David Draiman: Look, it makes sense to be able to take part of what yo...

Everyone has a struggle in life, and the question is do you allow yourself to be overcome by it or do you master it with unified strength and power. This is exactly what the music was meant to do, to transend your normal world, to make you more than what you are, to make you set down your burden for a while. Feel powerful, feel invincible, feel indestructible; believe in something as opposed to believing in nothing; spread the sickness, infect the world.

David Draiman

powerful struggle believe

I would like to thank a world that never understood or accepted me, family and friends that never believed in me, and a God with one hell of a sense of humor. You have all made me what I am today. Let that weigh heavily on your consciences.

David Draiman

family-and-friends today world

I want to lead people toward finding hope through the purity and healing power of metal.

David Draiman

healing want people

It's multifaceted, the message to our music. It's not just that. It's about individuality, development of self, finding things in life that you can be passionate about.

David Draiman

things-in-life individuality self

Spread the sickness, infect the world.

David Draiman

spread sickness world

We don't have a particular plan. We just do what we do. This is the only way we know how to do it. We make the music that moves us. We use it as therapy. The songs are cathartic. They're ways of dealing with life experiences and the world around you. It's meant to be as a release for us as it is for other people.

David Draiman

song people moving

I'm an indestructible master of war.

David Draiman

indestructible masters war

Social media has become a high school playground where the challenge is what idiot can come up with the best insult, and do you end up congratulating them for it?

David Draiman

challenge best you social-media

What makes you a rock star is what are you able to do when you get behind that microphone, when you put that guitar in your hands, when you wield those drumsticks, and when you raise your hand in front of twenty thousand people: do they respond? That's being a rock star.

David Draiman

you guitar hands people

'Savior Of Nothing' calls out the would-be social justice warriors of the world who become so enveloped in fighting so passionately that they become exactly what they're trying to correct. They preach acceptance so much they become unaccepting.

David Draiman

fighting acceptance justice world

The God's honest truth is that, being the singer, my body's my instrument.

David Draiman

truth-is body truth god

The Internet, sadly, has become a preying ground for trolls and just predators. And when you're in the position that I'm in, and you have a wife and a child who had just come into this world not too long ago, you start wondering whether or not that continued interaction and some of the threats and some of the nonsense are worth it.

David Draiman

you wife long world

I like the original 'Halloween.'

David Draiman

original like halloween

Other music that 'Ride The Lightning' led me to discover was to start really kind of sinking my teeth into some of the thrash of the era that I literally had no exposure to - whether it was Slayer, whether it was Testament, whether it was Megadeth. It was the opening of a doorway, for me, to a whole new palette of music.

David Draiman

ride start me music

One of the degrees I have is in business, and I was a healthcare administrator that ran a 365-bed skilled nursing facility for years and generated several million dollars a year profit for them. So I have a background in business.

David Draiman

year profit healthcare business

There's everybody in the world who is always trying, time and time again, to proclaim the death of rock, or hard rock and heavy metal. Not if I have anything to do with it, not if we have anything to do with it.

David Draiman

time trying death world

I'm all about freedom to go ahead and practice whatever kind of religions you want, have whatever sort of sexual preference you want, freedom in terms of being pro choice for women.

David Draiman

you women freedom practice

People make their own destinies.

David Draiman

destinies make own people

I think that people are too... They've become genre snobs.

David Draiman

i-think become think people

I'll never forget getting my first Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Alice in Chain records, and hearing that wonderful, beautiful darkness. And the rhythmic intensity, that's what attracted me more than anything else.

David Draiman

me never-forget darkness beautiful

Look, it makes sense to be able to take part of what you've earned in this life and have it grow. And I hope that other musicians out there that do have their moments of profit and of success are wise enough not to squander those profits and that success.