An interview with Zacky Vengeance, The Rev, & Johnny Christ from A7X

Emo kids, punks, and metal heads gathered under one roof for a memorable night filled with music. The New Year’s Eve Bash presented by Soma at the San Diego Sports Arena, brought bands of different genres such as: Rufio, Rise Against, and Avenged Sevenfold together to share the stage. The show had a little bit of everything for everyone and was a definite crowd pleaser. I managed to snag an exclusive interview in the backstage shower with three members of Avenged Sevenfold after they played. Here’s what the guys had to say…

Betty: Please state your name and what you do in the band.

The Reverend: I’m the Reverend and I play drums.

Johnny Christ: I’m Johnny Christ and I play bass.

Betty: With so many different genres represented tonight, how do you feel about sharing the stage with bands such as Rufio and Sugarcult?

The Reverend: Well how I feel is that a lot of them are my friends and I enjoy being the only metal band here. There’s a lot of kids here and a lot of new people to play for, I really like it.

Johnny Christ: Rufio and the Sugarcult guys, we got to meet them out on Warped Tour; I definitely love being the only metal band out there tonight. I feel the same way.

Betty: Do you get criticized for taking your name from the Bible, while you, yourselves claim to not have any religious standings?

The Reverend: We’ve never gotten criticized about it; except for a few weird emails here and there from people pissed off about it. We get asked about it a lot, though. It’s far more of an interest than rage.

Betty: What considerations and thoughts went into the decision of signing on with Warner Bros.?

The Reverend: We are always going to keep our music to what we want it to be. We want to reach as large an audience as we can. They [Warner Bros.] have the capability to present us to a larger audience; so we thought it was a great idea

[Zacky enters]

Zacky: What the hell is going on in here?

Betty: We are having an interview.

Zacky: Interview? Oh fuck that shit.

Betty: Would you like to join?

Zacky: No….Yes of course.

Betty: Please state your name and what you do in the band.

Zacky: My name is Zacky and I play guitar.

Betty: This is a cliche question , but what made you want to be a part of music in the first place?

Zacky: We just love music, and we don’t like working. We all are a little bit on the crazy side. We all are lucky and blessed with some artistic ability and we all think in a different way than most people. I think this is the only thing we could be doing. We didn’t really choose it, it chose us.

Johnny Christ: I just want the girls.

Betty: What misconceptions have you experienced with assuming the rock star personage?

The Reverend: That a lot of bands aren’t really that fun.

Zacky: Like you think everyone is going to be wild and crazy but you go on tour and some bands just suck. But we fulfill it.

Betty: How does the writing process work, is it an individual or collaborative effort?

Zacky: It’s really both, we all come together with ideas.

Johnny Christ: We pay people to write all our songs. [guys laugh]

Betty: I was introduced to your music through my favorite local band, Underminded. Whenever you play San Diego you always seem to play with them with the exception of the “Take Action Tour”, have you considered taking the them out on tour with you?

The Reverend: They put you up to this, didn’t they?

Betty: Well truthfully, they asked that I mentioned them.

Zacky: They’re an awesome band.

The Reverend: I think we always consider our friends and who we like.

Zacky: We don’t really headline very much at this point, so we can’t really call all the shots yet; but if we have a chance we will certainly tour with them.

Betty: Your previous bassist Justin Sane’s suicide attempt was the driving force that put you on the ‘Take Action Tour” this year. What would say to someone with thoughts of suicide?

The Reverend: I’d probably just want to listen to what he/she has to say because probably no one knows and that’s why he/she feels that way.

Zacky: I think everyone has considered it, I mean everyone has problems no matter who you are or what your status is. It’s hard to put yourself in other people’s shoes and understand what they’re going through. But I think that there is always something out there that can make you happy and the you have to go out and find it.

Betty: What advice would you give a kid or a group trying to make it in the music biz?

Zacky: I say stick with it and do what you love. Don’t worry about current trends because that stuff doesn’t matter. We didn’t We do what we love and feed off each other, like Rev is an amazing drummer and I strive to keep up and do better, we all do.