Culture
Avenged Sevenfold bassist Johnny Christ talks about 10 years of ‘Hail to the King,’ Madison Square Garden, and how a band becomes a family
By: Nicholas Kobe
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LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (WOUB) – Avenged Sevenfold started in Huntington Beach, CA and over the course of their career they’ve become one of the most defining and popular metal acts of the 21st century.
They began gaining momentum on their first two records before exploding onto the scene with their major label debut, 2005’s City of Evil. Avenged has sustained their success for years, but not by playing it safe. They’re not a band to sit in one sound for too long – they’ve incorporated elements of metalcore, hard rock, traditional metal and progressive metal over the years – just to name a few of their experiments.
This has continued into their most recent LP, 2023’s Life is but a Dream…, which has spawned the groups biggest tour yet, hitting iconic locations such as The Forum and Madison Square Garden. With the group continuing to grow, it’s really anyone’s guess where Avenged Sevenfold is headed next.
WOUB Culture’s Nicholas Kobe spoke with the group’s bassist Johnny Christ before their headlining performance at Louder Than Life 2023. The group performs Saturday alongside Pantera, Falling in Reverse, Pierce the Veil, and The Hu.
Read a transcript of the conversation, edited for clarity and length, below. The conversation contains language which may be offensive to some readers.
If you had to describe Avenged Sevenfold in one sentence, what would you say?
Johnny Christ:
Man, describe Avenged Sevenfold in one sentence? I don’t know. It’s been 20 plus years of my life. To put it all into one sentence would be very difficult. Yeah, man. I could put it in one word. How about that? Family.
Nicholas Kobe:
Yeah, family. That is a good one. What specifically makes you say that? Just the camaraderie you have with your band mates?
Johnny Christ:
Oh, yeah. I mean, we grew up together in Huntington Beach. We’ve been friends of each other, acquaintances, along the years, and then came together and created this band. Different members came together at different times, but we all grew up in Huntington Beach together. It’s a little bigger now, but in the late nineties it was still kind of a smaller city beach, little beach community. I say that, but I know that listeners and people would be like, “oh, I came from 15,000 people.” I know it’s not that small, but it was like a hundred thousand, something like that. The best way I could describe it is we found each other and have been on a path ever since. We still live together in Huntington Beach. I live about a 10 minute walk from my band mates, which is something I’m super grateful for. Our families get together. Our kids enjoy each other’s company, which is amazing. I guess that’s where I come with the word family.
Nicholas Kobe:
How often do you guys go over and see each other for band stuff or otherwise?
Johnny Christ:
Well, for band stuff, I guess it’s a little bit more scheduled and that’s just whenever we need to get business done. As far as a friendship and everything like that, I dunno, a couple times a week, more often than not. I think it’s funny, a lot of people might graze over that we are friends first, so we hang out. Business comes up every once in a while, but for the most part, we just hang out together. It’s like getting families together for birthdays and maybe just the occasional dinner downtown on Main Street and Huntington Beach, just hanging, man. Just like you would hang with your friends. I’m certain that more often than not, the talk ends up coming to Avenge Sevenfold, but it’s not where it starts.
Nicholas Kobe:
That’s really cool. Moving a little bit on from that, how are you guys feeling about your newest studio album Life is but a Dream now that you’re kind of a few months away from its release and you’ve been able to be on the road with it?
Johnny Christ:
We’re feeling good. I believe that this is a very unique and strong record as a whole. But also I do think individually, track by track, these songs can stand alone. We’re working on ways to make each track have its moment and touring on it right now. I know it’s three months but I’ve been living with this record for close to six years now. Right now, it’s probably safe to say we’re focused on touring and making sure each song has its moment in the sun, as they say. So I’m super proud of this record, and I could say that I wasn’t involved a lot in writing it until we all came together towards the latter year of it. So I’m super proud of what Shadows and Sister Gates came up with on this one. It’s an incredible record. I’m happy to be a part of it and touring on it, and man, it just feels good to be back.
Nicholas Kobe:
That’s good to hear. What’s a risk that you guys took on that record that you’re particularly proud of?
Johnny Christ:
I understand the question. It’s hard to say risk, though, I guess it’s always felt like it’s been a risk, but we’ve always just done what we wanted, if that makes any sense. As far as writing and creativity, we just go in and we write what we think we want to do based on our influences at the moment. This record was no different. There were risks taken, to the listener, but to us it wasn’t like risk taking. It was just like, this is what we want to do. Yeah, it sounds different, but all of our records sound different.
