Cyco Mike Muir - Suicidal Tendencies ‘Doing The Metallica Dates in Australia... Is A Dream Come True’

Take a glimpse into the history of Cyco Mike Muir and you’ll find a man who’s sat front and centre of everything that has ever been cool over the last 40-plus years. 

For starters, he’s one of the pioneering forces of crossover thrash as frontman for skate-punk icons Suicidal Tendencies, a band that has toured Australia on ten occasions since their first outing here in 1993 with Alice In Chains. Between Suicidal Tendencies, and his other band, Infectious Grooves, his current roster of musicians includes current and former members of Metallica, Dillinger Escape Plan, Slipknot, Avenged Sevenfold, Velvet Revolver, OTTTO and Ugly Kid Joe, all bands that have been heavily influenced by Suicidal Tendencies.

Outside of music, Mike’s older brother, Jim “Red Dog” Muir of Z-Boys (Zephyr Competition Team) fame, is a member of the Skateboarding Hall of Fame. Red Dog was a central figure in the Santa Monica skate scene of the late 70’s that changed the face of skateboarding worldwide and was credited as the skater who introduced urethane wheels to the sport.

Plus, Mike owns a tattoo studio in LA, he married an Aussie, lived here for a while, and his kids were born here as well.

That’s just the tip, kids. Most importantly, though, the great man is heading back down under with Suicidal Tendencies this November in support of Metallica, and because he’s completely unable to sit still and relax, he’s gone ahead and booked six more ST headline shows to fill in the time. Who wins? We do. Ahead of this monumental tour, Wall of Sound had a chat with the bandana-clad legend and fuck me dead if I’m lying, but talking to the man and watching his mind unwind in real time is a beautiful thing to behold. What seems like a simple question to ask can become a philosophical rabbit hole that reveals why Mike is the legend he is, with great reveals in the midst of it all.

Watch the interview here, or read on for the highlights below!

Like for starters, I suggest to him that the addition of six extra ST headliners to the sold out Metallica dates is down to the fact that he is not the sort of bloke to sit still.

‍“Oh, well, I am one of those people who always make things very difficult. People always say a quick answer, and 10 minutes later, they say, I don't think you answered the question. But yeah, so no, that would be incorrect. I'm already correcting you. So we're doing six extra Suicidal shows and then, as of yesterday, just added two Cyco Miko shows.”

TWO ADDITIONAL CYCO MIKO SHOWS? WHERE?

‍“So the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast.”

That’s it then. I'm moving to Queensland. Beautiful one day, Cyco the next. To add to the sentiment that Mike can’t sit still, he has recently released a new Suicidal Tendencies song, ‘Adrenaline Addict’, despite saying a few years back that ST would never release any new music ever again.

‍“Well, I had said that after we did World Gone Mad, and I just go, I'm not saying too much work because work doesn't bother me. It's how you define things and stuff. But it was not enjoyable in the sense that most things aren't enjoyable. But like my dad said, most things that you end up proud of aren't enjoyable at the time. But afterwards, you’re like climbing a mountain, when you get to the top, it's like, “Wow, I did this”. It's an accomplishment, but every step is probably painful. But with music, just that kind of perception of putting out music that people assume you're doing it to be liked, and you want people to like it. And when you have a history of not doing music to be liked and people forget what we went through, being on the outside, it's kind of like, I don't want to be at the point where I'm defending myself. And the irony now, as I'm talking, I am not a big interview guy. I don't like doing stuff like that. On my list of things to do, it doesn't make it, unfortunately… nothing against you. It's just not how I want to live my life. Years ago, since they had Pro Tools and everything like that, we had our Pro Tools studio and had people come over from around the world or something, and they'll be talking and they'll play a song and they're like, “oh dude, what is this? Is this Suicidal? When's it coming out”? I go, “We did that 12 years ago or something”. They go, “When are you gunna put it out”? I go, “I don't know. I don't think we will”. And they were like, “Well, why are you doing it”? It's like, “Well, because I love music, I love doing things and stuff, but I don't necessarily do it for other people.”

‍“It's like I like food and eating it, but I don't feel like going out there and being a chef and having a restaurant. So it's kind of a contradiction. But in the same sense, one of the things with the lineup now, you have Ben (Weinman), who was just there (in Australia) with Dillinger Escape Plan. Ben’s been playing with us like, whew, six or seven years. One of the things he said, he goes, he was 12 or 13 when he first heard Suicidal, you know, skateboarding. He said, man, it just kind of made him stop. He realises this is different. It made him think about what other records did and stuff. And he goes, “I want to make a record like that”. Someone, wherever at, whatever they're doing, when they hear it, they go, “Whoa, what is this”? And sticks out. The same thing with Jay (Weinberg). He's got a different perspective on the Suicidal thing. The way that he came into music and was introduced to Suicidal, and then being in a band and having that understanding. I think it's kind of like going, “Well, we do a new record, it's going to be for the right reason”. So we're always recording. But whether it be a new record, I actually at this point think there probably will next year.”

Definitely something to look forward to, especially considering the calibre of the line-up currently in ST. A word that gets bandied around quite a bit on Metallica tours is the word “Family”, and no band’s family tree is more impressive than Suicidal Tendencies.

