John 5 Quotes

The band that I always wanted to tour with was Pantera, and we got to tour with them twice.

For three years, between 16 and 19, I was the opening-act-for-the-opening-act-for-the-opening-act, you know? And then I was on tour with Ice-T, Stetsasonic, EPMD, Sir Mix-a-Lot - legends - and went on to sell 160 million records. It still baffles me.

I still do lots of gigs where I'm the support act and people are chatting through my set, but I've got better at grabbing attention. I mean, my parents would play on bills with people like Judas Priest and get booed all the way through. But they stuck it out, got tough.

Being on Ozzfest has been a great way for us to break out and show metal fans that we have a heavy side.

One of the main things we learned as a band in those days was not to be the headliner.

When Ozzy calls and asks you to go on tour, you say, 'When do I start?'

I feel like it's been so crazy to get to open for people like Rascal Flatts, Lady A, Billy Currington.

I've gotten to be part of a lot of incredible tours and have learned so much from the people I've had the opportunity to open for.

I never planned to join Black Sabbath - it just happened. It was back in 1979 when they were celebrating their 10th anniversary.

It's been an incredible experience, playing with Twisted Sister, Stone Sour, Avenged Sevenfold, jamming with Ace Frehley and Peter Criss, and the list goes on and on and on.

I have been touring since I got my first band in 1962, so there is no problem there. We are basically performing musicians, so that's what we do.

Slipknot is hard work; I don't care what anybody says.

There's no shame in being a support act for anyone. It's been extremely beneficial for us to be allowed onstage for any of the artists we've toured with, and we've gotten some big exposure from them sharing their crowds with us in the past.

In each genre, I've been around the biggest. In pop I toured with Justin Timberlake, with reggae it was Sean Paul; I toured with Jay-Z and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. It's all an education for me, to see how they do it.

I couldn't imagine being in Slipknot and not going to Peru or Argentina or Moscow or St. Petersburg.

We toured with Iron Maiden and we opened and they'd come in later and I didn't have a lot of time to get to hang out with those guys. Whenever you did, whether it was sitting down at catering or something, you tried to take advantage and just hang out and talk and trade stories.

There's nothing I hate more than having to cancel shows. In 36 years of performing, I think I've only canceled six times.

Success came to me in my late 20s. I started touring when I was a teenager, so I had already seen the good, the bad, and the ugly side of the music business. Plus, setting up my own record company taught me a lot.

Nobody sells records any more, and the only way you can actually do anything is to go out and play live.

When we first started touring, we were going to these towns we'd never otherwise go to, never otherwise see, and that's sort of why we like being in a band. But we started playing these bigger rooms and not even seeing the towns.

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.

Apart from working on music, I'd rather play big festivals than almost anything else.

I did 100 concerts in 2010 and I had a bit of a burn out at the end of the year. I was absolutely exhausted and didn't want to do it any more.

I know a lot of bands that will make their first record and get to a certain level, and then when the second record comes out, they can start where they left off as a headlining act playing in front of a certain number of people, or they can go back out and make a lot less money and open for people.

In the year after we signed with I.R.S. we made a record, started our own tour, toured with the Police, and our record went to No. 1. It was insane.