Max Cavalera

Max Cavalera's father, Graziano Cavalera, was an employee of the Italian Consulate in Belo Horizonte. He died at 41 years of age, when Max was nine years old. Cavalera's family was in a state of financial crisis and family turbulence when he formed Sepultura with his younger brother, Igor, in the bohemian neighborhood of Santa Tereza in Belo Horizonte. He moved to São Paulo in 1989 together with the other members of the band, sharing an apartment in Santa Cecília, São Paulo. In 1992, he relocated to Phoenix, Arizona. He did not begin to make spiritual music until after he quit Sepultura in January 1997. He then formed Soulfly in Phoenix, Arizona. He reunited with his brother Igor in their band Cavalera Conspiracy. Cavalera appears in the 2009 video game Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned as himself on the ingame radio station LCHC. In 2013, Cavalera released his autobiography, titled My Bloody Roots; his co-writer was the British author Joel McIver, and the book's foreword was written by Dave Grohl.

Since 1992, Cavalera has lived in Phoenix, Arizona with his wife Gloria and their five children. Three of his sons are also active in music, with Richie fronting Incite and Igor and Zyon performing in Lody Kong. Jason tours as Zyon's drum tech, amongst other various duties behind the scenes. In 2012 and 2013, Zyon toured with Soulfly after David Kinkade's retirement, later becoming their official drummer. Igor briefly filled in as bassist for Soulfly in 2015 after Tony Campos left the band, touring as keyboardist and co-vocalist during Soulfly's Point Blank Tour. In 2025, Igor toured with Nailbomb. In 2022, Cavalera attracted criticism after a 2014 clip resurfaced of him telling a Moscow crowd that he supported the internationally unrecognised Russian annexation of Crimea. On July 5, 2023, Cavalera announced that his mother Vania had died. Cavalera is a fan of Palmeiras and the Detroit Lions.