Quotes from David Draiman

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.

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.

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.

You have to decide what's important to you. For instance, myself, I mean, I lead a very, very straight-edge sort of lifestyle on the road.

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.

'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.'

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 attended five different Jewish day schools as a teenager. I mean, I was trained as a hazan!

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.

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.

I can't deny the impact of, obviously, becoming a father and having my son come into this world, and even becoming a husband. The irony is that, when people think that in certain ways it softens you, in many ways, I'm more defensive and more on guard and more frightened and more angry at everything in this world now that I have them to worry about.

The first record I ever bought was Kiss's 'Destroyer.' And those classic bands like Black Sabbath were my first loves.

I support liberty; I support true freedom.

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.

The God's honest truth is that, being the singer, my body's my instrument.

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.

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.

I'm an indestructible master of war.

'Fade To Black' - just this amazing construct: a song that defied the definition of what Metallica was perceived to be at the time.

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.

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 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 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.

The media continues to spin the State of Israel and Jews as war-mongering, evil people, which we are not.