INTERVIEW: Greg Puciato Looks Back on Career With the Black Queen, Dillinger Escape Plan, Jerry Cantrell + More

“It’s hard for me to wrap my head around because I get so into every one thing that I’m doing.”

Greg Puciato joined Loudwire Nights on Tuesday (May 12) to celebrate the return of the Black Queen, and in doing so, he spent some time reflecting on his busy career.

Listen to the full conversation in the player near the end of this article.

“I’m really a very present person and I don’t really think a lot about what I’ve already done,” Puciato admitted to Loudwire Nights host Chuck Armstrong.

“As soon as I put something out, I feel like by the time I put one thing out, I’m already kind of building up the excitement for the next thing that I have in my head. I’m already antsy to get to the next thing, so I’ve never really looked behind me, even on an album to album basis; if I have to put an album out and then go on tour, the tour is in the way of getting to the next creative thing, you know what I mean? Time goes by really fast.”

All of that being said, though, Puciato admitted that as he gets older, he has started to realize the breadth of work he has been part of. On top of that, he’s on the road right now with the Black Queen after a seven-year hiatus as the band celebrates its debut album, Fever Daydream.

With a return and tour like this, he has in a lot of ways been forced to reflect on the past.

“That’s been really kind of an interesting trigger for taking stock and being like, damn, this was really that long ago,” he shared.

“You start thinking about everything that’s happened since then and things that have happened in the world, things that have happened in your life, all the records that you’ve done. Like the last time I toured for this band, I didn’t even know Jerry Cantrell. There was no Better Lovers. Dillinger Escape Plan was pretty freshly gone. I didn’t put out solo records. There was no second Killer Be Killed record. It’s just like, holy shit, okay.”

Even as he looks back, Puciato admitted that he has typically hated the idea of touring on a record and playing that particular LP in full, but for the Black Queen’s return marking 10 years of Fever Daydream, he knew it was the right thing to do.

“Fever Daydream was a really, really — if I had to pick a few records in my life that meant something really personal, that time period that it was written in was really pivotal,” Puciato said.

“That was a record that was the first thing that I started working on outside of the Dillinger Escape Plan. So, there’s no Fever Daydream? There’s not a lot of pretty much anything that came after that.”

Puciato said he can remember how huge it felt for him to make Fever Daydream a decade ago. Now, he knows he’s been part of so many things, but at that time, it took a lot of effort to create the album.

“It was the first time I ever self-released something and didn’t use a record label,” Puciato shared.

“And because of the nature of me joining Dillinger, it was the first time in my adult life that I had been part of a brand-new band from the ground up. Because of being in Dillinger, I knew it was going to have heat on it, I was just waiting for people to be like, ‘This sucks. What is this?’ Especially due to the nature of the music, people are going to be like, ‘What the? Last time we saw you, you were bleeding from the face and screaming at people. What is this?'”

READ MORE:Jerry Cantrell Reflects on New Music + Alice In Chains’ Legacy — Interview

Fortunately, Puciato isn’t allowing this tour to simply be a nostalgic thing. He’s put together a band that is pushing him and pushing Fever Daydream into 2026.

“The things that are making it really exciting for me now are the two new people, Danny Lohner and Chris Pennie, being involved,” he said.

“They have so much energy coming in and so many ideas and they’re not just coming in and being like, ‘Okay, we’re just going to play these parts that are on the record.’ They’re coming in like, ‘How about we do this? I’ve got this drum pattern for this. I’m going to do this thing on a bass guitar here.’ And I’m just like, holy shit, alright … That’s making it really fun for me.”

What Else Did the Black Queen’s Greg Puciato Discuss on Loudwire Nights?

• How he ended up getting Danny Lohner involved with the tour: “The first song with Dillinger that was recorded, the first original song was ‘Baby’s First Coffin,’ which was originally not written for Miss Machine. It was written as a commissioned track for the Underworld soundtrack and Danny Lohner was the director of that soundtrack…that was the first time we had sort of an interaction. And then I was asked to do some Nine Inch Nails [stuff] at their, at the time, final shows in Los Angeles. And one of the songs we did was ‘Mr. Self-Destruct’ from The Downward Spiraland Danny came onstage, too, and guested on guitar. We kind of became cooler then. But then really, one of my best friends is Billy Howerdel from A Perfect Circle, one of my dearest, dearest friends. And he and Danny are extremely close. And because of hanging out with Billy a lot, I’ve by proxy hung out with Danny a lot. And Danny and I have a very similar energy personality-wise and just get each other. When we were taking about doing this tour a few months ago, I don’t know why it jumped out. We were talking about getting another member that could kind of play a lot of roles, to play synth, play guitar, play bass, musical direct if need be. I think it was Billy Howerdel who was like, ‘Dude, just talk to Danny Lohner.'”
• How Chris Pennie ended up joining the Black Queen for this tour, too: “Danny’s pretty responsible for this, honestly, because Danny was like, ‘Dude, we’ve got to get a fucking drummer.’ I’m like, I don’t want to get a drummer. I don’t like Depeche Mode when they have a drummer, I liked them before they had a drummer. We’re an electronic band. I’m not putting a fucking drummer onstage. And he’s like, ‘No dude, fuck that. I was in Nine Inch Nails. You’ve got to listen to me’ … So I called Chris and we were talking about nothing, I wasn’t even thinking about this. We were talking about the Knicks [and] he was like, ‘Man, I can’t wait to see you in New York,’ and then I was just like, ‘Dude, I’m going to ask you something that you’re going to say no. I don’t know why I’m asking you this.’ I was like, do you ever want to come on tour again? And he’s like, ‘Are you serious? And do what?’ And I was like, oh dude, play drums? And he’s like, ‘Dude, yes.'”
• Going deep into his history following Chris Pennie leaving the Dillinger Escape Plan: “We ended up meeting Gil Sharone, who kind of saved the day and sat in. It’s the weirdest fucking thing now. It’s like, you just keep going and shit starts getting weird. Because if Chris Pennie never quit Dillinger, which was so devastating at the time, I never meet Gil Sharone. Gil Sharone is who introduced me to Tyler Bates, who played with [Marilyn] Manson. Tyler Bates is who asked me to do the Jerry Cantrell thing. So, Chris Pennie never quits the band, I never know Jerry Cantrell, that never even happens. And now he’s back in a different context. It’s just crazy … I always tell people, don’t think too much. Don’t decide ahead of time what something’s going to be to the degree that you get like fixed to it. Because the things that happen, they happen. You’ve got to just start doing something. Like, okay, I’m going to do this Black Queen tour, even though I don’t really want to do anniversary tour shit, I’m going to do it.”

Listen to the Full Interviewin the Podcast Player Below or the Video at the Top of the Page

Greg Puciato joinedLoudwire Nights on Tuesday, May 12;the show replays online here, and you can tune in live every weeknight at 7PM ET or on the Loudwire app; you can also see if the show is available on your local radio stationand listen to interviews on-demand.