P.O.D. Quotes about the Warriors

Quotes about the Warriors
thanks for the help and idea from Tribal4Jah

Traa: I would like to put out to all the Warriors my deepest thanks, and appreciation for supporting us, and being there for us. For supporting P.O.D. and for fighting the good fight. -ArtistDirect

PC: Your fans are called The Warriors. Where did that come from?
Sonny: I think through all our touring. We're always encouraged kids to stand up for what they believe in. There were a lot of kids coming to our show that weren't trying to follow the flow. There were kids that just try to stick to some moral lifestyle and it takes a warrior to do that. I guess they embraced the positive side of this band and made a movement out of it.
http://www.undercover.com.au/pod2.html

Coming up, you handled yourselves in a very grassroots, fan-based style. You'd play almost anywhere and had P.O.D. "warriors" in every town helping spread the good word. How has the success of …Southtown affected the band and its relationship to your fans?
Wuv: It never changed because our fans were stoked for us. They never thought we sold out. We used to stay in these kids' houses and they know how hard we worked and how many years we spent in a broken-down van trying to make it. There might have been a few angry voices, but not too loud, especially against the fans who were behind us. We still hang out in the parking lot after shows talking until everyone's gone, so ain't nothing changed.
http://sfx.com/InsideScoopStory.asp?artistID=2938&docID=2257

What is it like to know that all those fans are out there to see you guys?
Traa: It's amazing. Anyone who tells you that they don't write music for people to enjoy is lying. It's an honor to have people enjoy what we do. When I look out there and see people enjoying something we've done, it's beyond words. We are really touched by people just coming out to see us play.
http://www.hiponline.com/artist/music/p/pod/interview/100296iii.html

Shoutweb: You guys have a couple of videos out and so far they’ve included your fans. Have you always had this relationship with your fans?
Traa: From the beginning and over the past eight years it’s grown. You don’t understand. When we first started out we were doing shows with our own money. We would go to towns and cities and play in front of 30 or 40 people and even less than that. A lot of people that came we were sleeping at their houses on their floors and taking showers at their houses. A lot of these places that we go to, these people are our friend. They’ve been friends since ’92 and a lot of them are growing up and having kids now. We’ve always had that type of relationship with a lot of the people that you would consider P.O.D. fans. The music wasn’t there, our family, friends, and fans were.
Shoutweb: We were talking about the on-line street teams for P.O.D. and how they are the best kids. When I asked our guys in Los Angeles what it was exactly about these kids that made them so effective they said to me, "Because they’re doing it all for the Lord, Therese."
Sonny: It’s true. They’ve been following P.O.D. forever. They’re not just trying to promote another band that they thought was cool before the rest of the world thought was cool. But they are helping a band that shares the same beliefs. We’re the band that they feel has something to say.
Shoutweb: You’re promoting a message.
Sonny: Exactly. There are those people that say, "Dude, it’s okay that they’re Christian. It’s cool to be Christian. God is cool." There’s a whole other side to it and they’re going to see that through this little four piece band that play some crazy places. These kids see that and they have love for us. It’s not "that’s my favorite band" and all of the sudden, next year, there’s a new favorite band. These are kids that are saying, "Dude, I love P.O.D. I’ve talked with them."
shoutweb.com

Shoutweb: Your street team and Warriors, as you guys refer to them, are amazing. They've taken over MTV's TRL and gotten the "Alive" video to number one for several weeks again and again.
Traa: They do it because they believe in us and what we're doing. They're dedicated fans and we love them.
shoutweb.com

Teenmag.com: Did you ever think that P.O.D. would have this much success?
Wuv: We never really expected anything. We've been together for almost ten years, and we had five albums before even our last album on Atlantic [Records]. So, we just kinda kept on grinding [them] out and doing our own thing, and even when we got signed, it was like a year and a half later before we did our first video. And that got MTV, but it wasn't like [we were on] TRL. Then the second video got on TRL, and that was something we never really expected. We've been doing it so long, and it's just one of those things that kind of happened. We thank all the Warriors for sticking with us and voting for us.
Teenmag.com: The Warriors? Who are they?
Wuv: Sonny, back in the day, used to paint his face with like a warrior type of thing, and the kids started doing it. Everyone kind of took it off that old-school warriors movie because those guys look pretty crazy.
Teenmag.com: "Old -school warrior movie?" Which one?
Wuv: It's called "The Warriors" and it's like an old-school, 1970s movie. It's about a New York gang. Every gang in New York is out to get 'em. They're all on their own in New York City, and they all go to these different parts of the city and they fight. It has nothing to do with why [our fans] call themselves the Warriors, but it's just like a movie that we always watched and were like, 'Warriors dude, that's dope.' And so we just started calling everybody The Warriors. A lot of these kids, they were the ones that were putting us up in their houses and their parents were cooking us dinner and housing us when we were coming through on tour. A lot of these kids are the same kids that we see now when we go through the towns, and we still kick it with the same people. They like P.O.D. because of what we stand for and how we don't compromise what we believe in. I think they just kind of play that out in their everyday life. They like sticking up for what they believe in, and I guess they feel the same way about P.O.D., so they just go out in full force and they just make things happen for us. It's amazing.

WG: Who came up with the idea for the Street Team Warriors? Was that the record company or what?
Sonny: That was something P.O.D. did. That's something that, in our hearts, we've always knew that it was God's people that supported us. It was God's people alone that Atlantic Records recognized us as a group because they were like "these guys have been around!" We went out to Walled Lake, Michigan when they were first thinking of signing us, and they were like "dude, these guys packed out the house!" See, we never say "P.O.D. fans" it's family. It's God's people, and we want them to be involved in everything, because they are. They pray for us, they come to our shows.....When they go and pass out flyers, ya know? And they take our cd to their friends that aren't saved and say "check this out." They're being used by the Lord.

"We call them 'the warriors' because they're warriors for Christ out in the world, fighting the good fight," Wuv says. "I'd love to see a whole movement of kids going out into the world and expressing themselves, to show people how much God loves them. That's what we want to see: A warrior movement."

MTV: Let's talk about the Warriors, as your fans are known. Why are they called that?
Sandoval: Because they're loyal. We're thankful for every new fan, but there's a lot of kids [that know us from when] we used to play their back yards. We were playing wherever we could, sleeping on their floors, and they were buying us lunch and dinner. With what we're about and what we stand for ... there are a lot of kids that are proud of us. They were more proud when we got signed than we were. Now, when these kids come out, it's genuine. It's not like, "This is my flavor-of-the-month because they have a hit song." They're coming to our shows to experience what we experience. It's kind of like magic.
Daniels: A lot of them were down with us when the style of music we were doing back in '92 wasn't even cool.
Bernardo: They're responsible for the reaction we get in certain cities. We'll go through the cities we've been playing for eight, nine years, and those kids ... are taking P.O.D.'s name and blowing it up all over the city. Every one of our bus drivers gets mad 'cause we let everybody on the bus. They're constantly looking at the carpet, and we're like, "Dude, we'll clean it up."