AVENGED SEVENFOLD Guitarist: AXL ROSE Is Just Misunderstood

Ultimate-Guitar.com recently conducted an interview with AVENGED SEVENFOLD guitarists Zacky Vengeance and Synyster Gates. An excerpt from the chat follows:

Ultimate-Guitar.com: How was the whole Ozzfest experience like for AVENGED SEVENFOLD?

Zacky: It was a big deal for us to be on Ozzfest especially as one of the main headliners and being the band that wasn't announced; the mystery band. We'd never played the second stage at Ozzfest and all of a sudden we're on the main stage. But it wasn't that we just blew up overnight, we'd been touring for about four years so we were already on the radar for this whole group of kids. And the main metal crowd that didn't want to like us but here we were all of sudden put in front of their faces. So it was a trial by fire for us as we had to go up there and win them over every night which I think we did.

Synyster: We definitely did.

Zacky: It was awesome. People weren't even talking about Ozzy, everybody was talking about us, and whether it was good or bad, I mean, they were still talking about us. It actually turned into the Ozzfest message board creating its own fucking AVENGED SEVENFOLD forum, like there was an all things Ozzy section and all things AVENGED SEVENFOLD section! They had to create a forum because everybody wanted to talk about us.

Ultimate-Guitar.com: You recently toured with METALLICA and GUNS N' ROSES, what was that like?

Zacky: It was probably one of those things, where it's like fucking a supermodel and giving them HIV or something. It's like everything came with a price. I mean when we heard about it (the tour) we were almost in tears. They're like our two fucking favorite bands of all time and to do a full tour and AVENGED SEVENFOLD as main support, it's amazing, but then you get over there and its like… so hard.

Synyster: It was probably the most hectic tour we've ever been on and that we've all been through together. You had like about 16 guys with you, so when we showed up first we all had this twelve-passenger bunk for the fucking 16 people! It was crowded. We usually get those double-deck buses, but this time we got a single-deck bus and half the bunks came into the living room. The back areas were the smallest thing I'd ever seen and there was sulphur dioxide kind of shit leaking near our fucking bunks so we almost fucking died too.

Zacky: And when we weren't on a bus, we were on a plane flying somewhere. Every morning we'd be up at 3.00am and get on a bus just so we'd get to the airport to catch the 10.00am flight. We'll get on this bus that drove for six hours, on a shitty bumpy bus ride that also smelled of sulphur, so we could get to the airport in order to fly to a festival date somewhere. Then you'd show up there and you have to do a shit ton of press as soon as you're off the fucking plane. That is one thing about playing with GUNS N' ROSES and METALLICA, everyone wants to interview you.

Synyster: Axl was amazing, he's a very nice guy, we hung out with him and he's a cool guy.

Ultimate-Guitar.com: Most journalists have a bad impression of Axl due to his attitude towards them in particular and Axl's immense dislike of the media?

Synyster: Well we can understand that, as it's hard being on this side of the fence as we get so much shit that it turns you off I guess, of doing any press at any time, especially for a guy such as Axl and of his magnitude. I mean I can just imagine, he gets into a little bit of scuff or trouble in his life then all of a sudden he's turned into this whole different monster that he's never aspired to be or actually is.

Zacky Vengeance: Axl's for fucking real man. He's no joke. He's a nice guy. You know, Axl has these crazy after parties, where there are hundreds of super models... he's absolutely for real man. He's on a total different sleeping schedule to anybody else. Axl Rose starts at about midnight. He takes a limo straight to the show, plays his show, gets off stage and then stays up for the entire next day!

Synyster: We were very fortunate to hang out with Axl and also Sebastian Bach. Like all three of us were at the back of our bus watching Spiderman movies. That was very cool. The guy [Axl] is just misunderstood.

Read the entire interview at Ultimate-Guitar.com.