‘They Just Don’t Like Me’

In a recent interview on The Garza Podcast, hosted by SUICIDE SILENCE guitarist Chris Garza, former CANNIBAL CORPSE and current SIX FEET UNDER vocalist Chris Barnes was asked whether his successor in CANNIBAL CORPSE, George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher, remains blocked on his social media.

“I haven’t had him blocked. In fact, on Instagram, I follow him,” Barnes said (as transcribed by Blabbermouth). “And I don’t know if he follows me, but at one point I confronted him because I saw a video on YouTube where during a live performance, he’s poked at me pretty good. And I wrote him ’cause I was, like, ‘Look, man, I never have said anything nasty about you at all. I don’t know why you’re doing this on stage about me.’ And I said, ‘We met and I thought everything was cool that one time. And listen, I’ll give you my phone number.’ … I said, ‘If you wanna talk on the phone, I’ll give you my phone number. We can talk it over.’ And I sent him the link to the YouTube video, and magically it disappeared after that. But he never responded to me. He saw the message, ’cause it said ‘seen.’ But he wouldn’t talk to me about it.”

Chris admitted that he hasn’t been impressed with George’s performance of CANNIBAL CORPSE material that was originally written and recorded during his time with the band. He stated: “I don’t think he sings my songs very well. I don’t. I think he walks through ’em. And on this [current SIX FEET UNDER with NILE] tour, I poked back at him a little bit just because I felt like it was funny. But it was all in good humor.”

Barnes added that Fisher has made “insulting” remarks about him in the media, especially regarding CANNIBAL CORPSE‘s early material.

“I saw a couple interviews with him where he said that he believed that my songs that I wrote are more his now,” he said. “And that really upsets me. Because they’ll never be his. He’s a karaoke singer when it comes to my songs. He is. Those aren’t his songs. He says they’re his songs because he’s sung them more times than I have. He didn’t write ’em. He doesn’t get publishing checks from ’em. Those are my songs. Those lyrics are from my brain. And for him to insult me that way, I take that really serious. And I think that that’s so ignorant and just so — just wrong. I think it’s wrong that he even signs the CDs or the album covers that he didn’t perform on. I don’t sign [CANNIBAL CORPSE‘s 1998 album] Gallery Of Suicide. Why would I? I wasn’t on it. So, hey, if he wants to settle it, like get in a race car on a track, see who can drive better. [Laughs] But I know he doesn’t know how to drive, so I’d probably win that race too.”

After Garza suggested that Barnes and Fisher should meet in person to resolve their differences, Chris responded: “Listen, man, I tried to. I tried to. I’ve got no problem with him. Like I said, when I met him, I thought everything was cool, because we got into a room. We were at an IRON MAIDEN concert in one of the boxes. [Metal Blade Records founder Brian] Slagel kind of got us all together in the same room, and I was talking to him. I was having a good time talking about video games. I’m a Call Of Duty guy; he’s a Warcraft guy — two different types of games.”

“I respect that he’s been a great vocalist for the band for many years. I just don’t like being poked at,” he continued. “I’ve never done anything to the guy… “I have respect for him. It’s just I wish people had a little more respect from that camp for me, but they have their reasons not to, so. I mean, I reached out to Alex [Webster, CANNIBAL CORPSE bassist] the other day. Me and Jack [Owen, former CANNIBAL CORPSE and current SIX FEET UNDER guitarist] thought it would be cool to have him come up when we played Portland to play bass on ‘Stripped[, Raped And Strangled]’ and ‘Hammer [Smashed Face]’. But he passed. We knew he wasn’t gonna do it, but I told him, I said, ‘Those songs are so important to us all, I thought you might want to.’”

“I don’t know what grudge they’re holding against me, but they just don’t like me. So, it’s okay. Like I said, I’m happier, and I’ve been happier in SIX FEET UNDER than with those guys. I mean, those songs that I wrote with them, they are really important to me. That’s why we still do a couple of ’em.”

Barnes was the founding vocalist of CANNIBAL CORPSE and performed on band’s four studio albums, Eaten Back to Life (1990), Butchered at Birth (1991), Tomb of the Mutilated (1992), The Bleeding (1994).