In a new interview with “Reckless” Rexx Ruger of Pod Scum, SHADOWS FALL/ex-OVERKILL drummer Jason Bittner was asked what the impetus was for the formation of CATEGORY 7, his new band also featuring former MACHINE HEAD and current KERRY KING guitarist Phil Demmel, ex-ADRENALINE MOB guitarist Mike Orlando, ARMORED SAINT/ex-ANTHRAX singer John Bush and EXODUS bassist Jack Gibson. Jason replied: “If I’m being frank, the impetus, for me, was my dissatisfaction with my role in OVERKILL. I hadn’t been happy in the band for, like, two fucking years. It wasn’t a surprise that I quit. I’d been dissatisfied for a long time, but I’m a team player. I don’t like to leave things. I love the guys personally. So I just kind of just hung in there, but I was not happy where I was career-wise, let’s say, within the confines of that band. I wasn’t a bandmember. And that’s the main thing for me to keep doing this at this point in my lifetime. That’s why for SHADOWS FALL to be back together, I’m 20 percent owner-member. I’m involved in the decisions. I just don’t get told what’s happening. I hate that. I’m a Capricorn. I can’t deal with that shit.”

He continued: “For my whole career, for the most part, even like back to the early days, all the bands either I formed or I was instrumental in getting the guys together, or it was always just a one-for-all, all-for-one thing. OVERKILL was the only band I’ve ever played in where I was a hired gun. The only exception was ANTHRAX, but I was only a touring member with ANTHRAX, and with PRONG — only touring. That’s a totally different animal than being, quote-unquote, in the band. Even when I was in FLOTSAM (AND JETSAM), I was a 20 percent member-owner. I was involved in the decisions. So seven and a half years of that was a long time for me.

“I know Blabbermouth is gonna take this and run the wrong way with what I’m trying to talk about,” Bittner added. “My point I love the guys, I was a team player, I wasn’t leaving, but I was dissatisfied and I was looking for something else.

“My whole career, I had my ears always to the grindstone and I’m always just in the mix to know what’s going on, like, ‘Oh, hey, someone’s looking for something.’ Not that I want to be a ship jumper or anything, but I’ve had a lot of downtime on my hands in the last number of years. So anything I can play on, play with, be a part of, I’m gung-ho to do. But for a while with OVERKILL, I wasn’t like that anymore,” Jason admitted. “I’m, like, ‘All right, this is cool. I’m not looking for anything else.; But after a while, I was, like, ‘All right, I need another outlet.'”

When Ruger pressed Bittner about the exact reasons for his dissatisfaction with his role in OVERKILL and whether he wanted “more involvement in the creative process”, Jason said: “A little bit. For me, more so it was definitely on just being paid fairly for my time… Like I said, there’s no animosity. I just went and saw everybody last Friday. (OVERKILL) just played in my backyard Friday night. I went, I knocked on the bus, Blitz (OVERKILL singer Bobby Ellsworth) opened the door: ‘Hey, you coming tonight?’ ‘Yeah.’ ‘All right. Come on in.’ Gives me a big hug, like I knew he would. I gave his girlfriend a hug. I said hello to a couple of crew people that I knew. I went inside and gave everybody a hug. D.D. (Verni, OVERKILL bassist) came up, slaps me on the back. It’s got nothing to do with our personal lives. It’s just a business thing.”

Bittner added: “For a while it was fine, but I needed to make myself available for the bands that I’m a member of. That’s really what it is. I couldn’t be tied to OVERKILL anymore to be their drummer and only their drummer and ‘this is the schedule for the year and you have to work in whatever you do in this.’ Uh-uh.

“And I know that the people are already typing away, ‘Yes, but SHADOWS FALL doesn’t tour the way that OVERKILL did,’ blah blah blah blah. Yes, true — very true. But remember, I have another band, CATEGORY 7. Between the two, we’ll be working just as much. But also, the thing to keep in mind here, too, is I can play five shows with SHADOWS FALL and make more money than playing 30 with OVERKILL.”