M. Shadows

The first Maiden record I ever got was 'Piece of Mind,' and I only got it because I thought the artwork was cool, and everyone talked about Iron Maiden. But they weren't necessarily the most popular metal band in America for a 12-year-old kid when I discovered them.

This Means War' is up there with 'Hail to the King' in terms of crowd reaction and kids chanting for it.

The more kids that we can meet or kids that are terminally ill, we try to do it because it's really important, and you can see the hope in their eyes and in their families and their parents.

Most people know we're kind of one of the only bands around right now that will admit that we're Republican.

I think Kanye West is brilliant at what he does: he's got a different live show, different merch for every tour, different vibes, and he just puts out great records.

No. 1 records are fine, but in 2016, they just don't mean as much any more - the currency has changed.

I think the cool thing about being alive in 2017 is that you can literally put out music as soon and as frequently as you want to because of streaming services.

Metal needs to be exposed to more people, so it's good for rock if there's bigger bands.

We're really excited to be even talked about in the same breath as Foo Fighters or Metallica.

The Brexit thing to me just looks like a difference of opinion. I know things were lied about, but that should be a wake-up call to get all the information before you vote about something. Educate yourself.

For me, a band like Gojira brings something really cool and new to the table.

We always want to do covers, but we found it kind of boring to do covers of bands in our genre, and we were always asked to do those.