Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I think there's no truer and more pure purpose than to be able to refine your art to a point where you feel it's as possible as it can be.
'Immortalized' is hopefully what music does for everyone in terms of emotions, in terms of experiences, in terms of being people who create it.
I really don't think that anybody's going to buy or not buy a Disturbed album and/or ticket because I am or am not wearing my labret piercings.
I despise lackadaisical behavior when it comes to our music. I mean, this is heavy metal music. You must be involved. You're required to be involved.
The fans who know us, and me in particular, know the type of people we are. I like the finer things. We've gone through our McDonald's and Burger King phase.
I love hooks, but getting radio airplay has never been a concern to me while I'm writing. That would be a very stifling and imprisoning way of writing music.
I think that there's always a time to be tongue-in-cheek, and there's always time for humor, but there's a time to be serious and a time for emotional content.
There'd be no merit to replicating something, to repeating something. As artists and as musicians, you wanna continue to go in different directions and develop.
Social media has become a high school playground where the challenge is what idiot can come up with the best insult, and do you end up congratulating them for it?
It used to be that, whenever I walked around without my old piercings, that I was very rarely recognized - it wasn't a common thing; I could be somewhat incognito.
The power, the complexity, the aggression - there's so many things that would attract anyone to Metallica. I think that they are the prime example of a metal band.
It's multifaceted, the message to our music. It's not just that. It's about individuality, development of self, finding things in life that you can be passionate about.
I think that, in my humble opinion, that the world is divided, and the media has a very good, a very predictable habit of emphasizing whatever will keep people clicking.
I will never, ever apologize for being passionate about the things that I believe in, and it is just that, it is just an opinion, and people don't have to share my opinion.
I used to have, and I still do have, really bad acid reflux. I had a surgical procedure done... that repaired a valve at the top of my stomach that had completely burned away.
I had a motorcycle accident, and I had my garage burn down with most of my vehicles. And I've had really bad relationships that I've been in and out of. They've left their mark.
The forces that precipitate the vicious cycle of conflict on this planet do not pledge allegiance to either the left or the right or the center. They take advantage of everyone.
I'm all about freedom to go ahead and practice whatever kind of religions you want, have whatever sort of sexual preference you want, freedom in terms of being pro choice for women.
I think that we're more united than the media would care to admit. We're not as divided as the perception would relay - not in the United States, not anywhere, really, in the world.
Every time we put out a piece of art, it continues to define who we are. What could possibly be more important than that and require more of your focus and your time and your energy.
There are definitely confines within the style of Disturbed that we needed to stay true to, but we've always pushed that envelope. We always continued to develop with each successive record.
There's nothing that can lock a memory in your mind more distinctly than with a piece of music. It's so easy to remember something so vividly and so perfectly when you score it to something.
'Oppressed' is one of the terms that's very, very sellable and easily thrown around these days because everybody feels it, no matter what side you're on. We thrive on it. We're addicted to it.
There's still anti-Semitism everywhere, and unfortunately, what has happened with our people no longer being the underdogs in this region, peoples' perception of Israel has changed dramatically.
Don't get me wrong - we love our hip-hop, but in its own context. Rap has no place in our music. Is what we do rhythmic? Sure. Is it syncopated? Certainly. But our music has nothing to do with hip-hop.
Even though there is obviously a marked stylistic difference between the majority of our catalog and a cover like 'The Sound Of Silence,' it certainly isn't the first time we've done an acoustic track.
Many people have eclectic tastes. Many people like to listen to all kinds of different music. I mean, I do; I'll listen to many different styles inside a day, a week, a month, a year. It doesn't matter.
I'll never forget getting my first Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Alice in Chain records, and hearing that wonderful, beautiful darkness. And the rhythmic intensity, that's what attracted me more than anything else.
There's everybody in the world who is always trying, time and time again, to proclaim the death of rock, or hard rock and heavy metal. Not if I have anything to do with it, not if we have anything to do with it.
