The musician talks about the musical influences of the late The Rev
Avenged Sevenfold vocalist M. Shadows reminisces about his childhood with his father and The Rev in an interview.
The musician recounted that his first contact with music was through his father. “My dad watched Guns N' Roses on the [TV show] Headbanger's Ball and showed me 'Appetite for Destruction' when I was very young. I remember listening to it on my tape player while rocking out and playing air guitar during Slash's solos.”
M. Shadows reveals that he learned a lot about music from his former bandmate and late James Owen Sullivan, The Rev.
“We were 10 or 11 years old. His bedroom wall was covered in Parader magazine posters, and he had about 3,000 cassette tapes of bands like Testament, Queensryche, Dream Theater, Metallica, and King Diamond. I came into his room and he was playing stuff from Metallica's 'Black Album' and Slayer's 'Divine Intervention'. That's how I discovered Metallica. He had that big 'Live S-T: Binge & Purge' box set and had known Metallica for a long time. I had heard them before, but I loved the bands I knew from my dad and the radio, until he made me appreciate the things that weren't playing on the radio. Even though Metallica is the biggest of all of them, he paved the way for me to delve deeper into the band's sound.”