °50 Like [said had acd started thinking about and lying down cums on the ew racks before we weat to Russa, but the whole experience breathed new feat the ‘process when we got back. This record was ening la the mer down bat and beth heaviest statement of tent ve coud possibly come wp Wh tn @ * WHEN WE RETURNED fom the Moscow si. Metalln’s ne record the so-called “Black Album,” sal over the adi. We thought t sucked, of course—I mean sve thought twas jut teible—we did't get the commercial sound ofa ll ands made us even more determined to make our new eecord even heave than anything ‘we'd attempted before. It woud be exiled Vulgar Dipay of Power. Ou power At this point in our trajectory, despite the relative success of Cowboys from Hell, we still considered ourselves to be fairly small scale—and we were in a way, certainly in. ‘comparison to what we'd later become. From a crtical-acclaim standpoin, things had definitely changed, but our ives hnda’taered radicaly so we were sil very hungry for fame and cash, We were sill doing cur ova kite headine shows wie ao supporting the bigger bands, but acting huge was happening to boost or pro as fast as we ranted, ‘We wanted to explode, Despite being signed toa bie label, we sl fk Eke we needed to lence afew doubters with whatever we released nest What ped a fot was tha hon Metaica