What You Make It: The Authorized Biography of Doug Pinnick by Chris Smith

Author:Chris Smith [Smith, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2018-06-07T16:00:00+00:00

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King’s X began recording its self-titled fourth album in late 1991. Len Sonnier worked in the studio as a hand: getting coffee, stringing guitars, taking people’s cars to get washed. Doug had ditched the rusted Camaro by then and drove a blacked-out Mustang GT, among the cars Len most enjoyed, particularly when tensions in the studio would rise.

Len didn’t understand why everybody was so afraid of Sam and wondered what would happen if King’s X was making the rules for its manager instead of the other way around.

Doug and Len were in the studio one morning before Sam arrived. Dime had sent Doug a prerelease copy of ‘Vulgar Display of Power’ and Len was dying to hear it.

The two went into the control room to have a proper listen. But right after they hit play the door-chime sounded letting them know somebody had come through the main entrance. They knew it was Sam and scrambled to get the CD out of the deck before he figured out what they had been doing.

Every member of King’s X was a strong-headed part of producing the records made with Sam. Doug, Ty, and Sam were the hands-on knob twiddlers. Jerry would listen and let them know what he liked or didn’t. Before recording vocals Ty would typically mix the instrument tracks. Sam would then get back behind the board for vocal tracking and another round of mixing.

Sam was trying to keep up with the times musically and otherwise. But Doug began to see their relationship as a failing marriage. Sam, meanwhile, consciously pulled back during recording. He could feel the discontent and bowed out of tasks like sequencing and banding in which he’d once been intimately involved. He felt the band still respected his ability to veto decisions, but declined to test it, instead accepting versions of songs he felt were sub-standard.

The finished album was darker than anything King’s X had recorded before, but also finally had the kick Doug sought. It came out Mar. 10, 1992, the band’s first release directly through Atlantic, which had acquired them from Megaforce earlier in the year.

The 1987 distribution deal between the two labels gave Megaforce the option of leaving after 5 years, but if they left Atlantic got to cherry-pick the Megaforce bands it wanted. King’s X was the band whose catalog was requested most by other Atlantic artists, a fact that didn’t go unnoticed by Morris, who scooped the band up.

The new Megaforce, meanwhile, had signed a deal with Polygram.

King’s X never had Jonny and Marsha to fight for them again. “It was not just work with them,” Jon reflected, “it was battle and we were all fighting together.”

‘Black Flag’ enjoyed some success as a single and on MTV and the album was well-received critically, but neither of these translated into out-of-the-box sales and supporting road work was halted after just a couple of months.

Back in Katy, Sam was getting tired of being looked at as the bad guy, the parent who was always scolding the kids for not working hard enough.

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