AVENGED SEVENFOLD Bassist Says Fake Album Title 'Leak' Made 'The Stage' Release 'More Shocking And Surprising'

On October 31, Johnnie Walker and Janna of the WGRD radio station in Grand Rapids, Michigan conducted an interview with AVENGED SEVENFOLD bassist Johnny Christ. You can now listen to the chat in the YouTube clip below. A couple of excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On how AVENGED SEVENFOLD managed to get physical copies of its new album, "The Stage", into record stores before the album release was officially announced:

Johnny: "That was almost impossible. We had some pictures leak the day before of the album from a clerk somewhere, and shortly after there was some music. And the team over at Capitol was really great about making sure anytime something started to leak, they'd go quickly take it off. But once it's out there, it's out there. But we were able to keep it under wraps for the next 24 hours until the proper release. Yeah, it was an amazing effort by everyone involved at Capitol and our management team."

On whose idea if was to have a fake album title and release date "leaked" by WWE wrestler and FOZZY singer Chris Jericho:

Johnny: "You know, I think it was actually Matt's [singer M. Shadows], 'cause Chris is a good friends of ours and we're always talking to him. And we used his social media clout, if you will, and figured we'd have him say something about a fake-titled record coming out later. And that way, it just kept it even more shocking and surprising."

In other news, AVENGED SEVENFOLD frontman M. Shadows blasted the band's former label, Warner Music, in a new interview with Metal Hammer, saying that the company's plan to release a "best-of" album was an attempt to "undercut our sales and confuse casual fans." Shadows added, "We didn't find out it was happening until we saw it online. They're just trying to make a cash grab. The fans will figure it out, it's a viral world and people will know. Go on Spotify and make a playlist of those songs, it's easy."

Addressing the legal problems with Warner Music, Shadows said, "It comes down to feeling that nobody at that company cared or knew about AVENGED SEVENFOLD = any more. All the higher-ups had gone through multiple regime changes. So we took way less money to go somewhere else, do what we felt was right for our career, take on a lawsuit, than put out a record and let it fall by the wayside."

AVENGED SEVENFOLD and Warner Music are locked in a legal battle that will go to trial sometime early next year, with the label claiming that the band breached its contract and left owing the company one more studio album. AVENGED, meanwhile, has invoked a California law stating that no contract can last more than seven years.

AVENGED SEVENFOLD issued its seventh studio effort, "The Stage", last week as a near-total surprise, with the band announcing the disc on the night of October 27 and the record arriving the next day (October 28). It marked the band's debut for Capitol.

Shadows insisted that there was "no way" Warner would have supported the unorthodox marketing scheme.

Just a few days earlier, Warner Music declared that a two-CD compilation called "The Best Of 2005-2013" would arrive on December 2.