Singers From The United States

"Those two are a couple of idiots, man. I hate Eric and Brian Hoffman more than anything in this world, and I will not rest until I put shit straight with the fans. Up 'til now, everybody thinks I kicked them out of the band, but nobody kicked anybody out. They quit on their own, and I wanna set the record straight in regard to those two fuckin' pricks. [...] It's real simple: Eric Hoffman has a fucking steroid problem, and he's bi-polar. Brian married some young broad who's running his life for him. What initially happened is that when our publishing deal ended with Roadrunner, and our new deal started with Earache, we put them on notice that our publishing was no longer gonan be split four ways — it's gonna be based on who writes what. That's the industry standard. Brian writes one song for the album, Eric writes two songs and they wanna get paid for all the songs Steve [Asheim, drums] wrote. That's not fuckin' fair. And I wrote all the lyrics, so I'm entitled to 50% of the publishing. Why should I give those two money? They've been losing thousands of dollars for me and Steve for ten years now. If it was one of those things where they showed up and did their jobs, we wouldn't have a fucking problem. That's why the deal we signed [with Roadrunner] in '90 was set up like that. Back then, everybody wrote and contributed and it was a fuckin' group effort. But now me and Steve are the Lennon and McCartney of the band, doing all the writing, and those two wanna get paid for our hard work. Fuck that. [...] When they got their first publishing checks and didn't get paid for all the songs me and Steve wrote, they fucking quit. And now we gotta deal with Eric threatening Steve, driving to his house and screaming outside his window at 10:30 at night, making threatening phone calls, talking shit on Blabbermouth about Steve's dad dying, and all this other bullshit. Eric knows better than to come over here, though — he knows I shoot first and ask questions later."

"Slipknot: ‘Oh we’re going to take you guys out man, we’re going to take you guys out dude.’ Yeah, blow me. That’s what I say to you. F—ing blow me Corey Taylor and all you f-gs. OK. ‘Oh we’re going to take Deicide out on tour with us and blah blah blah.’ Blowing air up our asses, back in the day. You know what, you never did a f—ing thing for us. You introduced us at a show once. Great, thanks. How about a f—ing tour? How about f—ing helping us out a little bit? I mean we’ve only been doing this for several years. You guys were like, ‘Dude you were what got me started.’ Well you know what, return the f—ing favor. You know what I mean?"

""Dead by Dawn," as quoted by Jon Wiederhorn of"

"One month in the grave, twisted and half-decayed She turned a putrid yellow, I pissed in her maggot filled asshole [...] The smell was unbearable as I unburied her I cum blood from my erection I feel it run down her throat, swallow"

"The way I look at is “who cares?” [laughter]. Who gives a fuck anymore? Does anybody even read the lyrics anymore? It’s like they’ll release the first SoundScan numbers and it’ll be like 2900 copies sold the first week, but there are like 50,000 downloads. Does anybody even read the packaging anymore? I was going to put in the album this time, “If anybody’s reading this, thanks for not ripping me off!"

"[Religion is] beaten into me, so I can’t sing about anything else. If I try to sing about other things, I draw a complete blank. I let the universe speak through me, and if I have to force it, it just won’t come."

"Tied tight to the bed Legs spread open Bruised flesh, lacerations Skin stained with blood I'm the only one you love I feel her heart beating my knife deep inside Her crotch is bleeding [...] Stick it in Rip the skin Carve and twist Torn flesh From behind I cut her crotch In her ass I stuck my cock Killing as I cum"

"I've known Barnes probably longer than anybody else in the music business in any regard from this point."

"I came from a time when I was listening to Slayer and Slayer was listening to D.R.I. and all of a sudden all the fans of Slayer saw that Jeff Hanneman had a D.R.I. sticker on his guitar or that Lombardo was wearing a D.R.I. shirt in a picture. And you know what, D.R.I. became one of my favorite bands and I went to see them every time they came to town. And then metal heads and hardcore kids, in 1986, 1987 and 1988, they all started coming together and that formed death metal. All of a sudden people started moshing at a Slayer concert because there were a bunch of D.R.I. fans there, because Slayer had enough respect to wear one of their shirts, and that’s how people started slam dancing and shit. That’s how it all crossed together, and to have this separation in music, in death metal, with all these people with their fucking noses stuck in the air about things and being elitist about things, they should take a step back and look in history and see how it all started."

