Zacky Vengeance interview

How was Avenged Sevenfold formed?

Well we started out as, well we’re all friends growing up together we had all played in different bands and we just all thought it would be a good idea to try something new and make all the different styles of music that we love together. So in 1999 we came up with our name and a song and ever since then started touring trying to meet fans all across the world.

How would you describe your music?

It’s you know we’re definitely a hard rock/heavy metal band you know punk rock roots and a love for all styles of music ranging from outlaw country music to hip hop or hard rock to classical, I really love everything and so you really hear that in our music because we don’t just stick to one style we incorporate all the things we love about all the music we listen to.

How did you guys come up with the name Avenged Sevenfold?

Basically, well basically it’s the first murdered on earth according to the Bible there’s a passage that references Avenged Sevenfold and we just thought it was kind of dark and kind of evil, I mean we were young and it’s just the name that we picked out and once we started getting bigger it just kind of stuck with us.

How did you guys come up with your stage names?

That’s all different to be honest for me personally I just wanted something that represents Avenged, you know I used Vengeance because I thought it had a nice sound to it and a nice ring. So we basically wanted to strip ourselves of our own identities and create something you know larger than any of us individually and create this entity that Is Avenged Sevenfold so we got rid of our real names and you know use our stage names so that people would focus on Avenged Sevenfold fold as a whole rather than the people that created it.

Where did you come up with the album title Nightmare from and what does it mean to you?

Nightmare was the name of the album based off of the song Nightmare that we had written, just the word really seemed to capture what was going on with the world at that time. During the writing process we lost The Rev, you know he passed away he was my best friend and our drummer and all of a sudden the album took on an entirely different meaning cause we were actually living out worst nightmare. The title for us is extremely you know kind if haunting and you know just we couldn’t have had a more honest and prefect title for that album.

Avenged Sevenfold has been praised by rock legends such as Metallica, how does that make you feel?

Er its absolutely incredible and at the same time so humbling because they’re such great guys and they have created such an empire throughout the entire world for that type of music and for them to embrace us and you know for us to call those guys friends its almost surreal, it doesn’t even feel real it’s extremely incredible if anyone were to tell me that someday we’d be touring and be friends with Metallica I would have never believed it. So it’s been a dream come true and an amazing learning experience seeing those guys operate.

What were you doing before you joined the band?

Ahh, you know we were really young we were still in school and you know there really wasn’t anything else we were doing, Avenged Sevenfold is all that we’ve ever really known. We’ve grown up in it and with it and it’s been the biggest part of our lives for so long.

Is the band looking for a permanent drummer?

You know we definitely would like to at one point solidify our line up and the only way that could ever happen is naturally just like the same way that we found Arin he’s currently drumming with us, it was almost a miracle it happened so naturally. We know that we could never fully replace The Rev because he’s such an important part of Avenged Sevenfold and always will be, so we’re not the type of band just looking to find a member for the sake of having a member we’ve been able to tour around the world and have amazing stories because of people like Arin. Someday in the future we all might sit down and be like hey you know it’s time to let him in so right now you know it’s something we don’t think about we just enjoy being able to tour with our band around the world and look forward to making good music in the future. 

You guys have been nominated for the Best live Band at the Golden Gods Awards, how does that make you feel?

Er it’s incredible especially when I look at the other bands that have been nominated it’s a huge honour, because we started out traveling around in a van driving ourselves to shows playing in front of nobody and to be able to be recognized as you know the Best live Band its huge for us. We’ve always put a lot of heart and soul into our concerts and we never spared any expense to make the best concerts possible for a band so, you know it’s a huge honour and it’s not an honour that we take lightly we look forward to putting on bigger and better shows.

At the 2006 VMAs you won Best New Artist in a video, how you feel?

Oh it was incredible, being on that stage and accepting an award that our fans had voted for at a time when most people on the planet didn’t know who we were it was absolutely incredible. It was amazing because that was our first chance to letting everyone in the world know that Avenged Sevenfold is here to stay and we were definitely the underdogs no one expected us to win most people that were at the awards have never even heard of us, people in the audience were so shocked including us it’s amazing to get up there and know that our band had carried this off.

Are you excited about coming to play in Malaysia?

Absolutely we’ve been seeing out fans for years requesting for us to come and play there so we can see how excited we are and that makes us so excited. To be able to put on a show for kids that have probably never seen us before that have been looking forward to it, you know there’s nothing more special than that.

How many places have you been to in Asia to perform?

Oh my gosh man, it’s it’s I I don’t even know we’ve toured around the entire world for the last 12 years and we, anywhere that we have fans we’ll always find a way to get there. We’ve been around the whole world and we look forward to continuing doing it. 

Does touring ever get boring for you?

At times when you get homesick and you know when you’re out on the road for long periods of time but every night when you step out on stage you know with your fans that are so excited to see you, you can’t help but be so excited and so honour and you realise how lucky you are to be able to do it. And after Jimmy passed away you know, we never thought we’d play ever again so every time we go on stage we never take it for granted.

Do you have any pre-show rituals?

You know not so much, before we walk on stage we all give each other high 5s and we all try to get each other pumped up and have the best show no matter what is on our mind, we always give our fans the best show possible. So we just psych ourselves up before we go out on stage and er before the show we usually take it easy to make sure we’re in top shape to put on the best concert we can.

What’s the best thing about touring?

Being able to travel around the world and meet fans and try new customs and cultures just being able to see the world with your best friends by your side is one of the greatest things anyone could ever do.

Do you prefer playing live or in the studio?

I love playing live you know I’ve never, I love creating music but I’ve never been one that really loves sitting in the studio it’s something that I really don’t like doing, I like the magic that happens when you’re playing in front of fans and the uncertainty of what could happen on stage is so exciting to me. Every show is special and unique so, you know being on stage is far superior to me.

How did you get started in music?

We just love music, we started the band and we started booking our own shows and playing any chance that we could get you know we gathered  up the money and bought a van and started touring and never gave up. We worked harder than a lot of bands out there and it paid off tremendously, we’re very fortunate that we’ve been so privileged and blessed.

What do you think the future holds in store for Avenged Sevenfold?

You know, it’s one of those things that you never ever really know but I know that as long as we have fans across the world that show us love and support there’s nothing else that we could imagine doing and we’ll do our very best to continue to write the greatest songs that we can and to travel around the entire world to perform for our fans and if we’re able to do that we’re the luckiest guys in the world.

When you come to Malaysia will you performing older songs?

Er we’ll be performing everything because our fans have waited for so long, we’re gonna play songs from all the albums and really mix it up.