We’ve been very fortunate in our career. I’ll be very candid about that. We’ve been fortunate that our fans, greatest fans ever follow us with whatever weird concoction we want to come up with. They trust us and we trust them, it’s a mutual trust that we put everything that we have into a record, into a song, into everything that we do. We do take it very seriously, and we believe that it’s great. Every time we put it out, it’s up to everyone else to decide if that’s true or not. So I guess that’s the risk that we’ve always taken, is being ourselves.
Nicholas Kobe:
So you guys just do what you want, and as long as you guys are happy with the product, then just put out whatever you’re passionate about at the time.
Johnny Christ:
Absolutely. I think that’s a good mantra, specifically for us. I can’t say for whatever your path is as an artist, it’s the right one for us. It goes back to your original question of us being together. We’re friends, so we’ll sit around and talk about what we’re into, and that starts to seep into the music.
Nicholas Kobe:
That makes sense. Once again, you guys are on the road touring with this record. It’s been pretty massive, you guys played Madison Square Garden. How has the tour just in general been going?
Johnny Christ:
Been good, man. You mentioned Madison Square Garden, which was incredible. It was the first time I’ve ever stepped foot into that arena after all the years. The rich history there is just so cool. They got plaques on every wall. You go backstage and go into all the hallways and into the dressing rooms, and it’s just that John F. Kennedy has been there. It’s where Marilyn Monroe sang to him on his birthday. Hulk Hogan won the WWF title there. I mean, that’s a little bit of how much has gone on in that building. So much history. Just rad that we were able to put our mark in that history. We got to play the forum for the first time, which we were supposed to do five years ago, and unfortunately that got canceled. So to make that up basically five years later was really cool. A lot of friends and family there. Being from Orange County going up to LA, it’s only an hour trip.
Those two shows themselves were something that was really cool. Just really rad experiences to have in our career and our lives. Going through Canada, seeing some of the cities that we haven’t seen in a very long time, because a lot of times you go through Canada, you just hit Toronto, Montreal, Quebec City and call it a day, maybe Vancouver too. We actually went into Saskatchewan and Saskatoon and Calgary, which we hadn’t been to since Warped Tour. It was really cool to go back to some of these places. It was very different the last time I traveled through a lot of these places. I didn’t have a kid. I had my wife, but it wasn’t a family. All of us now have young kids and everything, so they’re all out seeing what their dads do for the first time. I mean, they were toddlers and infants the last time we were touring. Them getting to see what we do has been amazing. They’re backstage and the kids are going crazier than the band is at this point. They’re just running around just making a mess. It’s so much fun. It’s like, I used to make a mess back here, now you’re making a mess. That’s great.
Nicholas Kobe:
They’ve been really enjoying coming along for the ride?
Johnny Christ:
Oh, yeah. I think it’s good to get ’em out there at this age. I joined the band when I was 18 years old, and I consider the first several years as my college years, and I learned a lot from just traveling. I think that’s something that hopefully young kids can start doing a little bit more, find a way to travel,you learn so much more about culture, so much more about your fellow man being out there than you’re ever going to find in a school.
Nicholas Kobe:
You can read and look at so many things, but actually setting foot somewhere is completely different.
Johnny Christ:
Absolutely.
Nicholas Kobe:
Definitely. So one other thing that’s kind of been going on with you guys recently is Hail to the King had its 10th anniversary recently. Looking back on that album, what’s your fondest memory from the process of making that record?
Johnny Christ:
Oh, man. Certainly wasn’t writing it. Writing it was painstaking. Me, Brian and Matt were working on that record for what seemed like years, but it probably was only a few months. The philosophy of the record was something foreign to us when we set out to do it. We knew what we wanted to do and what we wanted to accomplish, but getting there was a little bit out of our wheelhouse. We had different ideologies on how to get there. So it was a lot of headbutting, but by the end of it, we all knew we had done what we needed to do, and were very proud of that record. I think my fondest memories honestly, though, was when we were tracking the record, we stayed at this place, basically an Airbnb, for all intents and purposes, that’s what it’d be called now. It was this great house, big house, but kind of shitty, but had a lot of space.
It seemed nice when you first walked in, but then once you’re living in it, there were a lot of little things that would just bum you out. The third story had a bonus room that we played a lot of ping pong in, and then on the first floor by the pool, there was a fire pit that we’d sit around and just wax intellectual, even though we’re not intellectual at all. It was a good time. I would say while we were tracking Hail to the King was a very fond and fun time for me, just being in that house with my brothers. It was a frat house. It really was for a few months.
Nicholas Kobe:
Obviously I’m talking to you before your headline and performance at Louder Than Life, Foo Fighters are there, Green Day Tool, a bunch of other bands, anything you’re really excited about headlining that festival or any of the other bands that are there?
