BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE Frontman Says GUNS N' ROSES Is Prime Example Of How Not To Act On Tour

Revolver magazine recently conducted an interview with BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE frontman Matt Tuck. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

Revolver: Did the success of "The Poison" lead you to feel more confident in the studio this time?

Tuck: The studio is always a relaxed place to us. It's where we're at our most creative and where we shine as songwriters. All the bits and pieces come along on the road, but it's in the studio where all these creative ingredients just pour out of us. We had the luxury this time as well of not having any kind of deadline or anything. We could really take our time and get into it, and if we weren't happy, we'd just start again. That's where Colin [Richardson, producer] came in, because we trust him implicitly.

Revolver: Was working with Colin again a no-brainer?

Tuck: Totally. He just gets what we're doing and what we want to achieve and the way we want to sound. Even when things were bad with my voice and we were in the studio for three weeks without one word being put down on ProTools, there was no negativity. He never got frustrated. He was just like, "No worries — we'll take a break for a few weeks and come back." He pretty much kept it together when times were getting really ugly.

Revolver: A good deal of your touring in support of "The Poison" included dates with older, more established metal bands. Was that exciting?

Tuck: yeah, it means a lot. It's something you never think of when you join a band as a teenager and you look up to these people as complete fucking gods. To even know that they know who we are is fucking amazing. It still hasn't sunk in that we've done something like that. They know us personally and are calling us by our names.

Revolver: How has that changed your ideas about who or what a rock star is?

Tuck: We've kind of seen what to do and what not to do if you get to that level. When we were on tour with GUNS N' ROSES, that was a prime example of how not to fucking act on tour. Then with MAIDEN and METALLICA it was the complete opposite. They made us feel so welcome, and anything we wanted, they were more than happy to give us. It was nice to see that though they've established godlike myths about them, when you actually get them one-on-one in a room, they're just Mr. Average. It was inspiring to see that our heroes weren't dicks.

Revolver: One thing that unites acts like METALLICA and GUNS N' ROSES is that they play to incredibly varied audiences. It's not just kids who know everything there is to know about the history of metal. Does establishing that kind of following appeal to you?

Tuck: That'd be cool, yeah. We've had our fair share of something similar, which is playing in front of people who really don't understand what's going on in modern metal. The MAIDEN experience, for example — there were 40- and 50-year-old men with mullets and denim jackets, you know? It was mad to see how out of touch some people are with modern rock music.

Revolver's entire interview with Matt Tuck can be found in the magazines' March 2008 issue, available on newsstands now.