M. Shadows Quotes

"The reality is you either step into the future, or you become a dinosaur."

"We are ever evolving and never repeat ourselves."

"Most people know we're kind of one of the only bands around right now that will admit that we're Republican."

"When I'm by myself asking the questions that many of us do at some point in our lives, I look to the stars knowing that the answers are somewhere out there waiting to be discovered."

"The more kids that we can meet or kids that are terminally ill, we try to do it because it's really important, and you can see the hope in their eyes and in their families and their parents."

"If you're going to put out a record just to get a No. 1 and then forget about it after the first week, it's the tail wagging the dog: it doesn't make any sense."

"I want to stay away from trends and do what we want to do musically."

"The thing about covers is that the first thing you're going to notice is the vocals, because it's not the same person."

"If people respect us as artists, they know we'll give them something different every time; they know we're pushing ourselves."

"I went to this vocal coach, Ron Anderson, who has worked with Axl Rose and Chris Cornell, to train my voice and learn a whole new way of singing."

"Musically, I just like when people are knowledgeable about music and they can talk to you about it."

"Personally, I just want to hear good songs."

"People think this is a competition between bands, when the reality is the more successful bands the better."

"I just think that a metal band covering a bunch of metal songs is so boring, so 'done before.'"

"I think 'The Stage' is kind of left field."

"A lot of the metal bands that were around when Metallica put out 'The Black Album,' now they're playing clubs, and Metallica is playing stadiums."

"We write music because we have to; it's a part of our very being."

"We don't want to become like country artists where there's a formula."

"I've always been a really open person around my friends."

"We love the idea of putting out music in a non-conventional way."

"I listen to a lot of Pink Floyd, the Doors, Elton John, Sabbath, Metallica, GN'R, Megadeth - just classic rock, classic metal stuff."

"I think everyone in the band has had someone that's served in their family. I wouldn't say that anybody has a military family, but both of my grandfathers were in the military."

"I've had friends who've had depression or been on medication because their pituitary glands aren't giving out enough hormones - so I've been around a lot of people who've had problems like that. I've always been open to talk about that."

"Those who are not very good at understanding mental health issues are not going to know what other people are going through in depression. You have to kind of put yourself in somebody else's shoes."

"All I can say to people who don't think depression is a real thing, or say 'just suck it up and get over it' - they just really have no idea. You have to give people the benefit of the doubt that they're doing the best they can to get through it."

"I got an email saying we were nominated for a Grammy, and I instantly thought it was a joke. So I started Googling the nominees, and there we were!"

"Honestly, I never thought we'd get a nomination for a Grammy, period. To be honest, we felt that if we were ever going to get one, we thought we had 'City of Evil' and 'Nightmare' and 'Hail to the King,' and those were all big records, and they never even sniffed at us."

"I feel like our whole discography up through 'Hail to the King' was young, fun, and exciting. It was aggressively driven. 'The Stage' was the first step in the band becoming a more mature musical entity."

"I know that sometimes we, as Americans, we reach outside of our means, and every once in a while we like to 'police the world,' but I think we do a lot of good as well."

"As we develop, I just see us following our heart on this musical journey."