AVENGED SEVENFOLD Guitarist: 'If People Hate What You're Doing, It Means You're Doing It Right'

Jorge Fretes of Spain's Goetia Media recently conducted an interview with AVENGED SEVENFOLD guitarist Zacky Vengeance. You can listen to the entire chat below. A few excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On whether he pays attention to what the "haters" say about AVENGED SEVENFOLD:

Zacky: "To be honest, none of it has ever bothered me. We've been getting it since day one. The first review our band ever got when I was 17 years old and we had just released our first EP, and this tiny little magazine wrote a review on it and for that month, we were the best album of the month and we were also the worst album of the month. We won best and worst album of the month in the same magazine. Right then and there, I was so happy and thrilled because if people hate what you're doing, it means you're doing it right. It means you're in front of them, it means they have an opinion. Not everyone is going to love you. Not everyone is going to like what you do and you see a lot of people don't want to let go of the bands that they love. They don't want to move forward. They don't want to let new things come in; they're scared of change. They're scared of new bands taking over their genre. They're just scared of change. Those are the people that are the most vocal online and they bitch the most: 'Oh, this band sucks. They'll never be as good as so-and-so.' But the reality is we're headlining a lot of these festivals around the entire world and we're selling out concerts everywhere we go. We put out a surprise-release album [2016's 'The Stage'] that was considered one of our worst-selling albums and it was still one of the biggest rock albums of the entire year in the entire world and that was our worst album. I think as long as people have a strong opinion, whether they love or hate us, I think we're doing something right."

On whether he thinks AVENGED SEVENFOLD can replace the likes of BLACK SABBATH and SCORPIONS as festival headliners:

Zacky: "It's hard to say. We're very, very fortunate to be able to play these shows that we are playing. But it's important for a band like us to go out there and put on the best show that we can. That means blow stuff up and play loud and give the fans their money's worth. It really needs to be a show. It's taken a lot of these bands their careers to get to the level that they're at. IRON MAIDEN and METALLICA are bigger now than they ever were. They're playing stadiums across the entire planet. Even though it seems like their heyday was back when MTV and the radio played their songs all the time, the truth is that they've gotten bigger now because they play all the time and people know they're going to get a great show. You get different generations. You have dads bringing their dads and people bringing their own sons and entire families coming to the concerts. That's why there's so many people. For us, we're still young. We need to go out there and give it everything we have and play the best we can. I believe that if we're able to persevere and have the longevity of some of these classic bands, then hopefully someday we'll have the same sort of legacy that they do."

On whether he ever writes music that isn't suitable for AVENGED SEVENFOLD:

Zacky: "Absolutely. All the time. The one great thing about AVENGED SEVENFOLD is that our style is so unique. We can always add or incorporate different crazy music. It's not just thrash metal or just hard rock. We're able to incorporate all sorts of styles of music and that's great for me. But on top of it, I love punk rock and when I go and see a band like BAD RELIGION, I think to myself, 'Wow, that would be so fun to start a punk band just for fun.' Or, I've always loved really mellow, almost sad music, just acoustic guitar, and I always write songs like that at home just for fun. Maybe someday I'll put some of it out. But it's hard because when you're known for being in a band like AVENGED SEVENFOLD and having some success, you're instantly judged. Whereas if I was just 18 years old and no one ever heard of me, I could write these songs and put them out to the world and no one would have any expectation. But now because of who I am and where our band is at, it's really hard to release music without everyone judging it for something that it's not."

AVENGED SEVENFOLD will release a "deluxe edition" of "The Stage" on December 15.

The band's 2018 North American arena headlining tour will kick off January 12 at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville with special guests BREAKING BENJAMIN and BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE. The trek will be North America's introduction to the electrifying "Stage" spectacle that drew rave reviews in Europe.