I will absolutely say that Johnny Ramone was a huge influence on me. I'm a giant Ramones fan.

I'm not the kind of guy who sits around at home and writes songs. Once in a while I'll pick up a guitar and noodle around, but it's rare.

A guitar for me is pretty much strictly in the context of writing songs for my band, coming up with ideas with my band, and then being able to perform those songs as best as I can on stage - that's what the guitar for me has always been.

As big as Metallica are, they're still not like a pop act. As big as they are, they're still not U2 or Lady Gaga. It's still underground.

I kind of live in this weird world where I am exposed to a lot of stuff, but then again I am not exposed to a lot of stuff.

I could care less about sitting around and practicing the guitar for hours a day and trying to be the best guitar player on the planet.

Even as a kid, if I would come across something cool in the record store, that would be how I found out about bands. It's kind of the same way these days. In a way even less because there are no record stores to go to anymore.