Hammer US scribe Chaos has been chatting to Dez Fafara about his family and taking time off.

You haven’t had any significant amount of time off in the past…what has it been thirteen years now?

“I have not had any real time off since 1995.”

Any chance of that changing in the near future?

“My wife is asking me for a solid year off. I just can’t commit to that. I can totally commit to marriage and kids but I can’t commit to taking that much time off the road. It has nothing to do with my family, I LOVE being at home. We spoke about how we agree that it’s better to have a parent 100% present emotionally when they are home and how detrimental it can be to a child/parent relationship if the parent is absent emotionally.

“My Step-Dad growing up was ‘there’, but not there, you know what I mean? He came home from work and was an asshole to me. My Mom used to have to call the cops on him for beating me… that’s the kind of life I had.

Read the whole interview here.

“Now we get along well. I can sit there and crack a beer with him and say: you know you were a real asshole to me when I was a kid! Then he would respond ‘Fuck yeah, I’m really sorry about that.’ If I wasn’t able to go out on the road I would not get to do what I love, a bottle of wine and a microphone, and I would not see my friends. For example, you know, you and I are going to hang out all night and have drinks. Things like that I would miss out on. I am blessed everyday, but even when it comes to simple things like I can’t sleep in a normal bed for more than three hours. I can only get a good sleep in a bunk when the bus is moving and houses aren’t moving.’

Unless you are on a houseboat.

“Ha ha yeah, or if you live in California during earthquake season. When it comes down to it, if my Wife is adamant about me taking a year off I’m just going to tell her to pack up the kids and come out with me on the road for a year.”