Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
The people that tell you what you enjoy is wrong, or come in your life and tell you what you're wearing is wrong are miserable because they focus on the things that they don't like.
The devotion of the BVB Army, with its very big online presence, is amazing. We've been fortunate from the very beginning. It was something that was really able to spur on our career.
Because of the kind of music that I liked, and the different way that I dressed, it was kind of a perfect storm, creating a situation where I existed on my own throughout my schooling.
Each and every one of us has a fire that burns inside us. They can try like hell to put it out, but as long as we know in our minds who we are meant to be, they will never stand a chance.
Every day, people say crappy things about my band or whatever, but I live a positive existence. I got through everything by virtue of having the same passion that I've had through the years.
I don't believe in ghosts, or fairies, or crystals, or unicorns, or a man that can walk on water, or any of that non sense, I personally rely on logic, and have for the better part of my life.
You can't deny a band whose fans will literally do anything to see them win the awards. We're very appreciative to the fan base. That mutual feeling of appreciation is something that really helps.
I was this little kid writing songs. I look back at having that dream, and it's weird. Being able to do it and live out your dream on any scale is amazing. I don't take any of it for granted at all.
It's really important for us as a band, that when someone is giving us grief on stage, to show our fans how important it is that they stand up for themselves and that they feel confident in themselves.
You try so hard to make something that's fun and exciting, then all anyone wants to talk about is how no-one likes you. It gets very grinding. I had to let the chip I have on my shoulder about that go.
I was 16 when we made the first song. We've been touring for half a decade together and we've had quite a bit of time spent learning our craft. You improve as a song writer and as a musician over time.
When I walk around on the street and someone comes up to me, I have just as many full-grown men with large beards in Slipknot shirts saying he likes my band as much as I do girls with bright pink hair.
I see so many bands, that are trying really hard to write for a person that they've never met. I get the idea behind it and the idea of helping people, but I feel you help people more by exposing yourself.
In terms of stage presence for me, I'm influenced by a myriad of things. A lot of punk performers, people like Dave Vanian from The Damned and Davey Havok from AFI was a huge influence on me when I was younger.
On Warped Tour in Boise, Idaho, I broke my tooth on the mic. I took a pretty significant chunk out of my tooth and had to have it sanded down. It wasn't the most painful injury, but it was the most unexpected one.
Finally, please remember this. If you EVER need something that you can stand behind, something to help you to take on and deflect all of the hatred of this often cruel world, you will ALWAYS have Black Veil Brides.
I didn't really get the chance to talk to girls. I was a straight boy with hormones kicking in, and I wanted to talk to girls, but they weren't interested in talking back to me, so there was a real sense of loneliness.
The older I got, I started to realize more it's not necessarily that any of us are inherently bad or good; you just kind of carve your own way, and you are your experiences and your surroundings and what you grow up in.
I don't really have any interest in allowing other people's kind of idiotic, unnecessary, either bigotry or hatred or whatever derision they have for me, I don't allow for it to really bother me, because I don't need it.
Every Christmas, all I ever wanted was Playskool instruments. It was my entire life. And then by the time I was 6 or 7 years old, it became, 'Now I'm going to force my entire family to watch me perform all these rock songs.'
I think Heaven and afterlife is for the living; it's for the people that continue on and remember that person, and if you've done something that is substantial in your life then you can leave a legacy and do something positive.
It would be weird for me to be raging against all of the bullies in my life because it would be disingenuous. I've gotten through all of that and I'm living a wonderful life, but that doesn't mean that people aren't mean to me.
Black Veil Brides will stand strong for you we will take on the world's hatred so that you don't have to listen to your music way to loud and be as crazy and as "different" as you want to be and always remember you're not alone.
I know what it's like to be an outcast in society. I know what it's like to want to find strength, and more importantly, I know what it's like to find that internal strength and rise out of the pain of being just sort of a weirdo.
I feel that there is a culture being built that is a celebration of agony. There is also a celebration of being an outcast, to the degree that you are segregating yourself in a negative way from people who may want to be your friend.
We never made attempts to say we were anybody's role model or the be-all-end-all of what people should look up to. We have always just been very open about the fact that we have difficulties and we are messed-up people, just as our fans are.
For someone like me, music is all I've ever thought about - playing big shows, and then, when you take something that is based around your music and put it in a completely different medium, it's a really interesting and cool emotion to watch.
When I was a kid, it was so important to listen only to bands nobody had ever heard of. I missed out on so much interesting music because of my need to listen to a psychobilly band that only two people knew about... Because I thought I was cool.
I was homeless for almost a year and a half, just living in my car or bouncing around peoples' houses, going to 7-Eleven at the end of the day and asking them for the taquitos that they were going to throw out because I hadn't eaten in two days.
