Avenged Sevenfold Happy To Admit Guns N’ Roses Influence

MTV News crashed the Avenged Sevenfold dressing room recently for a Q&A with singer M. Shadows, and asked him if Guns N’ Roses are their biggest influence. “Guns N’ Roses is my favorite band of all time,” he said. “It’s funny ’cause we just did a thing for the [Los Angeles Times] and the guy’s like, ‘People compare ’em to Guns N’ Roses and Shadows walked out with a GN’R shirt’, and he thought that was weird that I would, but the thing is, I’m not ashamed of the bands I love. I love that band. You can compare us all you want they’re a huge reason why I’m even in a band and even write music. My dad gave me ‘Appetite for Destruction’ when it first came out; he saw [Guns N’ Roses] on ‘Headbanger’s Ball’, and they’re a huge inspiration. Metallica and Megadeth and GN’R, those are bands that I’ll never deny loving … those are bands that kind of made me and made this band kind of what it is. We don’t try to be like, ‘Oh we’re becoming a big band, so we’re gonna pretend like we don’t have any influences’.” The full trnascript at MTV.com has since been removed.