I never expected to get the Tom Jones treatment and it amazes me that I do. Strangely it's women who throw their underwear at me when I'm performing live. My male fans tend to be quite shy. My female fans are wild. I never know what to do with all the lingerie that lands at my feet. Maybe I should open a shop.
A lot of times you do interviews and people twist your words. TMZ said something like I hate my male fans. I never said that, I said I wish I had more female fans, never said I hate male fans.
I have had fans make me the big picture collages of the photo books; I have had fans send me birthday cakes... sing to me on my voicemail. I have had fans flash me. I have had older fans give me their bras and underwear onstage.
Everyone always wants to say I'm shy. I don't think so, but there's a disconnect with my fans. I want my fans to see me - that's what they never do.
The fans know what's happened to me over the past couple of years. I lost my family. I pretty much got devastated financially and the fans know that I've had some hard times - and that's the nature of loyal fans. They want to see the people that they love and believe in get back on their feet.
I find that in the science fiction world, you have almost more women fans than male fans and I think it's because there's been such a shortage of strong female characters.
I think you gotta have balls to be an Avenged fan sometimes. A lot of our fans get hated on just as much as us. To me Avenged fans aren't just fans of a band, they are fans of everything that surrounds it, like a life style. We live it, you live it. You go to the shows and you can feel it. It's a great experience and people that aren't involved will never understand. So they can stand on the side lines and talk, but we will continue to do just what makes us happy.
Connecting with your fans in that way is just the coolest thing, because I am very fortunate that my fans let me be very open on my social media - never really judge me for that or anything.
I got a lot of fans, like core fans, that love me. I ain't one of the dudes that sell five or 10 million brackets, but my followers are stern. They're there. My fans - Jadakiss fans, LOX fans, D-Block fans - they loyal.
I did see the Yahoo Sports story Kevin Iole wrote about how the ratings for TUF go up when there's a women's fight in the episode. I can't lie: it felt really good to see that the UFC fans - not only MMA fans but fans of the UFC who maybe hadn't seen any female fights before February of this year - look forward to watching the women fights so much.
I live a very open life. I value my relationship with the fans, and I utilize Twitter and Facebook and my web site, so my day-to-day activities are an open book for me to share with the fans, for better or for worse.
I thought there was maybe going to be some booing. I didn't know how the fans would take to me. But the reception from the England fans has been top class. They have taken me in.
Yeah, um, I do twitter because I want people to, you know, get to know me, my fans, or my fans to get to know me, you know, just see what type of person I am. You know, hopefully be more on an intimate level with me as opposed to a distant level.
I suppose a lot of people don't understand that one of the things that drew me to hunting was the peace and the solitude, the mushy spiritual stuff, strangely enough. The quiet away from 75,000 roaring fans. The fans, that's very wonderful - I get a great charge from that.
I am not quite comfortable with people identifying themselves as my fans. You know nothing about me. You have just seen me perform in a film. How can you be my fan? If I have to tell you honestly, I want an audience and not fans.
It makes me feel like a brother, or a son that people still care for me... that I have so many fans, who write to me and share with me that I am loved and have been an inspiration. My Dear Fans This I Promise I Will Never Forget. One Love!
I don't think about the gender thing very much. But when I speak at schools, I've had female students say to me afterwards, "I never envisioned myself being a director, since I've never seen women do it." But after seeing me, they can picture themselves directing, so maybe we'll see more female directors.