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For Texas modern rockers Drowning Pool, Full Circle, their third album, and first for Eleven Seven Music, represents a chance to continue to build on their success, with a new lead singer in old friend Ryan McCombs, a new label and new management, but the same fiery commitment to their music and one another.
Marking one of the new album’s fateful coincidences is the fact that ex-SOiL vocalist Ryan McCombs made his live debut in Dallas with the band at Ozzfest in August of 2005. It was almost three years to the day since he joined Drowning Pool’s guitarist C.J. Pierce, bassist Stevie Benton and drummer Mike Luce on-stage in Indianapolis at Ozzfest 2002 to sing “Bodies” with the late Dave Williams, who would pass away from a rare heart disease just a day later.
“There’s never been a point when we thought about stopping,” says C.J., who moved to Dallas in the mid-‘90s to form Drowning Pool with Luce, Benton and Williams when they were all still in high school. “Everything we’ve gone through has just brought us closer.”
McCombs had completely walked away from music before joining the band. He had been frustrated with the music industry, but most importantly he wanted to spend time with his family. With the persistence of the three remaining members along with the support of his wife, Ryan joined the band in June 2005.
“She just told me, ‘This is the music you’ve been waiting to play your whole life,’” nods Ryan, whose youngest son Mitchell David is named after Williams. “When I first thought about singing for Drowning Pool, I felt I was stepping on toes. It was Dave’s own parents who put it into perspective for me. ‘If anybody was going to do this, don’t you think he’d want you to?’ That was enough for me. After that, I decided to join the band.”
“We wanted to keep writing music together,” adds Mike. “But we did wonder if it would still be Drowning Pool without Dave or whether we should keep the name in his memory.”
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