Being in a successful band, do you feel that you relate to Johnny being a rock star?

Andy: Our life is different in the way that our careers happened, or the trajectory of our careers and how. For me, I was a “road dog” as they say, for years and years. I started touring when I was a very young teenager playing in clubs, bars, basements, show swaps and touring in a car, to get to the point where we were playing in front of these big crowds or had notoriety, a gold record or anything else. Those are things that took a lot of time. Whereas Johnny’s journey is one where he kind of decides he wants to be in a band, moves to L.A., gets a deal, and all of a sudden is internationally famous.

And it’s not that I relate to that journey. It’s that I’ve seen that with other bands, and I’ve toured with artists who didn’t “pay their dues” and how a lot of people look down on that. In many cases, I think it’s more difficult for those people, because they haven’t gone through all the steps to get to where you feel like you can handle a situation. And for me, because I was so young, when I started touring, I relate to the idea where suddenly you’re thrown into this thing.

So, while I wasn’t an overnight success like Johnny, I can relate to the feeling like you’re trying to discover yourself in a world that’s assumed you already know who you are.

I love that there were some real-life musicians in the show – as a viewer, this element really brought Paradise City to life. We have Juliet Simms (Lilith Czar), your wife in there.

Andy: I’ve always said if you’re going to do a music show, the best way to do it is to do it with music people. I think there’s an air of legitimacy to the show that other music shows have maybe fallen short with. They’re written by and made by people who are fans of music, but have no actual experience in the industry. So, I think one thing that Paradise City has going for it is that it’s made by people who know what the hell it is to make music, and be in the record industry.

Black Veil Brides have a new album coming out on October 29 called The Phantom Tomorrow. What can fans expect from this album?

Andy: Everybody always says their new record is the best one, or their favorite. The truth is, because of the unfortunate nature of our entire year of touring - World Tour getting postponed and being at home due to the pandemic, we had no recourse but to put all of ourselves into this record. And because of that, I feel like we have put together one of the most complete, interesting and nuanced records that we’ve ever done. I think the songwriting is at its all-time high, and from a procedural standpoint, I think Eric Ron who produced the record was the perfect person for it, and really understood the band. I would say on every level, it’s just a huge improvement, and that we’ve really found who we are. It’s a concept record; there’s a big story that’s baked into it. I just directed our most recent music video for Fields of Bone and we’re going to be doing another video soon to continue the story. I’m a big comic book and horror movie fan, so it’s amazing to have all of those elements in there.

You just released a book. What made you want to write it, and what was the recording process like when you were recording the audiobook and telling your personal story?

Andy: The audio book format was really what inspired me to do the book in the first place. I’m someone who’s toured my whole adult life, and I discovered years ago that I loved having these audiobooks with me whether it was people like Penn Jillette or Billy Idol - heroes of mine.

I would listen to those audiobooks while folding laundry in a hotel room on a day off, or download a book before I go on a flight, so I always thought it would be really cool to get the opportunity to tell my life story. But the distinction is most of these books that I was listening to, or reading, are written by people in their late 60s, early 70s, talking about their life. At the time I started writing a book, I was 27. I thought, what if somebody at that age starts writing that first part of the book when it’s still really close in the rear view mirror, and can really go into detail?

It’s important for me to share with people that being a rock musician or finding popularity or fame on any level is not some sort of magic trick. It’s not unattainable.

I’m a kid from the Midwest who was not given a lot of opportunities, and people didn’t really believe in. And I’ve been able to make this happen because of hard work, and a lot of luck. And that’s just the truth of it. You have to work really hard, work harder than the person next to you, and catch some lucky breaks and connect with people on a level that’s important to them and you.

So, that was the biggest kind of impetus to write the book. It’s done really well, and it seems to be connecting with people and helping people. That’s always the goal.

This interview has been shortened for brevity.