It's amazing and sad what we have to do to survive sometimes.

People ask me all the time what or who my influences are. To be honest, it would take a decent set of encyclopedias to get them all down. I am here today to let the world know my greatest influence, my secret ingredient, really. What inspires me? That's simple: COFFEE.

You can't see California without Marlon Brando's eyes.

The mind is left bereft when it is nothing more than a tool of regurgitation.

My biggest influences were 1980s punk and metal. Metallica were my biggest influence because they were good at everything - riffs, energy - but with such an ear for melody, it was hard not to get pulled into it and become a fanatic.

The '90s were indeed a great time to be alive. There was a sense of optimism that I never felt before that decade and I haven't felt since.

When I'm working on a Slipknot song, it's like a switch flips in my head. I can go there easily - it doesn't take a lot of soul searching - and it's a dark, almost sinister place. Stone Sour is more the way I've always written. It's a different tone.