There's no place for Depeche Mode and the Sisters of Mercy in the music I make with my band. If I was a fan, I wouldn't want to hear that on a Black Veil Brides record. It was important for me and for the integrity of the band not to tarnish it.
If what you're writing is genuine, regardless of whether it sounds cliche or people wouldn't necessarily think it's the most brilliant metaphor in the world, it's always important to be genuine with what you're writing; at least, that's how I feel.
The image of the band has always been something that's evolved or changed with every record cycle that we've done. I think, in a lot of respects, that's because we were so interested in having a visual representation for the music that we were making.
To be honest, I've always been really interested in the role of the host, whether it's our kind of Billy Crystal-style traditional awards show host or when you have someone like Louis C.K. or a more edgy stand-up comedian do their take on a hosting role.
I think, on any given day, somebody could help out a homeless person and cuss out somebody that cut them off in traffic, and I think that everybody has that inside them: it's just how you live that balance - so I think everybody is 'Wretched and Divine.'
I'm not against making new fans, but I'm not going to go out of my way to pander to someone and try to make them like me; that's not who we are. It's not as if we're fighting to find an audience - we have our audience, and anybody else is definitely welcome.
As far as being onstage, commanding presence, I've always looked up to people like Axl Rose and Freddie Mercury and Paul Stanley - the rock gods. I've always wanted to be able to achieve that level of commanding nature onstage and really leading people at a show.
Find something that is a happy, healthy alternative to hurting yourself, as opposed to taking a razor blade to yourself because at the end of the day, you're only hurting the most important person in the world and that's you. And you don't want to hurt that person.
Be who you want to be and not care about what others think." -Andy Sixx Rock n roll isn't meant to be taken so seriously, I think sometimes people forget it's meant to be fun. A rock show is meant to be a time for people to have fun and let go of the drudgeries of life.
I see the merit in religion, and I see the need for faith and hope and sometimes people who are more snide look at people who are religious, particularly people in rock bands, and they'll say, 'Oh that's dumb, you believe in whatever,' but I think everybody believes in something.
I rather be divisive than boring. The last thing I want to be is a bowl of sugar free vanilla pudding, it's not something you necessarily hate but it's not something you ask for. I'd rather be something people passionately care about one way or another than be kind of in the middle.
The story of my life publicly has been told through 'Alternative Press.' Former employees, people who have worked there - my friend Ryan Downey, who wrote for 'AP' for a long time - I've been able to have really great articles written about me and talk openly about things in my life.
Me personally, I side more with punk rock bands. I grew up with The Misfits, The Dead Boys, The Damned, Dropkick Murphys, and early AFI. That was the stuff that really got me into music. Song writing wise, bands like Alkaline Trio were very important to me for beginning to write songs.
Growing up, I went to the Warped Tour a lot, and I got to see bands like Rancid and AFI and Dropkick Murphys and these bands that meant so much to me when I was a kid - all in succession on these stages, so to get to play that same stage that I watched those bands play is a huge thing for me.
I don't want to paint myself as some villain - I was never a bad guy doing horrible things, but I got too caught up in wanting a very specific thing to happen to the band. Ultimately, I had to find the ability in myself to get over that and stop being so stringent and learn to laugh a little bit more.
There is no reason why a guitar player makes the guitar-playing faces. It doesn't help you play guitar. You've not improved your skills. It's because you're up onstage, and the natural inclination is to put on a show. The rock guy faces are just as much of a front or a show as us wearing crazy makeup. It's just a different scale.
Our shows have always been sort of an all-generations thing, people from 6 to 60. The other night, we played a show and we had a woman who was probably 70 to 75 years old, and she was there alone and she was singing every song. On the other end of the spectrum, there was a 7-year-old on his dad's shoulders and the dad is singing along.
Life isn't about how popular you are. What girl or boy you are dating or who you know. Life is about always being true to who you are or what you believe in. Never let anyone convince you that their way is better than your way. In the end all we have is our hearts.. and our minds. This is the reason we sing.. this is the reason we cry... this is why we live.
I guess I just sorta figured out early on that most of what people feared was based on things they had heard or read, rather than what they had seen or touched. That being said I do fear that dark in the sort of spooky illustrative sense, that whole idea of "not knowing" whats there. I had really bad problems with the spooks when I was young, but not for fear of aliens.
We are a band that stylistically crosses a lot of barriers and generational gaps. The heavier portion of the band, the modern music elements, the visual part of the band appeal to a younger audience. For an older audience, we have chops and great songs that are reminiscent of the things that were great about rock and roll when they enjoyed it. We're the kind of band that can cross those lines.
I don't think we ever sat down in the early days and said "hey lets be a band that wears make up". I think it was just natural for us. We grew up loving stuff like Alice Cooper, Kiss, The Misfits, and the more theatrical stuff. I always loved rock stars. I loved David Bowie and Freddie Mercury, and these people that were larger than life and iconic. I think that is what we always wanted to do.