Matt Skiba Quotes

Growing up in San Diego, I can remember going with my brother to see bands like Pennywise and NOFX - good punk bands that were fast and tight.

I was a big fan of X. I've probably seen 100 X shows during their time in the late '70s and early '80s.

We still get those kind of cats coming out to our shows. Once you're into it, you're into it for a lifetime.

I've always said that Pantera fans were the best in the world, and I truly meant that, and I still mean it.

The groupies are far more real now than there were then.

What turns me on is to walk into a sold-out venue. The audiences are so much the same as they were in the '60s. It's just an amazing thing. I can't explain it, but I hope it never stops.

I'm a big Germs fan; most people are.

I love going back to cities where I had a strong fan base - like San Antonio, Minneapolis - those were really good fan bases, like Iowa and Chicago.

It's kind of cool being at a poker table with the guys from NOFX, a guy from Bad Religion, a guy from Lagwagon, all these cool punk bands you've always dug.

I grew up in Southern California, so there is just a part of me that is a Hollywood rocker.

Los Angeles is a true postmodern city. Here, we celebrate with equal aplomb the high and the low. I am just as influenced by the punk rock attitude of local skate and surf cultures as I am by old-school glamour and stardust.

I've always said that there's a huge progressive rock, progressive metal audience out there, in the world. We see it when we're on tour.

Jonas Brothers fans are a force to be reckoned with.

Growing up in San Diego, my main interests were the Beatles, Louis Armstrong, 'Star Wars,' baseball cards, and drawing.

Metal fans are the most hard-core, loyal fans.

To all the Journey fans, thank you for all your love and support to me and our whole band.

I was not a metal fan.

I kind of feel bad that I don't know the names of the people in Girls Aloud!

We have some fans that come to almost all of our shows, and they will travel to different countries to see us - that's pretty amazing.

Bath was hardly known for its rock'n roll. We weren't part of the London scene or the New Romantics or any of that.

I love being in the Beastie Boys.

The '80s don't seem to have gone away. Most weekends in the summer we're off doing a festival in front of 10,000 or 15,000 people with a load of other '80s acts. It was just such a great era for music, for individuals and characters. It just had a spirit.

We've gone from venues that hold 500 up to 3,000 on our own, so I guess we're not entirely unknown. But there is a difference between a few thousand people and 20,000.

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.

A lot of people that come to the concerts are in their 20s. I think they come to listen to something new, and I want to be able to provide that.