Music

One year after life changing surgery, Bill Stevenson is reborn

by Tyler Munro

Bill Stevenson is a lot of things. He’s a legendary drummer behind not one, but two of the most important punk bands of all time. He’s a coveted producer and a pretty good one at that. But one thing that gets lost about Bill Stevenson is that, above it all, he’s a notorious farter, because while he’s seen some shit and while he’s done some shit, the first thing that came to mind when we sat down for a chat was the very real possibility that he might’ve just taken one. A shit, that is.

This isn’t worth pointing out for any real reason other than because it’s hilarious. Above it all, that’s what you can take from Bill Stevenson. It wasn’t just a witty—if I can be so cocky—turn of phrase to say that he’s been through some shit in his life, and that’s on top of having to deal with Henry Rollins.

“For the back half of 09 and the first half of 2010, I was dying. I was unable, I was inept, I was unmotivated and nobody knew why. I thought I was just getting old. ”

He wasn’t just getting old. Stevenson ballooned up to 400 pounds and, after getting checked out, underwent life saving surgery to remove a baseball sized tumour from his head.

“In one year I went from being 47 going on 90 to being 48 going on 20. I feel like I’ve been reborn, I’ve got a whole rejuvenated outlook on everything. The fact that I didn’t die is something to be stoked about already, and then to come out and we started doing these shows again, and to have such a gnarly positive response, it’s been very…all of that put together has been very pleasant for me.”

Of his new, rejuvenated outlook on everything, Stevenson talks about the differences between starting a band in the Facebook era—are we still in the Facebook era? Twitter era?—versus when he started churning out classic records over 30 years ago.

“[The internet] has levelled the playing field. All the bands are available for all the people to see, so they can decide which of them suck and which of them don’t.”

Stevenson is more than just a drummer. One of the guys behind Colarado’s Blasting Room studio, he’s seen the industry change from all sides. He’s worked with a wide, if not hilarious range of artists, from A Wilhelm Scream to Puddle of Mudd. Everyone laughs when Puddle of Mudd’s name comes up, including Bill Stevenson. So why do it?

“There’s a practical side to it…a guy’s got to feed his kids, right?”

But for every Puddle of Mudd there’s a Propagandhi, and Supporting Caste is one of the best albums—Canadian, punk, metal or otherwise—released in the last few years.

Bill Stevenson turns 50 in two years and nobody, him included, knows where music will be. But if we’re lucky, Bill Stevenson will still be an integral part of it.