"They say I have died I still felt alive I won’t believe their lies…"

"Eyes bulging from their sockets With every swing of my mallet I smash your fucking head in until brains seep in through the cracks, blood does leak Distorted beauty, catastrophe Steaming slop, splattered all over me"

"Chris Barnes wrote plenty of entry-level slasher stuff like "Meat Hook Sodomy", but also entered truly nauseating territory with "Addicted To Vaginal Skin" and "Entrails Ripped From A Virgin’s Cunt". The personification of the victims as female made the songs even more uneasy listening, naturally enough: what was even worse was when children became lyrical targets in the song "Necropedophile". This hadn’t been done before, and the subject is still too much for most sane people. [...] Grim stuff, depending on how seriously you take it."

"It actually almost got me killed at gunpoint in 1994 before a show in East L.A. Some gang members came on the bus and told me they didn't like my lyrics. One of them had just got out of San Quentin, and he had a .38 stuffed into his belt lining. He said, "We're gonna kill you if you keep writing about this stuff." I just tried to talk to him calmly and say, "Hey, I respect your opinion," but it was pretty scary. Luckily, we had a really good tour manager, who somehow got those guys off the bus."

"I think there's many faces of horror, and you can explore the different types of horror out there."

"With 'The Bleeding', those guys as musicians were really wanting to progress the band musically in a way. I could kind of [see] why — I think they were wanting to, in a way, prove themselves as well-skilled musicians. And I thought they always were, because it was always very interesting music, the arrangements and stuff in Cannibal Corpse on the first three albums. But I think they wanted to really hyper focus their skills and weren't able to do that. And I just was along for the ride, man. I can write to anything. It was really challenging to me. And I really liked 'The Bleeding' too. I liked what we were doing with Bob. I didn't want Bob to leave the band, and I didn't want him to be forced out of the band, and neither did . So it kind of was a strange thing with that whole situation."

"If there are [young fans that are violent], [...] I think there's something wrong with them psychologically. I think mostly, the kids are buying this music just for the sheer enjoyment, and you know, listening pleasure. I think they're probably getting more enjoyment out of the music than they are their own lives, some of these kids, so basically it's something to make them happy, not kill each other."

"I really wasn't doing it to shock people. I just thought it was exciting and interesting and it went along with what I gained from listening to the music. When those guys wrote, it presented such a violent image to me, I felt like I had to match it with the lyrics. And I was able to pull from my imagination some sick qualities of mankind and put it down to paper. For example, "Entrails Ripped From a Virgin's Cunt" was based on a true story my friend told me and I just kind of twisted the story and filled in the blanks."

"I believe [cannabis] was placed here on earth by a higher power, or another being, or an alien being, or something that has a plan for us. [...] It's scientific knowledge that our systems are built around the cannabinoidal system. We need cannabinoids ingested into our bodies to build our immune systems. It's a natural benefit to us as humans. There's alot of things out there scientifically that prove this and show that it is actually a [possible cure] to cancer as well. [...] They say that, you know, basically, uh you know, used cannabis early on, as you, early man and we developed as we uh [...] as we kind of uh [...] I'd say uh I don't know. Give me a hint here, I'm having a kind of a mind warp here Gypsy. [...] But what they say now is that before cannabis was even on this planet other mammals -- other creatures -- had this system built and we developed from those, you know, other animals [...] as man went through the centuries. So it proves that this plant was actually put here for us to find. And we are actually benefitting from it. [...] What we don't need in our systems is [...] beer -- alcohol. We don't need cigarettes. We don't need tobacco. But for some reason, these things are legal to us and shoved down our throats, advertised on the Super Bowl, and we're supposed to consume these things. And they are the [deadliest] things that we consume as human beings in our daily lives and they kill more people on the face of this planet than anything else that we use recreationally. Okay? So why are these items -- alcohol and tobacco --available to us, and we use them and eat 'em up and let them kill us? Why does that happen? That's the hypocrisy [as] to why marijuana and cannabis should be legalized and it is because it does not harm anyone physically. It has been scientifically proven that it helps us and benefits us as humans and we need it in our systems -- Period."