‍To name names, the roster has included some of the finest drummers on the planet, including Dave Lombardo, Brooks Wackerman, Greyson Nekrutman and Josh Freese. Rob Trujillo came to prominence in ST before playing alongside Ozzy Osbourne and Jerry Cantrell with Mike Bordin (Faith No More), to then go on to land the most talked about job in heavy metal as bass player for Metallica. Now with the likes of Ben Weinmann (Dillinger Escape Plan), Jay Weinberg (ex-Slipknot), Dean Pleasants (ex-Ugly Kid Joe) and Tye Trujillo (OTTTO, son of Rob Trujillo) in the line up, it’s clear that being part of the ST family is a badge of honour that a few fortunate, yet exceptional musicians get to wear proudly. But as the man who started it all, Mike must look over what’s emerged in the wake of his influence, almost like a proud father.

‍“Yeah, well I see it in Robert. It is the funniest thing because I tell the story a lot. The first show Tye did with us, Robert was the most nervous dad roadie.

Here's a guy who plays in front of 50, a hundred thousand people a night, and he's all nervous for his son. It's incredible to see that and understand that. The Trujillos are an amazing family. Tye is incredible. Robert is an absolute saint. Robert was always one of my best friends from way back, but when he got into Metallica and I went to Australia, everybody's lives changed.

You got kids and stuff like that. But when I was in Australia the last time they came through, that's when I really started to realise, man, it ain't easy. I got people calling me up asking for 14 snake pit passes and blah, blah blah and it's like, “Oh mate, just call Robbie mate”. I am like, “What the fuck are you talking about?"

‍Then we did a show where Tye couldn't do it, and we went to the House of Vans in Mexico. Literally the only person who knew was Steve Van Doren and the head of Vans in Mexico. We're like, “We can't let it get out”. When we landed at two in the morning, and there were people there, they didn't know Robert was going to be there, but they had these things they made for everybody. All of a sudden, people were looking for Tye and then they saw Robert and then the cameras came out. Then I think at a certain point people said, “Oh, maybe Robert's there to see his son”. We did a soundcheck, and one of the people from the venue filmed a little bit of it live and put it up. Then there are all these people outside, and we're trying to get Robert out after the soundcheck.

Literally, after we finished the show, we had to have this whole plan. It was like a politician thing, and it's like, okay, “We're going to finish our set. We're going to all step off. We're going to come back, do this whole thing. Robert's going to go down this back entrance, down through this hallway. We're going to run a different car for him to get into. We'll leave the other cars that we had in the front”. It was this whole plan we had to do because of Robert and stuff. He's Mexican, so he's fucking a saint down there.

Even at the airport, when we're going to the airport, all of a sudden the police start coming in. I'm pushing people away. It’s just crazy. But he's just, as we say, he's got the patience of a saint.

I couldn't handle it. People are grabbing you. It’s insane”.

That insanity is going to continue when they make the trek to Australia on what is shaping up to be a truly monumental tour. With an obvious difference in the scale of the Metallica shows versus the ST headliner shows, I wonder if Mike, a true veteran of the scene, has a different mindset when going into those less familiar, 75,000-100,000 strong arenas as opposed to the comparatively intimate, yet still impressive ST rooms.

‍“Well, I’d always default and I have to try to stop myself from it to be the underdog and being like, “I don't give a fuck about anybody and I'm going to do my thing and no one's going to stop me and everybody's the enemy”, which isn't the case. But it is definitely different playing in places that you saw the Super Bowl in.

‍The example that I've been saying recently, the second show we did was at a huge baseball stadium in Toronto. One of the guys on the Metallica tour coincidentally booked Suicidal’s first time when we played in Montreal. He went to me, he said, “Mike man, look at this place”. He goes, “This must be a dream come true”. And I said, “Nope, I never dreamed this. Never thought about it, wouldn’t have thought about it”. If someone else thought about it, I'd say they're fucking crazy, stupid and wasting my time. It's just nothing that ever appealed to me or I ever thought even would happen or whatever. He was kind of like, his face went down, and I said that I appreciate being here, being able to be here. It's amazing. Never would've thought it happened. But it wasn't a dream come true.

But I was thinking about it, and I was in Australia the last time they came, living there when they came, and not just because everybody's asking me to get on the guest list. But I go, wow, that would be really cool to play with Metallica in Australia. And so I'm not a sentimental guy or whatever. So technically, I guess you could say us doing the Metallica dates in Australia, I'll admit it, is kind of a dream come true. So I'm super stoked on that.”

Me too Mike. A million per cent, this is going to be an all-time tour. This November was already shaping up to be insane, and now it’s going to be even more epic. With the sublime mix of Suicidal Tendencies and Metallica running around Australia with Evanescence, some truly memorable moments are bound to take place, and I get the feeling that this is the ST tour that fans will be talking about for years to come. November is gonna rule. I’ll sleep at Christmas. 

Interview by Duane James

‍SUICIDAL TENDENCIES - ANZ TOUR 2025
with Special Guest Big Noter (Briggs)

Fri, Oct 31: Magnet House, Perth
Fri, Nov 7: The Forum, Melbourne Sun,
Nov 9: Pier Bandroom, Frankston Tues,
Nov 11: The Tivoli, Brisbane Fri,
Nov 14: The Roundhouse, Sydney Tues,
Nov 18: The Powerstation, Auckland

Tickets Available Here