The Metal Den's Randy "Rocket" Cody recently conducted an interview with DEVILDRIVER's Jon Miller. Here are a few excerpts from the conversation:

Q: Did you ever take any formal bass playing lessons?

A: "I took a couple formal lessons, but I didn't really enjoy learning the simple basic exercises. I wanted to cut to the chase and learn Disposable Heroes, not 12 bar blues. I was very impatient."

Q: Who are some of your biggest playing influences of past and present?

A: "Growing up I was totally enthralled by Cliff Burton, Jason Newsted, and Alex Webster. Presently, I think that Vortex from DIMMU BORGIR is the man. Peter from IN FLAMES rules too."

Q: Those of us who play can always remember back to the cover songs you first learned when starting out on your musical instrument. It goes from really sucking to actually, over long periods of practice, becoming more in tune and in rhythm. What are some of those songs for you?

A: "'Powerslave' by IRON MAIDEN, 'The Four Horsemen' by METALLICA, and 'Desperate Cry' by SEPULTURA."

Q: DevilDriver actually started out as DEATHRIDEE but had to make the change due to legal reasons. When you guys came up with the DevilDriver name, and started to understand its meaning, do you think that helped inspire the band to be even more brutal as a music act?

A: "I don't think we try and be as brutal as possible as a music act. I think we just to write what makes sense to us as good songs and try to write what we would want to hear from a band if we weren't musicians. One thing I like about songwriting is a having a good hook. I want to be able to hear something once and say to myself, 'Wow, that was great... I can't wait until that part comes back again in the song'. We just try to write heavy, listenable and tasteful."

Read the full interview at The Metal Den.