"He was never writing any of these lyrics from the point of view that the characters in the songs were cool [...] or were people that he related to. I don’t wanna speak for him too much, but he’s not into any of that stuff. It’s just interesting stuff to write about. If you have a movie with evil characters, people understand that the guy who made the movie doesn’t relate to those characters. If you have a horror novel with evil characters in it – like a horror novel that features a rapist or a killer or a molester – you understand that the author doesn’t relate to those characters, and isn’t espousing that type of behaviour. Neither are we. You have horror movies, and you have horror novels. Death metal is a type of horror music, and we’re not saying that any of the characters in our songs are people that we admire."

"I think over a period of time he saw Cannibal Corpse as being his property, and he would do things in his way, never listening to anyone else and never yielding from his viewpoint. [...] He had a way of doing things, and that had worked – until [Vile]. But, quite honestly, when we heard what Chris was doing vocally on the new record, all of us knew we had a serious problem on our hands. [...] The lyrics Chris was coming up with just didn’t seem to fit where the rest of us were taking the songs [...] He was stuck in the old ways, whereas we wanted to progress. We did try to help him out, but Barnes was so stubborn that it was very tough. I remember one of the last conversations that I had with him outside the studio... I said we wanted to be as supportive of him as possible, and he admitted that he was struggling to step up a gear. At that point, we were all committed to getting him through, and making this work. [...] The final straw, though, came when we heard what he’d done on Devoured By Vermin. This was always gonna be the opening song on the album. As such, it had to have an immediate impact, to make a statement about what was to come. But Chris hadn’t risen to the challenge. After hearing what he’d done, Alex Webster bluntly turned on him and said, ‘I’m gonna completely re-write the lyrics.’ That finished Chris. He was devastated. He’d lost control. [...] We just knew Chris had to go – that was the only thing to do. So, we phoned him when he was on the road and said, ‘Dude, you’re out.’ It was as simple as that. None of us could live with what he’d done in the studio, and we knew there was no way he’d change. The problem we had was where to go next."

"It just felt right to enunciate and pronounce the lyrics more clearly [on The Bleeding] because I felt the music was more clearly pronounced. [...] I think that at that point in time I wanted to prove to myself that I could still sing really heavy [...] but people could understand my lyrics more, because the lyrics [and storylines] are very important to me [...] it’s an artwork to me [...] and I want my art to be heard."

"I'm not a death metal singer that sings one style or one tone throughout an entire album or sings the same way on every album. I really take it song by song and I try to adjust my vocal approach to the nuances of the music and how it feels to me and what I want to accommodate to kind of offset those things that I hear in the music to make it more closer to what I feel its related to vocal tone wise. [...] The guttural thing started for me when I heard certain things in the riff. You know, the [syncopation]. [...] So I wanted to really bring my vocals into that. You know, so [they were] like melted together with [the music]."

"Half the reason that we asked Chris to leave was because a lot of the stuff he’d come up with.. If we’d left it on, the album would not have sounded as good. That’s our firm opinion, and we wouldn’t have kicked him out if we hadn’t thought that the album would have sounded as good. So when it came time, we thought ‘well we have to make sure these lyrics are killer’. Not just a killer read, so much as they just sound good with the music [...] I think a lot of the problem was that Chris didn’t practise with the band too much, that he didn’t really pay attention to the riffs, and he would just write stuff that went over the top of it instead of actually working with it. And now that the band is helping write the lyrics, I think that you can hear that they mesh better."

"(Money) doesn't make you better than anyone. You need it in this society, but you shouldn't let it go to your head. I like it to keep people off my back and to help people I know who really need it."

"After what happened when Glen Benton fucking took scars royalties for 20 years and all Deicide merchandise, I will find you and hunt you down like the animal you are. I have no label and did my last album for the fans out of my own savings and will do it again with without label. I now pronounce curse on his hair piece Glen Michael Benton you will be history soon and Steve will hire new singer. Also remember this, I am Deicide. You are a disgusting individual that doesn’t care about anyone but [themself]. Glen your Amon, not now, you’re not good enough. I drew the logo [and] came up with the name. Unbelievable. I am Amon. Suck it Glen, we will meet again."

"For Glen Benton, an artist whose public persona and music will forever be intertwined, [Deicide's self-titled album] was a bold statement that he was doing more than playing some unholy caricature."