Johnny Christ:
Honestly, I’m excited. Every time we do Louder than Life, working with Danny Wimmer and the crew over there with Danny Wimmer Presents, it’s always awesome, great promoters. They do a phenomenal job putting on these festivals for everybody and getting the right bands, the right lineups, and just stoking people out.The whole thing is, it’s supposed to be fun. It’s a festival, so just show up and you’re going to see a bunch of cool bands doing their thing, having fun, have some drinks if you want. If not, you’re still going to have a great time.
You know that it’s going to be facilitated correctly. You’re not going to run out of water, you’re not going to run out of anything like that. So it’s just great working with Danny when we’re over these years. We’ve done several of these festivals with Danny, good friends with him at this point now. Yeah, I’m excited to do another one. Unfortunately I won’t get to see a lot of the other headliners because the headliners, like you said, foo Fighters and stuff on different nights. But yeah, there’s a lot of great bands and good friends of mine that I’m excited to see.
Nicholas Kobe:
Absolutely. So in the span of your career and your pretty lengthy discography, is there any song or album that you kind of feel like you wish you could put more of a spotlight on or you feel is kind of underrated?
Johnny Christ:
No. So that’s an interesting question, honestly, because it seems like something I’d be able to finger point and say, “yeah, this one”. But if I’m being honest, I think the songs that get the attention they do are justified. Like I said before a few moments ago when I was talking about how you write and create when you write, you think it’s all great. I mean, every track is my child and I love ’em all. It’s up to everyone else to decide which ones they like the best. If there’s songs that fall by the wayside, maybe that’s for a reason. I still love those songs, I guarantee, and I could tell you every time I remember tracking them. But at the end of the day, I think that’s part of art. You just put it out there and let someone else decide which ones are supposed to stand out.
Nicholas Kobe:
Very interesting. Also, over the course of your career, what’s something that’s changed about the rock or metal scene that has kind of surprised you?
Johnny Christ:
Over the 20 years I’ve been in a band and traveling and creating music, the one thing that surprised me in our “genre”, I don’t know what genre we’re in anymore, but if you consider it as hard rock or heavy metal or something like that, hard rock and heavy metal got safe, which is very surprising to me. That’s very much the opposite of what I grew up to know in the nineties about hard rock and heavy metal. It was never safe. It was quite the opposite. What I mean by safe is I’m saying there’s almost an assembly line of how records are produced. It’s not a judgment on the creativity. Everything seems to go through this conveyor belt of production to the point that everything just sounds very similar.
If you listen to Hard Rock, two, three or four different bands could be on the same record, and you wouldn’t even notice the difference. It’s a little sad to me, but I get it. I understand why, It’s also like it’s just a little safe right now. I think we all can, myself included, expand upon this a little bit better. Just remember that the whole point of not being pop, which is popular music, is to give something different. The production just seems straight pop in a world that it doesn’t belong. I think we need as a community to be bigger risk takers, to your question earlier. But again, I do think that that comes from being yourself, and I think that a little bit has gone to the wayside. I think we need to get back to being ourselves a little bit more as a community.
Nicholas Kobe:
Don’t filter anything out. Just let it all out?
Johnny Christ:
Yeah, let it all hang. I mean, and honestly, if you want to follow the pop world, that’s what the pop world’s doing right now anyway. If you want to keep following that world, be bigger risk takers.
Nicholas Kobe:
Absolutely. One more question for you before we wrap up, just looking into the future, what do you think is the future for Avenged Sevenfold?
Johnny Christ:
I don’t know, man. I don’t have a crystal ball. The future of Avenged Sevenfold is we’re always going to put everything into who we are and what this means to us. It is our entire life. As I said, these guys are my brothers, so we’re going to keep doing what we do together. Where that ends up, I don’t know. I would hope, I look at Metallica these days doing stadiums. We did their first stadium run in the US with them years ago. What they’re doing now, breaking records and everything at this stage in their life. I mean, that would be great. Hopefully sooner than later. At any rate, you look to the giants before like Metallica, Rolling Stones, whoever, and they’re still doing great things.
Johnny Christ:
I guess the goal is to keep going towards that. I’d be lying if I didn’t say that our goal is to still be the biggest band in the world. That’s what we started out to do. We never shied away from that. We’ve always said we want to be as big as possible. I think when we said we wanted to be as big as possible in our twenties and the biggest band in the world, I think that as you get older, that idea shifts a little bit. It’s not like the biggest, it’s “I just want the most people possible to enjoy our music and have fun listening to it, going to the concerts” The more the merrier. That’s how I think about it.