I was more influenced by players like Randy Rhoads and Eddie Van Halen than by the guys in southern rock bands.
I've always been a fan of melody and emotional melancholy, whether it was Rites of Spring or Tears for Fears or Neil Young. If I hear a song that has a sweet melody, I'm a sucker for it, whether it's Linkin Park or Little Richard.
At 15, I started listening to hard rock and heavy metal, but I would say it was more hard rock because I liked Kiss, Aerosmith, Ted Nugent, and eventually AC/DC.
I wasn't personally that familiar with the Classic Rock bands. That is where Jorn Viggo came in: he played me tons of that stuff - Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, plus a lot of bands with cool songs, riffs, vocals, etc. We really listened to tons of music.
I like Journey, Bad Company, Soundgarden and Aerosmith.
'Shine On You Crazy Diamond' and 'Wish You Were Here' are standout tracks. 'Comfortably Numb' is another one. 'High Hopes' from 'The Division Bell' is one of my favorite all-time Pink Floyd tracks. 'The Great Gig in the Sky,' 'Echoes,' there's lot of them.
As much as I love heavy riffs, I like The Eagles, Neil Young, Elton John, Crowded House.
I listen to classic rock for the most part.
I was really into Black Sabbath, but heavy guitars can really be very limiting, it's a great frequency and it's great fun to listen to but on the other hand, musically you can do a lot more without it.
Half the people tell me, 'I love 'Go All the Way,' but why do you have to write all those schlocky ballads.' And half say, 'I love 'All By Myself,' but why do you waste your time with this rock 'n' roll stuff?' I'd like to think that I could do both.
I do love my rock music.
Def Leppard is a rock band that can sing.
I listen to crazy, robust rock music where they sing their faces off, and soul music, which can be similar.
Some of our favorite bands are, like, Third Eye Blind and Counting Crows, and stuff like Danny Elfman and Jon Brion movie scores.
A big part of the Alice Cooper sound is the big classic rock licks, the big, classic thematic kind of... It's not about going crazy, it's not about playing super fast.
My big influences are piano artists like Billy Joel and Elton John.
Breaking Benjamin, they're such incredible songwriters.
I am the man who put the hair in hair metal.
AC/DC is a prime example of taking that blues rock thing and just living in that world. They only really move the furniture around a little on each album, but it still works.
I just picked up a lot of classic-rock, melodic influence from my mom, music that she listened to, like 10,000 Maniacs, Led Zeppelin, REO Speedwagon and Yes.
I've got my old favorites like The Eagles and Bon Jovi.
Then as I got older, I always gravitated towards the hard stuff, Born To Be Wild, then Black Sabbath.
That's what bands like Pink Floyd and bands like Rush and even the Metallica of this world have, which is long, ambitious songs that pull in all different directions.
A lot of what I've done has a rock edge, even going back to 'Little Shop of Horrors.'
All of my favorite music was probably in the rock category.