"I was coming to the end of my drinking time and was realizing I wasn’t the easiest person to be around at times. [...] I could be a fully functioning yet contrary alcoholic at 23 or 24. So songs like "I Apologize" are clearly me feeling like a bad young man, like I should apologise globally for something I probably did but was not fully aware of because I was drunk a lot."

"Glen Benton is a fucking character, and his unwavering dedication to shitting all over Christianity and everything its iron grip has wrought upon the world is not always the smartest or most nuanced approach, but you can’t argue he gets his point across."

"I was trying to [provoke] thought in some way [with violent lyrics]. Hoping someone would see the twisted dichotomy. To be sickened by it and yet entertained by it. Like watching a horror movie."

"We had to fight with him to make lines fit in the song. Barnes wrote his lyrics and didn't want help from anyone. We were okay with that, but when he was in the booth, Alex and I started saying to each other, "Man, this doesn't sound right." Then we would suggest to Barnes, "Hey, if you took out this syllable or if you took out 'uh' or 'the,' then the line would fit better." But Barnes pushed back like we were stepping all over him like it was his poetry we were ruining. [...] I'll never forget Alex telling Barnes while he was still in the booth, "Hey, Chris, I'm going to rewrite the lyrics." Barnes did not want to hear that, which was hard for him. He removed the cans [headphones] and left the studio. We'd never said those things, but it needed to be said. Otherwise, the song would have been ruined. That was the last day in the studio with Barnes."

"I just think that it gets really, really boring doing the same vocal approach, like as some vocalists do. Fans appreciate it, I think, but its really boring [to me] as an artist to just sit there and tread water, do the same thing, and not really feel the music in a new fresh way each time. I don't fear that. [...] I want to explore something new."

"I drove in circles 'round the freight train yard and he turned the headlights off Then he pulled the bottle out then he showed me what was love"

"This place smells like piss and beer."

"Real love makes your lungs black Real love is a heart attack"

"I see all parallels."

"There's only so much letting go you can ask someone to do."

"Lenker isn’t the room-swallowing presence that [Frances] Quinlan is, but she more than makes up for it in commanding songcraft, which skews dynamic, dissonant, and placid without ever changing its sepia tone."

"It doesn't feel like it's just originating from my brain. It feels like I'm following an invisible thread of intuition, from one choice to the next... maybe I don't even fully understand once I've written it, but it just feels right. And I just trust that. And then over time, it reveals its layers of meaning to me. That's a mark of what I feel is a good song. It keeps me wanting to play it."

"I think I’m learning how to release every day. Recognizing that everything you encounter, touch, or love can become part of you, and in essence never disappears, as long as you can recall it to memory or heart. It’s all so connected that we lose everything, but also, we never lose anything."

"It's a dream come true, it's amazing. It's really fun, everybody here is very sweet. I've made friends with the whole cast, it's amazing."

"I started off rapping when I was five and from rapping, I knew I always wanted to be in the entertainment industry."

"But when you are a king, you must adhere to the music of the symphony that’s being played."

"Heavy is the head that wears the crown. I know, because I wear one."

"I can do what I want, when I want, how I want. Go where I want. Sleep in the temperature I want to sleep in. I have a freedom that’s overwhelming sometimes. I love being free."

"We celebrities are human beings. We hurt. We get our hearts broken. We break hearts. It all comes back to who you are. Who am I today? Am I living on purpose? Or am I clawing at the void? Will I walk in my joy today and acknowledge the color purple? I’ve got jacaranda trees around my house. Three months out of the year, it’s purple. I lay here in this plethora of purple and I give thanks."

"When I’m out in the world on tour with my books, I’m not selling books. I don’t need that money. Writing these books was giving these kids the knowledge that no matter how big the fire is, they can come through."

"It signifies personal growth and the capacity to acquire knowledge and self-improvement."

""While I undeniably cherish the various roles I play in my life, it became imperative for me to delve deeper into understanding who Tia, the individual, is and what brings happiness to her life"

"London, England you were a dream! Nothing like getting the chance to travel with family. If you get the chance to go. Just do it! The lessons, the respect for different cultures, and cuisine are life-learning experiences the kids will never forget. Love my family. Forever grateful. ❤️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿."

"When you love — truly, truly love yourself — you start to understand self-worth, self-value, and what it is that you deserve."