For over three decades, P.O.D. have been a sonic juggernaut, carving out a legacy that defies genre and time. Emerging from the sun-drenched streets of San Diego in the early ’90s, they fused Nu-Metal grit, reggae grooves, and hip-hop swagger, crafting a sound that was as rebellious as it was uplifting. P.O.D. are about to hit the road with Godsmack and Drowning Pool, unleashing their electrifying live energy on fans across the country. MetalTalk caught up with Sonny Sandoval to talk about Veritas, the tour, and what keeps the fire burning after all these years.
When The Fundamental Elements of Southtown (1999) dropped, it was a battle cry that put the world on notice but it was Satellite (2001) that catapulted them to global stardom. Anthems like Alive and Youth Of The Nation become the soundtrack to a generation.
Never been content to live in the past. P.O.D are gearing up for a massive new chapter. Their latest album, Veritas, is full of unshakable energy and deep grooves that have always set them apart. Meanwhile, frontman Sonny Sandoval is opening up like never before in his brand-new book, I Will Follow: A Journey To Purpose, a powerful look at his life, faith, and the path that led him here.
It is mid-morning in America when we speak with Sonny Sandoval, who is preparing to leave for Europe in a few hours. He is super excited. “We’re hitting some countries we’ve never been to before,” Sonny says, “so that’s super exciting. The shows will be amazing, and it’s gonna be nothing but fun. I get to bring my 17-year-old son with us. He is gonna drum tech for the band for his senior project at school. So he gets to come and tag along.”
Sonny assures us that his kids think it is “so cool” to be in a band. “They love it,” he smiles. My oldest is going to be 25, and then I have a 20-year-old, and my son is 17. They grew up in this scene with me. My wife and I have guarded their heart and their minds. We’re just real with them. It’s like this is Hollywood. They love the music.
“I’m stoked that they appreciate music and art, but they see through all the facade of everything else. I think they have their heads on straight. That’s why my wife and I sent them all to college. They don’t have wild and crazy dreams. Well, I mean, they can if they want to be in a band, but they’re gonna get all the opportunities we didn’t have first.”
The Sandoval family are surrounded by music and art. “One of my daughters is an athlete, so they’re all pretty well-rounded.”
7 April 2025, P.O.D. will be on stage at the Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith. “That’s gonna be another good one,” Sonny says. “London is always fun. We go a little bit wild.”
P.O.D are a band that has always blended styles. “We’re fans of all kinds of music,” Sonny says. “I don’t think we ever set out to try something. It was more we love heavy music, we love punk, we love reggae music. It’s more of a lifestyle for us. It isn’t this is popular, so let’s do that. It’s something that we’ve always been into.”
Is there a genre they might like to try that they have not tried before? “I think we’ve kind of done it all,” Sonny says. “I mean, as much as country is kind of wearing on, I can get down with it more in my older age. I don’t think we would ever do country [laughs]. But I could listen to it when I was younger, not so much. We always write in the moment and what we’re feeling. I know we wanted to experiment a little bit with some EDM stuff, so you never know. It’ll find its way somewhere in there.”
Korn mixed with Skrillex, I suggest, as he was in From First To Last, so he has that love of multi-genres as well. “That’s his roots,” Sonny says. “Maybe it was EDM or house music. Our basic root was heavier music, but then we grabbed from our punk influences, reggae influences, hip hop, and stuff like that. Jazz, everything. But we never forced it. If we love playing it, and it feels good and it sounds good to us, then we want to play it.”
That’s the most authentic, I suggest. You are going to be playing these songs for years. You want to like your own music. “I hope so,” Sonny says. “Or you’re in it for the wrong reasons.”
With the collabs, I say there is one that I’m not sure every fan knows about. “We have had legends,” Sonny smiles. “But I think that’s why we did it. Speaking of not contrived, it was because we’re hip hop hop fans. For decades now, it was always the hip hop artist that would feature someone in their neighbourhood or a friend or another artist.
“It was very rare in rock ‘n’ roll. It was done, but it wasn’t every band out there or every album. It was more for us trying to showcase people that we love and people that we respect. Then, throughout the years, we put our friends on. People from legends to now up-and-coming legends. It’s more fun for us to do it.”
Sonny says the collaborations are not always planned. “On this record [Veritas], it was the current legends like Tatiana [Shmayluk] and Randy [Blythe ], as well as Cove [Reber], who sings for Saosin. He started a band called Scary Kids Scaring Kids, and he’s more of the younger generation coming up. We’re just fans of all of these guys and gals.”
For Sonny, Jinjer and Lamb Of God are amazing bands. P.O.D. went to a Jinjer show in Germany on the day off from a tour a while ago. “We were playing the club the next night,” Sonny says. “We had a day off and we went to see a bunch of bands. You have this little Ukraine woman up there and she is just a beast. Then it wasn’t until a few years later that we actually became friends. It works itself out.
“The same thing with Randy. As many festivals and shows we’ve probably played together in the past, we never really connected as friends. Just a few years ago, we met on a boat cruise, a shipwreck. We became friends and realized that he loves all kinds of music, just like us. He’s not just a Metalhead. When we did Drop, we thought of him, and we just asked him like a friend.” P.O.D. sent the song over, and Randy was in.
