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
this isn't going to fix me because I'm looking to some sort of external thing to fix this, this problem within me. And for me, it was buying books. It's embarrassing after a while because you show up at the bookstore and they're like, Oh, Hey, how are you doing? Randy's back.
It's like when you drink, you hear alcoholics say this is like, they're trying to cover up the fact that they drink so much by shifting their alcohol purchasing location to different convenience stores. Like on Tuesday, I go to this one and get a 12 pack.
And then on Wednesday, I go over here to this other one to get a 12 pack because you don't want the clerk at the convenience store to think you're an alcoholic. For me, it's like the bookstore. They're like, oh, this guy has a book problem.
I'm a bookaholic, yeah. It's a problem to this day, I will admit, but I've gotten better about it. I've slowed down about it. I just love books. I love them. I can't help it. Well, I have to send you mine then. Yeah, absolutely. Oh, yeah. I will definitely take that. No problem.
For me, this sort of, and some people, like you mentioned earlier, like sex, gambling, all these things, these are external, these are attempts to use external measures to control ourselves, I think, to exert control, to make us feel better. And in the end, the only thing I have absolutely any control over is, is myself. And I don't even have control over my thought processes.
I can't control some of the thoughts that pop into my mind. But I can, with practice, control how much energy I feed those thoughts. I can, if I am intentional about this, control my attitude towards things that are happening beyond my control. Outside of my control. It is completely outside of my control that there is a wildfire in Los Angeles right now.
And it's even outside of my control that it upsets me and that I'm worried about my friends who live there. But what is in my control is me looking at the way I am reacting to that and rationally examining that and thinking, okay, it is useless for you to sit in this pit of anxiety. You need to think about what you can do because I have no control over it.
anything else in the world other than myself thank god because if i was control of everything it would just be a disaster right everything would be horrible i would make a horrible world dictator or whatever i but i can only control myself and my attitudes i think and and it's a constant work in progress it's constantly me reminding myself of that waking up every day and thinking Okay.
Today it could be really screwed up. What matters is how you respond to that rather than simply react.
Man, for one thing, it starts with how I start my day. I wake up, right? What I do every morning is I wake up and I make my coffee and I pour myself a cup and one for my girl and then I go into my study. And I do not look at my phone for the first hour I'm awake. I refuse to look at it. Absolutely. And it doesn't stay in the same room with me either.
It stays in a different room when I wake up and I don't have to look at it, use it as an alarm or anything. I do not touch it for at least an hour after I wake up. So I wake up and I read some meaningful literature, whether it be philosophy or an inspirational memoir or something. I'm not just waking up and reading nonsense.
Normally I like to read a bit of stoic philosophy, whether it be Epictetus or Marcus Aurelius or Seneca. And then I journal a little bit and I start off the day intentionally, no matter what is going on in my life by reading. placing myself firmly in reality and not looking at all this chaos that's coming at me through this screen, through this digital world.
Because if I do that, if I wake up and immediately check the news or check social media, then I have started off my first few moments of consciousness at the mercy of the dictates of others. I have not decided what I'm going to think about, what I'm going to work on today, how I would at the very least like to attempt to approach the issues that are going to face me this day.
I just start off looking at stuff. I'm a passive sponge. I'm immediately inputting all this other stuff and let's face it. a lot of it is negative, whether it be social media or the news. It's just a lot of negativity. That is no way to start off the day. I will be an ineffective human being because I'm starting off the day consumed by anxiety.
Then what I'm trying to do throughout the day is remind myself that I'm just one person. I'm just one human being. And I can only use the tools I have at my disposal to try and make myself calm, to improve my life, and hopefully in doing that, make the world a better place. For me, my tools, I'm an artist, right? This is the one question I would...
i hope people will take away while they're reading this book they will look at this book and ask themselves what am i that's a very broad question what am i the meaning of life the universe and everything but what is my function what am i most effective at doing at what are the my tools at my disposal i can use to improve my life and make the world a better place and for me
At 53 years old, it's a little late to become a doctor or a scientist or any of that stuff. I'm a writer, a musician, and a photographer. I'm an artist. As bizarre as it is to me to this day, I'm a professional artist. So I'm looking... at what I do that day and trying to create art that matters and that can be of service to others. Because it just, it feels better to me. It just does.
It's primarily a mode of expressing myself, admittedly. That's why I was drawn to this life. Even when it was not profitable, no guarantee of monetary compensation or whatever, but I felt as if expressing myself through any of these three things, it's what I'm supposed to be doing.
And now that I am lucky enough through a combination of luck and perseverance and hard work, I'm lucky enough to make my living this way. Like I said, I'm not a doctor. I'm not curing cancer or whatever. But I can use these tools at my disposal to try and improve things. And I find fulfillment and purpose in that. And sometimes I still question myself or I beat up on myself.
I'm like, you're not really doing anything. You're just a stupid heavy metal singer. That's all you're doing with your life. And it feels meaningless. But then... every now and then I will meet a fan who will tell me your music saved me, man. I was going to kill myself, but this song you wrote kept me going. And I'm like, yes, I did it. I made a difference.
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