I've got friends in bands who seem like they're always on tour, even still. It may be in some people's blood. I'm sure some bands do it just to earn a living or for the experience.
Some bands today have the experience of really working together and honing their craft. And other bands are very much like, 'I just got a guitar for Christmas, let's start a band.' And you can hear the difference.
There are bands that I got into when I was 15, when I was mad at my dad and just wanted to be different. I don't think I'd give those bands half a chance now. But I hold some kind of nostalgia for them that I won't let go. Bands like Minor Threat and Black Flag.
I remember hearing, back in the day, so-and-so got a deal, and bands are spending the money. Some of them live in the old days, where money is coming in and budgets are endless, but bands have to pay that back. Some bands just don't realize that.
Korn is great friends of ours, so to be on tour with friends is usually our number one. We've been very blessed to meet a lot of great bands, successful bands, that we can go tour with.
When I was a kid, I was playing in various bands - amateur bands, garage bands, weekend bands, you name it, around the area. At some point, I just wanted to try the whole 'Beatle tribute band' thing, so I found a local band that was doing that.
But, then again, I wouldn't call myself an indie-rock supporter even if there are some really good bands out there and there will always be some real good new bands.
I was in bands, but they were punk bands, and you plug in the guitars, you turn them up really loud, you've got four or five other people on stage with you, you've got some protection from when they throw lighters. You can always hide behind the lead singer or the bass player.
I've always made sure that I tour with bands that people aren't expecting me to tour with.
It's all a progression towards hopefully one day making a record that can be the definitive you can offer. Some bands come in with that at first, and the great bands never really stray from that. I want to earn my stripes.
Growing up, I went to the Warped Tour a lot, and I got to see bands like Rancid and AFI and Dropkick Murphys and these bands that meant so much to me when I was a kid - all in succession on these stages, so to get to play that same stage that I watched those bands play is a huge thing for me.
I know some bands that don't like touring and are able to make a living producing other bands. There are a lot of ways of carving a living out, but it's become tougher and tougher to figure out what that means.
KISS has always been outside of the borders of what other bands can do. Not that some of these other bands wouldn't want to do it - the fact that they may snicker or look down their noses at what we do is more out of jealously than anything else.
Bands now are always trying to make their presence known through social networking and whatnot, but that's just the same as bands before the Internet age trying to connect with fans in some other way. But I don't follow people on Facebook, I think that's creepy. I wouldn't want them following me on Facebook. I don't even have a mailing list.
I've played in bands myself, and sat on the floor photographing some of the greatest bands in the world while they rehearse. What's always struck me is how different the sensory, especially auditory, experience is when you're in the middle of the music with the musicians playing off each other around you.
Bands like - even Kiss to a degree - bands like Kiss and Motley, Ratt, Poison, Bon Jovi - I just think the days of those bands going out and selling ten or twelve, fifteen million records like they used to do back in the day, it's not happening.
Growing up I played in garage bands and cover bands with my older brother, and he got us a gig opening up for some hippie jam band. I was 15. I felt like such an adult!