In a new interview with the Life Is Peachy podcast, FEAR FACTORY guitarist Dino Cazares spoke about the circumstances that led to the 2020 departure of the band’s original singer Burton C. Bell. Cazares said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “[After] I [came] back with FEAR FACTORY, we released four records. Me and Burton got sued by [former FEAR FACTORY members] Christian [Olde Wolbers, bass] and Raymond [Herrera, drums] for monies owed. We owed them money. I ended up beating my lawsuit against those guys, but Burton ended up losing his lawsuit against those guys and has to pay them a million dollars. So Burton decides to quit the band. And he said a lot of things in the press, like he only did FEAR FACTORY out of necessity, he only did FEAR FACTORY ’cause he needed money, he didn’t believe a lot of the lyrics he was writing, and blah, blah, blah, blah. He said he felt restrained doing FEAR FACTORY, he felt like he was pigeonholed doing FEAR FACTORY. And that’s fine. I ended up winning my lawsuit against the guys, against Raymond and Christian.
“One of the biggest misconceptions is that people thought that I sued Burton, but that’s not true,” Cazares clarified. “It was Raymond and Christian who sued us individually. We had separate lawsuits. They sued us separately so they can get separate money. So if they would have won my lawsuit, I would have had to give them a million dollars. I won my lawsuit against them. I didn’t owe them anything. But, actually, Burton filed for bankruptcy, and when he filed for bankruptcy, he tried to get out of paying those guys. And, unfortunately, he lied in his bankruptcy. That’s a federal offense. Raymond and Christian took him back to court, made him open up the bankruptcy. The bankruptcy was null and void. So Burton had to pay back those guys, and they took all of Burt‘s assets. Assets, meaning whatever you own, whether it’s a house, a car, a trademark, copyright, business, so on and so on. They took all that away from him for lying in court.
“When you go through a bankruptcy, the bankruptcy court sells your assets to try to make money back, to pay back the people you owe money to,” Dino continued. “So, when I found out that Burton‘s assets were up for sale, my lawyer contacted the court of Pennsylvania and said, ‘Hey, look, we’re interested in buying this FEAR FACTORY trademark,’ Burton‘s half. At this point, I owned half and Burton owned half. Raymond and Christian did not own the name at all whatsoever. They were only owed money. That’s it. But they didn’t own the trademark. Even though they tried to take the trademark from us and try to find every possible way to do that. ‘Cause that’s what lawyers do, right? They were not successful. So, the bankruptcy court owned Burton‘s half of the trademark. They put it up for sale. It’s like eBay. They auction it off. So I had to place a bid if I wanted that trademark. And that’s what I did. I put a bid up. Now, Burton couldn’t buy his own assets back because he already lied in court. It was a federal offense. So he couldn’t buy his assets back. So he didn’t even have the opportunity to do that legally. I figured, ‘Hey, I’m gonna try to buy this name.’ And I wanted to bring Burton and say, ‘Hey, look, I got the name. Let’s just continue.’ So I put a bid up for the trademark. They wanted a lot of money for it. And Raymond and Christian put a bid up for it as well. But eventually I ended up winning the bid, I ended up winning the auction, and I owned Burton‘s half of the name, which meant I owned full 100 percent of the trademark of FEAR FACTORY. So I reached out to Burton and I said, ‘Hey, just come back 50-50,’ which I found out technically, even though I bought Burton‘s 50 percent of the trademark, I couldn’t give it to him. I couldn’t legally buy it and then give it to him because if I did, then that means I was colluding and buying a name and just giving it to him. It goes against what the court’s orders were. So I couldn’t even do that, but I could pay Burton 50 percent of whatever we earned as FEAR FACTORY. Now there was a problem with that. The problem was Raymond and Christian froze his assets.
“If Burton would have come back to FEAR FACTORY, whatever he earns from FEAR FACTORY, a percentage of that would have to go to Raymond and Christian to pay back the million of dollars,” Cazares explained. “So Burton didn’t wanna go out there on tour and [be] working his ass off and having to pay those guys a percentage of what he earns on tour. Basically, whatever money is earned from Burton Bell‘s name in FEAR FACTORY, that goes to Raymond and Christian. So in other words, if the song ‘Replica’ earns money on Spotify, that money goes to Raymond and Christian‘s lawyers. It’s kind of like child support. If you’re a guy having to pay child support, but you happen to be that guy that doesn’t pay his child support, the court can go after your money that you’re earning from your job. They could take a percentage of that money and pay your kids. That’s basically what was happening to Burt. Now, Burt can go get a regular job. Let’s say he went got a job at [McDonald’s]. He wouldn’t have to give him a portion of that money, because that’s not being earned by FEAR FACTORY. I could be wrong. There might be some technicalities where I’m a little wrong, but it’s basically what happened. So, in reality, me playing the FEAR FACTORY songs live goes to pay back Burton‘s debt to those guys. But Burton doesn’t see that.”
Dino added: “There’s a whole other side to it that fans just don’t know. And I get it. They’re not in this industry. They’re just a fan listening to the songs and they don’t understand how all this works.”
Regarding the possibility of the classic FEAR FACTORY lineup reuniting at some point in the future, Cazares said: “Listen, sure, it’s easy for all four of us to get together, but it wouldn’t be easy to do business with them, it wouldn’t be easy to write songs with them and it wouldn’t be easy because somebody would have to be in control of that ship and that would be me. Not anybody else. That’s not gonna work. Look what happened to JANE’S ADDICTION. They got back together. [Laughs] Burton pretty much said, ‘Ah, fuck you, Dino. I’m not coming back. Fuck that. I’m over it.’ So I’m, like, ‘Okay, I’ll do what I normally do. Put a [new version of the] band together and fucking do it.’ It’s not like I haven’t been there before. I still have the fire, the drive, the passion to do this. And I think that’s owed to the FEAR FACTORY fans. The FEAR FACTORY fans wanna hear the FEAR FACTORY songs like they are on the record. They wanna hear the songs. They grew up with those songs, they still listen to those songs, and then when we go out there and play, we’re gonna give it the best that we can do. And it’s pretty fucking good.”
Anticipating the negative feedback he will likely receive from the metal community for his comments, Dino said: “Now, do you realize that when you put this [episode of the podcast] out and you start sending stuff to all the metal sites [to cover what was said], this is gonna spark up some drama. It’s also gonna spark up some, like, ‘Oh, isn’t Dino over it by now?’ It’s not that it’s something I need to get over. It’s just what happened. That’s all it is. This is just a story — my story of what happened. That’s all it is. And I have no ill will towards any of those other guys. None. As a matter of fact, I’ve spoken to Christian quite a few times already… I have no ill will towards those guys, but there are reasons why people are not in my life anymore. That is my choosing. I don’t like to go back to people that have hurt me multiple times. And that’s just how it is. But I have no ill will towards those guys at all whatsoever. And I wish them success in whatever they do.”
FEAR FACTORY‘s current lineup also features Milo Silvestro on vocals, Tony Campos on bass, and Pete Webber on drums.
FEAR FACTORY played its first headlining concert with Silvestro and Webber on May 5, 2023 at the Whisky A Go Go in West Hollywood, California.
