STAIND Frontman Gives Props To KORN's JONATHAN DAVIS

liveDaily recently conducted an interview with STAIND frontman Aaron Lewis. An excerpt from the chat follows:

liveDaily: Where does your songwriting inspiration come from?

Aaron Lewis: "What I talk about in the songs, I have a really hard time expressing that otherwise. I tend to stuff things down and internalize it until it's causing me harm. So, instead, I allow it to come out in my lyrics. I've never really needed an outlet for things that make me feel good, or happy thoughts. I don't need to get those off my chest. The stuff that I tend to get out in the songs that I write, it's necessary to do so."

liveDaily: Who influenced your writing and musical style growing up?

Aaron Lewis: "Growing up I went through phases of LED ZEPPELIN, THE DOORS, THE WHO, and older stuff like that, to BLACK SABBATH, and early VAN HALEN. Then I kind of skipped out on the whole '80s thing, although there were a couple of bands that I thought were pretty good. I always liked MÖTLEY CRÜE and SKID ROW, but there was some stuff that was really bad, which really caused me to not pay attention to some music. When the '90s grunge thing happened, the biggest thing for me was that they were singing in a voice that I possessed. I mean, I can sing like the '80s guys now, but I couldn't back then. So when the '90s came along, it was a movement of music that was being sung in a register that I could sing.

"I've got to give a lot of credit to Jonathan [Davis] from KORN. That first record that they did [self-titled, 1994], I think I wore two copies of that record out, just listening to it so much. The strength that he had to put forth what he was saying lyrically on those songs, to have the balls to say what he was saying, it was really significant. He definitely helped me to feel that it was okay to dig as deep into myself as I was."

Read the entire interview at LiveDaily.com.