Not surprisingly, considering his band's free-wheeling, kaleidoscopic sound, Avenged Sevenfold's M. Shadows has been shaped by all kinds of music over his lifetime and career — from Pantera to Elton John. Count among that list Guns N' Roses (duh), and particularly their smash hit "Welcome to the Jungle" off their unfuckwithable 1987 debut full-length Appetite for Destruction. When we talked to Shadows about the 10 songs that have shaped him as a person and an artist, he included that iconic single among his picks. Below are his thoughts on its profound impact on him.
"It's the quintessential GN'R song. My dad had heard it on Headbangers Ball one night, and he just flipped out and bought the tape. That song probably made me who I am today, because it made me become obsessed with Guns N' Roses, and obsessed with rock & roll, in general. I used to jump up on my bed and air-guitar to Slash solos. I would steal the tape, and then my parents found out I had it, so my dad made me an edited version of the tape — he took all the cuss words off it. And then I got GN'R Lies, and he didn't want me to have that at all, because of the lyrical content."