The Device experience was amazing. I enjoyed working with everyone that I was blessed with the opportunity to work with, and you learn so much going outside of your normal world and outside your box, so to speak.
I was never the guy who was going to try to use my social media to be a source of promotion for myself... It was always trying to use whatever kind of a voice in the position that I have been blessed with for good.
I would have no problem with a woman as president. I have a problem with Hillary Clinton as president. I think the right woman could be great. She's not the right woman. She's not the right anything. She's just a liar.
Obviously, what happened from the 'Immortalized' record was we achieved a level of success that, to be perfectly honest, was unpredecented in our career. Every track released from that record ended up going No. 1 at radio.
All I can ever hope to be to my son is someone who's supportive, someone who listens and understands and points out possible other ways of thinking, ways of feeling, ways of approaching things, suggests rather than demands.
What makes something pop? It's really just the bed it's placed in. If I grab melodies by Black Sabbath or Metallica and take them out of their musical bed and put them into a pop context, it's not like they wouldn't translate.
'Creeping Death' - that was a special song for me as a kid, because that was the one that every single Jewish kid thought, 'Oh, Metallica wrote a song for us. He wrote it about the exodus of the Jews from Egypt under slavery.'
We've always used that as a goal - the record that literally every single track on it could be a hit. A record that breaks doors down, that opens up new opportunities to us, that helps you achieve true immortality as an artist.
One of the degrees I have is in business, and I was a healthcare administrator that ran a 365-bed skilled nursing facility for years and generated several million dollars a year profit for them. So I have a background in business.
Oh, I'm going to raise him on Black Sabbath and Metallica and football and MMA and all things that should matter for a young boy, and discipline and strength and honor and courage and everything that I would hope to instill within my son.
I think that seeing as much support as somebody like Obama as a black candidate running for president in a country that historically has had issues with the African-American people, and them having issues vice-versa, is a miraculous thing.
The level of study that I was at, I was probably only about two or three years away from being ordained as a rabbi, so I really needed to figure out in my head where I wanted to go with things. And I just couldn't do it habitually anymore.
I would like to thank a world that never understood or accepted me, family and friends that never believed in me, and a God with one hell of a sense of humor. You have all made me what I am today. Let that weigh heavily on your consciences.
'Savior Of Nothing' calls out the would-be social justice warriors of the world who become so enveloped in fighting so passionately that they become exactly what they're trying to correct. They preach acceptance so much they become unaccepting.
Look, it makes sense to be able to take part of what you've earned in this life and have it grow. And I hope that other musicians out there that do have their moments of profit and of success are wise enough not to squander those profits and that success.
We've put out records that consistently have been what the fans have been looking for from Disturbed. We've been consistent with our live performances. As long as we continue to maintain that level of trust with our fanbase, I think they'll still be there.
At the end of the day, what people want from me is to get up there on that stage and make them feel powerful and give them a release for an hour and a half or two hours every once in a while. And if I'm still able to do that, hopefully I'm still making people happy.
What makes you a rock star is what are you able to do when you get behind that microphone, when you put that guitar in your hands, when you wield those drumsticks, and when you raise your hand in front of twenty thousand people: do they respond? That's being a rock star.
We never enter the studio unless we feel like, right now, if these are the songs we record, that we would have an album that we're proud of and we're excited about. And we put everything under the microscope and examine it the best we can to make sure that we're prepared.
Individuality is a personal thing. It's based on your own personal feelings and expression of self. So, really, it's nobody's business to judge you but yourself. And if you feel that you're expressing yourself as an individual, and you feel confident in it, then that really should be all that matters.
We don't have a particular plan. We just do what we do. This is the only way we know how to do it. We make the music that moves us. We use it as therapy. The songs are cathartic. They're ways of dealing with life experiences and the world around you. It's meant to be as a release for us as it is for other people.