Randy Blythe
speaker
593 appearances
5 recordings
3 series
first heard Feb 2025
last heard 15 Apr
Randy Blythe’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Apr 2026 with 1.
Appearances
And it's certainly, that's a fear, I think, amongst musicians, writers, artists of all sorts that become alcoholics or drug addicts, that when they stop doing whatever their preferred poison is, their creative abilities will abandon them. I have found it's complete nonsense. In fact, I did not become a published author until I became sober.
I talked a lot about writing a book one day when I was drinking, but it wasn't until I stripped away that poison I was putting in my brain that I was able to exert myself creatively long enough to complete a book. And it's, as you well know, it's not an easy task writing a book.
I think for me, I didn't have much choice but to jump into the chaos as a sober person because I realized on that day, I realized when I woke up on that day in Australia that I'm going to die if I keep doing this. It's going to kill me because I did not drink just a little bit. I drank a lot and I had tried to quit drinking while at home a few times and it didn't work.
I would not drink but still take drugs of some sort to to level out until i could go back on tour and get drunk again so i'm on tour in australia with metallica and i have this moment and i'm like i have to stop and i have to stop now it cannot wait anymore i cannot push this to the side anymore and i
my first day sober i woke up and at this sort of realization that i had to at least try and there were some sober guys on the tour from metallica's crew including james hetfield the guitar player so i went i didn't drink until i got to the show that evening and i'm like please help me please i don't know what i'm doing i'm losing my mind and
there were actually three of us got sober on that tour, three or four of us from me and some of Metallica's crew. So there was these group of dudes who were sober and I'm like, please help me, please help me. I know you guys quit drinking, please. And they're like, just breathe, dude. And, and talk to me and calm me down and told me I could do it and gave me some advice.
And so I walked on stage that night with a banging hangover, um, on stage in front of 14,000 people. And I had, luckily I had long hair still then because it was in my face because I was weeping uncontrollably on stage in front of 14,000 screaming Australians. And I was just like, my life. And then luckily I'm not Pavarotti. I scream for a living. So...
It's screaming out these lyrics in front of 14,000 people, just crying for the whole 45 minutes I was on stage with my hair and my face and nobody noticed. I got through it, but that was my first day sober. That was my first day sober. I think it had to happen that way for me.
I think I had to inject myself into, I had to raw dog reality right from the start on tour because I think in order for me to understand that I could do this, I have to get sober. I have to maintain that sobriety no matter what my surroundings are. And if I can get sober on tour, surrounded by free alcohol and free drugs, uh, Anybody can do it.
And I know guys who've gotten sober living in a crack house before too. There's different levels of difficulty, but if anyone is having a problem, you think you can't get sober because this situation isn't right or this condition isn't right. It's nonsense. If you have a problem and you know this and you want to change, you can't wait, but only so long because it might kill you.
You're eventually going to have to try it. And For me, it was on tour. And so I didn't really have a choice about how, not if I want to continue being a musician. And I got sober when I'm 39 years old. It's not, it was a little bit late for me to go back to school and become a lawyer or something. My career choices are limited at this point.
So I'm just grateful I was able to do it and I did it with some help.
100% fear. Can I cuss on this? I like, I'm trying not to be vulgar. I mean, you can. I won't let's just say I believe there's a sentence in the book right since I am here to talk about my book in a way there's a sentence in the book and it's about fear and it talks about how fear is there's a whole thing about different fears that I have faced so there is
Fear is a real MF-er, a top shelf grade A son of a bitch that will let you ruin your whole week if you let it run the show. That's a sentence in the book. And I think in this world of so much information coming at us all the time, it's hard to filter out information. What we should be worried about and what we shouldn't, I think, in one way.
And I think that's apparent in the rising level of anxiety in young people as well. But it's affecting people our age, definitely. I feel it myself. There's so much information and there's this 24-7 news cycle. And much of it is horrible. And much of it is bad. And there's just conflict and natural disasters and chaos.
political instability and warfare and and it's just like this constant bad and it it causes this automatic sort of reaction in in our um our nervous system the limbic system starts working up and you start internalizing these things and feeling them and after a while it becomes you know this constant grinding state of low-level anxiety i think and
I think once something has passed, a danger or whatever, something that you should be afraid of, let's say a crocodile attacks you or something. Once that danger is passed, the adrenaline dumps down and you move forward. I think now. the fear has been ratcheted up. And in fact, Lamb of God has a song called Engage the Fear Machine.
And it's about this constant media doom and gloom, like constant negativity. And it is true that there are bad things happening in the world at all times. There is no doubt about it. And right now I'm experiencing quite a bit of anxiety and fear for friends of mine in Los Angeles, because we're recording this while Los Angeles is on fire. And I spent the last few days
Every day I remember someone else who lives out there. I'm like, are you okay? Are you okay? Are you okay? Is your house there? And it has been this overwhelming feeling of anxiety. And that is really happening. And these are not abstract people to me. These are people I care very deeply about, friends of mine that have had long-term relationships.
All that being said, I'm over here on the East Coast. I'm not in the middle of a wildfire in California right now, right? So this feeling of fear and anxiety has been ratcheted up within me. And if I do not dial it back and I do not take stock of the reality of my situation, which is I'm sitting here in my study with all my books on the internet doing this lovely podcast with you.
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