Papa Roach's Jacoby Shaddix Interview: 'A Personal Revolution + a Personal Awakening'

"As you start to get into the social media platforms, it's like there's so much negativity and there's a lot of darkness."

On Wednesday (March 11), Papa Roach's Jacoby Shaddix joined Loudwire Nights to dive into their new song, "Wake Up Calling," and much more — including how he protects his mental health as he continues to create music and tour the world.

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

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"The way I choose to combat that on a public stage is to continue to show my own personal struggle, my own personal woes and how I get to the positive and how I can grasp onto that hope," Shaddix shared with Loudwire Nights' Chuck Armstrong.

"Sharing my faith is important to me. Following Christ has been such a pivotal thing for me in my life and it's such a personal revolution and a personal awakening and enlightening, [it's] just given me hope and I want to share that with the world."

Shaddix admitted that even when he shares positivity, though, he still has to dodge the negative reactions from some people.

"You get the slings and arrows from the people that are believers that are like, 'Oh, you're not this enough, you're not that enough,'" he said.

"And I just have to continue to press forward and just be faithful and strong and hopeful ... I think it's a good fight and the more I'm open and honest, the more I realize that I'm not alone in so many ways and in so many avenues of my life and how just good that feels. I'm not alone on this walk."

And obviously it's not just sharing his faith or hope with fans that helps him — it's the music, too.

"This music is a way for me to connect to people in so many different ways positively. I just want to keep trudging that road. It's a joyful battle."

Papa Roach's Latest Song, "Wake Up Calling"

Following 2025's "Braindead" and "Even If It Kills Me," Papa Roach recently released their latest single, "Wake Up Calling." Though there is no album officially announced yet, Shaddix assured the Loudwire Nights audience they'll get their hands on one soon enough.

"We have a tour in the UK and Europe in November and we'd love to be able to have the album finished up," he said.

"We're working on the album artwork right now. We're in the final throes of this thing. I've got one more studio session to go run into, Tony [Palermo] has drums, and so we're coming into the final touches."

It's clear Shaddix and his bandmates are excited about new music, something he expressed specifically about "Wake Up Calling."

"When we wrote the same way, [we were] like, there's something special in this," Shaddix said.

"When we're creating an album, we're looking for pieces to a puzzle ... Lyrically, [this song] is about who and what in my life brings me back to life, who rattles my cage, you know?"

Taking it back to the start of the conversation, he also said there's a deeper, personal connection he has to the song.

"It's also about my faith and my hope in Christ. I need the Lord. I need my relationship with God to keep me right-sized and to keep me humble because it keeps me on the right path."

What Else Did Papa Roach's Jacoby Shaddix Discuss on Loudwire Nights?

Why he's happy Papa Roach release their albums on vinyl: "I love putting out vinyl, man. It's just so gratifying. It's the artwork, it's just so big and it's such a vibe. I love as we celebrate milestones and whatnot and going and been able to celebrate the old records, like we put Infest out on a vinyl and it's just cool looking."
Why it's not hard to be transparent about his gratitude and his struggles with his fans: "I think it's just my purpose, honestly, to be open and vulnerable and honest and real. The biggest challenge in my life is to practice all those [things], like my gratitude and my humility, in the smallest circle of my life with my family."
What a young Jacoby Shaddix would say listening to this conversation: "I would not be humble about anything. And I would just be like, 'Yeah, I'm the best,' you know what I'm saying? 'Papa Roach, we came to win it.' But I also think...that's what I learned from hip hop music early on, believing in what you were doing and having that self-belief. It was important because when you're against this tsunami wave of 'no' in the world, I had to have that almost toxic positivity and that toxic belief in myself to be able to withstand the world's 'No, you ain't good enough.'"