Damn, Randy Blythe seems to be on a promotional interview tour as of late. After getting out of a Czech prison, Blythe gave some interviews over the weekend, which we covered yesterday talking about his displeasure with the US Department of Justice.
In the latest interview with Revolver Magazine, Randy discussed security at shows and how he managed to stay sane and kill time while being locked up for 37 days:
On security at shows:
If anything good comes out of this, as far as a change to how we operate, I would hope it would be a more far-reaching thing than just my band. I would hope it would raise the awareness for the need for adequate security, not just for the band but for the audience as well. Most of the time, none of this stuff is an issue because security is entirely adequate. Security knows how to keep the kids from getting hurt while letting them have a good time. To the outside world, to people who aren’t in our scene, it all looks like a great big violent mess. They don’t know that everybody’s just having a good time. There is a very big need for security, though, to ensure—especially if kids are going to be crowdsurfing and coming over the barricade and stuff—there’s got to be guys there to catch them. So if anything good comes out of these, I hope we will lessen any injuries incurred by concert-going folks.
On playing with Machine Head at Knotfest this weekend:
Machine Head is on there. When I was in prison, the laundry section where the inmates were, you had to go there every now and then to get your clothes or whatever, but these were some guys who had been in there for a while, so they had some freedom, but they were metalheads. So on the wall there’s posters of Metallica, Slash, Zakk Wylde, Dimmu Borgir and Machine Head. So I walk in and I’m like, “Oh, I know them. I know them. I know them.” And I’d wave at the little poster of Robb Flynn and the boys and be like, “Hey dudes, what’s up?” It’s like a little visit with my friends. So I’m looking forward to seeing them. Like, “I haven’t seen you since you were hanging on a prison wall in the Czech Republic.”
On handling the loneliness in prison:
I really try to stay in the moment. When I went to prison, I was like, OK, you can either just sit here and feel sorry for yourself or you can try and make the most of your time. And I just didn’t allow myself to feel sorry for myself. If I did, I quickly mentally kicked myself in the ass and said, don’t be such a sissy.
Dude, I toured Auschwitz about a month before I went to this prison. I walked around Auschwitz and Birkenau all day long by myself, listening and reading at all these places where all these people were killed in this one tiny area. That puts stuff in perspective. I also try to remain grateful for what I had. I had food, clothes and shelter.
We recently toured places—I’ve been to some pretty brutal places on tour on my days off where you see people starving in the streets. And in our media, of course, there’s all sorts of crazy shit going on in the Middle East. Our soldiers are getting shot at in Afghanistan and Syria’s blowing up. If you think about all these things, I wasn’t in such a bad place and I just reminded myself of that. I could eat, I wasn’t freezing or sweating to death, and nobody was shooting guns or throwing grenades at me. So I was like, I’m just going to sit here and make the most of my time and read and write. And learn a little bit.
Later he added…
The whole thing was when I was arrested, even when I was arrested, I was like, “This sucks, but you need to pay attention to every single thing that’s happening to you right now, because all of this is going to be useful in some way creatively one day.” What an experience. You go to a foreign prison. Nobody speaks English. You’re snatched at an airport all of a sudden and you’re given these ludicrous charges saying that you’re going to be charged with manslaughter. It’s like, Wow, all this stuff is just crazy but this is something I should pay attention to. It’s a pretty momentous occurrence in my life. If I don’t pay attention to it and learn from it and better myself from it, and use it to the best of my ability, then it’s a shame. Otherwise, I’m just treading water and making the motions of living.
The whole interview is worth a read over at Revolver.
