I'm a blue-collar kid from Colorado. I grew up on a farm.
— Ivan Moody
I was a huge David Robinson fan.
There were patterns in my family that had to be broken, and I refused to live my life the way certain members of my family had.
Music for me was always life changing. So if I'm putting out crap music, then I have not done what I came to accomplish.
We love metal.
My mother raised me right - everything from Fleetwood Mac and the Doors to Pink Floyd and so on and so forth.
No, I don't spend a lot of time in the studio, man. I truly don't. I'll be in there when I have to. I hate the containment, I can't stand the schedule crap.
Bands like Metallica never sat around and said, 'We're speed metal,' or 'We're thrash metal.' If it feels good at the end of the day, to me, that's metal.
First and foremost, just to work alongside an icon like Rob Halford, the Metal God, was absolutely surreal.
Everything that I sing about, especially songs like 'Far From Home' and 'The Bleeding,' I really put 110 percent of myself into it, so it's difficult.
Vinnie Paul was a very close friend of mine - he's gone.
I first heard Pantera after getting out of a detention center as a kid.
There's a sense of family in Colorado; there's such a pride factor there.
I learned what it was like to not battle myself anymore, which is really difficult to admit, because at the end of the day - and I'm sure anyone can agree with this - you're your own worst enemy.
I've always been into creative writing.
Playing for the troops is always an honor and seriously humbling.
I'm taking care of my mother; I set her up.
I'm the biggest NBA fan you will meet in your life.
Rob Halford is the person that I called a lot of the time when I was in recovery.
We're tired of band videos where all you see is musicians playing in some random church or out in a desert.
There are things that certain people aren't supposed to talk about and they're supposed to keep sheltered and go to psychologists and they try to figure them out on their own. But at the end of the day, we're all human.
When you hit the Midwest... it's just some passion - I don't know if it's in the water or what it is - but it's just embedded in these kids.
For me, I grew up on old-school rock 'n' roll.
Media, politics, women, family, friends, good relationships, bad relationships, all inspire me.
I truly believe heavy metal has gone south. Too many people are focusing on, will the songs be on the radio, will the shirt be in Hot Topic?
Everyone who knows me or has heard rumors or stories or whatever knows that I have a tendency to lose it every now and then. I've never been shy about it either.
I've just always been really - we'll call it tight-pocketed.
When somebody's telling you you're godly and you saved their life, and this and that and the other, I'm going, 'Well, who's saving mine?'
Pantera is one of our biggest influences, as it should be for anyone who listens to rock 'n' roll.
It's so good to be alive, man.
I truly love the Slipknot guys.
Myself, I usually wait until I get home to write. While we're touring, I try to stay as focused as possible on the moment at hand because I feel like I'll be robbing the fans if I don't.
I get a new CD, and it takes me a month just to get into the entire thing, where I start getting acclimated to it, so to speak.
I've got beautiful children.
I was raised in Denver with the Nuggets.
We absolutely thrive on the live setting. Even when we're in the studio, we make sure the songs we create are something we can do live passionately.
Everybody has to evolve.
My job consists of getting on stage and tearing my chest open and letting people into parts of my life that I would prefer to keep to myself. But I also think that's what connects me with a lot of our fans.
We've got the most loyal fans on earth and probably the most craziest fans I've seen since the Pantera days.
Every wish, every dream, every idea comes to existence only through blood, sweat and sacrifice.
I don't want to tell people what to think.
Most of us weren't born with a silver spoon in our mouth, but if life dealt you all the wrong cards, you still have to play.
You get to a point where you start realizing that what you've done is amazing and you're proud of it, but there's so much more to accomplish. So many projects get to a certain level and they become content, and that's all that they ever expected or wanted.
I just wish people understood better that I, too, am human.
My god, 'Vulgar Display Of Power' is still one of the greatest albums ever.
I don't think there will ever be a band that compares to Pantera. In my book, they are the icon metal band of all time. Their catalog speaks for itself.
I just got to a point where I was lying to myself constantly, so I had to face up to that. It was a lot of... I don't want to use the words 'self sacrifice,' but that's what it felt like. It was giving up who I thought I was and starting over from scratch and realizing the man that I am was good enough.
Growing up as a kid, I took creative writing classes, and I was always into poetry.
The Ghost Machine album was actually written when I was going through spiritual depression, as that was written right after Motograter and just prior to Five Finger Death Punch.
Yeah, it's kind of tongue-in-cheek. You know, Five Finger Death Punch doing 'Mama Said Knock You Out.' It was just really funny for us.
