Broken Record series by music producer Rick Rubin , activist, solo artist, and System of a Down Serj Tankian spoke about a chaotic episode that occurred with the band due to the lyrics of the song "Needles," featured on the hit album Toxicity.
According to Tankian, the verse that caused controversy was the chorus, where he sings the phrase "rip the tapeworm out by your ass," which was originally written as "rip the tapeworm out by my ass." " Daron and Shavo didn't like 'my ass.' They said, 'no, no, no, that doesn't sound cool, that sounds bad, it sounds vulnerable,' or something like that. Any word you want to use as an adjective. And I replied, 'What I'm trying to say is philosophical. To get that negativity out of me,'" Tankian said.
Rubin, who was present during the discussion, added: “It seemed like the band was going to break up because of the lyrics. It was so extreme, but it shows the passion that exists in the band. There’s a real passion that’s incredible. The fact that a lyric, something insignificant… a word and a potentially comical line is enough to almost break up a band or discard a great song, which was another possibility.”
Tankian elaborated on the thought, saying: “I think it’s the metal attitude versus the non-metal attitude, too. For me, I like to show vulnerability in our music. I don’t mind showing it because I think, as an artist, you’re vulnerable either way. You either show it or you don’t. But the metal attitude is, ‘No way, man. No way, we’re metal!’ I think that’s what it is more than anything else.”
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