Below are excerpts from the interview.

KNAC.COM: Did you get a chance to watch the MTV special on the war last night? Tom Morello from Audioslave/ex-Rage Against the Machine was on talking about Bush, his “imperialist” regime, and the evil of the war. 

SEINFELD: Listen, Tom Morello is probably the most politically confused guy I’ve ever heard speak. I think he’s a nice guy, but him and Serj are doing some talk radio thing now and to me they’re both fucking weak. They’re both really confused. Look at System of a Down. Those guys are Armenian refugees. They came to America to escape religious and political persecution in their country and to save their lives. We saved their lives, America, and then he comes here and makes a career dissing America. I spoke to him personally about it, face to face: “Don’t diss America because the only reason you’re alive is because America is here to save your ass.” He’s like, “Yeah, I haven’t really thought about it that way.” Bullshit. Rage Against the Machine, those guys talk so much shit like they want to be Communist and this and that, but they’re total capitalists. They signed with Sony Records. Print all this. I hate everybody. Fuck it. Rage Against the Machine, if they were a band, would never take Biohazard on tour because we’re not part of the part of the whole “pretend we’re against the system, but we kiss everybody’s ass in the music business to be up MTV’s ass and up the radio’s ass.” Fuck all that. That shit isn’t rebellious. That shit’s about as rebellious as the mall.

KNAC.COM: Mall Metal is a good term…

SEINFELD: System of a Down is like a Heavy Metal Bar Mitzvah. Our drummer Danny loves them, and we argue about it. I’m very, very musically picky. It’s kind of an ongoing joke, and we both think we know everything about music. Rage Against the Machine, though, all they do is diss corporate everything, and then they sign with Sony Records. 

KNAC.COM: Of course they aren’t going to refuse all the income they make from the record sales and the merchandise. 

SEINFELD: Of course not, their big merchandising deal with Giant Merchandising where they sell millions of t shirts in the malls and exploit the weak minds of the children they sucker into selling their stuff to. Maybe they have their hearts in the right place, but if you really want to fight the system, do it yourself. How can they support Sony with all the evil things Sony’s about? 

KNAC.COM: That must have been surreal the other night, having just watched the beginning moments of the War and then going out on stage. Were you pretty pumped up? 

SEINFELD: Honestly, I must say that I really wasn’t that pumped up. I grew up in Brooklyn. I’ve seen a lot of things firsthand. I’ve seen a lot of people get killed, and a lot of really bad shit that no one should have had to see. I was in New York on September 11th, and after that I don’t think anything will ever shock me. I saw those buildings come down with people I knew in them from my roof. That was surreal. First of all, I’m not a warmonger. In war, nobody ever wins, and in that respect, as an idealist I understand why people are saying stop the war. It’s a shame because people are going to die who don’t need to die. Like our album title says, Kill or Be Killed, and in the end, I’m worried about myself and my brothers in my band and my family and my son and my friends and my girl first. I’m worried about my country before I’m worried about anyone else’s country. You know what, if you don’t like it here, Tom and Serj, then you can pack your shit and leave. Period. That’s your house, bro. Love it or leave it. Respect it. I’ve got no respect for those guys. Rage Against the Machine goes on stage and burns the flag to get attention. “Well, it’s our right as Americans.” Yeah, so you know what, it’s my right to punch you in the face. 

KNAC.COM: Freedom of expression…

SEINFELD: Exactly. I’m just so pissed off. MTV is just totally whack anyway. MTV doesn’t even acknowledge entire sections of music like Heavy Metal, like Hardcore. They only stick to formulated, tin-screen, payola Rock. It now costs about a million dollars to break a band. You’ve got to spend about 350-400 thousand dollars to get out to Rock radio and get your band played on the radio. It costs that much money. Everybody in the business knows this. It’s payola. You’ve got to hire McGathy Promotions and one or two other companies who professionally…because legally the record company can’t pay directly to the radio stations so they hire this company to pay the money for them, the third party. The labels
 

KNAC.COM: Weren’t you at the first Ozzfest, though? 

SEINFELD: That was an experiment. That was before they were asking bands to pay. Fuck that. We were even thinking about it for a while. I wouldn’t do that. I wouldn’t pay to play. I’m a person of principle. I think of compromising my principles sometimes, but I’m glad I never do. Every band you’re going to see on the Ozzfest on the second stage paid 75 thousand dollars at least. That’s a fact. Let Sharon Osbourne come to my house and scream at me for blowing the lid off her operation. Those same bands are going to get played on the radio because Clear Channel and SFX are one company now. If they hype these bands on the radio, and they play them at concerts in front of you, they collect money from the record company and they get kickbacks from the record company. That’s why every year there are fewer bands who sell a lot of records. When I was a kid, there was a hundred bands making a gold record. Now it seems like there’s 5 or 6 bands that make double platinum. They create super-groups now, Linkin Park’s, you know.
 

KNAC.COM: There’s absolutely no hint of your past Hip Hop influence on the new album. Was that a conscious decision? 

SEINFELD: It was very unconscious. It just happened that we all got that out of our system in a way. In a way, a lot of groups are blowing up on the Rap Metal thing that we helped pioneer. A lot of groups took it and sold out. Every time I hear Limp Bizkit I cringe. It almost sounds like they took Biohazard and made a joke out of it. I love Hip Hop and I love Hardcore, and I think as a band we felt like it was the time to just be pure Hardcore. I have another group that I’m doing called Triple Sicks, it’s a blast that’s a Hip Hop group. It’s straight up Hardcore Hip Hop. All the sounds come from Metal. It’s very interesting. It’s very different.

You can read the full interview on KNAC.com by clicking here. 

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