One of the least expected of all the collaborations was Katy Perry. Goodbye For Now, the lead single from their sixth album, Testify, was released in 2006. The song features a 21-year-old Perry vamping over the final chorus of the song.
“That was unplanned,” Sonny says. “She was neither a legend to us at that time nor did we see her future being a legend. She was a young lady who was just hustling and coming up.”
Glen Ballard was producing the record. Ballard, who worked with Alanis Morissette writing and producing Jagged Little Pill in 1994, would work with a 17-year-old Katy Hudson [Perry – she changed her name later] in 2001. “We wanted a female vocal, this angelic voice,” Sonny said. “Ballard brought her in to hang out with us at the studio, and she was just so sweet. She was very punk rock back then, too. It wasn’t until later that she became more of a pop star. She fit, and we did a bunch of TV shows together. We did a video together. Then she became Katy Perry, so we can’t really take credit for that one.”
There is big excitement to get out and tour the Veritas album, as whenever there is a new album, there is the chance to play new songs live. “We went to Europe this past summer for a handful of festivals,” Sonny says, “but this time, we’ll get to hit more and more countries. We play songs that we think people enjoy, and then we play new songs as well.
“The album hasn’t even been out a year yet, so we’ll still come back to tour the States. We’re probably going to go back over to South America, and then we’ll jump on a bunch of festivals and shows later on in the summer here in the States. When you have a new record, you stay busy.”
It is a very different time from five years ago. Is it odd to think that? “I don’t take it for granted,” Sonny says. “I definitely appreciate it more, the opportunity and appreciate that we still get to go out and play live shows. Because, for a little bit there, it looked pretty bleak. We are such a touring band, and we’ve been doing it for 30 years. For you to tell us that we can’t was kind of strange.”
“It was strange, and it was weird. But now that we get to do it, we appreciate it even more. I saw Marcos [Curiel, guitarist] yesterday. He gave me that look like are you ready? I was like, yeah, dude. I’m ready. We’re just excited. We’re not jaded.
“I think we went through seas when you do rock ‘n’ roll and you experience a lot of stuff, and sometimes you get jaded, or it becomes work. Now I think we’re enjoying it more these past few years than we ever have.”
The P.O.D fans are so happy that the band are still going. For the tour, there will be nostalgic fans donning their massive trousers that you could fit your whole house in. “It’s back around again,” Sonny smiles. “My son’s jeans are huge. We just bought him jeans the other day, but he was smart enough. He went and tried on some jeans, and then he said, I’m going to get them a little bit smaller because I’ll be working, and I don’t want to get my jeans caught up in anything. I said, Yeah, that’s a great idea, son.”
For the fans, Sonny says he is just grateful. “I’m thankful to still be doing this after all these years,” he says. “I’m grateful [the fans] keep coming out to the shows and buying tickets cause, I mean, we’re a blue-collar band. We’re a working-class band, and if it wasn’t for the fans, we couldn’t do it this day.
“There’s no rule for any more fame. There’s not really any money to make in this industry. We are a working-class band, and if it wasn’t for the fans who continue to buy tickets, buy our merch and post our music and listen to our music, we couldn’t do this. So I’m grateful and even more so to be headed over to Europe and the UK.”
Sonny says that his new book, Son of Southtown: My Life Between Two Worlds, was not something he thought he would do. “I think it’s just another extension of who I am as a person and another extension of this band,” he says. “I didn’t know that I would be in a band and go through this journey, so I had to write a little bit about it. It’s an easy read, a fast-forward look through my life, where I come from, things I’ve been through and then my wild journey with P.O.D.”
Sonny Sandoval has finished narrating the audiobook “in case you are more of a listener than a reader.”
With a few minutes remaining, I go for the less serious question, asking if P.O.D. was an action movie, who would play each member? “The young version ourselves or the older version,” Sonny laughs. We settle on young.
“Someone asked me when they had read my book if there were any thoughts of doing a film. That’s not up to me, but that would be incredible. They asked who you would have play you. I said, that’s easy. I would have my son play me. So that’s a no-brainer.
“Marcos, oh my gosh. Instantly, I want to say something funny, and then I feel like I would hurt his feelings if he reads this. Traa [Daniels] would have to be… who’s the guy from The Matrix… Laurence Fishburne. That would be the more mature Trey. Then Marcos? Oh gosh. No one else can pick that person to play him. He would have to do that.”
I say that Sonny Sandoval should just play himself. It would be fine. Just like in the film 300, with all the muscles and everything.
“Yeah,” he smiles. “A little younger, a little thinner. It’s all good. A little more hair. That’s right. Less wrinkles. That would be perfect.”
P.O.D. recently revealed a collaboration with Andrés Giménez from A.N.I.M.A.L. on a new version of their hit single I Won’t Bow Down. You can listen to the new album Veritas, released via Mascot Records, at https://lnk.to/P.O.D.
The recent P.O.D. show at London’s OVO Arena Wembley was a total slam-dunk knockout performance. The arena was teeming with drink-guzzling Metalheads raging for P.O.D. and their first UK dates in years.
P.O.D play Hungary tonight, with the London date at Eventim Apollo on 7 April 2025. For a full list including three European headline slots, visit PayableOnDeath.com/pages/tour.
P.O.D – Headline Shows
April 13: Tilburg, Netherlands – 013
April 16: Prague, Czech Republic – Roxy
April 18: Warsaw, Poland – Progresja
