New Times: How did you get into playing music?

Randy Piro: My parents and grandparents on my father's side played music, and I was always surrounded with it. And I loved music a lot, but I turned down the opportunity to learn an instrument when I was really, really young. And then, one day I got into metal. I got into Metallica. I was like, "That's it, man," and I wanted to play guitar, so I had my dad start teaching me to play guitar.

Could you name your top 5 influences as a guitarist?

James Hetfield, Brian May, and Toni Iommi collectively made me want to play guitar. So, that was the impetus, that was the origin. I would say from there, it comes down to Trey Azagthoth from Morbid Angel and Frank Zappa. Zappa both as a guitar player and a composer and human being, but, guitar-playing specifically, I was like, "This is some killer shit!"