Guy Fieri's hair is the front lawn to hell.
Later after college I discovered Gang of Four, Buzzcocks, and those kind of bands. My tastes have changed but I still carry a lot of the influences from my youth.
. I did an interview earlier and somebody asked me if I [knew I] was onto something back when I was first writing. I said, "Yeah. I always thought I was good. " We're not the Beatles or Led Zeppelin or ACDC. But Helmet always sounded like Helmet, and we sort of developed our own sound. There's a vocabulary that's kind of universal now that's very simple. My friendDavid Sims, [the bassist] in Jesus Lizard, said, "I wish I'd thought of it. " When you first hear it, it's like, "Oh duh. " But that's cool.
The problem is that the internet IS some kid in a basement with an opinion. The fact that David Bowie and Elton John told me that they were fans of Helmet - or Neil Young - that means something to me because I grew up on their music and they’re great musicians. . . That means more to me than some guy who hates the fact that my hair is short.
To me, music and songwriting is. . . part of the intriguing thing is the creative process; you know, the creative thought process. Relying on that. . . there is some sort of inspiration there and you can't always put your finger on where it comes from. So, it's always been important for me to have my own thing and, even though I'm inspired by and influenced by many different musicians and styles of music, I was very determined early on to have my own thing. So when I sit down to write I don't necessarily have a particular narrative or message in mind. I'm interested in language and in words.
People keep asking me if recently performing the Betty album will influence the song-writing and I think it might. There's songs on that record that I forgot about and it's really nice to have that variety in the set along with tracks from Strap It On, Meantime, Aftertaste, Size Matters, Monochrome, and Seeing Eye Dog.
We went to South America on a trip and all I had was a Robert Johnson album. So that's a definite influence on the album. My bandmates John [Stanier, drummer] and Henry [Bogdan, bassist] were interested in expanding their roles as writers, so that had a positive impact on the record.
To love our success more than God and our neighbor hardens the heart, making us less able to feel and to sense.
In our long and obsessive passion for youth, we have - more than any other modern society - avoided direct approach to age and to dying by denying them in word, in fact, and - above all - in worth.
True, a little learning is a dangerous thing, but it still beats total ignorance.
I would have liked to come back in 300; they did an origins film of 300 just recently, and it would have been fun to come back and see what happened to my character.