Jeff Hanneman Quotes

And I was a kid from L.A. and I just wanted to play thrash metal.

I get to play a scorching lead guitar, and there's not much that's more fun than that.

I was a hard rocker when I was in high school.

For me, Gothic is something from my youth, when I had a heavy metal phase.

I've played the violin since I was seven but stopped because there was a stage when it became 'uncool'. I was listening to Nirvana and wanted to play the guitar, so I ditched the violin.

When I first started singing, I didn't know which direction to take - I sang rock & roll and all kinds of things.

There's an amazing power that music has, and it definitely had its power over me as a boy. I just saw fit to keep exploring it.

When I was younger, and Iron Maiden and Def Leppard and all that stuff was coming out, I was learning all those songs and trying to play guitar and develop my chops. I was a big fan.

What I do is a bit broader in scope than a heavy metal band like Iron Maiden, Motorhead, ACDC and so on.

I like hearing fiddles, steel guitar, acoustics up loud - really rock & roll stuff but with a country sound behind it. That's just who I am. I'm not trying to prove a point; I am just doing what I like. But I don't have any problems with any other artist coming in and doing their own thing.

I was always into classical music and opera because I played the piano as I went through school and was very interested in Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals and stuff like that. That changed into heavy metal at around the age of 14 or 13, and I dropped the piano and started to play the guitar.

We always thought it strange that nobody was up on that stage playing soul stuff. Maybe people were playing it in their garages, like us, but they always reverted to pure rock when they got on stage.

I came up playing in both punk rock bands and hip-hop bands, and I found a more universal way of reaching people, especially with music that has a message to it.

Everything I did is because I wanted to do it. If I weren't playing this arena, if I were playing a club, I'd still be doing it because that's what I want to do. I love playing the guitar.

The way Will Moore taught me, and the way I play it, the blues is just something different.

We love not just Judas Priest music, but we love heavy metal and we love to get out on that stage every night and perform. It's a joy to be able to do it.

What I wanted to do was play the guitar but I don't like instrumental rock. I think it is tripe.

Spitfire asked me if I had a problem talking about Van Halen or Extreme. I really don't. There are people who are just going to want to know what it was like to play with Eddie.

Once I picked up an electric guitar, I lost interest in piano, and I just wanted to rock. I studied piano for so long, I got burned out on it.

I had been inspired by an organ player named Earl Grant, who played organ and piano together. My mom took me to see him. So I went home, put my piano and organ together, too.

I'm not a country picker, really - I like a nice, beefy, raunchy sort of sound.

I enjoy everything. I actually do listen to everything. In high school, I listened to a lot of metal and punk rock.

I always loved rock guitar. I just never put it together that that's what I'd end up doing.

Experimenting with different sounds is great, but when it comes down to it, you're still playing a guitar.

I started writing songs when I was 10. It was a natural way to express myself as a kid. It wasn't until I started listening to jazz, joined the choir and picked up a guitar that my little hobby became something far more serious.