We truly believe with hard work, dedication and perseverance, we can become the best at what we do. No one wants to become mediocre.
Andy Biersack
Always be yourself and rebel against what people tell you should be and be whatever you want to.
The pen and the written word hold a great deal of power.
I see the merit in religion, and I see the need for faith and hope and sometimes people who are more snide look at people who are religious, particularly people in rock bands, and they'll say, 'Oh that's dumb, you believe in whatever,' but I think everybody believes in something.
I know what it's like to be an outcast in society. I know what it's like to want to find strength, and more importantly, I know what it's like to find that internal strength and rise out of the pain of being just sort of a weirdo.
I was homeless for almost a year and a half, just living in my car or bouncing around peoples' houses, going to 7-Eleven at the end of the day and asking them for the taquitos that they were going to throw out because I hadn't eaten in two days.
If they can look past the fact that I happen to wear mascara on stage - which, by the way, is a ridiculous thing that people have a stigma about - then we promise a good rock show.
I don't know what metalcore is. I know what rock n' roll is... It's not rocket science.
We've won both the best and worst band in so many major magazines - we just get written off so much, but we don't care.
My biggest love has always been the music Black Veil Brides make, but that doesn't mean I don't listen to or enjoy other things.
I have no goal to have artistic credibility.
It's really important for us as a band, that when someone is giving us grief on stage, to show our fans how important it is that they stand up for themselves and that they feel confident in themselves.
You can't deny a band whose fans will literally do anything to see them win the awards. We're very appreciative to the fan base. That mutual feeling of appreciation is something that really helps.
I go to a lot of self-help groups in the day, and then I can sleep pretty well at night.
There was never a time when I wasn't making guitars out of cardboard or dressing up like the Misfits.
When I was a kid, it was so important to listen only to bands nobody had ever heard of. I missed out on so much interesting music because of my need to listen to a psychobilly band that only two people knew about... Because I thought I was cool.
For someone like me, music is all I've ever thought about - playing big shows, and then, when you take something that is based around your music and put it in a completely different medium, it's a really interesting and cool emotion to watch.
The older I get, the more interest I have in writing other kinds of music.
I think, on any given day, somebody could help out a homeless person and cuss out somebody that cut them off in traffic, and I think that everybody has that inside them: it's just how you live that balance - so I think everybody is 'Wretched and Divine.'
I don't want to paint myself as some villain - I was never a bad guy doing horrible things, but I got too caught up in wanting a very specific thing to happen to the band. Ultimately, I had to find the ability in myself to get over that and stop being so stringent and learn to laugh a little bit more.
I am a clinical zombie.
If what you're writing is genuine, regardless of whether it sounds cliche or people wouldn't necessarily think it's the most brilliant metaphor in the world, it's always important to be genuine with what you're writing; at least, that's how I feel.
One of the things that always disappointed me as a kid, growing up, was when you could tell the singer had a fancy for something different and turned the band into something else.
We're not here to make the ignorant people happy. We're here to write our music for those people that are interested in good rock n' roll music.
I will say one thing: Mick Mars is one of the greatest songwriters I've ever met in my life and had the pleasure to work with.
Nobody is convinced that Johnny Depp goes to Walmart dressed as Sweeney Todd, but everyone expects us to.
I'm not against making new fans, but I'm not going to go out of my way to pander to someone and try to make them like me; that's not who we are. It's not as if we're fighting to find an audience - we have our audience, and anybody else is definitely welcome.
We never made attempts to say we were anybody's role model or the be-all-end-all of what people should look up to. We have always just been very open about the fact that we have difficulties and we are messed-up people, just as our fans are.
I had Batman stuff all over my house growing up.
There's no place for Depeche Mode and the Sisters of Mercy in the music I make with my band. If I was a fan, I wouldn't want to hear that on a Black Veil Brides record. It was important for me and for the integrity of the band not to tarnish it.
I just don't really think about death.
A band like Avenged Sevenfold I've praised quite a bit publicly, because it's a band that has moved into that arena-size thing for a hard rock band.
The only real inspiration or muse that I have is just the life that I live.
That's what makes me insufferable to be around, is that most of my life I have assumed that everyone wants to see me perform and do things all the time.
It seems like a gross waste of time to continue our career predicated on the idea that we're going to divide opinion. What's more important is just doing something that you love.
The devotion of the BVB Army, with its very big online presence, is amazing. We've been fortunate from the very beginning. It was something that was really able to spur on our career.
I'm not religious, but I understand the need for faith and hope.
I don't do anything unless I think about it six months in advance.
We want people to know they shouldn't feel like social pariahs just because they want to dress differently or listen to rock n' roll.
There is nothing more, I guess, cannibalistic than the metal or the hard rock scene, it seems.
When I walk around on the street and someone comes up to me, I have just as many full-grown men with large beards in Slipknot shirts saying he likes my band as much as I do girls with bright pink hair.
I was a little chubby kid that no girls ever talked to. I had little chance of becoming an internationally known rock star. Music was my escape and my belief system.
If you nominate us for something, we're going to win.
For us, all we care about is maintaining what we do as a band.
The image of the band has always been something that's evolved or changed with every record cycle that we've done. I think, in a lot of respects, that's because we were so interested in having a visual representation for the music that we were making.
The Misfits skull was my second tattoo, and the Danzig was my third.
I came from a town of about 2,000 people with one stop light, and I was told that nothing I ever wanted to do, I would succeed in.
To be honest, I've always been really interested in the role of the host, whether it's our kind of Billy Crystal-style traditional awards show host or when you have someone like Louis C.K. or a more edgy stand-up comedian do their take on a hosting role.
My job as the host of a rock awards show is not to be as divisive as possible, but certainly you want to be able to interject your jokes and how you feel about stuff.
The story of my life publicly has been told through 'Alternative Press.' Former employees, people who have worked there - my friend Ryan Downey, who wrote for 'AP' for a long time - I've been able to have really great articles written about me and talk openly about things in my life.
