Quotes from Jim Root

The masks, for us, are more of a way to present ourselves live, you know?

There's such an energy and emotion to rock music, which is a lot of the reason I go back to '60s and '70s bands and look at some of the fire they had.

I'll never be able to listen to anything we've done like someone who's just picked it up for the first time.

There are many different artforms that are just being lost because the whole digital revolution has homogenized everything, turned it all into Walmart.

I wanna buy vinyl and I want to listen to records on it. I want to put on 'Dark Side of the Moon' in the dining room while I'm eating pasta or whatever. You know what I mean.

I'll admit that I don't have a lot of discipline when it comes to practicing. I'm not the type of guy who sits at home with a metronome and runs through scales and stuff like that. But I do go through phases when I'll be more diligent, and I notice that warming up and working on some patterns will make my playing cleaner.

I love 'Mad Max' and 'The Road Warrior,' in particular - those movies are very close to my soul, you know what I mean?!

You know, 'Mad Max' and 'The Road Warrior' was part of my childhood, and that's why I'm so close to it. I remember seeing those movies at a drive-in theater with my parents when I was very young.

There's a lot for us to achieve and a lot more music to explore. I'm not saying we want to start doing experimental prog or something, where it turns into elevator music after a few records, but I don't think we've even scratched the surface.

I'm just a dumb guitar player, man.

I like to keep my world positive. There's enough negativity kicking around.

I'm my own worst critic.

I was awkward in school. I didn't really fit in with any kind of crowd in school. I didn't have a lot of friends. But the friends I had were very close friends.

The future of Slipknot is always in doubt. I always prepare for each album as if it's gonna be the last.

Dave Fortman really helped me appreciate Rick Rubin as a producer.

Rick Rubin was able to do things that Dave Fortman could never do. I'm not trying to take anything away from Dave Fortman as a producer. He's extremely talented. He wasn't able to get nine people together on the same page and, to me, that's the most important thing in making a Slipknot record.

Every time we go into the studio and use a different engineer or producer I try to look, listen and learn their approach. That has helped with the gear I look for to use live and in the studio.

We're a unique band, so why have a generic producer lumping you in a box with other bands that sound the same?

Every experience you have in life can be applied to different things.

I don't like to really dive too deep into politics.

I've started to look at guitar playing from more than just a standpoint of using certain modes and techniques.

It became apparent to me near the end of the album cycle for 'House Of Gold & Bones' that it had basically run its course. But the band kept pushing for more dates, and I was just, like, 'It's time to stop!'

For one reason or another, a lot of guys wind up with a guitar that isn't really right for them.

The culture of buying an album on CD or vinyl has gone out of the window. A lot of kids don't really understand that, they just hop onto Limewire, or find a BitTorrent, or even just go onto iTunes if they're going to pay for something. It's just right there, there's no searching about.