#438 - Serj Tankian on DOWN WITH THE SYSTEM

Musician Serj Tankian, best known as front man for System Of A Down, chats with Trey Elling about DOWN WITH THE SYSTEM: A MEMOIR (OF SORTS). Topics include: His family in the Armenian Genocide (0:00) The Lebanon Civil War (4:48) Being an immigrant kid (7:38) The music epiphany (10:32) Dad's helpful advice (13:11) "System Of A Down" meaning (15:05) Rick Rubin (16:47) His first visit to Armenia (19:47) Criticizing the US, post-9/11 (21:31) Spurning the Grammys (24:55) B.Y.O.B. (28:22) Steal This Album! & "Boom!" (29:16) Maintaining creative freedom (31:15) Compassionate confrontation (32:12) Parenthood (33:48) System's ONE Armenia show (37:30) Showing Bourdain around Armenia (39:08) An ode to America (42:42) An ode to making music (43:27) An ode to being Armenian (45:46)